On 7 Dec 2000, Rick Stivers and I set out on the "Great Drive-In Hunt". Our goal was simple. Find and document the remains of all the drive-in movie theaters in San Antonio, Texas. As it turned out, our simple mission was much harder than we expected! As a guide, we started with a list of theaters that I found on the Internet. Some had complete addresses, some did not. One of the theaters with an incomplete address was the Parkair. By the time we reached the area in which we suspected the Parkair was located, it was late in the day. We drove up and down Goliad without much success. Later, when Rick started this webiste, we summarized our results, or lack of them, this way:

Much later, while doing other research, we ran across a more complete address for the Parkair. Busy as always, we posted this information on the web site for future reference.

We might never have gotten further in our research except for help from our readers. The following e-mails were key to our finding out more about the Parkair.

I am known by friends and family as the king of useless knowledge and I am glad that I can help you with your search for the Parkair :)

I can tell you all about Parkair Drive-in - let me give you a little bit of details...can't make this too long at the moment. You can e-mail me for more details.

I grew up on the SE side of San Antonio and can remember driving by the 'old' Parkair Drive-in couple of years before they razed the area and put in the Globe Department Store first, which was around 1968 or so. I was about 5 or 6 so it was about 1967 or so that is where I have my earliest memories of driving by there all the time.

If you go to anywho.com and look for a business named Fisher on Goliad Road (San Antonio, 78223), it will give you 1515 Goliad Rd. Click on 'map' so that you invoke Mapquest and it will show you the area. You'll see on the map that a triangle is formed with Avondale on the bottom side of the triangle, Clark on the left side of the triangle and Goliad on the right side of the triangle. In that triangle was where Parkair was :) Most of that triangle area is where the drive-in was. In that Triangle area where Fisher Aluminum Windows is at (was Globe at first, bottom part of triangle, more or less), the front of that store faces north toward a white painted church (near the top of the triangle) that was once Shakee's Pizza (built and started around 1970 or so) and behind that building (about the top of the triangle) is a Firestone Tire and Service Center (1311 Goliad, that was built sometime in the 70's). The screen was near the top of the triangle near more or less where the Firestone is.

There are other things that remain in the area that were around when Parkair was in business. Floyd's Dairy Bar (a hamburger place) is 1304 Goliad between Eureka and Archimedes. Went there all the time when we were little...it was something about those hamburgers. (Next door to Floyd's is the El Tipico Mexican Restaurant which is on Goliad, between Archimedes and Golden Crown). My little brother told me that he still drives over to SE side to pick up a mess of burgers from Folyd's. On Clark, across the street from the 'triangle' (upper left side) is a liquor store named Parkair Drive-in. My brother told me that it is still there.

I have many more details and will fill you in as soon as I can.

The "Highland Park", or Hi-Park is the same as the Parkair. It was renamed Parkair when a water cooling system was installed to lower the temperature inside the lot. It was similar looking to the Trail, and Fred Road. It had very good projection equipment which ended up at the Mission when the Parkair closed.

Armed with this new information, Rick Stivers and I set out on another drive-in expedition. This time, our goal was much more focused. We would visit the location provided to us by our readers and verify it to the extent possible.

We drove across town on Interstate 37 and then exited onto Military Drive. Moments later, we turned right onto Goliad Road.

As we drove north, we kept looking for Clark Avenue. We drove and drove. It wasn't long before we had driven further up Goliad Road than we did on the previous Drive-In Hunt. Finally, just as we were about to give up, we found it.

I was surprised by just how close this intersection is to the site of the old McCreless Mall.

Turning to the left, we surveyed the area bounded by Goliad Road, Avondale Lane and Clark Avenue. Sadly, while the site matched the descriptions provided to us by our readers, it was obvious that nothing remained of the Parkair. In fact, we couldn't really be certain that this was the proper location. If you recall the story of the Valley-Hi Drive-In, you can understand our need for confirmation of any suspected drive-in location.

Local businesses in the area provided the confirmation we were seeking.

Circumstantial evidence that this was the correct location for the Parkair was provided by the Park Air Ice House on Clarke Avenue.

Click Here For A Larger View!

Since "Park Air" isn't a common business name in San Antonio, this ice house was almost certainly named after the Parkair Drive-In. Even so, we still needed more evidence before we were willing to declare this site to be the correct location for the Parkair.

We found that evidence at Floyd's Dairy Bar.

We parked to the north of Floyd's in a vacant lot. The lot contained slabs of concrete and the remains of paving. Rick and I immediately speculated this had once been the site of a gas station. I was bold enough to speculate that it had once been a Shamrock station.

Walking over to Floyd's, we found it to be a very busy place. Patrons were seated at picnic tables eating their hamburgers. Other patrons waited in line. As we waited our turn to order, our eyes searched the windows looking for the rumored photograph of the Parkair Drive-In. When we found it, my heart skipped a beat!

Rick and I both ordered the "five hamburger" special. Fortunately, by the time our orders were ready, the picnic table nearest the photograph was available. We sat down and opened our food sacks. As we ate, we studied the photograph. Between bites, we shared our theories and observations.

Click Here For A Larger View!

While the Parkair is in the picture, it wasn't the subject of the photograph. A tent sale on the corner of Clark and Goliad was the main element of the picture. Why then was this picture hanging in the window of Floyd's Dairy Bar? In the background, you can just make out Floyd's Dairy Bar sitting next to a gas station. Obviously, Rick and I had been correct in our earlier speculation about the vacant lot. Based on the landmarks in the photograph, the Pairkair was located in the area identified by our readers.

Finishing our hamburgers, we returned to my car. You can't imagine how exited we were! This was an incredible find of the type that will not soon be repeated!