Newberry Drive-In
882 Wilson Road,
Newberry,
SC
29108
882 Wilson Road,
Newberry,
SC
29108
No one has favorited this theater yet
Wouldn’t be great if on status I wouldn’t have to constantly push ‘Closed’. So many outdoor screens are gone, along with the classics that showed on them. Sad to say this day and age few films worth seeing. However, the Newberry Drive-In did show the classics.
It was one of two drive-in’s in that city and I never did see. The Newberry Drive-In parked 250 cars and was owned in the late-1950’s by Brown & Roof.
Contributed by
Mike Rogers
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
I THINK it was open from ABOUT 1950-1975? Someone should check those dates and find it’s address.
Thanks Bob,Seems like you and Chuck1231 have the best source materials.
I have a vague memory of the Newberry Drive-In. I seem to remember that it was on US 76 toward the National Guard Armory. I checked with a friend who also lives in Newberry and he didn’t remember it. He then checked with another guy and this guy said that it was near the old REA building on Hwy 76. He said that the drive-in backed up to property that his grandmother owned.
I was checking some old newspapers and found an ad for the Newberry Drive-In Theatre. It was in the Newberry Observer dated February 22, 1952. “Red Canyon” starring Ann Blyth, Howard Duff, and George Brent was playing on Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s movie was “Katie Did It” starring Ann Blyth and Mark Stevens. When I checked a 1961 edition of the Observer, there was no ad for the Newberry Drive-In.
I got together with another friend who grew up in Newberry and is older than me. We all knew about the Cloverleaf and I had a vague memory of the Newberry Drive-In. This guy confirmed that it was out past the national guard armory and he said that he believed that it was owned by the Whitaker family.
I talked to an 83 year old Newberry resident the other day and he said the Newberry Drive-in Theater was owned by a woman named Rook Purcell (a member of a prominent Newberry family), was near the old REA building (as has been mentioned previously), and closed before 1960.
Thanks Jeff,I could only do so much from Augusta.I do have picture of it way after it had closed.
I looked at some Newberry city directories today at the Newberry library: 1952 directory lists Newberry Drive-in as operated by “C. Kenner and Rook P Brown” (P would be for Purcell) and address is only listed as “cut-off” near Adelaide St extension.“ "Cut-off” is 1950’s speak for “Highway 76 Bypass, ” now Wilson Road. That would put it near the old National Guard Armory as has been mentioned previously. Only other directories for that time period are 1948 and 1957 and the drive-in is not listed in either one so it may have been open only a short time or it may have just been left out of those directories.
I talked to a Newberry resident whose family owned property next to where the Newberry Drive-In Theater was and she verified the Theater was at what is currently 882 Wilson Road, where the Newberry Electric Cooperative is.
A May 2, 1952 Newberry Observer article has a front page headline reporting that Mrs. Brown was found “not guilty” in magistrate’s court for the 5th time on the charge of showing movies on Sunday at the Newberry Drive-In Theater. In March the owners of The Ritz Theater (Theo “Dutch” Albrecht) and the Wells Theater (Fulmer Wells) had gone before city council asking if they could open on Sunday to better compete with the Drive-In. After hearing from many preachers, the city said no.
The last Newberry Observer ad for the Newberry Drive-In Theater appears to have been on Friday, May 8, 1953; no other ads found after that date.
Grand opening: Saturday, August 21, 1948 showing the movie “It’s a Pleasure.” (from Newberry Observer, Friday, August 20, 1948)