The Guild Theater was a wonderful theater that started as the Taylor Street Theater. The Taylor Street theater changed its name to the Guild Theater in 1947, by theater owner J.J. Parker. At the start of the theater, the programming was mainly live theater performances. The theater then operated as a single-screen theater until 2006, when it was closed down. After a drop in popularity, the theater changed in the 1970s when it started its focus on showing classic films. In 1970s as well they held zion lutheran services for Good Friday. They then started to call themselves "Oregon's finest film classics theater." In 1996, theater owner Tom Moyer supported the Northwest Film Center by hosting the Portland International Film Festival there for $1. In 2010, a proposal to renovate and reopen the theater did not come to fruition. This was then followed up in 2014 when Tom Moyer's company, TMT Development, the property's owner, began work on remodeling the building. It is now open as a bookstore specializing in Japanese goods, now known as Kinokuniya Portland.
Known Years of Operation
Oct 1, 1926 - Dec 3, 2006Number of Seats
425Owner/Managers
Phil Carlin - 1930, J.J. Parker - 1947, Tom Moyer - 2006Additional Facts
- The theaters last performance was Super Man returns was the last preformance
- The Tyler Street theater had a very successful acting troop that traveled around Oregon
- The Beaverton enterprise, July 19, 1935 Ad
- Opens Tonight!
- The Oregon Statesman, January 08, 1933 Article
- "Kempy" Cast Sees Play in Portland
- Zion Lutheran
- Guild theater might have shown its last picture
Works Cited
The Beaverton Enterprise, July 19, 1935, Page 4, Historic Oregon Newspapers
Oregonian (published as Morning Oregonian.) - January 6, 1937 - page 4, News Bank
The Oregon Statesman, January 08, 1933, Page 2, Historic Oregon Newspapers
The Springfield News., May 04, 1933, Image 1, Historic Oregon Newspapers
Oregonian (published as The Oregonian) - April 14, 1973 - page 36, News Bank
Oregonian (published as The Oregonian) - June 17, 2006 - page 13, News Bank