Roof Garden Drive-In

1800 N. Center Avenue ,
Somerset, PA 15501

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March 31, 1951 grand opening ad credit Somerset Daily American.

The Roof Garden Drive-In was opened July 25, 1949 with Richard Basehart in “He Walked By Night”. It was operated by J.R. Betters and Louis Hanna of Hanna Theatre Services. Despite its name it was a regular ground level drive-in theatre. It was still open in the 1970’s. It had been demolished by 1982.

Contributed by David Zornig

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

Kenmore
Kenmore on April 5, 2020 at 5:44 am

A 1969 aerial shows the drive-in to be intact and possibly operational. By 1982, it had been totally demolished.

Today, a business sits on part of the property with no trace of the drive-in remaining.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on April 5, 2020 at 6:15 am

Roof Garden Drive-In was still in operation in 1975 when “Death Race 2000” played there. Multiple locals recall being there in the `60s and when “MAS*H” was released in 1970. It was on old Route 219 which is Route 601 today, which is aslo N. Center Avenue.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on April 5, 2020 at 6:29 am

Vintage Aerial link with 1968 photo.

https://vintageaerial.com/photos/pennsylvania/somerset/1968/PSO/2/6

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on September 11, 2021 at 5:09 pm

Actually, the Roof Garden Drive-In continued operations prior to 1951 because its partial-seasoned. I looked through various 1949-1950 pages of the Daily American, and reported that construction was in process in July of 1949.

The Roof Garden would then later open its gates on July 25, 1949 with Richard Basehart and Scott Brady in “He Walked By Night”, but I cannot find a single grand opening advertisement anywhere, but it did announce a week prior to watch for a grand opening attraction. I dug up completely deeper and I can’t find it anywhere.

It closed for the final time at the end of the 1975 season, but on November 17, 1975, some rubble from the screen was devastated in a fire. The theater was then sold on March 3, 1976.

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