Lib-City & Palm Drive-In
NW 22nd Avenue and 69th Street,
Miami,
FL
33147
NW 22nd Avenue and 69th Street,
Miami,
FL
33147
1 person
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The white section, the 22nd Avenue drive-in became the Palm Drive-In on February 3rd, 1957. Another ad posted. “New Entrance to 22nd ave. Drive-In theatre”. Lib City continues to operate at this time.
The Liberty Drive-In opened on April 1st, 1952 and the segregation fence went up creating the 22nd Ave drive-in that opened on February 24th, 1953. Grand opening ad posted.
Liberty City Drive-In opening Sun, Mar 30, 1952 – 16 · The Miami News (Miami, Florida) · Newspapers.com
storm damage
September 1st, 1964 storm damage Tue, Sep 1, 1964 – 34 · The Miami News (Miami, Florida) · Newspapers.com
The Nov. 8, 1952 issue of Boxoffice ran an article about the Liberty Drive-In, which “was opened last April 1” by Leon Task. It included a photo of the huge walk-in area with 700 seats. “Local newspaper and civic officials joined in congratulating Task in providing the recreational center for the Negro population.”
Is the only segregated drive-in theatre in the World?
The site is now Poinciana Park Elementary School.
Please add Liberty City Drive-In as an aka.
Here is a 1961 aerial photo of the drive-in, which shows the fence bisecting the drive-in through the middle of the lot.
Here is a 1969 higher resolution close-up photo.
You can see there were separate entrances and ticket offices for the east side and west side of the lot.
Both photos are courtesy of Earth Explorer and USGS.
This opened in 1949 as the Liberty City Drive-In. In 1953 it started advertising as the 22nd Avenue presumably to lure white audiences.
Thanks for the insight MayfairMan!
I recently visited Historical Museum of South Florida where they currently have an exhibit on the African Diaspora in Miami.
http://www.hmsf.org/
This type of info would have been a welcome addition. In my theatre research I also stumbled upon another Miami weirdness. The 1926 telephone book had a section for “Colored people”. This odd bit of segregation would surely have made it easier to find black friends and family.
The 22nd Ave Drive-in was a regular stop on our drive-in circuit 1950-55, and was in fact a segregated operation, with whites entering from the west off 22nd Ave, and blacks entering the Liberty City Drive-in from the east (21st Ave or 21st Ct.) One screen at the north end with a tall wooden fence bisecting the parking and concession areas. Neither side could see or have contact with the other, but if you sat in the outdoor seating area in front of the concession building you could hear folks on the other side. It was weird even for Miami in the 50s.
The 22nd Avenue Drive-In was advertised as the Liberty City Drive-in at the same time. Does anyone know if they had two sections for segragated audiences?
The 22nd Avenue shut down sometime in 1969.
The address for this drive-in was 6900 N.W. 22nd Avenue. It had room for 700 cars.