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2/20/2021 - Andy Gray
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Today I have a treat for Michigan drive-in aficionados: ten photos taken in the fall of 1952 during the construction of the Maple City Drive-In in Charlotte. These 35 mm slides were shot by my grandfather A.S. "Al" Johnson, who owned the Johnson Construction Company and built dozens of Michigan theaters and drive-ins between 1934 and 1956.
These images provide a rare look into the the early phases of a drive-in project: site clearing, layout, applying water-proofing tar to the lower blockwork of the concession/projection building, building the foundation for the tower, and tower framing and assembly.
One slide shows car speaker posts with precast concrete bases. These later will be interconnected and set in place, then the concrete bases will be covered with gravel prior to the final grading of the parking area.
The same slide shows several timbers soaking in drums of creosote for protection against rot. Some of the timbers piled in the back will be cut to length and bolted together with steel gussets to form vertical trusses. These will provide the primary structure of the tower.
A series of slides shows the workers raising one of these tower trusses into place using ropes, block and tackle. Once in place, these vertical members will be connected to adjacent trusses with horizontal timbers to form a rigid framework.
Though not shown in these slides, the final step of the tower construction involved sheathing the whole tower frame with plywood, applying one or more coats of paint, and then covering the whole tower with a final layer of panels. Ron Gross, administrator of the Michigan Drive-ins.com Facebook page, says that asbestos panels typically were used for the final sheathing layer during this era. To see part of the tower sheathing process, please see my February 12 Michigan History post on the Starlight Drive-In.
The waterwinterwonderland.com site provides this history: "The Maple City Drive-In opened in June of 1953 and closed around 1990. This single screen drive-in had a capacity for 500 cars." The site also reveals that, as of 2013, the projection/concession building and a very damaged marquee were all that remained on the site.
The Maple City Drive-In was located at 2812 S. Cochran Avenue. I've been unable to find any contemporary photos of the completed drive-in. A current Google Maps view shows part of the parking area and the remains of the concession/projection building in the rear of the site.
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2/14/2021 - Andy Gray
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These four photos were taken by A.S. “Al” Johnson in October 1951 and show the early stages of the Johnson Construction Co. Maple City Drive-In project. The fourth slide reveals some interesting aspects of a drive-in construction project. You can see the precast speaker posts and bases ready to be set. Several timbers are being soaked in barrels of creosote in the background. The piles of timbers in the background shows that none of the tower framing was pre-fab. It was all cut and assembled on-site and then manually raised into place, as the next batch of slides will show.
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7/9/2010 - Garrett Pierce
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According to a recent article in the local paper, the first film show at the Maple City Drive In was "The Pony Express". The drive in is basically gone now, with only the projection house and the original fence still remaining. The rest, as seen in the photos below, has been razed. The last time I recall anything happening out there was back around 1990 when the then owner had car shows out front to help promote the business. It didn''t help, and the property was sold soon after to a party unknown who uses it to store salt /minerals there.
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12/18/2003 - Box Office Magazine
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Beechler Theatres is running three weekly changes in the Maple City Drive-In at Charlotte.
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1/6/2003 - Drive-Ins.com
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I have heard rumors that the Charlotte may reopen soon. The marquee and, I believe, the snack bar remain. Bobby Peacock
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1/6/2003 - WaterWinterWonderland
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Marquee and snack bar/projection booth and fence remain. Lot appears to be used as storage for salt.
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