By Julie Schlesselman, Local History & Genealogy Department Manager, FCPLD
No, not gasoline, but good old A&W Root Beer. If you wanted to take home a gallon from the Elm Drive-In, that’s all it cost.
Have you ever driven by something unusual – an abandoned building, a dilapidated old sign, or just a strange cultural oddity – and wondered what its original purpose was? There’s a little building just north of Brookville, on SR 1, that piqued my interest for years. A small nondescript concrete block building that looks like it could have been used for storage purposes, but consequently was much too near the road for something like that.
Sometimes the information we seek is just not out there. This can happen for many reasons. It has been destroyed and no longer exists – it never existed – or the current resources we have are just not adequate. Occasionally, the answer we seek is tucked away in someone’s closet or mind, and oftentimes, even when we ask around for information, and what people remembered, we do not hear back from them because they don’t feel that what they know is valuable enough. More often than not, the possibility exists that we have just not contacted the right person yet, as I am sure is the case with this week’s subjects.
I love roadside Americana, and Franklin County was once full of it – but the documentation is lacking, and even the once prevalent vestiges are slowly disappearing – no more neon signs, no more steel diner, and only one, barely readable, Mail Pouch Barn remains.
After the article about the Jack & Jill Diner in August of 2019, I had a request for an article about Hertel’s Drive-In. Many of you will also remember it as the Elm Drive-In. I was pleased to be able to tell the person inquiring that topic was already on my to-do list. Not only was I interested in the Elm Drive-In, but also in the Way Fair Drive-In in Metamora. My curiosity stemmed from mere photos – the fabulous advertising photos that appeared in the Brookville yearbooks starting in 1958. These two buildings in particular stood out for their purely American-feel and unique mid-20th century architecture. Needless to say, as soon as I saw these vintage photos, I immediately knew what the little building I frequently passed on SR 1 was used for.
I will share what little information I have discovered so far, and the rest will be in photos, which will undoubtedly resurrect fond memories and happy times.
Today, the old Elm Drive-In is a mere shadow of its former self, but still stands as a solemn reminder of the good old days. The little building is about a mile north of Brookville, on the right side of SR 1.
Joy Gettig (1927-2012) and Irvin Hertel (1923-2012), who were married for decades, owned and operated the Elm Drive-In for many years. In addition to them having run the diner, some of you may remember Joy as a longtime employee of Riedman’s Drugstore and Irvin as a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service, and as a livestock buyer. (Mr. Hertel’s name is spelled both Irwin and Irvin, and used interchangeably in newspaper articles, advertising and promotional material, as well as people’s recollections.)
The Elm Drive-In was originally operated by Mr. Hertel and opened in July of 1951. It was open daily from 11:30 am to 12 midnight, except for Mondays, which served as a day of rest. On Sundays, it opened after church at the noon hour.
A few recollections from Don Dunaway, who was there shortly after they opened, include: “I cleaned the interior on Monday evening when they were closed. This was around 1952-54. I cleaned the grill and everything else, and mopped the floor. I was allowed to eat anything I wanted, so I fried hamburgers and made a chocolate milkshake. I usually brought my radio and listened to Gordon McCrae and the Railroad Hour. The work area was at the front, facing the road. There was a counter most of the length of the building. There were a few booths on the east side of the building with a jukebox in the middle. I think you could play six songs for a quarter.”
Don also recalled Mr. and Mrs. Hertel lived in the back of the building before they built the house nearby and started their family.
The Elm Drive-In must have been closed for a short time in 1956, for they had an advertisement in the Brookville Democrat that said they were going to reopen for business on Tuesday, February 21. The ad stated, “We have remodeled the interior of our drive-in to better serve the public – Joy and Irvin.”
In the 1958 Brooklet, the advertisement said the Elm Drive-In was “leased from Hertel in July 1957” and “now operated by Carol Banks.” How long this endeavor lasted under this arrangement is unclear, but yearbook advertisements continued to run for the Elm Drive-In. The last photo advertisement I found was in 1975.
The Way Fair Drive-In was just northwest of Metamora on US 52. The Dollar General Store is at that approximate location today. In the 1950s, it was managed by William Haley, the son of Mr. & Mrs. Wilbur Haley. This venture began in July 1955 and was originally operated by Ralph Lock and Bill Haley. In January 1956, in the wedding announcement of Shirley Beasley, it mentioned that her husband, whom she married in October 1955, William Haley, was the manager.
Part of the old Way Fair Drive-In building still stood up through the new millennium. In the first decade of the 21st Century, there was a little shop there that I remember visiting that sold garden plants.
The term drive-in, of course, regarding these two subjects, was used in the sense of meaning food – but for those who did not know, or perhaps forgot, Franklin County did have a drive-in movie theatre also. It was located on SR 229 between Oldenburg and Batesville.
If you know more about the Elm Drive-In or the Way Fair Drive-In and have photos or history that you would like to share, please contact me at 765-647-4031 or julie@fclibraries.org
For those trivia buffs out there, and for those who enjoy photographs as much as I do, if you are familiar with Ben Winans’ collection of images, there are two, one identified as the ‘Blooming Grove Road’ and one as the ‘Agnew house.’ This image of the ‘Blooming Grove Road’ showing the Agnew house in the distance and the beautiful hand-laid stone walls dates from about 1910, and shows the approach to the general location of where the Elm Drive-In was.