Luckily, the Mission remains open and intact.  We photographed the site extensively after being allowed on the property by a maintenance man.  It appears that the owner takes no chances during the off-season as every conceivable window and door was cover by plywood sheets.  There was one notable exception, the original screen served a variety of purposes and was not locked. Rick disappeared inside while I was at the vehicle picking up more film. 

These are aerial views of the Mission taken in 1997.  The complex in the bottom of the first photo is the actual mission that the drive in was named after. 

I've taken the liberty of adding some text to the picture to help clarify the location of the key landmarks.

I was so excited to see the Mission 4.   The main screen building is impressive to say the least. If I had thought to bring a flashlight on the trip, I could have spent the whole day inside that thing.  A flashlight was something I never thought I would need on a clear sunny day. 

The building is a concrete, brick and glass creation that is about 4 stories tall and is mostly hollow inside.  

There are however massive concrete beams that run from the back wall of the building to the front.  I seem to recall there were four or five rows of the these beams and they were spaced about ten feet apart.  Across some of these beams were 2X12 wooden planks for the employees to walk on.  There were three layers of these beams, each layer was located about 10 feet higher than the previous layer.  The theater employees would have had to climb ladders from one layer to the next until they reached the top layer leading to the roof.  I believe the roof access would have been for hanging large banners from the rings mounted around the top of the building.  If you were afraid of heights, the Mission 4 was not the place to work. 

As fascinating as that was, it was the changes in the building that intrigued me the most.  When looking at the front of the building there is a large round tower on the right hand side.  From the inside, you can see that the bottom 20 feet of the tower and the top 10 of the tower is made of glass blocks.  On the left hand side of the building is a large flat wall that was also made of glass blocks.  I believe that the front door and two small windows on each side of it were also made of the same glass blocks.  The effect of lighting this building from the inside would have been spectacular. Unfortunately, all of the wonderful glass blocks have either been painted or boarded over.  This was a necessity because some vandal in the past had smashed the middles out of most of the blocks. 

The oddest thing was the location of the men's and women's restrooms in this building. The doors to these rest rooms were located outside the theater walls.   I would have expected to find restrooms only in the projection booth located in the middle of the Mission.  I would like to return to the Mission with a powerful flashlight one day.

Notice the trap door at the bottom of the marquee wall.  I expect this was for manually changing the signs in the early days.

This heavy block wall surrounds three sides of the original complex. The window areas look like they were once display areas for movie posters.   The wall on the right side of this first picture is made of newer materials than the rest of the wall.  I suspect that it is blocking off what was the original exit from the theater.  This is the remains of a water fountain that was located under the screen at the screen tower. Note the heavy steel pipe in the foreground.  This is a support pole for the larger screen that was added to the tower at a later date.  This would have rendered the water fountain unusable.  

In this picture you can more easily see how the screen was enlarged.  To do it they had to cut holes through the wall on each side and they moved the screen out away from the tower about two feet.  This changed the screen size from 40 feet wide to 80 feet wide.  Additional steel supports were added to support the extensions. This small shed was used for speaker and pole repair prior to the addition of the FM radio signal.

The ticket booth appears to have been added in the 70s judging from the style and design.  It provides a separate entrance for each of the four screens.  Easily visible were the rain check and speaker theft policies.

Once though the ticket booths, colored arrows on the pavement pointed the way to the correct screen.

If you were going to either of the two new screens, you would be required to travel over the automobile bridge to the parking lots.

Here are the fours screens you can see at the Mission

Screen Tower (North West)

North East Screen

South West Screen

South East Screen

If you are fortunate enough to be viewing the South East screen and you needed to visit the snack bar/projection booth you would have the pleasure of walking across this quaint foot bridge.

  These photos do not do the Mission justice.  At the time of our visit it was the off season and things had grown up and bit and been somewhat vandalized.  I hope to provide you with some updated photos soon of the Mission under new management.

Here is the south exit from the Mission Drive In               

Update: 26 April 2001

When last surveyed by Rick Stivers and myself, Cinemark had hired a contractor to re-wire the exterior lights -- entrance, exits, drive-way, etc. A large dumpster was also sitting next to the tower screen. We speculated that Cinemark planned to do only the minimum work necessary to comply with the current building codes. Today I can happily report that Cinemark is going beyond the minimum. A contractor is power-washing the tower screen. Some painting has been done. The parking areas have been scrapped off to reveal far more gravel and asphalt than I would have expected. I could be wrong but it also appears that new windows have been put into the concession stands and ticket booths. A large semi-trailer was being unloaded indicating the final stocking procedure has begun. I urge you all to attend if possible when the Mission opens for the current season.

If you have any comments, corrections, or additions you can reach me Here.