Amusement Parks

(An Ongoing Series with New Images & Stories to be Added)

Texas Eagle
A Young Frank Wanting to Ride

Now I have no idea where this picture was taken, or why I was in the grass. No matter, I was obviously at an amusement park of some sort at an early age. (The back of the picture says "Tolchester Beach") I do know that many a summer evening through high school was spent riding amusement park rides. Is it any wonder that I am drawn to amusement parks and rides, especially the older ones.

Who doesn’t love the amusement park? It may be a small roadside park with a few rides, a kiddie park or maybe even one those gigantic ones. Or something in between, maybe a State Fair Carnival. This gallery will feature a bit of both, although lean toward the smaller ones. Somewhere in the posts even a small playground merry-go-round might pop up.

Kiddie Acres
Austin, Texas

“A lot of times, when they're flying one of the airplanes or riding a horse, they're not just riding a horse or flying an airplane, they're chasing cattle or after the Red Baron or something like that,” -Jospeh Herring (Amusement Park Owner)

For almost 50 years, Kiddie Acres was home to laughing kids. Laughing, squealing as they rode the rides. A child-size Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, horse rides, tiny boats and cars, and a 1953 miniature train (colored and named for the real Texas Eagle, which once called on Austin, kept families returning year after. Parents who had ridden the rides as kids, bringing their own kids, or grandparents who visited Kiddie Acres with their children, now bringing their grandchildren. That’s what an amusement park is all about, making memories!br />

However, my story of Kiddie Acres is a bittersweet one. Early one morning, long before the park opened, I noticed that the gate was open. I grabbed my camera and wandered over to where a man was standing and asked permission to take pictures. It turned out that the man was Joseph Herring, who with his wife owned the park. He graciously gave me permission to wander about. After a while he came over and asked if I would be willing to send him copies of my photos. He went on to tell me that after years of 14 hours days and long weekends, he and his wife, Marina, were ready to retire. Wanted to travel and fish and follow the trail of Lewis Clark. In fact, this week was the last week operation. The rides were going to be sold off and the park closed for good, but perhaps not is someone was willing to buy it all and continue the tradition. Sadly, that was not to happen.

Texas Eagle

Concession/Ticket Stand

Lakeside Park Carousal
Port Dalhousie
St. Catharines, Ontario

It is always a delight to come across a carousel, especially when it is unexpected. Who doesn’t see a carousel without it reminding them of when they were a child?

We were just wandering about Port Dalhousie when we heard unmistakable carousel music. Drawn to it, we discovered the historic Lakeside Park Carouse. Only 5-cents a ride (still is). Naturally we had to ride it.

1930

Before arriving at Lakeview Park in 1921, the carousel resided in the Scarborough Beach Park (now part of Toronto). At the time Lakeview had 58 attractions, including a roller coaster, bumper cars, row boats, and water bicycles; a 24ft tall wooden water slide, baseball diamond, bandstand, dance pavilion, miniature golf, archery range, picnic shelters and beach, along with the traditional amusement park food concessions. It is claimed that the park in the 1920s & 30s saw more than a quarter million visitors annually, arriving by trolley & steamboat. All that is left of the amusement park is the space, now a St. Catherine’s city park, and the carousel.

Steamboat and Niagara, St. Catherine & Toronto Railway (Interurban) Tracks

The carousel, featuring hand carved horses (with real horsehair tails), lions, camels, goats and giraffes, 68 in all, plus four chariots, was carved and constructed by the Charles I.D. Loof Co., of Brooklyn, NY, between 1898 and 1905. One of the carvers was Marcus Charles Illions who went on to establish his own noted carousel company. The sounding boards and scenery panels were built by the noted carousel artist, George William Kremer. The music comes from an antique Frati band organ using a system of punched paper music rolls to produce that carousel music. The carousel is lovingly tended to by the by “The Friends of the Carousel.”

The Carousel's Fraiti Band Organ

The Frati band organ was originally played by a pinned barrel. However, sometime between 1927 and the early 1940s it was converted to a Wurlitzer 150 scale, equipped with automatic stops, percussion instruments (“traps”) and a duplex roll frame allowing one roll to rewind while the other plays. Normally, the rolls are changed out every two days. On hot and very humid days record carousel music played, otherwise the organ would go out of tune. The organ was restored in 1985 and again in 2005.

The carousel is one of only about 350 antique hand-carved carousels still operating in North America, including nine which are in Canada. The lion is one of the five existing original lions left in existence. It is the only one whose head turns to watch onlookers as it circles around. The second lion on the carousel was carved in 2004 to replace the original stolen in the 1970s.

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