The address is 2652 Lincoln Hwy E, Downingtown, Pennsylvania.
The drive in was located NE of Coatesville along Route 30. A 1950 aerial shows the drive in still in the construction phase. It was still intact and seemingly active in a 1969 aerial. However, by 1981 it had been demolished.
Today, a strip mall sits on the front part of the property with three stores. The back part is overgrown with trees. There is no trace of the drive in visible on Google Maps today, but some of the ramps may still exist under the trees.
A 600 car capacity for a drive in between two small towns? Especially given that the Cactus Drive In, which was built in 1946 in the larger town of Pharr just to the west of San Juan was just 450 car capacity.
And no trace remaining, despite a sunken projection booth and 2,000 yards of gravel? It’s quite rare for any drive in to be not only demolished, but having all traces removed without some large structure being put in its place.
The only candidate that seems remotely close is at 1222 US-83 BUS, Alamo, TX on the north side.
In 1955, the access road to the location branches off into the property. That is rather unusual given that the property seems to have just one decent size building. But most of the land is open and no trace of anything being previous built exists.
More information is definitely needed for this one.
I see no evidence of a light pole with two lights near the carpark of the Park Place of Harper Woods that would date back to the 1970s. By 1983, most of the property was redeveloped. By 1999, all traces of the drive in were gone.
About the only thing that may have existed when the drive in was operation that still remains is the telephone poles that run along the SW edge of the property.
An August 2021 Google Street View of the drive in shows several containers and some RVs along the back of the property next to the projection booth/concession stand.
From the Google Maps overhead, the screen appears to be intact, but the concession stand/projector booth may not be in the same shape.
Even the ramps have faded considerably. The addition of houses has made finding the entrance road difficult as well.
I’m surprised it closed in 2002 since from what we see on the Google Maps overhead, it appears to have been closed a decade or two earlier than that given the trees and weathering.
A closer address is 4611 Walker Rd, Windsor, ON N8W 3T6, Canada.
This is the address of the SilverCity Windsor Cinemas which is located at the intersection of Walker and Essex County Rd 4 or Provincial Road. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
5020 N Washington St, Stillwater, OK is a closer address.
The old entrance road is now used (in part) by Patriot Storage which shares the same address. You can still see the remainder of the old entrance road as it stretches to what is now a housing edition.
Kings Road & Pierce Johnson Road Southeast, Milledgville, GA is a closer address for Google Maps since Union Point is over an hour’s drive away.
A 1955 aerial shows the drive in operational.
The Old River Bridge Road is where the entrance road to the drive in connected, but that cannot be mapped on Google Maps at this time. The entire area has been developed for residential housing. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
After comparing old aerial photos to the most recent Google overhead view, the “ramp” on the east side is really a ditch that was put in sometime between 1956 and 1968. A building was added to the property during that time along with the ditch which reduced the number of ramps.
It does appear that the foundations of the projector booth/concession stand and the screen are still there.
The property is now occupied by a housing edition. The only remaining item from the drive in is part of the entrance road that sits between the housing edition and a gas station.
784 Quinebaug Road, Quinebaug, CT is a better address.
The drive in was located right on the border with Massachusetts. Today, housing exists on the site with no trace of the drive in remaining. The entrance road was just west of where Leo Circle is today.
US 75 & E1150 Road, Weleetka, OK is a possible address.
It is one half mile north of Weleetka on US 75. A 1980 aerial reveals nothing special about the property on the west side, save for what may be a faint outline of a drive in. Today, more homes are on the property.
Again, this is not proof, but that location does fit the description of the property.
The Sheridan Drive In was the first in the Tulsa area to close I believe. Development along Sheridan was exploding in the 1960s and a housing edition took over the property by 1967.
The Madill Drive In did not last very long. A 1956 aerial shows the drive in intact. But a 1960 aerial shows it to be demolished with buildings where the screen was located.
By 1981, you would never know a drive in was located on that property.
There is virtually nothing left of the drive in. Just an empty field with faint indications of ramps and the entrance road which is the only discernable item left.
However, it does appear from a December, 2021 Google Street View that there may be a few speaker poles remaining. It’s rather hard to believe since the foundations of the screen and projection booth/concession stand are gone, but it sure looks like a few speaker poles are still there.
A May 2012 Google Street View showed the screen still standing. But it was gone by the 2014 Google Street View.
The large earthen support for the screen was still present in a 2018 Google Street View, but I do not see it in the overhead. It appears to have been removed.
A 1962 aerial shows the remains of the drive in on the south side of the highway. Today, a house sits about where the projection booth/concession stand would’ve been. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
As I posted on the Pettit’s Drive In site, a comparison of the drive in location between the 1955 and 1983 aerial shows virtually no change. Even the screen appears to be the same size.
This is not to say that changes did not occur. But if the information is accurate, the Pettit’s Drive In shut down and was left intact. New ownership took over, added speaker poles which would not be seen, and perhaps “widened” the screen, but the overall size didn’t change much at all. For all I can tell, they may have simply shaved off the top part of the screen to change its shape from square to rectangular.
Information and even topo maps can be inaccurate, but the aerial photos have, to my knowledge, been far more reliable in accuracy in terms of when they were taken.
The marquee, although damaged and in disrepair, still has the name Tommies Drive In prominently featured on top.
A 1984 aerial shows the drive in intact, although whether it was operational is another matter. By 1994, it had been demolished.
Only parch marks that show the ramps remain from the aerial views.
Found It.
The address is 2652 Lincoln Hwy E, Downingtown, Pennsylvania.
The drive in was located NE of Coatesville along Route 30. A 1950 aerial shows the drive in still in the construction phase. It was still intact and seemingly active in a 1969 aerial. However, by 1981 it had been demolished.
Today, a strip mall sits on the front part of the property with three stores. The back part is overgrown with trees. There is no trace of the drive in visible on Google Maps today, but some of the ramps may still exist under the trees.
https://tinyurl.com/2s37d7d7
A 600 car capacity for a drive in between two small towns? Especially given that the Cactus Drive In, which was built in 1946 in the larger town of Pharr just to the west of San Juan was just 450 car capacity.
And no trace remaining, despite a sunken projection booth and 2,000 yards of gravel? It’s quite rare for any drive in to be not only demolished, but having all traces removed without some large structure being put in its place.
The only candidate that seems remotely close is at 1222 US-83 BUS, Alamo, TX on the north side.
In 1955, the access road to the location branches off into the property. That is rather unusual given that the property seems to have just one decent size building. But most of the land is open and no trace of anything being previous built exists.
More information is definitely needed for this one.
I see no evidence of a light pole with two lights near the carpark of the Park Place of Harper Woods that would date back to the 1970s. By 1983, most of the property was redeveloped. By 1999, all traces of the drive in were gone.
About the only thing that may have existed when the drive in was operation that still remains is the telephone poles that run along the SW edge of the property.
An August 2021 Google Street View of the drive in shows several containers and some RVs along the back of the property next to the projection booth/concession stand.
It seems that the storage business is picking up.
From the Google Maps overhead, the screen appears to be intact, but the concession stand/projector booth may not be in the same shape.
Even the ramps have faded considerably. The addition of houses has made finding the entrance road difficult as well.
I’m surprised it closed in 2002 since from what we see on the Google Maps overhead, it appears to have been closed a decade or two earlier than that given the trees and weathering.
A closer address is 4611 Walker Rd, Windsor, ON N8W 3T6, Canada.
This is the address of the SilverCity Windsor Cinemas which is located at the intersection of Walker and Essex County Rd 4 or Provincial Road. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
Is HWY 98 known as something else now? I’m not getting it to map on Google Maps.
A 1984 aerial shows the drive in intact, but it may have been closed as several trucks/containers (hard to tell) are sitting near the entrance.
By 1994, the screen was gone.
Sold as a “drive in movie location” in 2020, that is the definition of “technically true”.
5020 N Washington St, Stillwater, OK is a closer address.
The old entrance road is now used (in part) by Patriot Storage which shares the same address. You can still see the remainder of the old entrance road as it stretches to what is now a housing edition.
https://tinyurl.com/yj46ymfz
Kings Road & Pierce Johnson Road Southeast, Milledgville, GA is a closer address for Google Maps since Union Point is over an hour’s drive away.
A 1955 aerial shows the drive in operational.
The Old River Bridge Road is where the entrance road to the drive in connected, but that cannot be mapped on Google Maps at this time. The entire area has been developed for residential housing. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
https://tinyurl.com/2p8cnnmd
After comparing old aerial photos to the most recent Google overhead view, the “ramp” on the east side is really a ditch that was put in sometime between 1956 and 1968. A building was added to the property during that time along with the ditch which reduced the number of ramps.
It does appear that the foundations of the projector booth/concession stand and the screen are still there.
The property is now occupied by a housing edition. The only remaining item from the drive in is part of the entrance road that sits between the housing edition and a gas station.
784 Quinebaug Road, Quinebaug, CT is a better address.
The drive in was located right on the border with Massachusetts. Today, housing exists on the site with no trace of the drive in remaining. The entrance road was just west of where Leo Circle is today.
https://tinyurl.com/yj6bx2tb
US 75 & E1150 Road, Weleetka, OK is a possible address.
It is one half mile north of Weleetka on US 75. A 1980 aerial reveals nothing special about the property on the west side, save for what may be a faint outline of a drive in. Today, more homes are on the property.
Again, this is not proof, but that location does fit the description of the property.
A 1981 aerial shows the drive in demolished.
Today, apart from a faint outline, there is no trace of the drive in remaining.
While the car lot was still open in 2008, it had closed by 2013. As of 2019, the property still has the empty buildings of the former car lot.
The Sheridan Drive In was the first in the Tulsa area to close I believe. Development along Sheridan was exploding in the 1960s and a housing edition took over the property by 1967.
The Madill Drive In did not last very long. A 1956 aerial shows the drive in intact. But a 1960 aerial shows it to be demolished with buildings where the screen was located.
By 1981, you would never know a drive in was located on that property.
There is virtually nothing left of the drive in. Just an empty field with faint indications of ramps and the entrance road which is the only discernable item left.
However, it does appear from a December, 2021 Google Street View that there may be a few speaker poles remaining. It’s rather hard to believe since the foundations of the screen and projection booth/concession stand are gone, but it sure looks like a few speaker poles are still there.
A May 2012 Google Street View showed the screen still standing. But it was gone by the 2014 Google Street View.
The large earthen support for the screen was still present in a 2018 Google Street View, but I do not see it in the overhead. It appears to have been removed.
Found It!
The address is 4600 US-59, Grove, OK.
A 1962 aerial shows the remains of the drive in on the south side of the highway. Today, a house sits about where the projection booth/concession stand would’ve been. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
https://tinyurl.com/mw47ahrd
Was still intact in a 1981 aerial photo, but demolished by 1995.
Today, only the faint parch marks of the ramps remain.
A closer address is U.S. 75 & Whitt Road, OK.
I couldn’t get “Coalgate” to stick on the address. But the drive in is 500 feet to the northwest of the intersection on the south side of US 75.
Today, it is an empty field with a shed in the middle. There is no trace of the drive in remaining.
https://tinyurl.com/2p8zhb6k
As I posted on the Pettit’s Drive In site, a comparison of the drive in location between the 1955 and 1983 aerial shows virtually no change. Even the screen appears to be the same size.
This is not to say that changes did not occur. But if the information is accurate, the Pettit’s Drive In shut down and was left intact. New ownership took over, added speaker poles which would not be seen, and perhaps “widened” the screen, but the overall size didn’t change much at all. For all I can tell, they may have simply shaved off the top part of the screen to change its shape from square to rectangular.
Information and even topo maps can be inaccurate, but the aerial photos have, to my knowledge, been far more reliable in accuracy in terms of when they were taken.