Center Drive-In
Division Street,
Derby,
CT
06401
Division Street,
Derby,
CT
06401
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The Center Drive-In was located on the town-line of Ansonia and Derby.
Contributed by
Dave Bonan
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The Center Drive-in theatre was south of Division St. behind McDonald’s, where BJ’s Wholesale Warehouse is today. When I started coming to Ansonia in 1974 it was closed, but the “humps,” projection booth/snack bar, and speaker stands were visible for years. I don’t remember the screen. In 1955 these two rivers flooded and there was at least 10' of raging water over this property. It stood in the “center” of the V where the Naugutuck and Housatonic Rivers meet. Over the years, evidence of the drive-in crumbled, and BJ’s bought the land and built about 1999 (a guess.)
This was a rather huge Drive-in parking 900 cars and owned by B.Jacocks.
20 Division St, Derby, CT 06418
The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in, which is visible on Google Earth using historic aerial imagery.
The Center Drive-In opened in the early 1950’s as I recall, and was located on the South side of Division St., along the Naugatuck river, just West of the Division Street bridge.
It was a very large area, and took up all of what is now BJ’s and the McDonald’s.
After the “Flood of ‘55”, the screen was re-built, the concession stand was cleaned up, repainted, etc. It operated for several years after that, into the 1960’s. Subsequently, it became a golf driving range for a few years.