Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

Chutes Park began as a trolley park in 1887. It was a 35-acre amusement park bounded by Grand Avenue on the west, Main Street on the east, Washington Boulevard on the north and 21st Street on the south. At various times it included rides, animal exhibits, a theater and a baseball park. In 1910 the park was sold to new owners (including Frederick Ingersoll) and reopened as Luna Park. The amusement park closed in 1914.

Frederick Ingersoll was an inventor, designer, and builder who created the world's first chain of amusement parks (known collectively as "Luna Parks" regardless of their actual name) and whose manufacturing company built 277 roller coasters, fueling the popularity of trolley parks in the first third of the Twentieth Century.*^

Historical Notes

The park featured such rides as a roller coaster, a chutes water slide that dropped riders in boats from a 75-foot tower into a manmade lake (as seen above), and a miniature railroad. The park's merry-go-round was electrically powered, as was the engine that pulled the boats back up from the lake to the tower.
 
In 1903, the operators added a steel-framed figure-eight roller coaster.*^

Historical Notes

The site also included, at various times, such exotic diversions as a seal pond, ostriches and the interestingly named House of Trouble and Cave of the Winds. By 1901, it also had a 4,000-seat theater and a baseball park that seated 10,000.

By 1900, the baseball diamond was completed on the northern end of the park, with a team to play in the new California League. It would be the first team to be called the Los Angeles Angels.  It was also home of the Vernon Tigers. Following games, a gate in the center field fence was opened and fans were allowed to enter the theme park.*^

Click HERE to see more on the Chutes Baseball Park (also, known as Washington Park).

Historical Notes

In 1874 the City of Los Angeles purchased the 46 acres making up East Los Angeles Park; it was officially dedicated seven years later, in 1881. By 1901 it had become a major amusement center for the people of Los Angeles, and it was at this time that the name was changed to Eastlake Park.

In 1911 William Selig opened a zoo on the northern edge of the park, and this became one of the main attractions; in 1914 a carousel was added, which drew 150,000 riders a year; and a short while later, an arboretum was erected on the premises that housed a large greenhouse (hothouse) with rare and exotic plants.

On May 19, 1917, the City Council responded to a petition from nearby residents and renamed it Lincoln Park, named after Lincoln High School.

On April 21, 1976 the carousel was designated Historic Cultural Monument No. 153 by the City of Los Angeles (Click HERE to see the LA Historic-Cultural Monuments List***), but was destroyed just a few months later. *

Historical Notes

At the turn of the century (1893 - 1938), a famous Pacific Electric excursion was the Mt. Lowe trip. From Los Angeles, sightseers took a Pasadena car to Altadena and Rubio Canyon. They then transferred to a cable car on the Incline Railway that went up a 62% grade to Echo Mountain. From there they would take a narrow-gauge trolley car winding its way up the rugged San Gabriel Mtns. and finally would arrive at Alpine Tavern on Mt. Lowe, a nearly 7 mile railway ride from the base of the mountain. The views were spectacular and on most days Catalina Island, over 60 miles away, could be clearly be seen.*

Historical Notes

Over its 45 years of existence, it is estimated that some 3 million people had ridden the railway, many coming from all parts of the country and the world. In its own inimitable way, it was a Disneyland of the day.^

Historical Notes

Venice of America was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town, 14 miles west of Los Angeles. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought two miles of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891. They built a resort town on the north end of the property called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. After Ryan died, Kinney and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street in the unincorporated territory. After the partnership dissolved in 1904, Kinney built on the marshy land on the south end of the property, intending to create a seaside resort like its namesake in Italy.^

Historical Notes

When Venice of America opened on July 4, 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the marshes for his residential area, built a 1,200-foot long pleasure pier with an auditorium, ship restaurant, and dance hall, constructed a hot salt-water plunge, and built a block-long arcaded business street with Venetian architecture. Tourists, mostly arriving on the "Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, then rode Venice's miniature railroad and gondolas to tour the town. But the biggest attraction was Venice's mile-long gently sloping beach. Cottages and housekeeping tents were available for rent.^

Historical Notes

In 1904, Abbott Kinney completed the canals as part of a dream to transplant a bit of old Venice to California and imported Venetian gondolas with costumed gondoliers.*

Historical Notes

Originally part of the Ocean Park district of Santa Monica, Abbot Kinney's vision of Venice in America was developed starting in 1904, complete with a canal system and singing gondoliers. Canal construction began in 1904, and in 1905 construction of an amusement pier began. Kinney's Midway Plaisance was built on the south bank of the lagoon which later became the Venice traffic circle. It opened in January of 1906 and operated until 1908. It consisted of eleven buildings including Darkness and Dawn, which replicated a visit to hell based on Dante's inferno.

The Midway Plaisance name was taken from an amusement area in the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair. It was torn down in 1910 and replaced with the Races thru the Clouds roller coaster. Venice formally disincorporated from Ocean Park in 1911, and in 1925, Venice was annexed to the city of Los Angeles. By 1929, many of the canals had been filled in and paved as roads due to health and engineering problems.**^

Historical Notes

Ocean Park began as the Pickering/Lick Piers in 1919 to be destroyed by fire in 1924 and rebuilt in 1926. The only structure that was not destroyed was the Ocean Park Municipal Auditorium built in 1923 which in 1958 was transformed into the USS Nautilus exhibit and the Westinghouse Enchanted Forest. In 1958 CBS & LA Turf Club (Santa Anita) purchased the Ocean Park Pier. After several years of operation POP closed in 1967 due to costs of maintaining equipment along with insurance. POP sat vacant where it was ravaged by several fires in the early 1970's and was demolished after a major fire in 1974. It was finally demolished in early 1975.*^

Historical Notes

In 1916, Charles I.D. Looff constructed a Moorish-Byzantine hippodrome, which housed a merry-go-round with 44 hand-crafted horses, a billiards and bowling hall, a two-track Blue Streak Racer wooden roller coaster along with The Whip and the Aeroscope thrill rides, a "What Is It?" maze, and several smaller rides. Looff's opening day, July 4, 1917, drew over 100,000 people; the biggest crowd in the city's history. In 1987, the Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.*

Historical Notes

"POP," as it was soon nicknamed and pronounced, "pee-oh-pee" was a joint venture between by CBS and Santa Anita Park. It opened on Saturday, July 28, 1958 with an attendance figure of 20,000. The next day, the park drew 37,262 which handily outperformed Disneyland's attendance figure that same day. Admission was ninety cents for adults which included access to the park and certain exhibits. The term "POP" was also used as a clever acronym for "Pay One Price", though other rides and attractions were on a pay-as-you-go basis.^

Historical Notes

In 1965, Santa Monica began its Ocean Park urban renewal project. Buildings in the surrounding area were demolished and streets leading to the park were closed. As a result, visitors simply couldn't reach the park and attendance plummeted to 621,000 in 1965 and 398,700 in 1966.

At the end of the 1967 tourist season, the park's creditors and the City of Santa Monica filed suit to take control of the property because of back taxes and back rent owed by the park's new owner since 1965. Pacific Ocean Park closed on October 6, 1967. The park's assets were auctioned off June 28 through June 30, 1968. The proceeds from the sale of thirty-six rides and sixteen games were used to pay off creditors. The park's dilapidated buildings and pier structure remained until several suspicious fires occurred and it was finally demolished in the winter of 1974-75.^

Historical Notes

Started in 1902, The Pike ran until 1979. When the Pacific Electric line to Long Beach was built, the Long Beach Bath House and Amusement Company built this bath house on the beach near the end of the street car line.*

Historical Notes

The Pike operated under several names. The amusement zone surrounding the Pike, "Silver Spray Pier", was included along with additional parking in the post-World War II expansion; it was all renamed Nu-Pike via a contest winner's submission in the late 1950s, then renamed Queens Park in the late 1960s in homage to the arrival of the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach.^

Historical Notes

Local urban legends suggest that Long Beach Poly High School's mascot, the jackrabbit, was named after this roller coaster. #

The Jack Rabbit Racer roller coaster stayed in operation until 1930 when it was replaced by the Cyclone Racer.*

Historical Notes

The Pike was most noted for the Cyclone Racer (1930–1968), a large wooden dual-track roller coaster, built out on pilings over the water. It was the largest and fastest coaster in the U.S. at the time.  They called it 'racer' because there were two trains on two separate tracks that raced one another from start to finish.*

Historical Notes

One of the best-known historic coasters, the Cyclone Racer was built in 1930 to replace the Jack Rabbit Racer. The Cyclone Racer was a dual-track (two trains could launch side-by-side at the same time), racing wooden roller coaster, the brain child of Fred Church and built by Harry Traver.

To increase thrill, the new coaster was built on pilings over the ocean, several hundred feet beyond the shore. Eventually the entire pier stood over sandy beach, not water, because of the sand deposition due the slowing of water caused by the new harbor expansion and breakwater. Over 30 million riders rode on the Cyclone before it closed in 1968.^

Historical Notes

In 1979 the Pike amusement zone was officially closed and demolished. By the time the lease with the city ended, The Pike had fallen into disrepair and most of the businesses had already left. The City of Long Beach then removed the remaining structures. Various plans for development of the area took form over the next twenty years. In 1999, the California Coastal Commission approved a plan for the construction of The Pike at Rainbow Harbor commercial and entertainment complex in the downtown shoreline area (not built until 2003). The name is only a nod in reference to the original amusement zone, bathing beach and boardwalk — the outdoor shopping mall bears no resemblance whatsoever to its historic predecessor.^

Historical Notes

The concept for Disneyland began when Walt Disney was visiting Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters Diane and Sharon. While watching them ride the merry-go-round, he came up with the idea of a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together. His dream lay dormant for many years. Disney also may have been influenced by his father's memories of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago (his father worked at the Exposition). The Midway Plaisance there included a set of attractions representing various countries from around the world and others representing various periods of man; it also included many rides including the first Ferris wheel, a "sky" ride, a passenger train that circled the perimeter, and a Wild West Show. Another likely influence was Benton Harbor, Michigan's nationally famous House of David's Eden Springs Park. Disney visited the park and ultimately bought one of the older miniature trains originally used there; the colony had the largest miniature railway setup in the world at the time.

In 1952, the proposed project had been called Disneylandia but Disney followed ABC Television advice and changed it to Disneyland two years later, when excavation of the Disneyland park site began. Construction began on July 16, 1954 and cost $17 million to complete. The park was opened one year and one day later (July 17, 1955). US Route 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just to the north of the site; in preparation for the traffic Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were added to the freeway before the park was finished.^

Historical Notes

Starting in 1920, farmer Walter Knott and his family developed their Buena Park berry farm into a popular tourist attraction. Originally selling berries, homemade berry preserves and pies from a roadside stand, Knott built a restaurant, shops and stores onto the property by the 1930s. These were then augmented with minor attractions and curiosities until Knott gradually created Ghost Town, transforming them from a way-point to a Western themed destination in 1940.

The idea of an amusement park really picked up in the 1950s when Walter Knott opened a "summer-long county fair". In 1968, for the first time, an admission of 25 cents was required to get into the park. The Calico log ride was added in 1969.^

Historical Notes

Marineland of the Pacific was a public oceanarium and tourist attraction located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast in Los Angeles County. Architect William Pereira designed the main structure. It was also known as Hanna-Barbera's Marineland during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marineland operated from 1954 until 1987, when it was purchased by the owners of SeaWorld, San Diego. The new owners moved the popular killer whales and other animals to their San Diego facility and abruptly closed Marineland.

When it opened in 1954, one year before Disneyland, Marineland of the Pacific was the world's largest oceanarium. Many considered it California's first major theme park.^

Historical Notes

Long before the other Busch Gardens parks, Adolphus Busch, cofounder of Anheuser-Busch, had his winter home in Pasadena, California. The wealthy easterner took advantage of the area’s mild climate and established the first Busch Gardens in 1906. When Busch died (1913) in his native Germany, his wife offered the property to the city of Pasadena as a park, which the city refused.

In 1954, a new brewery was opened in Van Nuys. The company opened a more modern version of Busch Gardens at this site in 1966 that included boat rides, a monorail and free beer. The 17-acre amusement park was renamed Busch Bird Sanctuary in 1977 and closed two years later.^

Historical Notes

From the beginning, Universal had offered tours of its studio. After Carl Laemmle opened Universal City on March 14, 1915, he would later invite the general public to see all the action for an admission fee of $0.25, which also included a lunch box containing chicken inside. There was also a chance to buy fresh produce, since then-rural Universal City was still in part a working farm. This original tour was discontinued in around 1930, due to the advent of sound films coming to Universal.

Shortly after Music Corporation of America took over Universal Pictures in 1962, accountants suggested a new tour in the studio commissary would increase profits. On July 15, 1964, the modern tour was established to include a series of dressing room walk-throughs, peeks at actual production, and later, staged events. This grew over the years into a full-blown theme park. The narrated tram tour (formerly "Glamor Trams") still runs through the studio's active back lot, but the staged events, stunt demonstrations and high-tech rides overshadow the motion-picture production that once lured fans to Universal Studios Hollywood.^

Historical Notes

Magic Mountain opened on Memorial Day weekend on May 30, 1971, by the Newhall Land and Farming Company. In 1979, Six Flags purchased the park and added the name Six Flags to the park's title. When the park opened, there were 500 employees and 33 attractions, many of which were designed and built by Arrow Development Co. which designed and built many of the original attractions at Disneyland. The admission price in 1971 was $5 for adults, and $3.50 for children.^