Governor Ritchie Drive-In
6716 Ritchie Highway,
Glen Burnie,
MD
21061
6716 Ritchie Highway,
Glen Burnie,
MD
21061
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From the Theatres For Sale section of the want ads in the Jan. 2, 1961 issue of BoxOffice:
Gov. Ritchie Theatre, 700-car drive-in theatre in continuous operation since 1939 on Ritchie Highway 3 miles south of Baltimore. Highly profitable theatre including choice commercial frontage. Stockholders' deadlock has forced sale by public auction to be held January 25, 1961. For full information write Gov. Ritchie Theatre, Inc., P. O. Box 25, Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Site is now Redbox and Shoprite.
Final night of operation with the aforementioned films was December 18, 1983
Albert Cabell Ritchie was governor of Maryland from 1920 to 1935.
“Was there a governor called ritchie?”
This opened on May 14th, 1939. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
By the way, it closed a week before Christmas in ‘83. Last double feature was An Officer and a Gentleman and 48 Hours.
I lived just around the corner from this theater on Furnace Branch Road and you could see the entire screen from my backyard. I can’t count the number of nights I sat on the hill in my yard and watched Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, The Incredible Melting Man and who knows how many others, all without sound of course. I think the only time I officially went there was to see the original Rocky with a friend and his mom. She wanted to beat the traffic out so we left 5 minutes before the movie ended and she told us, “Don’t worry, he wins”. At school the next day, everyone treated us like idiots because we thought he had won the fight. Man, what memories.
If I remember correctly, it officially closed in 1982 or 1983.
6716 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061
The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in.
Here is a 1966 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of Earth Explorer and USGS.
I’ll keep an eye out.
Here is an exceprt from an April 9, 1980 article in The Capital:
Stores To Replace Old Ritchie Drive-In
E.M. Loew’s Governor Ritchie Open-Air Theatre, one of the oldest drive-ins in the country,
is scheduled to close this year to make way for a shopping center. The news may be favorably received by residents of the nearby Glenmore community, who have for year lived-with the lights and late-night noise. But according to other north county residents, Ritchie Highway needs another shopping center like Marley Creek needs another sewage spill.
Plans call for a 208,655-square-foot shopping center with an 84,000-square-foot department
store and 40,260-square-foot food or mercantile store to act as financial anchors. More than 900 parking spaces would be provided. The drive-in, built in 1938, will be closed “for
economic reasons,” according to William G. Steele, who has managed it for 12 years. “The
land is far too valuable for a drive-in.”
This site is now occupied by a shopping center, which includes a Kmart, Mars supermarket, and about 2 dozen other shops. A Pizza Hut stands approximately where the screen was located, which was quite tall and a landmark back in the day.