Brownsville Drive-In for sale
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
The 72-year old Brownsville Drive-In is up for sale for just the second time in its long history.
The drive-in has been operating since 1949, opening about two years before the current owner, John “Preach” Sebeck was born,
Sebeck, who will turn 70 in August, started working at the drive-in when he was a teen, selling tickets, working the concession stand and picking up trash for the original owner, I.J. Ficks. While he doesn’t work the concession stand anymore, he still often finds himself in the ticket booth or cleaning up at the end of the night.
Sebeck and Tom Clark bought the drive-in in 1972.
“We’ve had it ever since, so this January it will be 50 years,” Sebeck said. “Being that Tom’s gone and I’m basically on my own except for Charlie, I just want to slow down.”
Clark died in 2011, leaving Sebeck to run the drive-in and two adjacent businesses on his own, along with manager Charlie Perkins, who also started at the drive-in when he was a teen.
“I’ve been there 34 years,” Perkins said.
Numerous improvements have been made at the Brownsville Drive-In over the years. It has gone from a single-screen theater to a three-screen theater, from wired speakers to broadcast audio and from film to digital projectors. A miniature golf course on the site was destroyed by a storm, but the drive-in still offers amenities for families who may want to have a birthday party or other gathering at the drive-in.
“We built a pavilion three or four years ago where people could hold picnics or just eat there when there weren’t parties,” Perkins said.
Perkins and Sebeck said they both hope the next owner will maintain the 30-acre property as a drive-in.
“I would prefer if they kept it as a drive-in because there aren’t that many around anymore,” Sebeck said.
“We’re hoping it will be someone from the Pittsburgh region who has a family to run it,” Perkins said.
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