Diamond State Drive-In
9758 S Dupont Highway,
Felton,
DE
19943
9758 S Dupont Highway,
Felton,
DE
19943
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Filmed this around late december of 2012. Screen still looked great. Roller rink is shot! Projection room is still there as are the bench seats aside of it. the concession stand was in horrible shape. Talked to the grand Daughter of the owner the day after Christmas and she said they took it off the market and never had anyone intrested in the property. If you look in local paper’s at the time of closing it sounded like a war between them and the renter’s. She said that the people who leased the property stole her Grandfather’s original sign and took other things as well. But the leasor was the one who fixed up the property. ie his stuff! No projectors , but the power units were there. Also found tickets 4 years later in the feild laying in the grass. have some in my house now. It would take little effort to open this again. But money and time and dealing with the owners are again a challenge.
Mike, I believe that Price’s Corner Drive-In was the smallest, car capacity was 100. It was located in Wilmington, DE.
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.
More photos of this drive-in at this link.
http://www.driveins.org/de-felton-diamondstate.htm
This drive-in was also known as the Hi-Way 13 Drive-In during the period that it was showing Adult Films.
Nice little Drive-In! Don Brown and Patty ? did a great job bringing the abandoned theatre back to life, an then operating it successfully for many years! Damn shame it couldn’t continue to operate …
Wonder how the heirs are making out marketing this property to potential developers??
Photos of the Diamond State Drive-In, click to enlarge.
1. View link
2. View link
3. View link
4. View link
Here are two photos from May of 2008 when it was still open:
Photo1
Photo2
Car capacity given in 1975 was 150. Status needs to be changed to closed.
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