St. Helens Theatre
508 N. Market Boulevard,
Chehalis,
WA
98532
508 N. Market Boulevard,
Chehalis,
WA
98532
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The St. Helens Theatre was opened May 12, 1924 with The Sporting Youth". It was closed March 30, 1954 with Richard Todd in “Rob Roy” and “El Alamein”.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Did this theater ever show movies? I had researched it before and thought it was only a venue for live shows. (Then again, like a lot of theaters from that era, it probably did both …)
It was indeed a movie theater. When I showed the movie, “The Chehalis Story” a few months ago the nighttime scenes showed a couple of movie titles on the marquee. I forgot what those movies were though.
I had a chance to take some photographs of the St Helens Theater the fall of 2007, the owners stated that the ground floor would be retail space and the second floor would be renovated back to a performance space.
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After a couple minutes the owner said he had things to do and just let him know when I left, I dont think he thought I’d walk through the whole building and find all the old rooms and stairwells that were partially collapsed/filled in with dirt.
Here is a May 1938 ad from the Chehalis Bee-Nugget:
http://tinyurl.com/3w4wnr
This building was originally built as The St. John Garage in the 1910’s. The side walls and roof were kept but the facade was replaced for the theatre It was designed by Hill, Mock & Griffin Architects of Tacoma.
This is how the theater was going to look originally:
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From 1941 a view of Market Blvd along with the St. Helens theatre in Chehalis.
I believe the St. Helens Theater closed around 1958 or 1959.
The $100,000 St. Helen’s Theatre opened on May 12, 1924 with “The Sporting Youth”. It had a $15,000 Kimball pipe organ and Kenneth Laughlin as the organist. Irwin H. Hill and Ernest Thornton Mock of Hill & Mock of Tacoma were the architects. March 12, 1954 was the final day of operation for the St. Helen’s. It had fulfilled a 30-year lease and with competition from television, a decision of non-renewal was made and the venue was converted for other retail purposes.
All of AaronNi’s photobucket links no longer work.