Newton Drive-in
39 Hampton House Road,
Newton,
NJ
07860
39 Hampton House Road,
Newton,
NJ
07860
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By 1957 the Newton Drive-In was operated by the Snaper Circuit. This drive-in was closed down for almost 30 years until it was recently demolished to make way for a retail store.
Contributed by
Mike
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The land was recently cleared for the construction of a Lowes Home Center, I remember the it well. The sign and screen stood for years.
Drive-ins.com listing w/ some site photos:
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/njtnewt
Built by Wilfred “Bill” Paul Smith for himself. Smith, who built most of New Jersey’s drive-in theaters, assisted on the very first drive-in theater in the world (Camden).
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 3, 2002 p003
I’ve been to that lowe’s and while it’s not as big as the home depot store, the space around it is still open and very rural.
Its now a fully operational Loews Home Center. Passed it the other day. You would never, ever know the Drive-In existed. Bulldozers can do amazing things to a landscape. Mostly erase memories. The Dairy Queen is still there which is good because when I look at the right side of it’s parking lot, I can visualize where the screen was but once that Dairy Queen is gone, so will be the final landmark to show me where yesterday was. The restaurant that pin pointed the entrance was also leveled.
I was a resident of Sussex County from fall 2005 to winter 2006. I remember the opening of the Lowes.
December 2002 view. HERE
Looks like the screen or part of it is still standing, but not much else that I can tell.
What a sad thing to have happened to a place I have such fond memories of. In 1968, I and my family saw “Night of the Living Dead” at this drive-in. I was 7 and the car was a ‘63 Plymouth Fury wagon. Of course, the cone from Dairy Queen was chocolate. I couldn’t sleep that night. We lived on the family’s diary farm which had long been non-operational. In 1971, a visiting uncle from California convinced my father that we should move to California where the were jobs were plentiful. I didn’t want to leave New Jersey. It was my home. In the summer of '71 the last movies I saw were “Walk About” and “Vanishing Point” with my mother and siblings, as my father had gone ahead to California. I’ve been in California ever since, but I’ve always missed New Jersey. I was born at Newton Memorial Hospital and I’m sure that’s changed a lot too.