Electric Parks

The emergence of trolley parks in the last dozen years of the Nineteenth Century coincided with the rise to prominence of three entities: the electric companies (which grew rapidly as much of the United States was undergoing electrification since the 1800s), the railway companies (which constructed new interurban rail lines mainly in the eastern half of the U. S.), and – starting about 1895 – the replacement of horsedrawn trolleys by electric trolley companies. A fourth influence to the rise in amusement parks in the first decade of the Twentieth Century was the success of Coney Island, which spurred dozens of Electric Parks, Luna Parks, and White City amusement parks (the latter actually inspired by White City in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago), with many metropolitain areas having two (or more more) parks with these names.

Most Electric Parks were owned by electric companies and railroad companies, which in turn owned and operated the trolley companies which often had one or more lines that transported workers and shoppers between the downtown areas of the various cities to their shopping centers and work sites (after 1900, intercity rail started transporting commuters from one city to another to another). Originally, the trolleys and intercity rail would either operated at a reduced level or was idle on the weekends; the companies eventually created new destinations for the public to attend on the weekends, whether it be a picnic park or (later) an amusement park. Regardless of the type of park, the destinations owned by the local electric company or accessed by the electric trolley were commonly called electric parks. After 1903, Luna Park in Coney Island’s success (with the park’s entrance decked with electric lights) inspired the creation of Electric Parks, which spread throughout North America (at the same time, the similarly-inspired Frederick Ingersoll started to construct his Luna Park empire).

Like their Luna Park and White City cousins, a typical Electric Park featured a shoot-the-chutes and lagoon, a roller coaster (usually a figure eight or a mountain railway), a midway, a Ferris wheel, games, and a pavilion. Most also had miniature railroads. Many cities had two (or all three) of the Electric Park/Luna Park/White City triumvirate in their vicinity… with each trying to outdo the others with new attractions. The competition was fierce, oftentimes driving the electric parks out of business with increasing costs of equipment upgrades, upkeep, and insurance. More than a few succumbed to fire. As a result, must were out of business by 1917, the year of the entry of the United States into World War I. By the time troops returned to the U.S. (in 1919), almost all the Electric Parks were gone.

List of Electric Parks

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

While the date and location of the first Electric Park is currently unknown, several existed before 1900. Since then, dozens of amusement parks had acquired the name:

Electric Park, Aberdeen, Washington

Electric Park, Albany, New York (1901-?), also known as White City

Electric Park, Atlanta, Georgia

Electric Park, Baltimore, Maryland (ca. 1895-1916)

Electric Park, Bellingham, Washington

Electric Park, Binghamton, New York

Electric Park, Blackwood, Oklahoma – pavilion still stands, listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Electric Park, Cleveland, Ohio

Electric Park, Dayton, Ohio

Electric Park, Detroit, Michigan (26 May 1906-1928), went through several names in its existence, including Luna Park

Electric Park, Eau Claire, Wisconsin (1895-1926?) – park adjacent to nearby Lake Halle; closed after Chippewa Valley Electric Railway ceased operations 1 September 1926

Electric Park, Fort Smith, Arkansas (1905-1920)
Electric Park, Galveston, Texas (1905-?)

Electric Park, Hancock, Michigan (7 June 1906-?) – originally Anwebida (“Let us rest here” in Chippewa)

Electric Park, Houston, Texas

Electric Park, Iola, Kansas (ca. 1901-1918) , also known as “Iola Electric Park”

Electric Park, Joplin, Missouri (10 June 1909-1912) – now part of Schifferdecker Park

Electric Park, Kansas City, Missouri (1907-1925) – second Electric Park by the Heim Brothers, who opened their first Electric Park in 1899, adjacent to their Kansas City brewery
Electric Park, Louisville, Kentucky
Electric Park, Montgomery, Alabama

Electric Park, New Haven, Connecticut

Electric Park, Newark, New Jersey (1903-1912) park that is now the site of Vailsburg Park

Electric Park, Niagara Falls, New York

Electric Park, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (1898-1950?), also called White City and Eweco Park

Electric Park, Pensacola, Florida (1905-?)
Electric Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Electric Park, Plainfield, Illinois (1904-1932); auditorium became a dance hall and then a skating rink (both roller and ice) until destroyed by tornado in 1990

Electric Park, Pottsville, Pennsylvania – also called Electric Park Philadelphia

Electric Park, St. Louis, Missouri in Creve Coeur Park
Electric Park, San Antonio, Texas – currently the site of minor league baseball park of same name

Electric Park, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Electric Park, Springfield, Missouri – may be same as Joplin Electric Park

Electric Park, Syracuse, New York

Electric Park, Tulsa, Oklahoma (1921-1926?)- merged into Crystal City Amusement Park in mid 1920s
Electric Park, Waterloo, Iowa – had unique water-turned ferris wheel; pavilion still standing

Electric Park, Worcester, Massachusetts

References

^ Roller Coaster Media Library: Listing of Stan Kujawa’s Electric Park Summer Resort & Amusement Park 1905-1920

^ a b c Dale Samuelson, AJP Samuelson, and Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement Park (MBI Publishing Company 2001) ISBN 0760309817

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Dale Samuelson, AJP Samuelson, and Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement Park ISBN 0760309817

^ Electric Park Era – Kinderhook Lake

^ Wild Ride – Baltimore Style Magazine, July/August 2007

^ Pictures at

^ Maryland’s Amusement Parks

^ Detroit News, 6 Jan 2003, cited in

^ Detroit News article

^ Amusement Park & Roller Coaster Books – E

^ Appendix: The Copper County Trail – Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region

^ Electric Park, Houghton – Upper Peninsula Digitization Center Collections

^ Athur W. Thurner, Strangers and Sojourners: A History of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula (Wayne State University Press 1994) ISBN 0814323960

^ David Welling and Jack Valenti, Cinema Houston: From Nickelodeon to Megaplex (University of Texas Press 2007) ISBN 0292717008

^ Iola Electric Park – defunctparks.com

^ postcards and history in

^ Pat Williams and Jim Denney, How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life (HCI 2004) ISBN 0757302319

^ Kansas City Area History – Kansas City, Missouri Police Officers Memorial

^ Pictures of Electric Park (University of Louisville Library Digital Collections

^ Kentuckiana Digital Library: Shoots

^ a b Lauren Rabinovitz, For the Love of Pleasure: Women, Movies, and Culture in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago (Rutgers University Press 1998) ISBN 0813525349

^ also in Savin Rock and Westhaven, per Dale Samuelson, AJP Samuelson, and Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement Park ISBN 0760309817

^
^ Smile: a picture history of Olympic Park, 1887-1965

^ Abstract: Palmetto Beach: Pensacola Electric Park

^ Plainfield, Illinois – Encyclopedia of Chicago

^ Plainfield history – Plainfield Public Library

^ Hidden World in St. Louis County Parks

^ David King, San Antonio at Bat: Professional Baseball in the Alamo City (Texas A&M University Press 2004) ISBN 158544376X

^ Amusement Parks – Encyclopedia & Culture

^ Norman D. Anderson, Ferris Wheels: an Illustrated History (Popular Press 1993) ISBN 087972532X
See also

Tucson Electric Park, baseball stadium in Tucson, Arizona

Categories: Defunct amusement parks in the United StatesHidden categories: Incomplete lists
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