Ohio's Oldest Drive-In Is Still Rolling: Two New Movies for Seven Bucks in Strasburg

Here's a nice thing that's true right now: the Lynn Auto Drive-In in Strasburg, Ohio — projecting movies onto its outdoor screens since 1937 — is still open, still cheap, and suddenly getting a fresh round of well-earned attention. In early September, the travel blog Ever After in the Woods put a spotlight on the place, marveling that a drive-in that has been showing movies since 1937 still fills its screens with new releases and even lets you bring your own food.

What happened

Two separate travel outlets wrote the Lynn up this month, and both landed on the same happy disbelief. Ever After in the Woods, in a September 8 piece, put it plainly: seven dollars barely gets you through the door at most movie theaters these days, but in Ohio it buys two brand-new movies and an evening under the stars. Unearth the Voyage followed a few days later, noting that a place in Ohio has been quietly doing something remarkable since 1937, and for just seven dollars you can watch two brand-new movies under an open sky, packed into your car or sprawled out in a truck bed.

The theater sits along US-250 in Strasburg, in Tuscarawas County. It is Ohio's oldest drive-in movie theater, open since 1937 with two screens, a concession stand and a classic video arcade — and the second oldest continuously operated drive-in theatre in the world. Read that again. The second oldest on Earth, and it's in a small town in eastern Ohio, still selling tickets.

Why it matters

The drive-in is one of those American inventions that was supposed to be gone by now. Drive-in theaters boomed in postwar America, peaked in the 1950s and 60s, then faded as multiplexes took over. Thousands closed. The Lynn Drive-In did not. There's no gimmick keeping it alive — just a place that kept doing the thing it was built to do. Even the details stayed honest: the marquee at the entrance still gets hand-changed before each showing, and it keeps that genuine small-town atmosphere where everyone seems to know everyone.

Drive-in country

The Lynn isn't an accident of geography. Ohio got off to an early start, hosting one of the first 10 drive-ins in the country, and the state still has 24 open drive-ins, making it third in the nation for remaining drive-ins, behind only New York and Pennsylvania. That's the Ohio we like to make shirts about — the one that keeps the good old things running because they're still good. It's the same spirit behind our Ohio collection: places with a long memory and a working porch light.

Go see it

This one's easy: pick a weekend, gas up, and go. The Lynn has been entertaining Amish Country visitors and locals since the 1950s (and, per the record books, well before that), so make a day of the back roads on your way in. And don't sleep on Sunday morning: the Sunday flea market is a whole separate reason to show up — vendors set up as early as 5 a.m., shoppers get in free at 6, and a typical Sunday brings around 100 sellers. Some visitors plan a full weekend around the Friday or Saturday night movies plus the Sunday morning flea market. Wear your O-H Tee and see how many strangers finish the chant before the previews start. Our money says all of them.

Common questions

Where exactly is the Lynn Auto Drive-In?

It's at 9735 US 250 in Strasburg, Ohio, in Tuscarawas County — right along US-250, an easy drive from Canton, New Philadelphia, or anywhere in Amish Country.

Is it really that cheap?

Yes. Seven dollars gets you two brand-new movies under the open sky, and outside food is welcome — a combination that's nearly extinct anywhere else.

Is it really one of the oldest in the world?

By the accounts we found, yes: open since 1937, it's Ohio's oldest drive-in and the second oldest continuously operated drive-in theatre in the world. Roughly ninety seasons of movies under Ohio sky, and counting.

Reported by Ever After in the Woods. Details as published at the time of writing.