Lakeshore Drive-In; Greece, NY ( Abandoned)
N 43° 05.986 W 076° 11.970
18T E 402388 N 4772592
The Lakeshore Drive-In was located in the village of Liverpool, New York.
Waymark Code: WM3EM
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 11/05/2005
Views: 208
The Lakeshore was built as an 1100-car theater at 189 Ling Road in the Town of Greece, New York in 1950. It was the 5th drive-in to open in Monroe County and was reported in the Rochester Times-Union to have had a 100-foot tall screen. Grand opening night was July 1st, 1950 with "Bagdad" and "Down Dakota Way" as the first double feature shown. By the early 1980s, nearly all of the RCA in-car speakers were gone or no longer functioning, so AM radio sound was introduced on channel 650, and the in car speaker system was no longer used.
I have been told that the theater closed for some time during the 1970s, but I have yet to confirm this. I do know for sure that the theater was owned by Redstone Theatres in 1972, and in the 1980s until its closing, was owned by National Amusements of Dedham, Massachusetts. The theater closed after showing its last double feature of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Unlawful Entry" on Saturday, September 5th, 1992 (the night I was there). There was no indication to anyone that the theater was not going to reopen in the spring.
Lakeshore was the last remaining drive-in in Monroe County until its demolition on May 5th, 1993. A local radio station sponsored a "Save The Drive-In Night" in 1991 where admission was only $1. Cars were lined up for almost a mile both ways trying to get in. Despite this effort, the theater lasted only one more season. No one knew of the closing of the theater until we saw its screen going up in flames on the 6 o'clock news. It can be assumed that National Amusements decided not to reopen the theater for the 1993 season, and to tear it down due to the need for many repairs to the theater, and the rapid decline of business. The biggest complaint was the faded and weathered screen that was aluminum gray in spots rather than white, and the poor channel 650 AM sound. It was reported that a demolition crewman's blow torch "accidentally" ignited a pile of wood behind the screen causing a rapidly spreading fire. Accident or not, it sure made knocking the screen down much easier.
Sadly, all that remains of this once-very popular drive-in movie theater is the sign. The land that once served as the parking lot is now occupied by a strip mall.