Beaverton Drive-In
2025 SW Merlo Ct,
Beaverton,
OR
97006
2025 SW Merlo Ct,
Beaverton,
OR
97006
1 person
favorited this theater
The Beaverton Drive-In was the second drive-in theatre to open in Beaverton. It first opened in 1974. It was taken over by Tom Moyer Luxury Theatres on May 24, 1985 screening Roger Moore in “A View to a Kill”. It was closed in October 1995. It is now the Merlo Garage.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
There are aerial views and pictures of this drive-in on its gallery page at Drive-ins.com
Ah.. thanks for putting this up! It’s now the Merlo Garage, where many Tri-Met buses park. The Max from Gresham to Hillsboro has a stop right next to it.
I saw a double feature at this drive in, on the opening night of “A View to a Kill”, which would have made it 24 May 1985, according to IMDB. It was followed by “Red Dawn”. Four of us drove over from college, crammed in a teeny car. Watching back to back movies from the back seat of a small car is very uncomfortable.
Checking the aerial photos, this site was vacant in 1970, a four-screen drive-in in 1981, 1990, & 1994, and some kind of bus or truck parking lot, screens still intact, in 2000.
Boxoffice, Jan. 21, 1974: Tom Moyer “announced that plans are under way to build a four-screen drive-in at Beaverton, Ore. Opening is scheduled tentatively for midsummer 1974.”
Correction: Now Clear Water Headquarters NEXT to the garage.
The correct address for this one is 2025 SW Merlo Ct, Beaverton, OR 97006. Not SW Merlo Rd.
Please update.
As MichaelKilgore mentions, Tom Moyer announced this venue in 1974. As I mentioned above, I saw the double feature of “A View to a Kill” with “Red Dawn”. I saw that on the release date of “A View to a Kill”, which was May 24, 1985. The Drive-in was definitely not brand new at that time. This website (https://movietheatreorg.wordpress.com/oregon/portland/) mentions an open date of Jan 16th, possibly in 1981. It has an image of an ad for the theater showing four movies from 1979 and 1980 (Shogun Assassin, Brubaker, Change of Season, and Mountain Family Robinson, so the actual opening date had to be 1980 or earlier. I also did a search of the Oregon archive, and found an article indicating that the Washington County Planning Commission approved the building of a “Drive-in theater … at 165th and Merlo”, dated September 13, 1972. So given a couple years for construction, 1974 seems like a reasonable date for an opening.
Actually, they’re probably showing them for drive-in runs after running them in indoor theaters. I can officially confirmed that January 16, 1981 was the exact opening date for the Beaverton Drive-In, opening with the following in random screen order: “A Change Of Seasons” and “Middle Age Crazy”, “Shogun Assassin” and “Seven Blows Of The Dragon”, “Brubaker” and “The Rose”, and “Mountain Family Robinson” and “Scavenger Hunt”. The reason why I mistakenly brought up May 24, 1985 is that they did change their phone number that same exact day and got me very confused, but was still under Luxury ownership.
There was also this article from 1983 with two photos of the screen showing something and its projectionist rewinding one of the massive reels, stating that the Beaverton was the “newest of the seven” drive-ins in the Portland area.
Thanks for the big update!
Thanks, 50sSnipes. Just curious what source you found that showed the official opening date, and the change of phone number? The phone number change is an interesting and obscure bit of trivia.
I found it from the archives of the Oregonian from the newspapers website.