Euclid Beach Park

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Euclid Beach Park (1895—September 28, 1969) was an amusement park located on the Lake Erie shore in northeast Cleveland, Ohio.

Euclid Beach and the bath house, circa 1905
Euclid Beach and the bath house, circa 1905

Originally incorporated by some investors from Cleveland and patterned after New York's Coney Island, the park was originally managed by William R. Ryan, Sr., who ran a park with gambling, a beer garden, and freak shows. In 1897, Lee Holtzman became Euclid Beach's new director, but he offered it for sale in 1901.

Dudley S. Humphrey, Jr., led six members of his family in managing the park as of 1901 (they had previously operated concessions at the park, but had been particularly unhappy with the way Ryan ran it). They expanded the beach and bathing facilities, including adding a lakeside swing, added many new attractions, and advertised to locals with the slogan, "one fare, free gate and no beer."[citation needed]

Designed to be a family-friendly park, the Humphreys would not even let anyone in who had had a beer at a nearby bar; also, signs throughout the park instructed that only children were permitted to wear shorts, because the Humphreys thought that proper dress would promote a family-friendly atmosphere. At one point the park advertised that it would "present nothing that would demoralize or depress," and that visitors would "never be exposed to undesireable people."[1] Not only families were attracted to Euclid Beach Park; it was also a place for company and community group gatherings. In 1910, the park was the site of an exhibition flight by aviator Glenn Curtiss.

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[edit] Rides and attractions

Euclid Beach Park was built on a beach, which was part of the attraction, and for a time, most of it. Another early facet of the park was its dance hall. After the Humphreys acquired the park, many more attractions became a part of Euclid Beach.

[edit] The Euclid Beach Carousel

The first carousel that Euclid Beach Park used was the Philadelphia Toboggan Company's number nine design. It debuted in 1905; in 1910, it was replaced by carousel number nineteen. This carousel had forty-four horses and two chariots, which were decorated with leaf carvings surrounding a Greek god and two cherubs. Eventually, these classic designs were replaced in favor of an art deco look. After Euclid Beach Park, this carousel operated in Maine at Palace Playland, until 1996. In 1998, the nonprofit Euclid Beach Park Nuts (today called Euclid Beach Park Now) and the Trust for Public Land purchased the carousel and brought it back to Cleveland. It is not currently operating, and the horses and mechanism will remain in storage until a suitable site is identified.

A picture of Euclid Beach Park taken some time between 1895 and 1910.
A picture of Euclid Beach Park taken some time between 1895 and 1910.

[edit] Roller coasters

Seven roller coasters operated at Euclid Beach in the history of the park. All were wood coasters. The first roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, debuted in 1896 and closed in 1904. It was built by LaMarcus A. Thompson.

The Switchback Railway was followed by the Figure Eight (1904—1909, designed by Henry B. Auchy and built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters) and the Scenic Railway, the second coaster to be built by Thompson (1907—1937).

In 1909, John A. Miller premiered his first coaster at the park, the New Velvet Coaster, later renamed the Aero Dips, which ran until 1965. He also designed the Derby Racer, later renamed the Racing Coaster, which was built by Frederick Ingersoll and debuted in 1913 with much fanfare, including a quite favorable advertisement in the May 30, 1913 Plain Dealer. This was the first roller coaster to last until the close of the park in 1969. This coaster only had a single track, which formed a moebius loop. Miller would later co-design the Flying Turns (see below).

The Thriller was designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck and Howard Stoneback. It, too, was built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters. Premiering in 1924 and surviving until the close of the park, it was one of the most popular coasters around in its heyday. It was an "out and back" coaster, and it cost $90,000.

[edit] The Flying Turns

The Flying Turns (roller coaster) was the name of the roller coaster at Euclid Beach Park, but it was also the name for a type of roller coaster. John Norman Bartlett, a British aviator in World War I, came to North America after the war with an idea for a trackless wooden chute, full of twists like a bobsled course, with toboggan-like cars. He filed a patent for the idea in 1926.

Bartlett met John Miller in 1928, and they commenced building the new ride. When the ride went into production, much of the idea was the same, but the cars looks more like monoplanes, which Bartlett designed. Miller worked on the loading station, supporting structure, braking system and incline.

The first Flying Turns was not at Euclid Beach Park; it operated at Lakeside Park in Dayton, Ohio. But the Flying Turns at Euclid Beach Park was the second to be built (there would later be a half-dozen more, including one at Coney Island). It was also the tallest, and the Park's version used three-car trains. Couples enjoyed the ride because one rider could sit in the other's lap.

[edit] The Euclid Beach Park Riot

By around 1915, Euclid Beach Park would only admit African Americans on certain days, as part of its efforts to promote what its management saw as a family-friendly atmosphere. On the other days, the park's special police enforcement team would eject blacks entirely. On the days when blacks were allowed into the park, they were not permitted to interact with white park-goers. Citation needed.

A series of protests occurred at Euclid Beach Park in 1946. On July 21, 1946, twenty people from American Youth for Democracy, United Negroes and Allied Veterans of America, and the National Negro Congress visited the park as an interracial group. They were evicted after a park policeman told them that it was park policy that there be "no sitting, no talking, no mixing of any kind... between the races."[citation needed] Subsequently, Euclid Beach Park was picketed on several occasions by these and several other organizations. Citation needed.

On August 23, 1946, twelve members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), another interracial group, attempted to visit the park, but were also evicted by park police. Albert T. Luster, an African-American man who had gone to the park to meet the CORE group but never met it, was later beaten by a park policeman. Citation needed.

CORE continued to fight the policy. A six-member interracial group from CORE visited the park on September 21, 1946, and were again removed from the park by the park police. However, on this occasion two off-duty Cleveland policemen, Lynn Coleman and Henry MacKey, both African-American, intervened and a fight broke out between the city police and the park police. In the scuffle, Coleman was shot in his leg with his own gun. After this incident, the park closed a week early, per the Mayor's request. Citation needed.

[edit] Decline and closure of Euclid Beach Park

Euclid Beach Park Gateway Arch
Euclid Beach Park Gateway Arch

Euclid Beach Park closed in 1969. It was one of many parks that closed in that period: The Forest Park Highlands in Missouri burned down in 1963, New Jersey's Olympic Park closed in 1965, and Riverview Park of Illinois shut down in 1967.

Like these parks, Euclid Beach closed because of the changes in the times; white flight, the advent of television and the growing popularity of malls all contributed to less in ticket sales. Euclid Beach also had to deal with racial tension, especially after the riot (see above). Perhaps, too, the Humphreys' "family values" seemed a bit quaint after all these years.

Some rides or pieces of rides and attractions from Euclid Beach Park remained in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

  • For quite a while, Geauga Lake had the Flying Skooters, which were alternately known by locals as the Butterflies, and the Rocket Ships, minus one car, which was converted into an automobile that still takes joy rides through Cleveland to this day. However, these rides were taken down during the period when Geauga Lake was a Six Flags park, and may have been lost forever.
  • The Great American Racing Derby, a ride which simulated a horse race, still runs today at Cedar Point, dwarfed by the many giant coasters. It also runs slower than it did at Euclid Beach Park, probably for liability reasons.
  • Laughing Sal, the animatronic nightmare that greeted patrons of the haunted house, still haunts Cleveland, as she can and is rented for many occasions, such as parades and Home Days in some suburbs.[1] Her hair is about as red, but her laugh may be even eerier, as the "laugh track" has warped and aged over the years.

Many structures still left on the Euclid Beach site burned in a series of fires, and by 1986, nothing remained of Euclid Beach Park at the original site save the arch of the gate, which has been declared a Cleveland landmark and is now protected from demolition. The arch was severely damaged by a hit-and-run driver in January 2007.[2]

Today, the site is occupied by a trailer park and a public park, and the owners of the trailer park demolished the Humphrey Mansion in 2005.[3] However, the Humphrey Company continues to sell the park's famous popcorn and taffy products.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Francis, David & Diane. Cleveland Amusement Park Memories, Gray and Company (2004).
  2. ^ Summers, Dave. "Euclid Beach Park arch damaged", WKYC. 2007-01-11.
  3. ^ O'Mara, Michael. "Old Humphrey Mansion demolished", WKYC. 2005-09-15.
  1. Bush, Lee O., Edward C. Chukayne, Russell A. Hehr, and Richard F. Hershey. Euclid Beach Park Is Closed for the Season (1977).
  2. Bush, Lee O., Edward C. Chukayne, Russell A. Hehr, and Richard F. Hershey. Euclid Beach Park, A Second Look (1979).

[edit] External links

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