Terrace Drive-In
4011 S. Lake Avenue,
Caldwell,
ID
83605
4011 S. Lake Avenue,
Caldwell,
ID
83605
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A 1981 aerial shows only one screen. The entrance at that time was on the north side of the property. You can see the remnants of the old entrance road behind the north screen.
There is also a tower near the projection booth/concession stand with its own access road. It’s a relatively recent addition to the property.
UPDATE: the present building was built in 1977,along with the added two screens. Virgil O'Dell passed in 1979 and the location went to the partners. In 1990, the location was sold to a private owner who operates atpresent.
Screens 2 & 3 opened on April 22nd, 1983.
Boxoffice, April 19, 1952: “CALDWELL, IDA. – Virgil Odell, former manager of the two Fox theatres in Nampa, has purchased the Chief Drive-In two miles east of here from Rex and Marjorie Moyle of Star. He will continue to operate the drive-in at Emmett which he bought two years ago. The Chief will be renamed the Terrace.”
Here’s a March 2016 interview with owner Ron Herold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESBnM1njplc
In the video, Herold says:
The Terrace opened in 1954.
In 1984, they revamped the Terrace and added two more screens. (Indeed, the 1984 IMPA still lists it as the single-screen Terrace, but in 1986 it’s the three-screen “Terrace Tri”.)
“The Terrace, since 1984, has only been operating as a single screen.” (That date’s wrong of course, but it’s had only one active screen for quite a while.)
He plans to reopen the other two screens. (His current Terrace web page lists how much that’s going to cost.)
As of the 2016 season the management of the Terrace Drive In is now operated by Herold Theatres: http://www.heroldtheatres.net/.
One screen is in operation, but they plan to open a second screen in 2017.
This drive-in only has one screen in operation, Chris Willman is correct. I believe I’ve made 2 stops out here, in 2005 and again in ‘05.
There is nothing wrong with this drive-in, its a pretty good operation and in order. I just feel that the Parma Motor-Vu, about 20 minutes west is more charming and I tend to go there instead.
The Terrace Drive-In debuted in the 1950’s. There was a fire in the 1980’s that did sginificant damage. It was closed for a while and sat in limbo. A woman reopened it but they are only using 1 screen.
According to their web site they have made the conversion to digital projection.
The information in this header is not correct. I believe—though I’m not certain—that this drive-in was built with three screens, back in the ‘70s. But ever since I started attending in the mid-'90s, and probably long before that, only one of the screens has been in use, and the other two lots sit there vacant. I haven’t been up to Idaho yet this season but I don’t have any reason to believe they’ve started using either of the two idle screens again. It’s open weekends only, by the way, and shows second-run double features, just like the other area drive-in, the better known Parma Motor-Vu.
Cool video SiliconSam.
Here’s a video of the drive in. The video shows 3701 to 4011. Either one maps ya right to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=824Un1w_csU