Drive-In Theaters in Charlotte MI Maple City Drive-In Theatre

Info Updates:

2/20/2021 - Andy Gray

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 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.

2/14/2021 - Andy Gray

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.

1/6/2003 - WaterWinterWonderland

Marquee and snack bar/projection booth and fence remain. Lot appears to be used as storage for salt.