History of Luna Park - Part 2

Today I continue my look into the history of Luna Park  - for more on Part 1 - CLICK HERE.

Luna Park had a dance hall and attached to this was a cafe where local caterers would serve meals. Light refreshments were also sold throughout the park.

Johnstowners young and old enjoyed thrilling rides on the $15,000 roller coaster, there was also a laughing gallery, up-side-down house, ferris wheel, miniature railway, shooting gallery, baby racks, photography gallery, picture machines and many other interesting features.

This is NOT our Luna Park - but Luna Park - Coney Island - New York - 1905

Nights at the park were even more exciting when the 2,500 arc and incandescent lights scattered around the park would light up the night sky. The illumination of the park entrance was known as an eye catcher - 300 lights outlining the features of the gate.

Entrance to the park was usually free, except when some church or organization made arrangements for a special day.

The actual Boardwalk at Roxbury
A 21 foot steam launch was added to the park and was one of the biggest hits on the grounds. An 800 foot boardwalk from the entrance to the dancing pavilion was completed. This walk was 12 feet wide with the lake situated inside inside the track and the track in sight to afford folks all the fun of the Atlantic City promenade.

The girls who worked at the park were forbidden to chew gum or eat goo-goo eyes. Management warned that chances for employment were nil if girls were known to indulge in these unattractive and unbusiness like pastimes.
Luna Park at one time even had a zoo. The first motion pictures in Johnstown were shown at the park with a five cent admission.
A pair of white diving horses also called the park home. One horse was placed at one end of the lake and the other would walk up a ramp several feet above the water and dive into the lake. Hot air balloons were also a special draw for the folks around town.

During the winter - ice skating was very popular. It was in the winter of 1915 that the skating craze swept the country, including Johnstown. While the local rivers offered good skating, Luna Park Lake proved the perfect spot and always drew the largest crowds. The demand for skating was so high that they kept the park open every afternoon and evening.

The park management's policy of bringing the latest attractions to Johnstown once resulted in an airplane exhibition and passenger flights. A ride over Johnstown in a Curtiss plane was a costly $15 - around $166 in today's dollars. 

Isiah Sipe in 1920 arranged for the four-day appearance with an officer from the then known - United States Aviation Corps to land and take off from the park and give exhibitions and passenger flights. 

When neither the baseball field nor the race track was found suitable for landing with danger, Mr. Sipe arranged to use the H.E. Berkley farm as a landing field. 

Automobile and motorcycle racing were also popular. In September, 1919 one of the outstanding oldtime racers appeared - Gaston Chevrolet in a match against Omar Toft the Pacific Coast champion. 

Actual shot of the Roxbury parking lot

Luna Park was purchased buy the city in 1921, the culmination of years of negotiations. The deal included the purchase of all the land together with all the permanent buildings and mineral rights. 

At the time of the purchase, the city intimated that the operation of the park would continue under the same management. A comprehensive plan for the park's improvement and development also was promised. 

But a fire hit the park on July 29, 1921, five months after it's purchase by the city - a major step in its eventual decline as an amusement center. Between $25,000 to $30,000 was the estimated damage amounts - that's $372,888 in totals dollars. It's believed that the fire started in the grandstand area before moving on to the roller skating rink, bandstand and roller coaster. 

The fire came just as the park was getting ready for a firemen's convention. Just prior to the fire - Capt. Harry Hoover of Truck Company No. 1 and George Nenstiel, convention committeemen, inspected the new gas pipes installed at the park and found everything in order. The firemen had scarcely returned to the engine house when the first alarm was turned in. 

No one was in the grandstand at the time and only about 10 people were in the skating rink when flames broke out.

Despite the fire, the park carried out its schedule of races and carnivals during the remainder of the season. An investigation was made - but an exact cause was never found. 

It was in 1922 that the city drained the old lake for safety reasons and at the same time the horticultural hall was torn down. Most of the fence surrounding the park was also taken down.

Late in 1922, Charles Leavitt of New York presented to city council an elaborate plan for redeveloping Roxbury Park. All the amusements and race track were overlooked in the new plans.

It was instead to be made into a recreation center which would include two playhouses, dancing pavilion, three swimming pools, two bath houses, basketball court, two handball courts, bowling green, clubhouse, eight tennis courts along with two other pavilions for the athletic fields.

The athletic field was to provide seating for about 5,000, have a quarter-mile running track and be adaptable for both football and baseball.

Ice skating was to be conducted on the field in the winter time. 

But, as you are well aware - the redevelopment plan was never fulfilled. Bases for the tennis courts were installed but not completed until 1949. Clay tennis courts did a booming business at the park during the 1930's, but went into decline right before the war. The courts were flooded several winters to provide ice skating. 

But all in all - attempts to make the park what it once was proved just too time-consuming and more importantly, just too expensive. After reading this brief history of Luna Park - I hope you are like me and take away a sense of what we truly lost - the wonder of it all - though lost in time - not lost in our imaginations.... 

To wrap this history up - I have included two short films that show Luna Park - Coney Island, New York in 1903 and 1905. Though our park was much smaller - these two films can help give you a better feel of some good old-fashioned fun.....

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