Tower Drive-In
3649 New Bern Avenue,
Raleigh,
NC
27610
3649 New Bern Avenue,
Raleigh,
NC
27610
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 5 comments
The Tower Drive-In Theatre closed permanently on September 2, 1974 screening “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” and “Bandolaro!” at the end of a 25-year lease. It was replaced by the Tower Shopping Center and ABC’s Tower Twin hardtop theatre.
The Tower Drive-In opened on June 17th, 1949 with “Where’s there’s life”. Grand opening ad posted.
OldSchoolMan: Lewis Tew was the manager of the Tower Twin Theatres when it opened on December 21,1977 when it was part of the ABC Southeastern Theatres chain(that also owned and operated the Cardinal Theatre at North Hills and the Ambassador Theatre in Downtown Raleigh)…….
Lewis Tew managed the drive-in, probably at the time it closed. He was the first manager at Tower Twin (in the Tower Shopping Center) when it opened in 1977 or 1978. By 1979, Tew was managing the Cardinal Theatre at North Hills. Before Tower Merchants Shopping Center was built next door to Tower Shopping Center in the early 1980s, one could see some remains of the drive-in. I recall seeing concrete slabs and a few poles. (The screen was long gone by then.)
The drive-in closed in early 1975 and was demolished. Located off New Bern Avenue near the Raleigh Beltline in Southeast Raleigh,
The Tower Drive-In Theatre sat where Tower Shopping Center and Tower Merchants Shopping Center now stands.