Lexington Drive-In
901 Grimes Boulevard,
Lexington,
NC
27292
901 Grimes Boulevard,
Lexington,
NC
27292
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Located in Lexington, North Carolina, the Lexington Drive-In held 420 cars, and was opened April 21, 1949 with Esther Williams in “This Time for Keeps”. It was owned by Southern Eastern Theatres in the late-1950’s. Two big stars of this area, ‘The Duke’ and Elvis shared the screen on July 1 1970 with "Change of Habit" and the "War Wagon".
The Lexington Drive-In was closed in 1986.
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MikeRogers
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Lisa, could you give us an approximate location where this drive-in was? I am familiar with Lexington as my family owns a house on High Rock, but we didn’t buy it until 1990, so I have no memories of the drive-in being open. I went to the Cinema 8 near Biscuit King many a time though. Even though I know it’s exactly why it closed, I always thought it was cool to be the only person in the theater for a showing, which happened a lot at the Cinema 8 unfortunately.
It was located across from where the new Lexington Memorial Hospital is now. It was near the DMV Office on Old Hwy 29 coming out of downtown Lexington. While doing my research a couple of years ago, I was fortunate to find a lady in Lexington that knew the Callahan’s. I was able to email back and forth with one of the sons and am now friends with him on Facebook. I could show you exactly where the Lexington Drive-In was located. I loved that place!
I hate that the Cinema 8 is now closed too. My husband and I were there one night and another guy came in. Right before the movie started, 2 more guys came in. They sat down in front of this guy. He said, “For God’s sake, don’t sit in front of me.” They had almost any seat in the theater and sat down right in front of this guy. It was really funny.
I have it at…Grimes Rd & Salisbury Rd. Lexington, NC 27292
The Lexington Drive-In was actually between Anna Lewis Drive (the new hospital is off of this drive) and Old Salisbury Road (which is Old Hwy 29). It was right down the road from the Highway Patrol Station.
If you look at any of the overhead views of the site you will see a triangular-shaped piece of land where two major roads converge. Some comment that the theater lot was paved for trucks to park in. That is incorrect- the triangle was once a major truck stop before the new I-85 was completed. That truck stop has also been demolished. The actual site of the movie theater was to the immediate north/north-east of the truck stop. It is nothing but light woods now, the screen and buildings have long been removed.
Grand opening was on April 21, 1949 (2 pages of ads in The Dispatch)
Hi, I can tell anyone anything they’d like to know about this theater. My grandfather opened it, and my father and his brothers worked there until they went to college.
@dcallahan have pictures to share?
901 Grimes Boulevard, Lexington NC 27292 will map directly to the vacant land where this drive-in once stood.
Opened with some “Tom and Jerry cartoons(names and number of cartoons unknown?)”, And “This time for keeps”.