Morton Grove Drive-In
9500 Waukegan Road,
Morton Grove,
IL
60053
9500 Waukegan Road,
Morton Grove,
IL
60053
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This long-gone drive-in opened in the late 40s and could accomodate around 1000 cars. It was located at Waukegan and Golf Roads.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Interesting. I didn’t know there was once a drive-in there. Which corner was it on & when did it close up?
We moved to Glenview in 1952 when I was 3 years old and I have vague memories of going to this drive in with my parents. It was already demolished before 1963 when I graduated elementary school. It would have been on the East side of Waukegan and I believe South of Golf Rd because North of Golf Rd is Glenview/Golf and there was a small helicopter landing pad for US Mail deliveries. Does anyone rememeber the old bowling alley/tavern located on Waukegan Rd across from Carraige Hill?
Tribune-12/7/40:Plan Open-Air Drive-In In Morton Grove
The leasing of a 30 acre tract in Morton Grove yesterday by the Illinois Drive-In Theaters company, Inc. started work towards the third open air movie theater for the Chicago area. The site is on the west side of Waukegan road, a quarter of a mile north of Beckwith Road.
A preliminary payment of $3,000 was made on the $18,750 rent total for the 10 year term. The lessee has an option to buy prior to Nov. 1, 1945 for $30,000. After that date the price will be $40,000,
according to the lease filed for record yesterday.
Tribune-6/8/41:Huge Drive-In Theater Will Open Thursday
The largest drive-in theater in the world, located at Waukegan and Golf roads just west of Evanston, will open Thursday (June 12, 1941)
The $165,000 theater covers 20 acres which allows parking space for 1,160 cars. The screen is seven and a half stories high, mounted on a nine story elevation.
When a car arrives, girl ushers on bicycles will guide the driver to a stall. Vacant stalls are indicated on a large electric sign. Each car is in back of and elevated above the car in front. The incline also allows those in the back seat to see over those in the front seat. Cars are arranged so that a person can enter or leave during the performance without disturbing others.
There are individual loud speakers for each car and in the winter the speaker will be attached to the heater in your car. Upon request ushers will serve refreshments, and service station attendants will check tires, gas and oil during the performance.
CORRECTION ON THE LOCATION-Did some further checking and the theater was indeed located at the southeast corner of Golf & Waukegan. Found a real estate subdivision ad from 1945 that had a map and the drive-in is shown taking up that entire corner. Maybe the location plans changed from 1940 to 1941 or the Trib just got it wrong. Sorry for the confusion.
There is a large Avon cosmetics plant located on that corner now.
It must have been distracting to have railway trains passing during the movie presentation.
Avon bought the land (20 acres) circa May 1955 for approximately $360,000 per the Tribune of June 5, 1955. Groundbreaking started July 14, 1955 for the (350,000 square foot) $3,000,000 building.
There used to be a regular police presence for traffic control, when Avon employees left in mass every afternoon after work.
Not sure whether Avon or a drive-in would accumulate more cars at a given time. But it goes without saying that the 1940’s & `50’s would have had way less cars on the road.