Bel-Kirk
SRO, Kirkland
An SRO operation with two screens, it was located near Evergreen Point, and featured a giant neon block letter "E" atop it's marquee. This was probably left over from when the theater was named Evergreen, but had to change its name after the 1969 season when a new theater opened up that year a block away: Eastside (A 1972 advertisement, under the Bel-Kirk name, said "Look for the 'E', for 'Excellence'".)
This drive-in appeared at its location on a map as early as 1968, so it is at least that old.
Advertisement showing the seperately owned Evergreen alongside the SRO owned drive-ins. The Seattle Times, July 4, 1969
In 1981, Microsoft briefly moved their headquarters to a block west of the theater, on Northup Way (just south of the Eastside location on the photo). The theater closed on Sunday, September 15, 1985, according to my reasearch. The advertisements stopped at that date, advertising movies that closed that night; even though the text listing for the theater continued on through Thursday.
Final advertisement for the Bel-Kirk, or any eastside drive-in; but not the final ad for the Puget Park. Sunday September 15, 1985. Copyright 1985 Seattle Times Co.
The maps date from 1973, before the theater was twinned, so the second screen must have been added in the south corner of this odd shaped lot so that people would not have to see the screen from all the way in the back and off to one side.
I tried to track down this theater on property maps at the Seattle Public library, but by now the map had been covered up by the new property information pasted over the lot. I could barely see the old drive-in configuration through the new paper. Later that day I went to my first ever taping of Almost Live!, a local comedy program. In a live sketch that night, they had a wall of memorabilia for an Antiques Roadshow parody. One of the items was a drive-in speaker. They broke down the set quickly and before I could examine it closer, but I caught the set dressers out in the hall. The speaker was up on top, and I saw the name stamped on it: "Bel-Kirk Drive-in." Strange coincidence.
Microsoft Terraserver satellite image of this site.
At last! Photographic proof of the Bel-Kirk (lower right) & Eastside. The Bel-Kirk is much smaller and more lopsided, so of course that was the theater that was kept for 12 more years, and split-twinned. Washington State Department of Transportation. September 16, 1971
USGS Kirkland, 1950, 1968 and 1973
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