Route 303 Drive-In
121 Route 303,
Orangeburg,
NY
10962
121 Route 303,
Orangeburg,
NY
10962
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Also opened with Walt Disney’s “Sardinia”. Closed in 1988. The snack bar is now used for a horticultural landscape center and the marquee used as a sign for the building. The rest of the site is now used as the town compost/recycling center.
Its funny, I just noticed on the newest street view image they just removed the drive in wording on the road sign and hung a banner saying nursery.
According To The Journal News, The Route 303 Drive-In In Orangeburg Lasted For At Least 31 Years Until It Is Converted Into A Flea Market In 1987.
This was a huge single screen site, could’ve easily been twinned. Anyway it looks like the giant concession building still exists on the site.
August 3rd, 1956 grand opening ad in photo section.
Above address is now incorrect. Now Organic Recycling, Inc. @ 121 New York 303. The entrance for this business is the same as the drive-in.
Never mind. I found it listed on this site. It’s actually in Blauvelt. How could I ever think a movie theater could escape a mention on this site? My apologies. My God this site is thorough.
While hiking in Buttermilk Falls County Park a couple of weeks ago, our group could clearly see the remains of a drive in that was right across the street from the park. This has to be the West Nyack theater that Tom Davis mentions? The screen is still up and you can see how the parking field radiates out from the screen. There’s no marquee or anything on Route 303 so unless you climbed to the height that we did, you would not know it was there. Can anyone confirm this is the West Nyack Drive-in?
Bill Fredericks of Pearl River NY was one of the main projectionists at the 303 Drive-In for many many years beginning in the 1950’s. (Not sure about the exact spelling of his name, might have been Frederick.) I was in the booth in the 1950’s when I (and the booth) was quite young. I vividly remember that the Arc lamps were HUGE, you could just about crawl inside them. The projectors were Century’s according to my recollection. The Drive In was located off of Rt 303, within sight of the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and adjacent to the US Army Reserve Center.
Thank you for the speedy reply. I wish I could furnish the answers you request, but alas, I have forgotten – if I ever knew them. I spent the summers and weekends at both drive-ins with my high school sweetie in ‘64. '65, and '66. In '64, I actually woked at the Rt. 303, Orangebyrg drive-in during the summer. The Nyack Drive-in, which may have technically been located in Blauvelt, followed the Rt. 303 Drive-in in opening, but I don’t know when it actually opened or what the first movie shown was. It was located just south of Lake Oneora swimming club, also long gone now.
I did see a related website or ‘blog’ about those drive-ins in classmates.com, somewhere- let me see if I can locate the URL before I close. Thanks,
Tom Davis
p.s. try and copy and paste this url:
View link
All info above is about the Rt. 303 Orangeburg Drive-in!!!
I would love to know any info about the west Nyack Drive-in also on Rt 303 but in west Nyack! i.e. first movie shown year it opened???
Burstco
Which theatre are you referring to? There was a drive-in located in Orangeburg and one in West Nyack. The address would seem to suggest that you are referring to the Orangeburg theatre, but your reference to Clarkstown being the owner of the property suggests that it may be the West Nyack theatre. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Tom Davis
The first film to play here was The King and I; I think the date was August 28, 1956. The place was still operational into the mid 1980’s. On weekends it doubled as a flea market, where you could have found all kinds of interesting stuff. I recall a year before it closed there was a wind storm and it knocked a couple of the tiles from the screen; the management never fixed it and continued to show movies on it till it closed!
Since the photo above was taken, the marquee was restored. It is used to advertise the nursery and the town compost/recycling center now located on the drive-in lot.
What year did it open??
The marquee for the 303 still stands. It was refurbished recently by the Town of Clarkstown, the property’s current owners. It is used as a compost site. The screen frame stood for awhile, sans screen, but recently collapsed. The concession building is still standing. Access to the drive-in is difficult as one must wade through piles of undesirable stuff to get in to take a look at it!