An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.
Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture of the 1960s.
Shoot the chute is an amusement ride consisting of a flat-bottomed boat that slides down a ramp or inside a flume into a lagoon. Unlike a log flume or super flume, which generally seats up to eight passengers, a modern-day shoot-the-chute ride generally has larger boats seating at least four across.
In the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. Trolley parks were often created by the streetcar companies to give people a reason to use their services on weekends.
Playland, often called Rye Playland and also known as Playland Amusement Park, is an amusement park located in Rye, New York, along the Long Island Sound. Built in 1928, the 280-acre (110 ha) park is owned by the Westchester County government. Beginning in 2018 the park has been operated under contract by Standard Amusements.
Luna Park was an amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. The park was located on a site bounded by Surf Avenue to the south, West 8th Street to the east, Neptune Avenue to the north, and West 12th Street to the west. Luna Park opened in 1903 and operated until 1944. It was located partly on the grounds of the small park it replaced, Sea Lion Park, which operated between 1895 and 1902. It was the second of the three original, very large, iconic parks built on Coney Island; the others were Steeplechase Park and Dreamland. At Coney Island's peak in the middle of the 20th century's first decade, the three amusement parks competed with each other and with many independent amusements.
Playland Amusement Park is an amusement park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The amusement park is located at Hastings Park and is operated by the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), an organization that hosts an annual summer fair and exhibition adjacent to Playland. Playland opened at its current location in 1958, although its predecessor, Happyland, operated at Hastings Park from 1929 to 1957. Playland was formally made a division of the PNE in 1993.
The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States.
California's Great America, often shortened to Great America, is a 112-acre (45 ha) amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. California's Great America features over 40 rides and attractions, and one of its most notable is Gold Striker, which has been featured as a top-ranked wooden roller coaster in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards publication. Other notable rides include RailBlazer, a single-rail coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction, and Flight Deck, an inverted coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard. The park appeared in the 1994 films Beverly Hills Cop III and Getting Even with Dad.
The Lower Haight is a neighborhood, sometimes referred to as Haight–Fillmore, in San Francisco, California.
Lake Winnepesaukah, commonly known as Lake Winnie, is an amusement park located in Rossville, Georgia, on the south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Carl and Minette Dixon opened the park to over 5,000 guests on June 1, 1925. They named it after the Native American word Winnepesaukah, meaning "bountiful waters" or "beautiful lake of the highlands". The park originally featured the largest swimming pool in the southeastern United States, which debuted in 1926 and was later removed. Its Boat Chute attraction, designed by Carl Dixon and opened in 1927, is the oldest mill chute water ride of its kind still operating in the United States.
A family entertainment center, often abbreviated FEC in the entertainment industry, also known as an indoor amusement park, family amusement center, family fun center, soft play, or simply fun center, is a small amusement park marketed towards families with small children to teenagers, often entirely indoors. They usually cater to "sub-regional markets of larger metropolitan areas." FECs are generally small compared to full-scale amusement parks, with fewer attractions, a lower per-person per-hour cost to consumers than a traditional amusement park, and not usually major tourist attractions, but sustained by an area customer base. Many are locally owned and operated, although there are a number of chains and franchises in the field. Some, operated by non-profit organizations as children's museums or science museums, tend to be geared toward edutainment experiences rather than simply amusement.
Paul Boyton, known as the Fearless Frogman, was a showman and adventurer some credit as having spurred worldwide interest in water sports as a hobby, particularly open-water swimming. Boyton, whose birthplace is variously listed as Dublin or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is best known for his water stunts that captivated the world, including crossing the English Channel in a novel rubber suit that functioned similarly to a kayak. As the founder of Sea Lion Park in 1895, Boyton is also known as the originator of the first modern amusement park with a fenced-in enclosure and admission charged at the gate.
Laffing Sal is one of several animatronic characters that were built primarily to attract carnival and amusement park patrons to funhouses and dark rides throughout the United States. Its movements were accompanied by a raucous laugh that sometimes frightened small children and annoyed adults.
Olentangy Park was a trolley park, a type of amusement park, in Clintonville, Columbus, Ohio, operating from 1880 to 1937.
Playland was a 10-acre (40,000-square-meter) seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach, in the Richmond District at the western edge of San Francisco, California, along Great Highway, bounded by Balboa and Fulton streets. It began as a collection of amusement rides and concessions in the late 19th century, and was preceded by Chutes at the Beach, opened in 1921. Playland closed Labor Day weekend in 1972.
Rockaways' Playland was an amusement park that operated from 1902 to 1987 in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York City. Bounded by Beach 97th and Beach 98th Streets between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk, Rockaways' Playland was created in 1902 by roller coaster designer LaMarcus Adna Thompson. By 1903 a ferry dock was added not far from the park, making it more convenient to reach than some of the competing amusement parks. The park was sold in 1927 to Robert Katlin, who added amenities such as a gym and swimming pool, and the following year to A. Joseph Geist, who achieved greater success than the previous owners. Between 1928 and 1970, Rockaways' Playland was extremely successful, drawing 175 million visitors. It closed in 1987 due to a sharp increase in the price of insurance.
Sea Lion Park was a 16-acre (65,000 m2) amusement park started in 1895 on Coney Island by Paul Boyton. He fenced the property and charged admission, the park becoming the first enclosed and permanent amusement park in North America. Up until the establishment of this park, amusement areas around the country consisted of pay-as-you-go concessions. In 1903, Sea Lion Park was replaced by Luna Park.
White City is the common name of dozens of amusement parks in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Inspired by the White City and Midway Plaisance sections of the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, the parks started gaining in popularity in the last few years of the 19th century. After the 1901 Pan-American Exposition inspired the first Luna Park in Coney Island, a frenzy in building amusement parks ensued in the first two decades of the 20th century.
