REBUILD DIXIELAND? Why Not take a giant step backward DOWNTOWN and WIN?

[Ocklawaha]

Sweet Jacksonville when Walt was still a youngster.

In several threads we are talking of "nothing downtown" and how we "need something to keep em coming." We of course were the first in Florida to do that, it was called DIXIELAND AMUSEMENT PARK and THE FLORIDA OSTRICH FARM. Both parks were related to electric power and our streetcar system (YOU KNEW THAT WAS COMING DIDN'T YOU)?  Everytime I get around the area of Hogans Creek and the wasted land where we now house and "rehab" societys misfits (jail) and sundry buildings, everytime I see that woods at Beaver and Hogans Creek and imagineer a Trolley running through it to the stadium, I SEE THAT PARK.

http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/VideoFilm2/video.cfm?VID=7
So where is baby Olie going behind all of those Streetcars? DIXIELAND of COURSE! Just click the link and then click on your choice of viewer...

THE VISION:

Something a cross between what "Dixieland" once was with a helping of San Antonio's Riverwalk tossed in. No attempt to make another Disney, Universal or Wild Adventures... Rather a TRUE, 1918 style park with shade trees, gardens, pavillions (okay so they'd have modern electronic stuff INSIDE) swan boats, roller coaster and thousands of lights to make it all magic at night. Here are a couple of examples of these turn of the former Century fad's... Every City worth it's salt either had one or had a Trolley or Interurban Company that owned one or could get your there. Thus the name "TROLLEY PARKS" or "ELECTRIC PARKS".


Belle Island Amusement Park, Oklahoma City, OK. (under Penn Square Mall today only some high power lines hint of what was once there).

THE EXAMPLES:


Iola's Interurban Barn and Park were side by side.

Iola Electric Park
Iola, Allen County, KS

by Ralph Decker, Jr.

Date Opened: 1902?
Date Closed: 1918?
Location:  One mile east of Iola near where present-day U.S. 54 crosses Rock Creek
Remains at site: None
Trolley Park: Yes


Guess what? Yes, she COULD be ours... the last soldier?

Beginnings
In 1871 drillers struck natural gas near Iola while drilling for oil. Further explorations for natural gas took place in the ensuing years and in 1893 the first of several major wells "came in." Soon a move was on to entice the zinc-smelting industry to relocate from nearby Pittsburg, Kansas, to Allen County. With an offer of free natural gas to power the plants, there were soon seven in operation. Brick plants and a cement plant were also built in the area.

In 1900 a Mr. Frank V. Crouch of Carrolton, Missouri, saw the opportunity to establish an electric interurban railroad to transport the many workers in the Iola area. He moved to town, promoted his plan locally and persuaded Saint Louis capitalists to back him. Construction of the electric line began May 23, 1901, and the first cars ran December 24 of that year.

On December 27, 1901, it was announced that Mr. Crouch was seeking a site along the route for an amusement park. Negotiations for land on the Neosho River at the western end of the line failed. It was then decided to occupy a thirty-acre plot on Rock Creek, about a mile east Iola. Modeled after Electric Park in Kansas City, Missouri, the park would be adjacent to the powerhouse/car barn of the interurban. The side of that structure is visible in the post card reproduced above. L. M. Boyer was appointed park manager.

When the park actually opened seems somewhat obscure as does of list of amusements available at the time. Various accounts suggest that the summer of 1902 saw some use of the location, possibly as little more than a picnic ground. By 1904 the Iola Daily Register contains advertisements announcing a carnival at the park. The year 1906 seems to have been the heyday of the park, with a full complement of amusements available at that time. On July 4, 1906, alone, 30,000 persons rode the interurban to the park and soon talks were underway to make the park a stop on the Chautauqua circuit. In 1907 250,000 admissions to the park were collected.


Not Iola either but isn't this beautiful? Sorry Children, I was there! We built homes over the top of it. We're too smart for this sort of thing, you see, THIS IS JACKSONVILLE... North end of San Jose. And yes, I have Trolley photos with "SAN JOSE" on the destination curtain. SAD!

Rides and attractions
The entrance to the park had beautifully landscaped gardens. Additionally, these diversions were available in the park at its peak:

Boat rental
Swimming area
Dancing pavilion
Bowling alleys
Tennis courts (asphalt)
Fishing area
Roller skating rink
Roller coaster (figure eight)
Laughing gallery
Japanese roller ball game
Water toboggan
Circular swings
Plays (by stock companies)
Band and orchestra concerts
Moving pictures
No description or pictures of the "water toboggan" seem to exist. However, according to volunteers at the Allen County Historical Society their parents had described it as a chute-the-chute. The laughing gallery was presumably a fun house.


While not Iola, These are the similar ruins of White City Trolley park in NJ, 1890-1920's.

Remains

By the end of 1909 the gas wells which had brought industry to the Iola area began to fizzle and the first smelter closure took place. In 1910 five more smelters closed and the industrial base of Allen County began to diminish. The Iola Electric Railway soldiered on, but on March 21, 1919, the order was given to close down the line.

There appears to be no report of the closing of the park but one may assume that it did not outlast the interurban, its parent company. The site was later used for a greenhouse operation and a new highway is now (1999) under construction in the area. That construction seems to have erased any hope of finding remnants of the park.


Imagine boarding in Washington, D.C. and stepping off in Maryland at this famous Trolley park!

AMUSEMENT PARKS FOR THE MASSES:

While Tilyou and his peers were operating the wild rides and attractions at Coney Island, the rest of the nation were introduced to amusement machines in the quiet groves outside town. The rise of trolley parks began when Charles J. Van Depoele created an under-running trolley pole which could power an electric trolley. This new invention replaced the horse-drawn streetcar across the nation at the turn of the century.

At this point in history, trolley companies were charged a flat rate for their electricity, regardless of how much they actually used. With most transportation occurring during the work week, the trolley companies wanted to induce people to travel on the weekends to generate extra revenue with little added cost. Their solution was to build picnic groves at the end of the trolley line. For a typical fee of 25 cents for the trolley ride and 10 cents for admission, riders could travel to these scenic spaces for picnics and relaxation. These parks were a great success and the trolley companies looked to the popularity of Coney Island to add amusements to entice even more ridership.

These parks were tame by Coney Island standards due to two reasons. First, most of the park's visitors were church-going and family-oriented city dwellers who would be turned off by the rough-and-tumble sexuality of the Coney parks. Second, the trolley companies had to rely on themselves or local architectural talent in building their interpretations of Coney. One man, Frederick Ingersoll, would succeed in creating wonderful copies of the original Luna Park in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Many other parks would use the popular names of Luna Park, Dreamland, and White City even though they hardly resembled these famous places.

Whatever their efforts, the trolley parks became so popular that by the early 1900s, every major US city had at least one. These attractions at these parks began as just picnic groves with a band pavilion and perhaps a boat ride. By 1910, the parks had expanded its amusements to include a carousel, a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a penny arcade, or fireworks displays. Other attractions included dance halls and events such as band concerts and balloon ascensions.


Going to the Trolley Park TODAY?

CONNECICUT PARK ONE OF ONLY 11 SURVIVERS:

They were referred to as "trolley parks" during their heyday nearly a century ago. The entire family, along with a picnic basket packed with goodies for the day, would hop aboard an electrically driven trolley and leisurely ride the rails to the outskirts of town for an enjoyable day at the park--the "trolley park."
There were more than 1,000 of these parks in the United States prior to The Great Depression of 1929. Some were simply a picnic grove with an athletic field and swimming area. Others were full-fledged amusement parks with a variety of rides, games, dance halls and roller skating rinks. The rail companies built many of the parks themselves, usually at one end of a rail line, to generate passenger traffic on the weekends.

Today there are only 11 "trolley parks" still operating in the nation, and Quassy Amusement Park on Lake Quassapaug in Connecticut is one of them. Native Americans reportedly named the lake centuries ago, and depending on the source of the interpretation, it means "greatest pond," "rock pond" or "big pond."

The 20-acre park, simply called Quassy today, was founded in 1908, the same year a trolley line from Waterbury to Middlebury was completed by the Connecticut Trolley Company. Prior to that, the lake was known for its outstanding fishing, sparkling water and the Lake Grove House (1888), where clambakes were the specialty.

A trolley trip to the park in 1909 cost 15 cents, according to newspaper clippings compiled in scrapbooks by late Middlebury resident Helen Benson. Settled in 1702, Middlebury was appropriately named, as the community was established between Waterbury and Woodbury. If you came to the park in the early 1900s, it was for swimming, dancing and picnicking. In 1910, a dance pavilion was constructed near the lakefront and later converted into a bathhouse, according to Bob Goldsack, a New England amusement parks historian and author. A new and much larger dance hall was built in 1915. Today, the structure serves as a redemption arcade and is the oldest existing building in the park.

While Quassy didn't capture a lot of headlines during its early days, the trolley line did. The Benson scrapbooks contain a newspaper clipping reporting 20 people were injured in a head-on trolley car collision at a switch in Middlebury in 1917. Dancing became so popular during the "Roaring '20s" that the park hosted bands seven nights a week during the summer months, Goldsack notes in his book, "A Century of Fun, A Pictorial History of New England Amusement Parks."


A ticket from NEW YORK STATE RAILWAYS.


A NEW TROLLEY PARK IN LOUISVILLE? CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR... How in the HELL do you build a park named for the most famous Trolley of all time and NOT have a trolley.

Toonerville Trolley Park
218 E. Oak St., 40203
(Brook and Oak Streets)

Amenities:
Ballfield
Horseshoe Pits (1)
Playground
Tennis (2)

Size: 2 acres
Acquired: 1978
Metro Council Representative: George Unseld, 6th


Does MICKEY remember the success of the basics? SURE HE DOES! But beyond the "Horse Car" what else is like these places?

I give them an A+ for the name, one we could borrow. Toonerville was not only a cartoon trolley, but an American fixture in the 1920's. You can find it all over the web, even watch the movies, as it ranks alongside Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers and that damned Steamboat Mouse that ate Central Florida.

Consider in a City that has cut out it's own soul, it's history, it's buildings and it's heritage, we still have the opportunity to think ahead, take a gentle step back and sell not only thrill rides, but a simpler more refined time. We need to sell this town on the Park concept, and return to "THE TIME OF THE TROLLEY..."


Oh God, the pond is still there! I remember Daddy held my hand!

OKAY, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK...

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

The cookies are at the concession stands! For all those thousands of residents that are spending their summer money in Valdosta and Orlando. We'll have peanut butter, oat meal raisin, ginger bread and many more...Stephendare, you could even come up with a TOONERVILLE cookie cutter!

A kinder, gentler, more family oriented park with history (and trolleys) at it's core. Looking backward, what would YOU put in the park?

Ocklawaha
TRANSIT MONSTER!

[teresangel]

You are always such a wealth of info about our past.  Do you perchance have any other images from the Oriental Gardens besides those two?  I've both of those in postcard format and I'm hungry for more 

[Ocklawaha]

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I shall dig them out and post them shortly... mostly Black and White if I recall. BTW, what do YOU think of this idea?

Ocklawaha

[billy]

Great stuff,just beautiful.

[Jason]

I'm all for it.  An attraction like this in the location you mentioned would help to bridge the gap between the CBD and the Sports District.  If the streets crossing Hogan's Creek could be converted to tunnels it would also improve the potential uses for the creek for small pleasure boats and marinas that would have a direct link to the river.

[Ocklawaha]

By popular demand, here are a few more views of Jacksonvilles own...







Just imagine... "See Rock City", "Ruby Falls" and "Dixieland Park"

Ocklawaha

[Ocklawaha]

Duval is high enough to get under now, Bay is being replaced with another flat low crossing, and the other is still a temporary "Super Bowl" bridge. Arlington Expressway is due to be rebuilt, so with the exception of Bay there is no reason why the new expressway couldn't clear swan boats and small craft. The only hang up is Bay which like you, I would love to have seen differently. Not tunnels, rather a Kluthlo type treatment with a steep arch. (And no, Trolleys have/had NO trouble with this type of bridge). Knock out some of that old Jail house clutter, and keep any reusable warehouses. Bring in a Westin, and a few other World Class hotels and use the San Antonio approach to "waterfront hanging gardens". Add a trolley line and amusement park and watch it go! What a place for a visiting team, or fans to stay and spend their $$$ !

Ocklawaha

[teresangel]

BTW, what do YOU think of this idea?

Dixieland was something special by all accounts.  It's always fired my imagination.  It would be lovely if we could reclaim some of the no-man's land between Downtown and Springfield.  Not to say I have a problem with the Liberty Center and the others.  Can't imagine certain suburbs being able to stomach that kind of proximity.

*ducks*