Amusement Parks & Bath Houses

This topic seems like it might be a lot of fun. There are amusement parks all over the world and I'm sure they show up on a lot of postcards. Many early parks started out as bath houses, such as Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. I have a couple foldout cards from when it was primarily a lakeside resort. By the 1920s, the park had a roller coaster and several other rides. One of these wooden coasters is still in operation after more than a century.









The White City Amusement Park in Chicago was built on the remains of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. I'm not sure how long it lasted.



Coney Island is, of course, still going strong. Luna Park was one of three amusement parks that were running at its peak. It was destroyed in a fire in 1944.



Oaks Park in Portland, OR is is one of the oldest amusement parks still in operation, though relatively small by Six Flags standards. The Chutes are gone, but the grand wooden roller rink is still around, along with the 1913 carousel.



Bath houses up next ...

And here are some bath houses. Two from sunny California and one from the Great Salt Lake. Bath houses were almost always associated with beaches and often had lavish exteriors to attract customers. I don't have any interior shots -- it would be interesting to see what they looked like inside.

Merry-go-round, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Crescent Park, Rhode Island. I do have memories as a child
of being here.

I found one recently that appears to be an amusement park, but I'm not certain. Does anyone know about this place?

My uncle was with the Fire Dept. at the Luna Park Fire that destroyed it.

Wow -- that was quite a few years ago and quite a big fire!

White City was one of the large amusement parks that operated in Indianapolis early in the 20th century. I have presented a description of the park along with this image at Flickr. Follow this link to visit that Flickr page.

https://flic.kr/p/pPfrAF

'
Has anyone else had occasion to read Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle Over Segregated Recreation in America by Victoria W Wolcott ?

Quite the read. There was much more going on than I remember ever knew.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15035.html

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I finally picked up a few more amusement park cards. One from Luna Park on Coney Island before it burned, and another from Luna Park ... in Pittsburg!









The Chutes was another popular ride -- it shows up on a couple previous cards and here's another from San Francisco.





There's also another view of the ornate onion domes of Saltair posted earlier. Here's a shot from the front entrance.

Something new for an old topic. I have a few more coming. Luna Park must have been quite a sight with all its electric bulbs lighting up the night.

I can't buy yet but do you have any pictures?

Not sure what you mean -- these are not for sale, just additions to my collection.

Here are a few more...

Thanks for sharing these. The Saltair domes look spectacular. Interestingly enough, I looked up Carnival Park in Kansas and was surprised that it was so short-lived. I don't have any cards in this theme, but I'm reminded of the Sutro Baths in California.

I found only 1 image in my Galveston collection. Souvenir mailing was postmarked Jan 15 1919.

"Salt scented air" was valued as a curative! I guess there's some truth to that. Great card, Brian!

I learned something interesting about a card I posted earlier. The White City amusement park in Chicago was not actually built on the site of the 1893 World's Fair, but it did use the fair's design as its inspiration. The park was opened around 1905, near the current site of Washington Park.

What surprised me was that this was not the only White City amusement park. Parks using that name sprung up all over the country. A cursory search of postcards on ebay, came back with White City amusement parks in New York, Connecticut, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Massachusetts, Indiana, Georgia, Wisconsin and Ohio! Someone could make a pretty nice collection of White City cards by themselves. Perhaps these were popular with investors because white was the cheapest paint color. Here's the original (not my card):



And my earlier post.