Farewell to Cottage View Drive-In will feature free party, movie

My home town of Cottage Grove has lost its fight to keep its Drive-in Theater. Thank you Cottage View for forty six years of great memories!

By Bob Shaw

A goodbye party for the metro area's second-to-last drive-in theater has been set for Sept. 27.

The owners of the Cottage View Drive-In Theater will host a free party and movie to commemorate 46 years in business. The drive-in is expected to be torn down and replaced by a Walmart.

The featured movie for the party is going to be a sing-along version of "Grease," according to Steve Mann, president of Mann Theatres, Inc., which operates the drive-in.

The doors will open at 6 p.m., and the movie will start at dusk.

Danette Parr, Cottage Grove's economic development director, said the first 100 people at the party would get a free DVD about the theater's history, and everyone would get a brochure on the same topic.

The Cottage View Drive-in road sign was photographed in Cottage Grove on Wednesday April 4, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

Other details about the party will be released later.

The Cottage Grove City Council approved the Walmart at a meeting Sept. 5. Groundbreaking is expected to be next spring, with the store opening 2014.

Theater operator Mann said the drive-in will be open during weekends until mid-October. When it closes, the only drive-in theater in the metro area will be the Vali-Hi Theater in Lake Elmo.

The Cottage View Drive-in is at U.S. 61 and Keats Avenue. Cottage Grove, Minn.

Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433. Follow him at twitter.com/BshawPP.