Hull's Drive-In

dansdriveintheater on January 16, 2019 at 1:03 am

some time between 2012 and 2016 the screen was torn down and replaced with a new one!

MichaelKilgore on November 6, 2017 at 5:48 pm

Hull’s is such a wonderful story of a saved drive-in, and that might be one reason why its origins get such a cursory mention. The excellent history page at Hull’s includes: “The theatre was built by W.C. Atkins in 1950, and operated as the Lee Drive-In on land leased from the Hostetter family. Sebert W. Hull purchased the business and lease in 1957.”

Drive-Ins.org said that “local residents Waddy and Virginia Atkins, who earlier had founded what became Hull’s Drive-In in Lexington” owned the Riverside Drive-In in Roanoke from 1958 until its closing.

A detailed if sometimes contradictory history on the Hull’s page on Weebly said “a couple from Roanoke owned the business, a Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, and they’d drive back and forth from Roanoke every night.” Which would explain why they eventually swapped the Lee for the Riverside in their backyard. Also, Mr. Mason Hostetter was a farmer who owned the land behind the Lee.

In the 1952-56 Theatre Catalogs, R. Perdue was listed as the owner of the Lee, capacity 220. Who was this Perdue?

For some reason, the 1952-54 Motion Picture Almanacs didn’t include the Lee. The 1955-59 editions listed W. C. Adkins (sic) as the owner, capacity 250.

ElCartero on June 17, 2009 at 9:27 pm

Here are a bunch of great photos, taken right before and right after the 2000 reopening:
http://www.driveins.org/va-lexington-hulls.htm
http://www.driveins.org/va-lexington-hulls-2.htm

kencmcintyre on January 3, 2008 at 12:09 am

Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/26uql8

teecee on July 1, 2005 at 10:22 am

Homepage:

http://www.hullsdrivein.com/

What a great site!