Ann Arbor’s First Drive-In Theater: The Ypsi-Ann, 1948
I remember this drive-in very well. I never went there, but I remember it for a whole different reason.
Whenever we traveled out of state, at night when we were on our way back up 23 and hit westbound I-94, we could see the drive-in screen and see the movie that was showing, plain as day. Good thing they didn’t show X-rated films...the screen could be seen from miles away!
It was called the Ypsi-Ann Drive-In Theatre, Ann Arbor’s very first drive-in movie theater, located at 4675 Washtenaw.
The Ypsi-Ann opened on May 29, 1948 with capacity for 500 cars and 600 by the late 1960s. It was named so because of its proximity between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. The first film to be shown was Springtime in the Sierras starring Roy Rogers!
The theater only cost approximately $100,000 to open (remember, this was 1948 - $1,389,960 by 2026 standards) and lasted a good number of decades. When it closed on September 16, 1975, the final showing was a double feature: Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard and Al Pacino in Serpico.
