Stevesville Drive-In
Econo Lane and US-11,
Lexington,
VA
24450
Econo Lane and US-11,
Lexington,
VA
24450
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The 1955-56 Theatre Catalog included the Stevesville Drive-In (along with the Lee Drive-In) in Lexington VA. The Stevesville Drive-In had a capacity of 200 cars, “Exec: Neofotis and Daher”.
The September 1, 1958 issue of Boxoffice reported, “J. J. Nunnally, former operator of the Keysville Drive-In, has leased the Stevesville Drive-In, Lexington, Va. W. R. Tanner is doing the booking and buying”.
The 1955 Motion Picture Almanac drive-in lists included the “Stevensville Drive-In”, no capacity, owner Joseph G. Daher.
The Stevesville Drive-In was still open in 1970.
Contributed by
Michael Kilgore
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Just sayin', the Motion Picture Almanac never updated its listing for the “Stevensville.” It continued through 1976 with no capacity. When the MPA rebooted its drive-in list, briefly getting serious about it after years of relative neglect, the Stevesville/Stevensville was gone.
I have no idea how long this drive-in stayed open. The idea that it was leased to another operator in late 1958 suggests that it might not have lasted long after that, and I have no evidence that it operated in 1959 or later.
One more note. Joseph George Daher coached the Virginia Military Institute men’s basketball team for three years, 1943-45. VMI is also in Lexington, so it’s probably the same guy. He and the wife also had a couple of apparently unrelated real estate transactions in Lexington in the late 1950s.
Found It.
Econo Ln & US-11, Lexington, VA.
I know that Econo Lane did not exist when the drive in was open, but it does work as an intersection for locating it on Google Maps.
A 1963 aerial shows the screen, ramps, and projection booth/concession stand. But it doesn’t look open to me. Sometime between 1994 and 2000, the entire area was leveled.
Today, it is an empty field with no trace of the drive in remaining.
https://tinyurl.com/mpjpm7av
Thanks, Kenmore. I knew that if anyone could find it, you could.
I’ve uploaded a postcard of the Stevesville motel that mentions the drive-in. Another postcard I noticed on eBay of the same motel noted on the back that its proprietor was Steve P. Neofotis, matching the Theatre Catalog listing.
To underline an earlier point, I put the ever-fallible Motion Picture Almanac’s erroneous spelling of the drive-in in quotes to show that I did not endorse it. Although there is a city in Virginia with the N, it’s 150 miles away. The Stevesville (no-N) cabins were one mile north of Lexington, and that was the name of the adjacent drive-in.