Lost Amusement Parks of New York City
Lost Amusement Parks of New York City

Author: Barbara Gottlock

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013-08-20

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1625845561

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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.

Historic Amusement Parks of Long Island
Historic Amusement Parks of Long Island

Author: Marisa L. Berman

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2015-06-29

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1625849818

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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.

Frontier Town Abandoned Theme Park Then and Now
Frontier Town Abandoned Theme Park Then and Now

Author: Jennifer Renee ST.Pierre

Publisher:

Published: 2014-12-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780692347430

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Frontier Town Abandoned Theme Park Then and Now is a coffee table style book that documents the conception, life, and closing of the beloved Adirondack Mountain's historically based theme park called "Frontier Town." With America being romanced by Western movies on the big screen and television, the country was ready for a western themed amusement park. Arthur Bensen, Edward Ovensen and Magnus Anderson, three Long Island Norwegian-American friends came together to open America's first western themed amusement park located in North Hudson, NY yet it was set to the traditions of the 1800's old west while offering local trade crafts and wares. The first year it drew over 40,000 visitors with little advertising. Over the next 45 years the park continued to host millions of visitors, and averaged over 300 employees and volunteers per season. The park included a collection of genuine log buildings which formed a traditional frontier town, a professional rodeo arena, a historical industrial section that included a grist mill, saw mill, forge, and ice house. It also included a traditional Native American village, animals, stage coach rides, and a fort with a full cavalry. This book documents the history of Frontier Town through professional photography as well as visitor's snapshots that are combined with historical storytelling that give the reader a feel of what Frontier Town was all about! Tammy Whitty-Brown's gift of gab and historical connections combined with her storytelling abilities and Jennifer Renee ST.Pierre's equestrian background and photography are showcased with their love of Adirondack history

Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana
Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana

Author: Carrie Cooke Ketterman

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2019-03-25

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1439666466

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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.

Abandoned Amusement Parks
Abandoned Amusement Parks

Author: Dinah Williams

Publisher: Bearport Publishing

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781617728846

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Introduces readers to some abandoned amusement parks around the world that are believed to be haunted.

Abandoned
Abandoned

Author: Seph Lawless

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-10-10

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1510723382

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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.

Action Park
Action Park

Author: Andy Mulvihill

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-06-30

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0525506292

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"Citizen Kane does Adventureland." —The Washington Post The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son. Often called "Accident Park," "Class Action Park," or "Traction Park," Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures--sometimes with tragic results. Though it closed its doors in 1996 after nearly twenty years, it has remained a subject of constant fascination ever since, an establishment completely anathema to our modern culture of rules and safety. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill. From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy's story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son's struggle to understand his father's quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey. Packing in all of the excitement of a day at Action Park, this is destined to be one of the most unforgettable memoirs of the year.

Nunley's Amusement Park
Nunley's Amusement Park

Author: Marisa L. Berman

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0738598224

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Nunley s Amusement Park in Baldwin, New York, was a beloved family destination for Long Islanders from 1939 until it closed in 1995. The park s most notable attraction was its famed Stein & Goldstein carousel. The Nunley family established numerous amusement parks in the Long Island area, such as those found in Bethpage, Rockaway Beach, and Broad Channel. Nunley s Amusement Park, which was in operation for over 50 years, has a special place in the memories of multiple generations of Long Islanders. After the park closed, the rides and games were sold at auction. In protest, Long Islanders banded together to prevent the carousel from being disassembled and sold off separately. Recognizing the passion residents held for the park, Nassau County stepped in and purchased the beloved carousel, and an elaborate campaign was established for its restoration. The year 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the famous Nunley s Carousel, which is currently in operation at Museum Row in Garden City, New York."

Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore
Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore

Author: Rick Geffken and George Severini

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1467125113

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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.

Lost Wonderland
Lost Wonderland

Author: Stephen R. Wilk

Publisher: Bright Leaf

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781625345578

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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.