St. Helens Theatre
508 N. Market Boulevard,
Chehalis,
WA
98532
508 N. Market Boulevard,
Chehalis,
WA
98532
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Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 12 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 …)
Katie….I think this theater was used for both movies and live performances over the years, but it did open with a silent movie. This website has the history of the St. Helens Theater.
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
Released in March of 1938.
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.