When was the first drive-in church? A silent video on You tube attempts to claim it was in 1950. Watch the preacher make the rounds of parked autos with a collection plate. The idea here certainly tied into the motion picture drive-in fad. Seeing the preacher go from car to car reminds me of another 1950s scene, the Roller skating hamburger servers. Car hops. Truthfully, anyone would rather watch nubiles on skates than a church service, and I'll have fries with that. That is, unless Jesus showed up in the lot, and I find no record of that happening.
The real photo postcards here could be dated by automobile model, and even by the card stock used (AZO, generally popular around 1910) I find no indication of location, but this enterprising evangelist had the idea decades before this video.
Pair of Real Photo Postcard RPPC images. c. 1910 - 1920 Collection Jim Linderman
