![]() Its assets were sold off in 1979, with the land being cleared for a housing development. There was a tunnel of love dubbed the Rivers of Venice, an on-site radio station, and of course all manner of roller coasters and other thrill rides.Ĭrowds dwindled in the 1970s, and the park finally closed following the 1977 season. There were dances, performances, and exhibitions at the Alhambra Ballroom the dinner hall on a bluff overlooking the bay was famed for its “Rhode Island shore dinners” (steamed clams, clam chowder, lobster, clam cakes, fish, corn on the cob, and watermelon). Looff built the park’s first merry-go-round in 1892 and another in 1895. Crescent Park | East Providence, RIįounded in 1886 in the Riverside neighborhood of East Providence, Crescent Park thrived for nearly a century. The town of Hudson subsequently acquired the property and turned it into a recreation park. In 1987, Benson’s Wild Animal Farm was renamed New England’s Playworld Amusement Park and Zoo, but the rebranding didn’t help: It closed for good that same year. Among the most popular attractions of that era was a 500-pound silverback gorilla called Colossus, who was promoted as being among the largest in captivity and once “ran” for president as a publicity stunt. New owners took over after Benson’s death in 1943, and although the park still drew crowds, it had up-and-down years for the next few decades. Benson opened his property to the public in 1924, and from there he added attractions such as rides, games, and concessions. But it didn’t take him long to see opportunity in the endless parade of locals coming by to catch a peek at his lions, elephants, monkeys, and other exotic animals. Touted as “the strangest farm on earth,” this park was developed by John Benson, a British animal trainer who had originally purchased a 200-acre lot about an hour north of Boston to serve as a temporary home for animals he would buy and sell. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the Wonderland Greyhound Park opened on the same property. Facing massive cost overruns, the park’s owners started selling off assets following the 1910 season, which would be Wonderland’s last. Magnificent as it was, Wonderland may have grown too quickly to support itself. At the center of the park was a lagoon that served as the splashdown point for the popular Shoot the Chute gondola ride. There were daily parades and a scenic railroad, too. The 25.9-acre amusement park - the nation’s largest at the time - included roller coasters and other rides, games, vaudeville and movie theaters, a funhouse, and a “health center” where premature infants in incubators were put on display. Wonderland itself was inspired by the massive World’s Fair exhibits that had been an international sensation since the mid-19th century. Believed by many to have helped inspire the future Magic Kingdom, this amusement park flashed briefly across the New England entertainment scene, opening in 1906 and closing at the end of summer in 1910. Long before there was Disneyland, there was Wonderland. In October 2014, it was reborn as the 120-acre Rocky Point State Park. ![]() Around the same time, the town and the state began buying the property in stages. The amusement park closed in 1994 and sat abandoned for years before its remains were finally demolished out of concern for public safety. Through the decades, the venue’s Palladium Ballroom hosted a lineup of performers that ranged from Janis Joplin to the Ramones and Pearl Jam.īy the 1980s, attendance had started to decline, along with the facility itself. The midway featured games of skill and chance and performances by Hugo Zacchini, aka the Human Projectile. In addition to a massive saltwater swimming pool and a Ferris wheel with an ocean view, popular rides included the Corkscrew Loop Roller Coaster, the 13-story Freefall, the Log Flume, and the Castle of Terror. Thoroughly rebuilt after the hurricanes of 19, what was by then called Rocky Point Amusement Park reached its zenith in the late 1950s and 1960s.
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