Diamond State Drive-In
9758 S. Dupont Highway,
Felton,
DE
19943
9758 S. Dupont Highway,
Felton,
DE
19943
4 people
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It’s a shame this one is gone. I used to go there a lot, especially during its final season. The last movie I saw there before I had to go back home to Virginia due to school starting up was The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor.
An October 2019 Google Street View shows the screen still intact. The marquee is in pretty bad shape.
Diamond State Roller Rink opened behind the screen in 1954. Renamed Hi-Way 13 Drive-in in 1966. Renamed Diamond State Drive-in in 1995. Name at opening in 1949 unknown?
Opened with “Under California skies” and “Campus honeymoon”. Closed With “Bolt” and “Madagascar 2 escape to Africa”. Also had a roller rink(ice or roller?) building on site(still standing, possibly also closed?).
the projectonists booth is gone. the concession stand looks like it could fall over at any minute. the marquee and screen apear to be in great shape. though the projectors booth location is easy to identify as the removed the speaker poles and installed them in the shaspe of the old projectors booth!
The Diamond State Drive In did not switch to porn until at least the mid to late 1970’s.
From about the mid 1960’s until at least the mid 1970’s the Diamond State was leased to R/C Theatres (Roth/Cohen) from the Baltimore/Washington area. Under R/C banner the Diamond State played nothing but low rent ‘Drive-In’ oriented fare such as “Caged Women” “Macon County Line” “Last House On the Left” and other similar Corman New World Pictures/AIP motorcyle and exploitation fare.
August 12, 1949 was opening night. The Diamond State Roller Rink opened in 1954 adding to the entertainment on the property.
4/18/15 land still for sale – just think of all that money they could have made if they kept leasing the property as a Drive-In Theater. They could have put a clause in the lease that if it sold that the lease was finished. They would have had a monthly check coming in anyways and Delaware would still have a drive in theater.
So disapointed they never did anything with this. the origional owners mr. & mrs. steel would not be happy everything they worked for is gone! My mother worked here until the day she died. I have so many childhood memories here & so many memories of my mother. She was so dedicated to the drive inn she worked their for free every weekend just to help out patty Dave and donnie the leasers which by the was are the ones who did all the work restoring the drive inn when it opened back up. Mr. & Mrs. steel loved and trusted them i highly doubt they would steel any signs or whatever u say! They were so deticated to keeping the drive inn going! If i had the money i would open it back up in my mothers memory. when she passed i thought what would my mother want to be after death & the only place i could think of where she enjoyed her life and loved being was the diamond state drive inn so i spread a part of her their and every summer i go their and just sit and remember! Id give anything to have this up and running again.
Anybody know if this land is still for sale? Or who to contact? I’ve driven by it recently and it looks in the same state of disrepair. No visible for-sale-call sign from what I could see.
With new tools available (particularly crowdfunding) I’m thinking it wouldn’t be completely impossible to open this place again, but I need someone or something to start with. Any info would be appreciated!
Parked 150 cars,making it that state’s smallest drive-ins.In 1956 it was owned by Albert Steele.
The marketing efforts begin and end with an ad on craigslist for the property asking 1 million dollars. It is a damn shame. hopefully someone will be able to restart this drive-in some day. One benefit to the housing crisis is land is tougher to sell and worthless unless its being used. If the lease had expired a year or two later the owners would have begged the Drive in to sign a new lease, but what is done is done.
I was just past the site of this drive-in over the weekend. Appears abandoned. Weeds are growing high and the sign is missing its inserts. Guess those greedy heirs didn’t make out so good marketing the property.
Wonder how the heirs are making out marketing this property to potential developers??
That’s too bad. I hate to see another drive-in go under.
Saturday November 29th, 2008 will be the final showings at the Diamond State. With the death of Mrs. Steel the lease was not renewed. The heirs felt the property could be better marketed to developers if the drive-in was not operating.
The official website is asking for help to save the drive-in. That can’t be good news. There is a USA Today article on this site that talks about the expiration of the theater lease in 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/5ayaqa