Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:11:00

Swedish churchgoers built it, longshoremen ran their union from it, and in 1987 it poured Oregon's first legal pint in a movie theatre - the Alamo Drafthouse credits the model as an inspiration. The Mission Theater, at 1624 NW Glisan Street in Northwest Portland, is where the McMenamins theater-pub concept was born. The building has lived three lives: dedicated in 1912 as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church - the congregation stayed 42 years - it passed to the burly dockworkers of the longshoremen's union for 28 more, hosting a significant role in a major 1971 labor strike, before a warehouse spell and a short-lived acting troupe preceded the McMenamin brothers' arrival. The 1987 conversion made history: the Mission became the first full-time theater-pub in Oregon - beer, pizza and second-run films under a National Register-listed roof - with the ornate balcony overlooking what was once the pulpit, and large windows lighting a 4,500-square-foot hall that still reads as the church it was. The programming has kept evolving: decades of budget second-run cinema gave way to renovations adding a bigger screen and comfortable seating, The Assembly's film-plus-lecture events, first-run movies from 2019, and - most consequentially for the city's music scene - regular concerts, with the room now a staple of Portland's all-ages rock circuit. The all-ages role matters: as one of the only midsize Portland venues welcoming under-21 crowds, the Mission has become an incubator for the city's young bands - Rhododendron, Kill Michael and Growing Pains among the regulars - giving teenagers the room their scene needs while the balcony bar serves their elders. Practical notes: capacity runs about 300 with seating for 250 - balcony seats go early on film nights; the Glisan Street location sits blocks from Powell's and the Pearl District, the pub menu and McMenamins ales run through every show, and checking whether a listing is a film, concert or Assembly event saves surprises - the room wears all three hats weekly.