Keene Drive-In
26 Optical Avenue,
Keene,
NH
03431
26 Optical Avenue,
Keene,
NH
03431
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The Keene Drive-In opened its gates on March 18, 1954 with Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” and Gilbert Roland in “The Apache War Smoke” (unknown if extras added).
This drive-in had the grandest neon “stars” I’d ever seen (haven’t been to Vegas yet.) I remember my last time there as a teenager, climbing up over the rear chain-link fence on boards we place there once the first feature started… Later the drive-in sold to become the site of the Keene Sentinel printing plant, which unlike the Union Leader and Concord Monitor’s, was never built ( I remember this as a Sentinel employee as I took the plans out to the dumpster for disposal.) Now home to pine trees and ground nesting birds…
Approx. address for this drive-in was 26 Optical Avenue. Though overgrown, you can still make out the ramps.
The Shakour family still owns and operates the Northfield (MA) Drive-In according to their website.
Here’s a short video discussing the history of the Keene Drive-In. Also shows a picture of the box office of the Pine Island Drive-In in Manchester, NH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIRfXM8Otos