Skytop Drive-In

1892 W. Monroe Road,
St. Louis, MI 48880

Unfavorite 1 person favorited this theater

Showing 1 comment

graymatters
graymatters on April 21, 2021 at 9:29 am

The Sky Top was located at 1892 W. Monroe Road in St. Louis, Michigan. My grandfather Albert S. “Al' Johnson, owner of the Johnson Construction Company that built the drive-in, shot three Kodachrome slides in June 1949 just before the drive-in opened. I’ve uploaded these images to this webpage.

In the first image, a unique capped polished metal square tower held the marquee and a small neon “Sky-Top” sign. This tower was later replaced by a different marquee and signage. The marquee reads “Opening Tuesday June 21 ‘Silver River’ with Errol Flynn.”

In another image, the movie screen has visible exterior supports behind it. This is unlike the other Johnson drive-ins at which the screen tower, including all supports, was totally encased and was a key architectural element of the overall site.

The waterwinterwonderland.com site says that “the Sky Top Drive-In was closed in 1986 after extensive flooding destroyed the building’s foundations.”