The Majestic was opened by L. A. Farrell on Christmas Day, 1913. It closed on March 27, 1955, after 41 years and 3 months. The building, which also housed an armory, remained standing until the building was destroyed by fire on May 21, 2005. At various times over the 50 years from the theater’s closing to the building’s demise, it housed a State Store (wine & liquor), shops, restaurants, and a VFW hall.
I grew up at Newton Lake in the 1970s and ‘80s and remember hearing about the drive-in but I wasn’t born when it was open. I remember sort of being able to see it driving past on the highway and riding my bike to explore the “ruins” - cracked asphalt, concession building, and poles for the speakers, overgrown with blueberry bushes that grew all around the area. I haven’t been back for many years but believe all traces are long gone. I bought some paraphernalia from this drive-in on ebay this past year.
In March 1961, during a severe winter storm, the ice-covered screen collapsed and blew onto the roof of a garage on a neighbor’s lot, destroying an antique car inside. Owners Anthony and Joseph Cerra valued the screen at $15,000 (about $130,500 in 2021). For a few months in the summer of ‘61, they turned the drive-in grounds into a go-kart course but then closed and never re-opened. The last movie shown was “Psycho” in October 1960. - from articles and ads in The Scranton Times and The Scrantonian found on Newspapers.com
The Majestic was opened by L. A. Farrell on Christmas Day, 1913. It closed on March 27, 1955, after 41 years and 3 months. The building, which also housed an armory, remained standing until the building was destroyed by fire on May 21, 2005. At various times over the 50 years from the theater’s closing to the building’s demise, it housed a State Store (wine & liquor), shops, restaurants, and a VFW hall.
I grew up at Newton Lake in the 1970s and ‘80s and remember hearing about the drive-in but I wasn’t born when it was open. I remember sort of being able to see it driving past on the highway and riding my bike to explore the “ruins” - cracked asphalt, concession building, and poles for the speakers, overgrown with blueberry bushes that grew all around the area. I haven’t been back for many years but believe all traces are long gone. I bought some paraphernalia from this drive-in on ebay this past year.
In March 1961, during a severe winter storm, the ice-covered screen collapsed and blew onto the roof of a garage on a neighbor’s lot, destroying an antique car inside. Owners Anthony and Joseph Cerra valued the screen at $15,000 (about $130,500 in 2021). For a few months in the summer of ‘61, they turned the drive-in grounds into a go-kart course but then closed and never re-opened. The last movie shown was “Psycho” in October 1960. - from articles and ads in The Scranton Times and The Scrantonian found on Newspapers.com