Sparta Drive-In
N. Spring Street and N. Edgewood Drive,
Sparta,
TN
38583
N. Spring Street and N. Edgewood Drive,
Sparta,
TN
38583
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Related Websites
Sparta Drive-In (Official)
Additional Info
Functions: Movies (First Run)
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
931.739.8000
Nearby Theaters
I believe the Sparta Drive-In used to be part of the Blue Moon Drive-In chain, but is now operated independently, though they do still offer links to the remaining Blue Moon Drive-In’s on their website. There are lots of photos at their website. The Sparta Drive-In was opened prior to 1956.
Contributed by
Bob Brown
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Here is a photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y7ufbuy
The SPARTA DRIVE-IN parked just 196 cars and was owned in 1956 by Cumberland.
Another Tennessee drive-in.
In looking at the pictures on the website it looks like it was closed for awhile!
Car capacity is listed at 635. According to their website they are not digital.
Four comments in one:
The Sparta has converted to digital. The Sparta web site’s gallery page says the old projector was “last seen in 2013,” and its Facebook page shows the arrival of the digital projector in February 2014.
That gallery page also shows how they can fit more than 200 cars – they use the open field behind the graded rows. The Theatre Catalogs listed it at 200. The IMPAs listed it at 196 until it jumped to 625 in 1982.
As Drive-In 54 suggested, that gallery page also shows very extensive renovation in 2002. DriveInMovies.com wrote (around 2003 or so) that “For years, the only feature visible here had been the often seen Ravages of Neglect.” So we know for sure that it had closed, but I still can’t tell when.
How old is it? In 2013, (then-?)owner Tommy Brown told ABC News that the Sparta was built in 1943, so that’s probably it. The 1952 Theatre Catalog lists the Sparta, yet earlier Catalogs showed the Park-A-Way in Sparta but not the Sparta Drive-In. (The IMPAs listed both for a while, so it’s probably not a name change.)
I wonder if the Parkaway and the Sparta are not the same drive-in.
A 1951 aerial photo on NETRonline clearly shows the Sparta Drive-in, but no evidence of any other drive-in along the highway or anywhere I can see near Sparta itself.
Unless someone can come up with an address, it seems quite possible that they are the same drive-in or that a mistake has been made in the Theatre Catalog, perhaps mixing it up with the Parkaway in Maryville, TN.