Roosevelt Drive-In
Jersey City,
NJ
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This General Cinema drive-in was located in Jersey City.
Contributed by
Robert R
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
This drive-in was located near Route 440. Besides being a drive-in theater, it was also a toxic waste site.
The Jersey Journal May 26,2005
“A place where everyone knew your name. It was not "Cheers,” but a Jersey City bowling alley. For 40 years, the Roosevelt Lanes was a neighborhood institution, perhaps even a community center. It closed last Sunday and is expected to become rubble by next week.
Honeywell Corporartion ordered the evacuation and demolition of the lanes. The lanes site will be used as a staging area for the massive cleanup of the chromium-tainted soil at the former Roosevelt Drive-In off Route 440. The toxic waste, perhaps as much as 100 tons, is from the old Mutual Chemical plant. Mutual was acquired by Allied Signal and Dye Corp. in 1956. AlliedSignal, as it became known, acquired Honeywell in 1999, and took its name. It is the world’s 75th largest corporation.
All this means nothing to area bowlers, who say that to knock down pins they will have to travel to Hudson Lanes in Bayonne. To the Jersey City residents who took part in league play or used it to meet friends, it is just another change for the worse in the neighborhood. It is another 7-10 split, but this time you do not get a second ball".
Great post lostmemory. Thanks for proving the myth about NJ! :)
Still open in 1977, courtesy of Bill Huelbig:
View link
Thanks anyway TC, but I think that is a RobertR posting!
Website outlining the toxic cleanup:
http://www.441route440.com/
Nothing has been done to this site, its still being cleaned up by the city. Just fenced off.
I spent many nights here since my both parents were born and raised in Greenville section of Jersey City. We moved out to North Arlington when I was 3 but many of our relatives still lived in Jersey City. My dad worked in the Amercian Can Company as did my both uncles along with many other Jersey City residents back then. My dad also bowled on a bowling league at the Roosevelt Lanes and I remember going there also. Years later I took my kids to the drive in there to see Grease. I also remember going to see the Grateful Dead at Roosevelt Stadium whish is not gone also. Many memories in my mind are physically gone in NJ. I guess that is progress or just part of getting old, a part I wish were different. Other countries preserve their older buildings, stadiums, etc. rather than tearing them down, I wish we did the same here.