The Hill Theatre was open from 1937 to roughly 1977, located at 135 NE Third in downtown Hillsboro. Originally, this building was owned by Orange Phelps, a well-liked businessman and, at one point, mayor of Hillsboro. Phelps was the owner of a handful of theaters in Oregon, including the Liberty Theater, the Venetian, and he helped build the Majestic Theater. Phelps created the Hill with his business partner, Harry Hill, who, after passing, was the namesake for the theater (7). The original building is still there, along with its original architecture; it is the only example of Art Deco in Hillsboro. It was first converted into a flower, gift, and antique store and is now solely an antique mall (1).
The Hill was a one-room theater that could sit 480 - 507 people, 100 of those seats being on the balcony. The original inside of the building was described as having a nicely decorated ladies' and men's lounge, tube lighting, two staircases, and tan paneling covering most of the interior of the theater; it was also said to have the latest RCA Photophone. The construction and decorating went on until the last minute, until opening night, which was held on Christmas 1937 (8). The gala opening program was available from Saturday, the 25th, to Monday, the 27th, with the showing of “The Firefly” (1937). Tuesday - Thursday of that week, they showed “Ebb Tide” (1937), and Friday - Saturday, “Second Honeymoon” (1937) and The Barrier (1937). They charged children 10c, adults 35c, and loge seating 40c (5).
The Hill only showed new movies; they didn’t show any repertory screenings. They also consistently showed family-friendly genres, as the owner, Phelps, was so well-liked that many families went to his theaters. When they first opened, they showed quite a bit of romance, comedies, drama, and action films, and since Phelps also worked at another theater on the same block, their programming went hand in hand (6). At first, the Venetian (the other opened theater owned by Phelps located in the same block) showed more action and war films, while the Hill had light-hearted movies (2,4). But over time, The Hill screened more western movies as the two theaters' programming started to blend. The Hill usually split their weeks into two screenings, Sun- Weds being one film, and Weds-Sat being another, but every once in a while they had one flim showed everyday of the week (9).
The Hill had a very strong priority for politics, along with its programming, with many Western and American war stories; the theater sponsored and advertised events for war efforts. One way the Hill showed its support was by using the space in the building for farmers’ unions, the employment office, district conferences, and scrap drives (13,15,16).
One of the lounges was run by Boy Scouts, and anyone could donate scraps of paper and metal to be donated to the US war efforts (12). Many of their movies were about America and war, making many journalists rave about the event and the American message in the paper (11, 14). The Hill also had full-page ads in the Hillsboro newspaper showing sponsorships to things like the Red Cross, farmers' rights, etc (10).
Since Hillsboro was a farming town before Intel moved in 1974, the Hill had an open support for farmers and agriculture. Some screenings advertised free admission for farmers and their families, and many ads in the newspaper were promoting resources that the employment office in the theatre would offer to farmers (13).
Around the 1970s, the information on the theatre became difficult to find; somewhere from 1974 to 1977, the building stopped being used as a theatre. Because of this information blackout, the exact closing date and screening are unknown. The space got transformed into strictly retail use, with the florist and gift shop taking over the building completely (1). Currently (2026), the building's original architecture is protected, and the entire building is an Antique mall with every room open to the public to shop and explore (17).
