Idora Park, Youngstown

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For another park of the same name in Oakland, California, see Idora Park.
The Dance Hall at Idora Park around 1920
The Dance Hall at Idora Park around 1920

Idora Park (1899–1984) was a northeastern Ohio amusement park popularly known as "Youngstown's Million Dollar Playground."

Built by a streetcar company, the Youngstown Park and Falls Street Railway Company, the park's expansion coincided with the growth of the South Side of Youngstown, Ohio, in the Fosterville neighborhood. Prior to its closure, which came in the wake of a devastating fire, Idora Park was one of the nation's few remaining urban amusement parks.

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[edit] History

The entrance to Idora Park around 1910
The entrance to Idora Park around 1910

The park opened as Terminal Park on May 30, 1899 which was Decoration Day. At that point in American history, it was very common for amusement parks to sprout up at the end of trolley lines to generate weekend revenue. Without an admission fee, anyone who had the money for the trolley fare could go. The park's first season presented its guests a bandstand, theater, dance pavilion, a roller coaster, a circle swing, and concession stands. By the end of 1899, it was re-named "Idora Park" as a result of a contest. It was during this time period that amusement and trolley parks saw their golden age; nearly 2000 of them operated at the turn of the century. Coney Island is the most famous trolley park, but Pittsburgh’s Kennywood Park and Youngstown’s Idora Park, which both opened on the same day, were equally as famous at that time. Trolley parks gave the illusion of commonality and all classes did indeed go.

A bridge spanning the Mahoning River opened May 23, 1899 on Youngstown's Market Street opened up the entire South Side for development. The trolley line linking to Idora Park ran south on Market, west on Warren, south on Hillman Street, Sherwood west to Glenwood Avenue, and ending through Parkview Avenue (west) into the Idora terminal. However, as the automobile became the preferred mode of transportation, trolley lines died out, and so did many trolley parks.

The primary reason Idora survived was because it had become the preferred location for ethnic, church and company picnics. Until the steel mills closed, Youngstown had one of the highest rates of home ownership in the country. Then the bottom dropped out on a day they call “Black Monday” in the city. Youngstown Sheet and Tube, one of the largest employers in the Mahoning Valley, announced the closure of one of its largest mills. The overnight loss of nearly 5,000 jobs impacted Idora Park. The Sheet and Tube picnic was the largest picnic each year for Idora, and this event proved to have a city-wide impact.

However, by the early 1980s, the park was a relic. It had taken rides from other parks that met their end in the 1960s, such as Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland and West View Park outside of Pittsburgh.

[edit] Major attractions

One of the park's many attractions was a 3,000-foot wooden roller coaster called The Wild Cat, which was built in 1929. The state-of-the-art, three-minute ride was hailed by roller coaster connoisseurs across the country. The Wild Cat was designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck, who held 100 patents for roller coaster innovations. In 1984, The Wild Cat was still ranked among the top 10 roller coasters in the world.

Another famous attraction to the park was The Jack Rabbit, a wooden roller coaster that was 70 feet tall and 2,200 feet long. It had a ride time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The Jack Rabbit was built in 1910 by TM Harden. The Jack Rabbit was lengthened and recountered in the 1930s.

The Kiddieland area was originally a concrete swimming pool. When the park was built, it included a giant swimming pool and a large bath house. A large hole was drilled into the pool to connect to an underground salt-water spring, creating the only salt-water pool in the country. The pool was filled in during the 1950s because of the growing need for space. The bath house was used for storage and places to get out of the sun. The concrete "bottom" that used to be the pool was filled with rides for little kids.

The Idora Park Ballroom opened June 30, 1910. The open-air ballroom was based on that of Coney Island in New York and was billed as the largest dance floor between New York and Chicago. The ballroom eventually became enclosed so that it could then be used year-round and contained a beautiful hardwood floor It drew many varied acts. The Idora Park house band played in this Dance Hall until the advent of radio in the 1930s. Radio increased the level of sophistication of listeners, and Idora Park soon began to hire to big-name bands. The future decades would bring glorious entertainment to the ballroom: dances, big band concerts, sock hops, New Years parties, and Presidential campaign visits from John F. Kennedy. In the 1920s through the 1940s, many world famous big bands such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra played in the ballroom. Decades later, many famous rock bands such as the Eagles, Ray Charles, Maynard Ferguson, Blue Öyster Cult and The Monkees played there. The Idora Ballroom had seen many changes in its lifetime—wars, the depression, and the rise and fall of Youngstown.

Idora Park thrived through the decades, yet it also faced continual competition from larger state and national amusement parks. Idora Park was landlocked on its 27 acres. The economic collapse of the city's steel mill industry in the 1970s hurt the park's attendance. For all the hardship the community was suffering, Idora Park could still be proud of its existing rides. The Idora Carousel was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In 1976, Idora Park was named one of the nation's 100 best amusement parks in Gary Kyriazi's book, Great American Amusement Parks. By 1980, The Wild Cat and Jack Rabbit were recognized as some of the best coasters in the country.

[edit] Fire brings an end to Idora

A devastating fire on April 26, 1984 destroyed the Wild Cat coaster, the Lost River ride, 11 concession stands, and the park office. Employees scrambled to save park records, but only some current files were pulled to safety. Older files and historical records were lost to the flames. The fire was started was workers were welding a small plate to the Lost River, a ride that abuts the Wild Cat. The workers went to lunch shortly before the fire was spotted. Investigation determined that the welding torch's heat or sparks may have ignited leaves or roofing material. Employees tried to extinguish the growing flames with hand extinguishers before realizing that the fire was out of hand.

Twelve fire companies responded to the fire. Many off-duty firefighters also responded to the call to help contain flames that spread along the Wild Cat's wooden tracks and threatened the carousel. The carousel, located next to the Wildcat, was scorched but ultimately is saved from destruction. The Youngstown Fire Department prevented it from catching fire by continually pouring water on the roof of the octagonal building. The wind carried the fire from the Lost River to the concession stands next to the carousel and hopped the midway. Firefighters found themselves at a disadvantage with a lack of in-park hydrants, poor water pressure, and aged wooden rides and buildings. They finally tamed the blaze by running lines to hydrants outside the park, however this delay gave the fire time to consume most of the midway.

Final damage was estimated in millions of dollars. The replacement of the Wild Cat was estimated at $1.5 million alone. The flames stopped short of the historic carousel, but intense heat melted paint in various areas of the gazebo. The south horseshoe of the Wild Cat was destroyed, although most of the coaster was untouched by flames, but the repair cost was prohibitive. Park owners acknowledged that the loss of the Wild Cat was disastrous.

The Wild Cat was Idora's biggest attraction. The owners of Idora, in an attempt to bring people back to the park for the 1984 season, reversed the trains of the Jack Rabbit and ran the cars backwards, and renamed it the "Back Wabbit."

The park operated through the summer of 1984, but with the premier ride gone, a decision was made to close the park. Idora Park closed its doors for good on September 16, 1984.

[edit] A slow goodbye

On October 20–21, 1984 an auction was conducted by Norton Auctioneers of Coldwater, Michigan to dispose of the rides and equipment. A New York City couple bought the beautiful carousel for $385,000. The remaining coasters (Wild Cat, Jack Rabbit, Baby Wild Cat), and many other buildings (Ballroom, Kiddieland complex, French Fry stand) were left behind.

In 1985, Mt. Calvary Pentecostal Church in Youngstown bought the Idora property and announced plans for a religious complex, to be named the "City of God". [1] The Ballroom remained open for various events until Memorial Day 1986. The church lost the property in 1989 after accumulating more than $500,000 in debt on the land. A group of preservationists got Idora Park on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. This group put together a bid that year to buy the property and restore it, but at the eleventh hour, the church got the property back for a reported $300,000 mortgage.

For the next fifteen years, the church failed to build their religious complex, the property decayed, and it was not secured from outsiders. All remaining structures were not given proper historical preservation and each would eventually be vandalized, destroyed by natural elements, or succumb to arson.

In an interview with The Youngstown Vindicator in October 16 1984, Max Rindin (an owner of the park) was asked what would happen to Idora after after it closed. “In time,” he said. “It’ll all be torched.” And bit by bit, his prophecy came true.

Another fire at the abandoned park on May 3, 1986 destroyed the Heidelberg Gardens, Kooky Castle (haunted house), Laffin Lena's (fun house), and the Helter Skelter bumper car buildings. But until this fire, there was always a tangible reminder of Idora Park. Very little had been torn down, people could sneak into the park, walk across the midway and trample over the weeds poking through the concrete. With the park still in sight, it was still in many people’s minds.

By 1999, a local group, Conneaut Lake Park Management Group, had taken over Conneaut Lake Park in Pennsylvania. The group attempted to negotiate the purchase of either the Jack Rabbit or Wild Cat from the property owners. Blueprints for both rides were still available, so they could be refurbished at Conneaut. The group also planned to purchase the complete carousel from the owners in New York. These plans never came to light. The Idora Ballroom, Jack Rabbit coaster, and Wildcat coaster would remain unpreserved on the property.

On March 5, 2001 the final chapter to Idora Park's history was written when the historic Idora Ballroom burned down. The fire reportedly started in the basement and was suspicious in nature. The Jack Rabbit and other remaining wooden structures were not destroyed by this fire. Days after the fire, an interview with the property owners stated that they "offered to allow (preservation groups) to take the roller coasters down as long as they funded it and had proper insurance and bonding"[2]. However, on July 26, 2001 the Wild Cat, Jack Rabbit, and all other decaying structures (all unsalvageable) were demolished by bulldozers to prevent any future fires. The property owner (Mount Calvary Pentecoastal Church) ordered the demolition without notice in response to safety concerns. City officials had asked that the coasters be removed since they were hazardous to the public. Both the Jack Rabbit and Wild Cat roller coasters were listed on the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) preservation list. Inaction by the park property owners to preserve the remaining (non-auctioned) Idora Park historic structures—such as the Ballroom, Wild Cat, Jack Rabbit—ultimately led to their destruction. In a 2001 news conference (following the Ballroom's messy asbestos cleanup), Mt. Calvary Pentecostal Church restated that: "This future complex (City of God) will only help the entire community but especially youth... hopes to break ground no later than next spring (2002). The entire project should take at least two years to complete."[3]

[edit] The future of Idora

After nearly 18 years of ownership, the property still belongs to Mt. Calvary Pentecostal Church. The land is now vacant of buildings and no development has been accomplished for the Church's City of God. By 2006, Mt. Calvary Church had accumulated delinquent taxes on the 12 parcels of Idora Park land totaling over $25,000. The City of Youngstown filed for foreclosure on the property September 13, 2006. Yet, according to the Warren Tribune Chronicle (Jan 8, 2007), "The Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed the delinquent tax case against the owners of the former Idora Park...The case was dismissed because one of the parties named in the suit, Teen Missions International, Inc. of Merritt Island, Fla., paid the delinquent taxes on behalf of Mt. Calvary Church. Teen Missions International helps churches and other religious organizations with financing different projects. Teen Missions has loaned nearly $1.2 million to Mount Calvary over a period of time to help develop the Idora property. Teen Missions has recently filed a new court case asking for over $1.5 million they say the Mt. Calvary Church owes them, said their attorney Charles Wilburn."

The Youngstown 2010 redevelopment & city revitalization plans have also stated their interest in acquiring the property and utilize it as a "green-space" extension of Mill Creek Park. These plans are on hold until the city can obtain the property from the Church or alternative ownership acquires the property from the Church's outstanding $1.5 million lawsuit.

[edit] The carousel lives on

The lasting glory of Idora Park remains in the complete 1922 PTC #61 classic wooden carousel. The carousel was sold at the 1984 auction to two private individuals from the Brooklyn, New York area. This couple purchased the 30 jumpers, 18 standers, 2 chariots and the band organ facade. Since its auction, the entire carousel has been restored to its original beauty. Plans were made to give this remaining piece of Idora history a home in a newly developed park near Brooklyn. Plans were designed to locate the carousel by the water's edge in Empire-Fulton Ferry Park and the city-designated Fulton Ferry Historic District. Its proposed location is an area known as DUMBO, Brooklyn ("Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass”). The waterfront entertainment will eventually include retail and recreation center, a marina, movie theaters, a hotel, many stores, plenty of parking in multilevel garages, and the historic Idora Park carousel.

On October 13, 2006, the monumental carousel restoration project, undertaken by Jane Walentas, was unveiled. Built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the Idora carousel features 48 magnificently carved horses and can be viewed year-round through the new glass façade, at 65 Water Street, Brooklyn, until a permanent outdoor location is finalized. It currently open for public viewing (no rides) and is known by the name Jane's Carousel.

[edit] References

  • Guerrieri, Vince. "Youngstown's Million Dollar Playground", The New Colonist, September 10, 2004
  • Shale, Rick. "Idora Park: Last Ride of the Summer", Amusement Park Journal publishing, May 1999
  • Walentas, David. "Jane's Carousel", New York Sun, October 13, 2006

[edit] External links

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