About Us

18 acres of land were purchased and construction began on what was to be known as the “La Mirada Drive-In Theatre.” At the time, the land consisted of a dairy and an orange orchard. The area was unincorporated and known as “Dairy Valley.” This was prior to the existence of the city of Santa Fe Springs and thus the name “La Mirada” was chosen since that was the nearest city to this location.

The La Mirada Drive-In opened for business.  It was one of the largest drive-in theatres in the country, with the capacity to hold more than 1,000 cars.  The drive-in movies that night were “Wings of the Hawk” and “Golden Blade.”

One unique aspect of the theatre design was that a large area in front of the grounds, between the screen tower and the front of the street, was reserved with the idea of building walk-in theatres, restaurants, or other future projects. There was even some speculation to build a “heli-port” and set up a helicopter transportation service to transport executives from La Mirada/Downey to downtown Los Angeles. For whatever reason, this idea never quite materialized.

This was all prior to the construction of the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) which now runs directly south of the property.

The “La Mirada Swap Meet” opened for the first time. The dirt field in front of the property became an ideal parking area for the thousands of visitors who would eventually attend our swap meet. Attendance of more than 700 daily vendors and more than 1,500,000 customers annually became common throughout the years.

With the advent of multi-plex theatres and the general decline of drive-in movie theatre attendance, coupled with the popularity of the swap meet, we closed down the daily drive-in theatre operation (with the exception of special events) and installed stadium lighting. Doing so enabled us to open up the first Los Angeles area outdoor/night-time swap meet “under the lights!”

In the early ’90s we changed our name to the “Santa Fe Springs Drive-In Theatre and Swap Meet” to more accurately reflect the actual city where we are located.

With the existing entertainment area overflowing every weekend, we expanded that part of the swap meet to hold larger crowds.  We built a new stage, a new beer bar, a new covered seating area and remodeled our existing snack bar. The new seating area contains 15- 70 inch TVS so that our customers can watch every sporting event while also enjoying the daily bands.  Additionally, in our new area, we have started a Saturday Night Concert Series which goes from March through November.