Lewis and Clark Theatre
15820 Pacific Highway South,
Seattle,
WA
98188
15820 Pacific Highway South,
Seattle,
WA
98188
3 people
favorited this theater
Opened in 1957, this theater is part of an entertainment complex that has a now-closed 32 lane bowling alley and cafe. The theater appears to have been one screen originally with its balcony divided into two auditoriums of maybe 300 seats each. The main auditorium still has maybe 1,000 seats or more. An additional hallway with four auditoriums, two approximately 400 seats and two approximately 200 seats, was later added. The main auditorium(#1) has murals by decorator Anthony B. Heinsbergen, depicting Lewis, Clark, and Native Americans filling the side walls.
Currently, it is fairly well kept up even though its business is slow. It was on of the first I know of in the area to advertise SDDS sound. It had a huge parking lot that is now being made into airport parking.
An interesting note is that a former major highway, Military Road, ends in the theater’s parking lot due to the re-routing of the road with the construction of a section of freeway adjacent to the theater probably in the 1970’s.
The theater was closed by Cineplex-Odeon in January of 2004, and briefly served as a church until it was demolished in 2005.
Contributed by
ladanae
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Recent comments (view all 38 comments)
Moviefone still lists the theatre? Its been closed for a while…
I’ve found a few theaters still listed on sites such as Moviefone that have been closed for years. In this case it was helpful because the address was given.
A pre-renovation photo of the auditorium of the Lewis And Clark Theatre can be seen on this page of Boxoffice, June 8, 1957 (upper right corner.)
Here are the additional photos of the Lewis and Clark in Boxoffice, October 19, 1957. LThe project’s ead architect, John Graham Jr., also designed the Northgate Theatre in Seattle for the Sterling circuit.
What GREAT photos from cinematreasures!! I had almost forgotten what that main auditorium and those murals looked like! It was huge! I actually saw my first R-rated movie there, “Blazing Saddles” in the mid-70’s. And for a period in the late 70’s they ran “Rocky Horror” at midnight on Fridays & Sats in Auditorum 3.
Oops, I meant “What great photos from CinemaTOUR”!
Grand opening ads from November 20th, 1956 and December 16th, 1982 (as 7-plex) posted in the photo section.
Described in this 1957 trade article: boxoffice
A night view of the attraction board on a cover of The Modern Theatre section in 1957: boxoffice
This complex was a monster. Saw 2001 and Patton here when it was just a single theater. The bowling alley was huge.