Fresh Pond Drive-In

80 Wheeler Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138

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50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on March 16, 2023 at 3:10 pm

Closed in 1975.

oldmovielover
oldmovielover on March 28, 2017 at 11:10 am

I remember seeing True Grit there loved Fresh Pond drive in

rivest266
rivest266 on May 11, 2013 at 3:43 pm

This opened on May 17th, 1951.

NYozoner
NYozoner on February 14, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Here is a 1955 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.

MPol
MPol on October 27, 2008 at 5:15 pm

I remember the Fresh Pond Drive-In quite well. When my sister and I were pre-teens (my brother hadn’t come along yet), our parents would pile everybody into the family Rambler Station wagon, take us out to dinner, and then to the Fresh Pond Drive-In, where my sister and I would lie in the back seat with pillows and blankets. We saw movies such as “The Mouse that Roared”, “Time Machine”, and a bunch of others.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on March 30, 2006 at 2:57 am

If you compare this photograph with a Google Maps satellite view of Wheeler Street, it appears that cars entered the Drive-In from dead-end Wheeler Street, and the screen was next to the entrance, facing north.

It also looks like the westmost part of the former Drive-In is used today as a parking lot.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on March 29, 2006 at 7:59 pm

I looked through some old, printed USGS topographic maps and found this theatre’s location. It was on the west side of Alewife Brook Parkway (Route 16), just south of the bridge over the Fitchburg Line railroad tracks.

If you look at this current USGS topo map, you’ll see the site marked “Substa”. That’s because it now contains a large field of electrical equipment. The Google map also shows this if you look at the Satellite or Hybrid view.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on March 29, 2006 at 7:21 am

Drive-ins.com has a page on this theatre. I’d like to nail down its exact location, and what is now on the site.