Chester Park, Cincinnati, OH

[BoddaH1994]

This sort of thing fascinates me. It seems like there was some sort of amusement park in every section of town at some point. I remember a few years ago reading about Ludlow Lagoon in Ludlow, KY. The intersection where the front gate was approximately housed sounded oddly familiar. As it turns out, it was exactly where my supervisor (at the time) had just purchased a house. Weird, huh?

Another sort-of-irony has happened again. I was trolling through coaster-count.com (one day I'll figure out how many rides I've been on... just not today) and I found a listing for Chester Park. This listing included nearly ten coasters. Out of curiosity, I Googled the name and found that it sits in a part of town in which I frequent: Spring Grove Ave, near the McDonalds and the Honda dealership.

I found some things interesting about this article. Primarily, the final blow for Chester Park was that people were more attracted to Coney Island. This is presumably due to the fact that the American infrastructure had advanced by the post-WWII era that people from that part of town could even get to Coney. The article also mentions that during the Great Depression era, patrons preferred to forget about their worries by going to the movies rather than amusement parks.

Does this tie into Kings Island? Well, it does. Loosely.

You know how we always say that The Racer was the father of the "Second Golden Age" of roller coasters? Well, we've always said that only a handful of coasters were built between the late 1930's and 1972, and The Racer reignited an interest in these rides. However, no one really asks why the interest suddenly went away. The truth is that there is no one answer. However, the story of Chester Park is a good example of a large contributing factor into what happened. Word War One ended... people were home, America was the victor, life was good! Then the depression hit. No park anywhere was truly in a good position to expand. Later World War II rationing made it nearly impossible. America emerged again victorious and the country was stronger than ever. The amusement industry recovered like any other, but had a lot of dust to shake off. Nearly 20 years of near-bankruptcy for many parks left them with a stripped sense of identity. Then Walt Disney walks in and revolutionizes everything the world had known about amusement parks. Roller coasters, after many years of silence, simply fell through the cracks.

Chester Park was a casualty of all of the contributing factors listed above. Check out the article - it's an awesome read:

http://www2.cincinnati.com/blogs/ourhistory/2012/09/19/chester-park-was-once-citys-top-entertainment-destination/

[The Interpreter]

Also realize it was Walt Disney who made amusement parks "respectable" places--not seedy, attracting "disreputable" types and full of real or perceived dangers. The typical post World War II pre-Disney park was not a place most "proper" people went.

We can pretend that America, then or now, is a classless society, but doing so doesn't make it so.

As society changes, this is particularly so. One of the saddest and most insightful pieces I've ever read is here:

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/20140913-shrinking-middle-class-takes-a-toll-on-retailers.ece

Consider that. And its effect on parks as well.

From a personal standpoint, my working class family was far too poor to go to Disneyland...which was in California--a place so far away and so exotic, it may as well have been Mars in terms of accessibilty. It would be 1999 before I sat foot in a Disney property...for many, many reasons. Even now, for many of those same reasons, I vastly prefer Califormia Disney to Florida Disney.

Disney was/is aimed at the middle to upper classes. One reason their parks are so highly successful, one few will admit, is their de facto exclusion of the poor, the downtrodden, the unhappy and, largely, even the annoying. If anything, recent trends show the Disney organization is well aware of this, and exploring it to the benefit of the corporate bursar.

The lodging industry does the same thing. For a bit more, the customer can associate with her own kind and not have to encounter the economy lodging type. For a lot more, one can be ritzy.

Terp, more comfortable at Red Roof than Hilton, and at Marriott than the Ritz. He's funny like that (living in an early 1950's apartment building in a less than ritzy part of DC, but not in the perceived "hood"--is an example. Driving a Subaru, and not a Mercedes, Audi, BMW or even Cadillac is another. And yet, he adores Waffle House!)

[westcoaster]

Heard of Chester, the Old Coney Island, Ludlow Lagoon, and Lesourdsville, great old parks, and across the nation slipping away from society, still love Chattanooga TN has a great gem of a park with a water ride that is still in the Lake. Memories, and the only one I can say I've been to is New Coney incarnation after 1971, and Lesourdsville/ Americana, out of the Cincinnati Parks.

Some of the rides and attractions that would have been nice to seen.

But so thankful we had what was Spawned by the success of the Coney Island and selling to Taft, and creating Kings Island, not the same, but lucky and blessed it was created.

[raptor]

I've always been fascinated with the Ludlow Lagoon, it looked pretty neat for its day. I have a postcard from the Lagoon I bought off of ebay. If you ever take a look at the Images of America picture book of Ludlow KY there is a whole chapter on the Lagoon with lots of pictures, there is also lots of pictures at the nkyviews website: http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/kenton_lagoon_1.htm

My mother has told me that her mother used to tell her about Chester Park. She used to go there when she was young and said it was a great, fun park.

About 6 or 7 years ago there was a book written about the whole history of the Lagoon and Chester Park. Quite interesting, I don't remember the name of it.

[coasterfanatic83]

Chester Park's coaster-ish ride, The Tickler, looked like a Plinko board.

http://www.cincinnativiews.net/images-4/Chester-1909.jpg

[homestar92]

Chester Park's coaster-ish ride, The Tickler, looked like a Plinko board.

http://www.cincinnativiews.net/images-4/Chester-1909.jpg

I've seen that photo before. Every time I see the sign that says "Re-modeled: Not as rough as last season!" I just about lose it with laughter. What a way to market your offseason maintenance!

[BoddaH1994]

Funny of the terminology changes. I've never heard of a ride being "remodeled."

[XGatorHead 8904]

My grandma, who just celebrated her 90th birthday on September 8th, used to go to Chester Park as a girl. She said that Coney was just too hard to get to but her family could get to Chester by taking the trolley. She said that's where she rode her first roller coaster and where they used to go swimming.

[Outdoor Man]

how much would the food be at the "Popular Price Luncheon?"