Eden Twin Drive-In
106 Fireman Club Road,
Eden,
NC
27288
106 Fireman Club Road,
Eden,
NC
27288
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The Eden Drive-In is now the ‘Eden Drive-In Twin’. They added a 2nd (smaller) screen a couple of years ago.
There is some truth to the location of the original Eden Drive In, which was located between Weaver and Pierce street on Meadow Road. My wife’s cousin even talk about walking down to it after it was closed in the 50’s or early 60’s. Nothing appears to be visible now where it stood but trees. Actually the property would have backed up very closer to Morehead High School and the Mall is a block or so down from it on the opposite side of Meadow Road.
Georgann Eubanks' wrote in her book Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook: R.S. (Sam) Gwynn … was born in Eden in 1948. His father ran the drive-in when Gwynn was growing up.
The Theatre Catalogs listed the drive-in under Leaksville. It was in the first list, the 1948-49 edition, as simply Drive-In, Exec: D. L. Craddock, capacity 150. For 1949-50, it was the Eden, the exec was D. E. Gwynn, and capacity grew to 200. In the 1952-56 editions, it was joined in town by the Leaksville Drive-In, also owned by D. E. Gwynn with a capacity of 300.
The 1952-53 Motion Picture Almanac listed both drive-ins for Leaksville – the Eden, capacity 282, owned by Eden Theatres Inc.; and the New Leaksville Drive-In, capacity 200, owned by D. E. Gwynn. They both stayed that way through the 1959 edition. In 1961-66 the New Leaksville was owned by Doug Craddock.
When ownership notes resumed in the 1978 MPA, the Eden was listed under the town of Eden and was owned by Consolidate, and that was how it stayed through its last list in 1988. (The New Leaksville dropped out of the MPA after 1976.)
Tim Robertson and his parents, David and Judy, owned the Eden Drive-In, although David passed away in January 2017. Tim told Business North Carolina just last month that his family bought the closed drive-in in 1994 and renovated it.
Over at DailyNetworks.com, Mark Daily writes that “the current Eden Drive-In was originally the Leakesville (sic) Drive-In. A second drive-in previously located near the current Eden Mall site was home of the original Eden Drive-In.”
That would explain how it could handle over 800 cars on a three-night weekend. But I’m not convinced about where the original Eden was; looking at Historic Aerials' old photos and topo maps of the future Eden Mall site, I can’t find anything that looks like a drive-in nearby, except for what’s now the Eden far away on the west side of town.
The Eden Drive-In is fully digital.
Can you tell me if they have a screen wide enough to show movies in scope. A lot of drive in’s dont and a movie filmed in scope is off the side of the screen in the air. I hate that.
The theatre is independently owned. In addition they also operate the 4-Plex formerly owned by “Consolidated” and then by “Carmike”. The owner also operates the “Rockingham Theatre” an indoor theatre in Reidsville,N.C. and a twin Drive-In in Abemarle,N.C.
I was involved in the installation of the projection & sound equipment when the reopened after being closed for a decade.
This is one of the last remaining operating drive-in theatres in North Carolina. Last weekend, the season opened with ‘Fast Five’ and ‘Your Highness’.. this drive-in still does good business after all these years.
In the 70’s and 80’s, this was part of the Consolidated chain.
Website: http://www.edendrivein.com
Screens: Single screen
Chain: Privately owned