The Tower Drive-in Theatre (Demolished)
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy Andy Callahan

The empty lot and remnants of the screen base give little indication of the evenings once spent at the Tower Drive-In Theatre in Tampa. Beside the Hillsborough River, its movie screen shared the neighborhood skyline with the Sulphur Springs Water Tower. With that famous landmark nearby, the theater didn’t have to look far for a name.

The Tower opened on October 22, 1952, with a double feature of Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie and Dakota Lil. With room for approximately 300 cars, it was a relatively modest outdoor theater. Its riverside location, however, gave it a setting quite different from the larger drive-ins spreading across Florida during the postwar years.

Snack Bar Pole?
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy Andy Callahan

Operated by Floyd Theatres, the Tower offered the familiar outdoor movie routine: find a parking space, get refreshments, and settle in while darkness gathered around the screen. The nearby water added character, but it also presented problems. A 1960 trade report recorded a temporary closure after floodwaters covered the grounds—an unwelcome reminder of the risks of showing movies beside a river.

The theater continued into the 1980s before closing, leaving its screen and other traces behind for a time. In the photograph, those remains tell the story more quietly than a glowing marquee ever could. It takes a little imagination to turn the vacant ground back into rows of cars waiting for the next feature.

Terraserver image
Tampa, FL
Courtesy Andy Callahan

UPDATE: The Tower Drive-In has been demolished, and its screen no longer shares the skyline with the Sulphur Springs Water Tower. The surviving water tower helps locate this chapter of Tampa’s entertainment history, while photographs preserve the outdoor theater that once stood nearby. Another picture show has faded, but its distinctive setting remains part of the memory. 07-26

The Tower Drive-in Theatre (Demolished) Tampa, FL Photo courtesy Andy Callahan	Screen Base (Demolished) Tampa, FL Photo courtesy Andy Callahan