In March 1912, the San Diego Union reported that excavation had begun on the first fireproof theater building on the Chambers lot, on the east side of Fifth Ave. Chambers, who at the time ran a second-hand furniture store on Sixth Avenue, decided not to develop his property until 1912. Chambers, father of famed Olympic swimmer Florence Chambers, purchased the property from L.G.
Prior to 1904, the property between 643 and 651 Fifth Avenue was nothing more than a series of small wooden buildings housing a shoemaker, a jeweler and a cigar and cigarette merchant.
