Joliet photographer captures Hill-Top drive-in before its fall

Unlike many people who recall fond memories of the old Hill-Top Drive-In movie theater in Joliet, Lisa M. Scarcelli of Joliet has only hazy memoires.

“I barely remember going there as a child,” Scarcelli, who’s grown up the area now known as Homer Glen said. “It wasn’t something we did weekly.

Most of her memories are from driving “down the back roads” in college, when driving from the former College of St. Francis in Joliet (now University of St. Francis) to get home.

“So it was always a fixture in my mind,” Scarcelli said.

Then I the August of 2019, Scarcelli was driving past the old movie theater when she decided to stop and take some photos.

“By this time, it was run-down and abandoned,” Scarcelli said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be torn done. You always hear things about someone is going to reopen it.”

Scarcelli said she likes to photograph places that show the passage of time, such as old industrial buildings which are overtaken by trees. And although Scarcelli had ridden past the theater hundreds of times, she’d never really taken a close-up look

Perhaps it was because the day was bright, Scarcelli really noticed “the little intricacies” of the theater and felt overwhelmed by them

“I could see the wires, the broken light bulbs, the rusty locks,” Scarcelli said. “And you think back to the heyday and it made me a little said because it was no longer running.”

Scarcelli recalled stories people told about patrons sneaking additional patrons onto the grounds by hiding them in the trunk.

“Some probably did it every week or every couple of weeks,” Scarcelli said. “So you know it was a living, thriving place.”

The theater fell during the derecho that blew through Will County on Aug. 10. A Herald-News story on that day said the property and movie theater on Route 6 east of Briggs Street had been in Contreras’ family for more than 20 years. Owners are Arturo Contreras, Adrian Contreras and Saul Ornelas, the story said.

In that story Arturo Contreras’ son Angel Contreras said the grounds were maintained with soccer leagues operating on the field. The structure that once served as a screen for the drive-in movie theater also once housed an arcade and a batting cage, the story also said.

In fact, Angel had said that the section that crumbled to the ground was the original building. The part still standing after the storm was an addition.

The website cinematreasures.org said Hill-Top opened in 1949 with a capacity for 623 cars and closed suddenly in the middle of the 2001 season.

After the derecho, Scarcelli kept thinking about the drive-in. The thought, “I have to get back; I have to get back,” kept nagging at her.

So one day, she did – and took more photos.

“The second time had caution tape and everything, so I didn’t spend as much time,” Scarcelli said. “So I thought, I’ll just snap a couple,’ just kind of like a final thing.”

As she left, Scarcelli said she thought, “I guess it’s really over. It may never come back now.”

Scarcelli said she didn’t necessarily think it would.

“But there was a chance, I think,” she said.

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Joliet photographer captures Hill-Top drive-in before its fall In August 2019, Lisa Scarcelli impulsively stopped at the old Hill-Top drive-in to take photos of this iconic piece of Joliet history.