Deer Lake Drive-In

Route 61,
Orwigsburg, PA 17961

600 cars

No one has favorited this theater yet

The Deer Lake Drive-In closed around 1996. This single screen drive-in had a capacity for 600 cars. It was for sale in 2005. Anyone have any updates on its current status?

Contributed by Lost Memory

Recent comments (view all 18 comments)

bluecat158 on December 27, 2006 at 2:58 pm

Passed by there yesterday… The trees surrounding the lot have been cleared and there’s a pile of rubble where (I’m guessing) the consession stand once stood. Screen is still there and is much more prominent with all the trees gone :) There was a bulldozer on site and a sign for a construction crew by the road.

lostmemory on February 3, 2007 at 2:32 pm

Another photo can be seen here.

lostmemory on July 3, 2007 at 11:41 am

This is a more recent photo.

lostmemory on March 29, 2008 at 7:40 pm

Here is a photo from 2006.

Cosmopolite on June 28, 2008 at 7:44 am

From Republican-Herald (Pottsville, PA)
Saturday, June 28, 2008

The last remaining piece of the Deer Lake Drive-In Theatre is slowly disappearing.

For the last few weekends, a third party for property owner Forino Corp. LP, Reading, who wished to not be named, has been removing the screen and says the structure will be entirely down in a few weeks.

Once the site of a thriving drive-in movie theater built in the late 1950s, the property has been vacant and unused since the mid-1990s.

Forino plans to develop 108 single-family homes on the site, according to Ken Schnader, project manager for Forino.

Forino bought the property in December 2003.

At the last West Brunswick Township Board of Supervisors meeting, Forino was granted a time extension on preliminary plans for the project, township secretary Patricia Reazor said.

Schnader said they hope the final plans will be approved by December.

The third party removing the screen said he is planning to donate a portion of the scrap metal from the movie screen to local Boy Scout troops.

A number of groups have tried to restore the drive-in over the years. Joseph B. McDade and Kevin J. Moxley, both of Langhorne, unsuccessfully attempted to get West Brunswick Township to grant a variance to allow them to operate the theater in 2002.

Under the townshipâ€™s regulations for that site, a drive-in operation is not allowed, but the Deer Lake Drive-In, which was already there before the ordinance was created, was â€œgrandfathered.â€ The site then closed for several years and could not reopen without a variance.

sfriedman001 on December 8, 2009 at 4:51 pm

My father, Bernard Friedman, was the original builder and owner, with a partner whose name I forget, of the Deer Lake Drive-in. As a young boy I remember the building and the opening of the Drive-in. My father and his partner also owned the Pottsville Drive-in. I don’t know the date that the drive in was built but it had to be in the mid 50’s. I remember spending many weekend nights at the Deer Lake Drive-in and also remember spending many hours during the weekend helping to clean the grounds. Hope this is of interest to someone. Just wanted to fill in a little history.

markp on December 8, 2009 at 7:05 pm

I would always go up rte. 61 to Shamokin to visit a good friend of mine, and always said how I wished this Drive-in could be re-opened. Shame that its gone.