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.
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.
Luna Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1903 to 1944. 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 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.
Steeplechase Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1897 to 1964. Steeplechase Park was created by the entrepreneur George C. Tilyou as the first of the three large amusement parks built on Coney Island, the other two being Luna Park (1903) and Dreamland (1904). Of the three, Steeplechase was the longest-lasting, running for 67 years.
Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-scale attraction parks, easily accessed, potentially addressed to the permanent or temporary residential market, and located in the suburbs or even near the town center. Luna parks mainly offer classic funfair attractions, newer features and catering services.
Lakeside Amusement Park is a family-owned amusement park in Lakeside, Colorado, adjacent to Denver. Opened in 1908, it is the oldest amusement park in Colorado still operating in its original location, and is the lone remaining American amusement park to have had the name White City. The park, comprising nearly half of the Town of Lakeside that it was responsible for creating in 1907, features the landmark Tower of Jewels.
The Midway Plaisance, known locally as the Midway, is a public park on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is one mile long by 220 yards wide and extends along 59th and 60th streets, joining Washington Park at its west end and Jackson Park at its east end. It divides the Hyde Park community area to the north from the Woodlawn community area to the south. Near Lake Michigan, the Midway is about 6 miles (10 km) south of the downtown "Loop". The University of Chicago was founded just north of the park, and university buildings now front the Midway to the south, as well.
The Cyclone, also called the Coney Island Cyclone, is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller coaster is on a plot of land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) and has a total track length of 2,640 feet (800 m), with a maximum height of 85 feet (26 m).
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.
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.
Luna Park was a trolley park in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1905 to 1929.
White City was a recreational area located in the Greater Grand Crossing and Woodlawn community areas on the south side of Chicago from 1905 until the 1950s. At the time of its opening, on May 26, 1905, it was claimed to be the largest park of its type in the United States. It contributed to Chicago's status as the city with the most amusement parks in the United States until 1908. It eventually introduced the world to the Goodyear Blimp, which was first assembled at the park.
Frederick Ingersoll was an American inventor, designer, builder and entrepreneur who created the world's first chain of amusement parks and whose manufacturing company built 277 roller coasters, fueling the popularity of trolley parks in the first third of the twentieth century. Some of these parks and roller coasters still exist today.
Electric Park was the name shared by two amusement parks in Kansas City, Missouri, US, that were constructed by Joseph Heim and his brothers Michael and Ferdinand Jr. and run by them. The first was built next to the Heim Beer brewery in 1899; the second, a larger one, was built and opened for the public in 1907 and remained in operation until the end of the 1925 season. Animator and entrepreneur Walt Disney cited the second Kansas City Electric Park as his primary inspiration for the design of the first modern theme park, Disneyland.
White City was an amusement park in Indianapolis, Indiana, in what is now Broad Ripple Park that was in operation from May 26, 1906, until June 26, 1908. The trolley park was constructed and owned by the Broad Ripple Transit Company. Similar to nearby rivals Riverside Amusement Park and Wonderland, White City was inspired by an exhibit in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Although the park's grand opening was immensely successful, White City's existence was the briefest of the three, having been open for two and one-half seasons before burning to the ground. Throughout the park's existence, advertisements touted White City as "the amusement park that satisfied".
Electric Park was a name shared by dozens of amusement parks in the United States that were constructed as trolley parks and owned by electric companies and streetcar companies. After 1903, the success of Coney Island inspired a proliferation of parks named Luna Park and Electric Park, while the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 inspired the formation of White City amusement parks at roughly the same time. The existence of most of these parks was generally brief: the bulk of them closed by 1917, the year of the United States' entry into World War I. Many pavilions have outlasted the parks themselves, with a few of them still standing today.
Coney Island is a 1991 documentary film that traces the history of Coney Island, the westernmost part of the barrier islands of Long Island, New York. The film covers the island's 1609 discovery by Henry Hudson, its 1870s incarnation as a respectable beach destination for city-dwellers and a showcase of the new developments ushered in by the machine age, the early 20th century, when amusement parks and innovative attractions attracted hundreds of thousands of people each day, and the gradual demise of the amusements.
Fort George Amusement Park was a trolley park and amusement park that operated in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan, New York City, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It occupied an area between 190th and 192nd Streets east of Amsterdam Avenue, within present-day Highbridge Park.
Frederic Williams Thompson was an American architect, engineer, inventor, and showman known for creating amusement rides and one of the first large amusement parks.
George Cornelius Tilyou (1862–1914) was an American entrepreneur and showman who founded New York City's Steeplechase Park. Born in New York City, his parents had operated businesses in Coney Island from his early childhood. He founded Steeplechase in 1897, and rebuilt it entirely after a 1907 fire. Tilyou died in 1914, leaving the park to his children, who continued to operate it until 1964.
