Shipyard Drive-In
Providence, Rhode Island1957-1976
Order Shipyard Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Providence, Rhode Island, drive-in held 1,700 cars on the old Walsh-Kaiser shipyard site at Fields Point, which launched 63 ships from 1942 to 1945. A commenter who knew the site said the theater sat where six of the building ways had been. Browse the styles below, and the full Shipyard history is further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
4 products
Shipyard Drive-In History
The Shipyard Drive-In in Providence, Rhode Island, opened on July 31, 1957, with Ma and Pa Kettle on Old MacDonald's Farm and Tammy and the Bachelor. It held 1,700 cars on about 22 acres, and the Berry Hill Corporation built it. Its site was the old Walsh-Kaiser yard at Fields Point on the Providence River. From 1942 to 1945 that yard launched 63 ships, including Liberty ships and frigates, and employed more than 21,000 people at its peak. A commenter who knew the site said the theater sat where six of the building ways had been.
It ran all year and had a sunken playground with a merry-go-round, a ferris wheel, a train ride and miniature golf. The entrance and most of the parking were in Providence, but the screen stood across the line in Cranston, and a Cranston council president once asked which city actually had jurisdiction.
By the late 1960s the movies had started to change. In November 1969 a Cranston councilman voted against renewing the license over Fanny Hill and lost. In 1972 the Rhode Island Supreme Court heard a case brought by the Providence Bureau of Licenses over a film called How to Succeed with Sex. A lower court had declared it obscene and stopped it, and the high court reversed that ruling, in favor of the Shipyard.
The last night was September 12, 1976, with Deep Red on the bill. The screen was still standing around 1978. A container port planned for the land in the late 1970s fell through, and the site is now split among a culinary school, businesses and ball fields.