Roof Garden Drive-In
1800 N. Center Avenue ,
Somerset,
PA
15501
1800 N. Center Avenue ,
Somerset,
PA
15501
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The Roof Garden Drive-In was opened July 21, 1949 with Dorothy Lamour in “The Girl From Manhattan”. It was operated by J.R. Betters and Louis Hanna of Hanna Theatre Services. Despite its name it was a regular ground level drive-in theatre. It was closed at the end of the 1975 season.
It had been demolished by 1982.
Contributed by
David Zornig
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
A 1969 aerial shows the drive-in to be intact and possibly operational. By 1982, it had been totally demolished.
Today, a business sits on part of the property with no trace of the drive-in remaining.
Roof Garden Drive-In was still in operation in 1975 when “Death Race 2000” played there. Multiple locals recall being there in the `60s and when “MAS*H” was released in 1970. It was on old Route 219 which is Route 601 today, which is aslo N. Center Avenue.
Vintage Aerial link with 1968 photo.
https://vintageaerial.com/photos/pennsylvania/somerset/1968/PSO/2/6
Actually, the Roof Garden Drive-In continued operations prior to 1951 because its partial-seasoned. I looked through various 1949-1950 pages of the Daily American, and reported that construction was in process in July of 1949.
The Roof Garden would then later open its gates on July 25, 1949 with Richard Basehart and Scott Brady in “He Walked By Night”, but I cannot find a single grand opening advertisement anywhere, but it did announce a week prior to watch for a grand opening attraction. I dug up completely deeper and I can’t find it anywhere.
It closed for the final time at the end of the 1975 season, but on November 17, 1975, some rubble from the screen was devastated in a fire. The theater was then sold on March 3, 1976.
This actually opened on July 21, 1949 with Dorothy Lamour in “The Girl From Manhattan” along with the Woody Woodpecker cartoon “The Mad Hatter” and the Pete Smith Specialty “Surfboard Rhythm”.