Sno-King
United, Lynnwood
Seattle Times, July 1, 1960. Copyright 1960 Seattle Times Co.
Named for its proximity to the Snohomish and King County Line, this theater illustrated its name with depictions of weather that would drive away customers, not attract them.
From the satellite image, it looks like the drive-in lot is the parking lot portion of a big-box retailer. The area just north of the pavement appears undeveloped, and you can see drive-in rows.
I finally visited in January 2000, to find a Value Village close to the road, and a failed, unoccupied retail space in the back, probably a former Home Base. The undeveloped land is still undeveloped, but I didn't see the rows that I saw from the Terraserver picture. Then a police officer started crusing the Value Village lot, and I didn't feel comfortable exploring any more.
By December 2000, they had knocked down the Home Base building and are putting up an electrical substation in its place.
One last slice of the lot between the Home Base site and the Value Village remains undeveloped. (The sign was already tipped over when I got there--honest.)
I used to regularly visit the Kenmore and Sno-King drive ins---god, I miss
'em. I thought it might interest you to know that the last film to play at
the Sno-King was Howard the Duck. I recall knowing in advance that this
was going to be the last picture shown at the drive in so it was a must see
for me--you can imagine how much of a downer it was to see this drive in go out with a whimper.
-- Jim McCluskey
USGS Edmonds East, 1953, 1968 and 1973
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