Lost Amusement Parks

Author : Dinah Williams
Publisher : Bearport Publishing
Page : 36 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2013-08-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781684028573

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Abandoned Amusement Parks by Dinah Williams Pdf

There is something both sad and creepy about an abandoned amusement park. Perhaps it’s because a place that was once packed with fun seekers has become slowly choked with weeds. Or maybe it’s because the sound of kids’ excited laughter has been replaced with the quiet creaking of rusted rides. When the only visitors are the spirits of those who died there long ago, an amusement park can be a scary place to visit. Among the 11 amusement parks in this book, children will discover a roller coaster left to rot after nearly killing its passengers, a theme park that is now home to alligators and snakes, and the ghost of a man who is still trying to take a ride on a Ferris wheel that stopped working years ago. The haunting photographs and chilling nonfiction text will keep children turning the pages to discover more spooky stories.

Author : Barbara Gottlock,Wesley Gottlock
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 155 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2013-08-20
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781625845566

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Lost Amusement Parks of New York City by Barbara Gottlock,Wesley Gottlock Pdf

A historical tour of fun and frolic in the five boroughs—including photos from the good old days. Coney Island is an iconic symbol of turn-of-the-century New York—but many other amusement parks have thrilled the residents of the five boroughs. Strategically placed at the end of trolley lines, railways, public beaches, and waterways, these playgrounds for the rich and poor alike first appeared in 1767. From humble beginnings, they developed into huge sites like Fort George, Manhattan’s massive amusement complex. Each park was influenced by the culture and eclectic tastes of its owners and patrons—from the wooden coasters at Staten Island’s Midland Beach to beer gardens on Queens’ North Beach and fireworks blasting from the Bronx’s Starlight Park. As real estate became more valuable, these parks disappeared. With this historical tour, you can rediscover the thrills of the past from the lost amusement parks of New York City.

Author : Carrie Cooke Ketterman
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781439666463

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Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana by Carrie Cooke Ketterman Pdf

Once upon a time, the banks of the Ohio River provided an ideal location where amusement parks thrived - the area simply known as "Kentuckiana!" Picnic grounds flourished and steamboat travel was abundant at the coast the Ohio River known as "Kentuckiana." Popular amusement parks such as Glenwood Park, Rose Island, White City, Fontaine Ferry, and Kiddieland welcomed visitors as early as 1902, and the more successful parks continued to operate well into the 1960s. Visitors to these parks enjoyed steamboat excursions, live music, rides, games, picnics, sporting events, and more. These parks were not only for amusement seekers but also for keen businessmen like David Rose, who purchased Fern Grove in 1923 and renamed the park Rose Island. Transportation businesses thrived, with steamboats like the Idlewild (now the Belle of Louisville) providing regular transportation to the parks along the Ohio River. In addition to an increase in river traffic, companies like the New Albany Traction Company purchased the area that would become Glenwood Park from the well-known Beharrel family, of New Albany, Indiana, and provided rail transportation to their park.

Author : Joseph McCauley
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2023-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781467109802

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Detroit's Lost Amusement Parks by Joseph McCauley Pdf

Arthur Gaulker, a successful real estate scion, gathered investors to create Electric Amusement Park in 1906. Gaulker's park was located near the Belle Isle Bridge just a few miles from downtown Detroit. Morris Wolff opened his Wolff's Park in 1906 directly across the street from Electric Park. Both parks spent lavishly and went bankrupt within a few years; however, other parks replaced them. By 1927, city officials had grown tired of the noise and widespread gambling, so they closed down the parks. Eastwood Park, Jefferson Beach Amusement Park, Edgewater Park, Walled Lake Park, and Bob Lo Park filled the void for years. Big bands got the parks through the Depression, multiple wars, and an onslaught of televised entertainment. However, costly fires, local opposition, and corporate competition became too much for the local parks, most of which were family-owned. Bob Lo Park, which closed in 1993, was the last to go out of business.

Author : Rachel E. Smith
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : History
ISBN : 9781467104654

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Western Pennsylvania's Lost Amusement Parks by Rachel E. Smith Pdf

At one time, Western Pennsylvania was home to dozens of small amusement parks, many of them trolley parks. These parks, originally designed to bolster streetcar business, were a way for workers to seek respite from the crowded, dirty cities. While some of these parks never developed into much more than a dance hall and a merry-go-round, others became full-scale amusement parks with rides, entertainment, and other amusements. After years of battling floods, changing economies, the decline of streetcars, and competition from other amusement parks, many of these amusement parks ended up closing their gates for good, the thrills they once provided now relegated to memories. With many of these parks all but lost to time, it is time to take a look back and remember some of the most prominent lost amusement parks of Western Pennsylvania.

Author : Lisa Hallett Taylor
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2021-08-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781467106917

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Lost Amusement Parks of Southern California: The Postwar Years by Lisa Hallett Taylor Pdf

After World War II, veterans and their growing families flocked to sunny Southern California for jobs in the aerospace and defense industries. Capitalizing on the baby boom and expanding suburbs, amusement parks sprang up to entertain residents and their visiting relatives. The crown jewel was Disneyland, which focused on themed sections and changed amusement parks forever. Other parks followed, transforming Southern California into one of the world's top vacation destinations. Parks like Lion Country Safari, Corriganville, and Marineland--along with many kiddie lands and animal, water, and theme parks--came and went in the postwar decades. Some were planned but never developed, while existing popular parks like Disneyland and Universal Studios periodically close rides only to substitute them with attractions considered more crowd-pleasing.

Author : Rick Geffken and George Severini
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : History
ISBN : 9781467125116

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Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore by Rick Geffken and George Severini Pdf

By the end of the 19th century, New Jersey coastline was dotted with thriving amusement parks but are just fond and fading memories today. The Jersey Shore has always attracted people seeking relief from summer heat and humidity. Long before Europeans came here, the native Lenape clammed, fished, and played games on the beach and in the surf. These original people could scarcely have imagined that, by the end of the 19th century, the 120-mile-long coastline would be filled with amusement parks featuring gentle kiddie car rides, terrifying roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, and fast-food emporiums. James Bradley in Asbury Park and William Sandlass Jr. in Highland Beach created mass entertainment for hundreds of thousands of people. Their seaside recreation centers, along with those in Long Branch, Bradley Beach, Pleasure Bay, and others, endured for years. Sadly, they are now just distant and vanishing memories that are resurrected in this piece.

Author : Wesley Gottlock,Barbara H. Gottlock
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Amusement parks
ISBN : 1450773524

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Lost Amusement Parks of the Hudson Valley by Wesley Gottlock,Barbara H. Gottlock Pdf

Author : Stephen R. Wilk
Publisher : UMass + ORM
Page : 345 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2020-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781613768044

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Lost Wonderland by Stephen R. Wilk Pdf

If you take Boston's Blue Line to its northern end, you'll reach the Wonderland stop. Few realize that a twenty-three-acre amusement park once sat nearby—the largest in New England, and grander than any of the Coney Island parks that inspired it. Opened in Revere on Memorial Day in 1906 to great fanfare, Wonderland offered hundreds of thousands of visitors recreation by the sea, just a short distance from downtown Boston. The story of the park's creation and wild, but brief, success is full of larger-than-life characters who hoped to thrill attendees and rake in profits. Stephen R. Wilk describes the planning and history of the park, which featured early roller coasters, a scenic railway, a central lagoon in which a Shoot-the-Chutes boat plunged, an aerial swing, a funhouse, and more. Performances ran throughout the day, including a daring Fires and Flames show; a Wild West show; a children's theater; and numerous circus acts. While nothing remains of what was once called "Boston's Regal Home of Pleasure" and the park would close in 1910, this book resurrects Wonderland by transporting readers through its magical gates.

Author : Seph Lawless
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2017-10-10
Category : Photography
ISBN : 9781510723382

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Abandoned by Seph Lawless Pdf

Huffington Post called him “a master of the abandoned”—and for good reason. The “artivist” known only as Seph Lawless has spent the last ten years photo-documenting the America that was left behind in the throes of economic instability and overall decline—decrepit shopping malls, houses, factories, even amusement parks. Through nearly two hundred gorgeous and elegiac photographs, Abandoned details Lawless’s journey into what was once the very heart of American entertainment: the amusement park. Lawless visits deserted parks across the country, capturing in stark detail their dilapidated state, natural overgrowth, and obvious duality of sad and playful symbolism. Previously self-published as Bizarro, this updated edition of Lawless’s photographic tribute to decaying American amusement parks contains new content and a new foreword. For the first time, the famed photojournalist Seph Lawless makes his moving work available in a stunning trade edition.

Author : Dinah Williams
Publisher : Bearport Publishing
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013-08-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781617729799

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Abandoned Amusement Parks by Dinah Williams Pdf

There is something both sad and creepy about an abandoned amusement park. Perhaps it’s because a place that was once packed with fun seekers has become slowly choked with weeds. Or maybe it’s because the sound of kids’ excited laughter has been replaced with the quiet creaking of rusted rides. When the only visitors are the spirits of those who died there long ago, an amusement park can be a scary place to visit. Among the 11 amusement parks in this book, children will discover a roller coaster left to rot after nearly killing its passengers, a theme park that is now home to alligators and snakes, and the ghost of a man who is still trying to take a ride on a Ferris wheel that stopped working years ago. The haunting photographs and chilling nonfiction text will keep children turning the pages to discover more spooky stories.

Author : Wesley Gottlock
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2016-09-04
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 153729847X

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Lost Amusement Parks of the Hudson Valley by Wesley Gottlock Pdf

For hundreds of years throughout the world amusement parks have appealed to "the kid in all of us." Starting in the 1870's, a bourgeoning population along the Hudson River Valley and in New York City created a need for recreational outlets. With the valley's natural beauty, its access to waterfront cities, and its proximity to the nation's largest metropolis, entrepreneurs were quick to respond.The mass appeal of large parks such as Coney Island and Palisades Amusement Park has been documented thoroughly. The authors highlight some of the lesser known amusement parks, now largely forgotten, that entertained millions into the 20th century.

Author : Martin Easdown
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 101 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2012-07-10
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781782001201

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Amusement Park Rides by Martin Easdown Pdf

A ride on a rollercoaster is the highlight of any trip to an amusement or theme park, and such attractions have been entertaining the public for well over a century. From the first mass-produced rollercoaster, the Switchback Railway, through to the giant wooden coasters of the inter-war period, seaside historian Martin Easdown uses historic postcards and photographs to chart their development and that of other amusement rides including revolving towers, aerial rides, Ferris wheels and water chutes, all of which were produced from the late Victorian era in myriad forms. Essential to the very existence of such amusement venues as Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Margate Dreamland, these much-loved rides are not so far removed from their modern-day equivalents as they might at first appear.

Author : Marisa L. Berman
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2015-06-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781625849816

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Historic Amusement Parks of Long Island by Marisa L. Berman Pdf

When Long Island became a suburban paradise after World War II, ambitious entrepreneurs created dozens of amusement parks to help families unwind. The Nunley family built a park in Baldwin in 1939, and it was so successful that they opened Nunley's Happyland in Bethpage just a few years later. Westbury's Spaceland fascinated youngsters with dreams of becoming astronauts, and Frontier City in Amityville was heaven on earth to fans of the Wild West. Today, historic parks like Deno's Wonder Wheel Park in Coney Island and Adventureland in Farmingdale still delight children and remind parents of happy memories of their own. Local author Marisa Berman explores the decades of fun and laughter from Long Island's historic amusement parks.

Author : Rachel E. Smith
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2020-04-13
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781439669631

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Western Pennsylvania's Lost Amusement Parks by Rachel E. Smith Pdf

At one time, Western Pennsylvania was home to dozens of small amusement parks, many of them trolley parks. These parks, originally designed to bolster streetcar business, were a way for workers to seek respite from the crowded, dirty cities. While some of these parks never developed into much more than a dance hall and a merry-go-round, others became full-scale amusement parks with rides, entertainment, and other amusements. After years of battling floods, changing economies, the decline of streetcars, and competition from other amusement parks, many of these amusement parks ended up closing their gates for good, the thrills they once provided now relegated to memories. With many of these parks all but lost to time, it is time to take a look back and remember some of the most prominent lost amusement parks of Western Pennsylvania.