Twin City Drive-In
1615 S. Gold Street,
Centralia,
WA
98531
1615 S. Gold Street,
Centralia,
WA
98531
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Located on the 1600 block of S. Gold Street between Centralia and Chehalis. The Twin City Drive-In was opened prior to October 1950, when it was operated by Robert S. Clark of Saffle Theatre Services, Seattle.
Contributed by
Edward E
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
really nice pictures! thanks for sharing!!
Around 1995, James Jack started painting the outside of the building in yellow color to doll up the place and hide the graffiti. You can see some of the yellow painted portions of the building in some of the pictures. The paint that was on the building in the late 70’s and in the 1980’s was a light green.
Arthur Allen’s “Drive In Theaters of Western Washington” website had tons of drive in theater pictures. Unfortunately, it was hosted on GeoCities and disappeared several years ago. A mirror of it is here with some additional pictures of the Twin City Drive-In theater:
http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/Pavillion/2216/TwinCity.html
Granted, not all of the pictures got archived, but lots of information is still there.
My family owned this great Drive-in during the 70’s. On the weekends we would stay the night at a motel and work the different shifts available. My Mom, sisters, and grandmother made and sold food. My brother and I would walk the grounds with walk talkies looking for people sneaking in. Dad was stuck with the paperwork. I used to collect all of the expired movie posters and still have most of them which I love!
Great memories of a tradition lost.
I actually was able to locate the marquee through a gentleman named Duke Roorda (I think) and had arranged to recover it from him. In-time I lost his contact info, but if anyone knows of his whereabouts let me know!!!!
I have Duke Rorda’s phone numbers. Email me at
I have added a hand drawn map that I made of the property layout to the photos page for this theater.
The Twin City Drive-In In Centralia, Unfortunately I Cannot Find The Opening Date To This. But The Earliest Information I Can Find Dates Back As A Sponsor From October 1950.
In February 1951 Just Before Its Reopening For The Season, Police Reported A Robbery At The Twin City That $1,000 And A couple Of Items Were Stolen.
Sometimes the theater is listed as being in Chehalis. It is on the border between Centralia and Chehalis.
Google Maps says that the site is now within the Centralia city limits. Maybe that’s accurate.
Boxoffice, Feb. 17, 1951: “Ed Auer and Howard Barber, both of Seattle, have sold their Twin City Drive-In Theatre located between Centralia and Chehalis. Buying the showcase were the three Gamble brothers, Ron, Roy and Williard of Centralia, Wash. The sale price was estimated at $80,000. The outdoorer is slated to be improved and reopened in the spring”.