The federal government’s National Park Service (NPS), which owns the nine acres that are home to the Hyde Park drive-in movie theater at 4114 Albany Post Road in Hyde Park, is close to signing a lease with a new operator for the theater, the Business Journal was told by the NPS. A representative at the agency said that lease documents are under review but did not have an estimate on when the lease might be signed or when the theater might open for the summer season. The drive-in is one of only about 200 drive-ins remaining in the U.S., down from the approximately 4,000 drive-in theaters that were operating in the 1950s when the outdoor movie theater business peaked.
The theater opened on July 28, 1950, as the Hyde Park Auto-Vision Theatre and was later renamed Hyde Park Drive-In. The owners were Sidney and Ida Cohen.
In 2000, the theatre was sold to Scenic Hudson Inc. and then acquired by the National Park Service in 2011 as part of the larger historic Farm Lane property. This property was historically included in the 1,522-acre Roosevelt estate, which includes President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home, Springwood, historic farmlands, forest plantations, Top Cottage, and Eleanor Roosevelt’s house, Val-Kill.
The Cohen family had posted the following notice on the theater’s website: “Due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, the HYDE PARK DRIVE-IN THEATER has been forced to close its doors after seventy-two years in business.
“It has been an honor and privilege for our family to serve you during this time. We thank you for your patronage and hope you will continue to visit us at our OVERLOOK DRIVE-IN THEATER location.”
Last year, the NPS put out a Request for Proposals seeking a new operator for the theater, which has most of the buildings and equipment needed except for digital projection equipment that would be needed to show current films. NPS said it would need to charge market rate for the rent, which it determined was $4,000 a month and that some capital expenditures by the new operator could offset some of the rent. The theater has a capacity of 670 cars. NPS said it would sign a lease covering a maximum of ten years, with rent increases adjusted to compensate for inflation.
The NPS said that the property must continue to be operated as a drive-in and that it is allowed to be open to the public from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
