Sandusky Drive-in Theater Revisited

Sept. 16, 1948 ad from Sandusky Register

Aerial view of Sandusky Drive-in Theater
(Courtesy Sandusky Library)

One of my favorite Sunday drives (when I’m not under lock-down, that is) is following U. S. 6 from Vermilion to Sandusky. There’s still enough old motels and cottage camps on the highway to make it an interesting ride. But a lot of roadside landmarks have disappeared in the last twenty years.

But I’m a creature of habit, and even though something may have been torn down – like the Sandusky Drive-in Theater – I can’t resist taking a look at where it used to be. It was located on the eastern outskirts of the city. It first opened in May of 1948, according to the Sandusky Library’s Sandusky History blog. (A newspaper ad from later in the year is shown above.)

I first photographed the Sandusky Drive-in Theater back in 1991, when it was still in operation. Here’s the photo (below). It was a rather unappealing sky that day.

Later, I went back and shot the theater again after it closed in 2001. This photo (below) with a menacing sky is from June 2007.

And here are my shots from this week (below). Today the former drive-in property is part of the East Sandusky Bay Extension 200 Acre Preserve. You can still see the little road that wound around in front of the theater, and where it comes out onto Cleveland Road West (U. S. 6).

(I first wrote about the Sandusky Drive-in back here in 2010).

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There are a lot of great photos of the Sandusky Drive-in Theater (including one of mine), as well as some newspaper ads & clippings, over on the Cinema Treasures website. Check it out!

Art from a 1952 newspaper ad