Danbury Drive-In
84 Federal Road,
Danbury,
CT
06810
84 Federal Road,
Danbury,
CT
06810
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During the 1983 season, the Danbury Drive-In became nationwide headlines following a double suicide that happened at the Danbury Drive-In and a Massachusetts house.
On May 14 of that same year, two 17-year-olds who were identified themselves as both a boyfriend and a girlfriend who at the time previously graduated from North Salem High School in North Salem, Massachusetts three weeks prior, were arguing in the middle of a movie until crossing the lines.
Shortly after the movie was finished, one of the employees of the Danville Drive-In walked around inside the concession building until witnessing a female hanging inside the bathroom with her belt around her neck. The male who was responsible for the incident later hanged himself with his own belt in his North Salem home several weeks later on June 6, 1983. Three months later, the Connecticut Medical Examiner determined that both deaths are ruled as a self-suicide.
Is it during the 1984 season or at the end of the 1984 season?
Opened on 6th September 1949 with ‘The Fuller Brush Man" and “Coroner Creek”. Closed in 1984 with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
The address is:84 Federal Road, Danbury, CT 06810
This drive-in opened in 1949 and closed in 1984.
80 Federal Rd, Danbury, CT 06810
The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in.
Here is a 1955 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricaAerials.com.
The last film shown was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, according to Danbury historian, Bill Devlin.
The drive-in opened Sept. 6, 1949. The capacity expanded to 908 cars at one time.
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So. Went by today and the whole property’s trees have been cut down to stumps. There’s a sign on the roadway saying it will be the new Saturn of Danbury. Great. More cars.
There was a snippit about the Danbury Drive-In in the recent Sunday Danbury paper, The News-Times. It was from the weekly section called, “Looking Back” in which they look back 25, 50, 75 and 100 years. This one was from August 14, 1980 in which they talked about a series of robberies in Danbury and Brookfield and told of the Danbury Drive-In being held at gunpoint and robbed.
I went there with a friend today. Had to lock up our bikes and walk it, as there was a foot of snow the whole way. The driveway is quite long with the jersey barriers on the left. A few hundred feet up on the left is another gate, a bulldozer and a neighborhood (beaver brook road) and there’s a large hill overlooking what was the field. Further up the driveway is what is now used as a paintball field with pallets, moguls, metal pipes and other stuff for that sport. It looks like it was an old christmas tree farm after it closed as the main field has a significant amount of small xmas type trees about 5 feet high. the property sign out front says it’s 9.5 acres. the back is marked off with a wooden fence from the neighborhood.
I found the area today but didn’t have a chance to see it as there was 5 inches of snow. It’s located next to the entrance for HART (Housatonic Area Regional Transit) at 62 Federal Road. The old gate to the drive-in is directly to the left of HART’s entrance.
To confirm some information, according to the 1950 City of Danbury Directory, the Danbury Drive-In was first listed at Federal Road 5 and in 1957 at Federal Road 6. I’m guessing these were lot numbers? and if so, they probably expanded?
Danbury Drive-In Theatre closed approximately 1985. It was last run by SBC Theatres.
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=9449 is the correct link.
The comment quoted above is mine and remains my intellectual property.
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=9449 is the correct link
This is weird, again. I sent in the description a week ago and it was on here, now it’s not! Anyway, i saw this info for this drive-in on www.cinematour.com (or more exact: http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=9449))
According to the site, it was built in 1950. “As you can see, little remains of the Danbury Drive-In. The field is overgrown with bushes taller than my head, though the entrance driveway remains and goes through the field as well. You can also see the concrete blocks that used to line the driveway but are now piled up, and the pine trees planted to separate the drive-in from the road.”
I ride down Federal Road everyday and haven’t noticed an empty plot of land in many years due to the sprawl marts everywhere.