Aquarama Aquarium Theater of The Sea - History

History

Aquarama was a leading 1960s educational and entertainment concept that combined the previous elements of an Aquarium zoo with theatrical aquatic circus. Even its name reflected 21st century jargon Aqua+"arama" (like Cinerama) communicating a Sea to "See" it all. This private enterprise successor to the City owned Philadelphia Aquarium established as the first of its kind in the City of Philadelphia in 1911 that was closed in 1962. The old Aquarium had been housed in vacated building space when the City's Fairmount Park Waterworks was closed and the pumping machine removed. The building was located along the Schuylkill River using the river as a water source. It was a success until the 1940s with over one million visitors annually, until the facility fell into disrepair and exhibits diminished in variety and became known more for dead fish and a building infested with rodents. The City failed to provide funds to build a new public Aquarium in Fairmount Park recommended by the Farirmount Park Commission. Frustration led to raising $3 million of private funds to build Aquarama on the 10-acre (40,000 m2) site in South Philadelphia.

Billing itself as “The Theater of the Sea”, Aquarama opened its doors in 1962 on South Broad Street, across from where Veterans Stadium would stand a decade later along with and the 2003 creation of the expanded South Philadelphia Sports Complex alongside the Spectrum, and Wachovia Center. By the late 1960s, however, Philadelphians began to tire of Aquarama and was financially failing. After only 7 years of existence, Philadelphia’s “Theater of the Sea” quietly disappeared and was demolished in 1969.