Comments about St. Helens Theatre in Chehalis, WA

DonLewis on March 20, 2011 at 5:07 am

From 1941 a view of Market Blvd along with the St. Helens theatre in Chehalis.

ColinH on November 4, 2008 at 1:38 am

This is how the theater was going to look originally:

View link

ColinH on November 4, 2008 at 1:31 am

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.

lostmemory on October 5, 2008 at 4:19 am

Released in March of 1938.

kencmcintyre on October 5, 2008 at 4:17 am

Here is a May 1938 ad from the Chehalis Bee-Nugget:
http://tinyurl.com/3w4wnr

AaronNi on January 12, 2008 at 10:59 pm

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.

View link

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.

KenLayton on March 18, 2006 at 1:02 pm

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.

lostmemory on March 18, 2006 at 11:25 am

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.

kateymac01 on March 18, 2006 at 4:39 am

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 …)

KenLayton on March 17, 2006 at 1:16 pm

The building still exists but has been converted to retail store space. This theater is shown in the Reelife Productions movie, “The Chehalis Story” (early 1950’s). I had the pleasure of projecting the only remaining copy of this movie in the Chehalis Theatre a few months ago. It shows the interior of the St. Helens Theater and some beautiful nightime views of it’s marquee all lit up with flashing neon and border chasing lights.

lostmemory on March 17, 2006 at 12:48 pm

Opened May 12, 1924. Old photo’s can be seen here.

St. Helens Theatre

508 N. Market Boulevard, Chehalis, WA 98532

508 N. Market Boulevard,
Chehalis, WA 98532