La Grande drive-in closes for good, property listed for sale

La Grande has lost one of its rare summer gathering places. The La Grande Drive-In is closed for good, and the property on the edge of town is now listed for sale, ending a long-running moviegoing tradition and opening the door to whatever use a future buyer chooses for the site.

The closure lands hard in Union County because the drive-in was more than a screen and a parking lot. It was one of only two drive-ins left in Eastern Oregon and part of a shrinking list statewide, which made it a destination for families, teens and longtime patrons looking for a night out that felt different from an indoor theater. With the property on the market, the community has lost one of its few seasonal entertainment options and gained a question that matters to local residents: whether the land will stay tied to public gathering or be repurposed for something else entirely.

The announcement came in a short social media post on Friday, May 8, from the owners of La Grande Movies, which also operates the Granada Theater. The owners said they had decided not to open the drive-in, and the property was for sale. The timing made the loss feel especially abrupt as warmer weather would normally mark the start of drive-in season in La Grande and across Eastern Oregon.

The theater’s history stretches back to May 10, 1951, when La Grande Drive-In opened with “Tarzan’s Peril” and Walt Disney’s “Beaver Valley.” It was built for a different era of American recreation, when drive-ins were a common part of postwar life. The U.S. National Park Service says drive-ins surged nationally from 52 in 1941 to 4,500 by 1956, a boom that makes today’s handful of remaining screens feel even more remarkable.

La Grande’s drive-in survived for decades by adapting. Its own history page says the projection equipment was replaced in 2013 with Christie Digital Projection and new audio. Drive-in directories describe it as a single-screen seasonal theater with FM-radio sound, and one listing puts its capacity at 350 cars. Those details underline how the site was modernized rather than simply allowed to fade away.

The drive-in also sits inside a deeper local movie history tied to Francis A. Greulich, known as Gus Greulich, who was a major figure in La Grande theater exhibition and later owned the Granada Theatre, Liberty Theatre and La Grande Drive-In. The Oregon Theater Project says La Grande’s rail-linked location helped it draw a large moviegoing audience in eastern Oregon, a reminder that moviehouses have long been part of the city’s civic life. Now, with the drive-in closed and the property for sale, residents are left watching to see whether the next chapter preserves any of that history or replaces it altogether.