Euclid Beach Park (1895 – September 28, 1969) was a popular amusement park located on the southern shore of Lake Erie in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.
Originally incorporated by investors from Cleveland and patterned after New York's Coney Island, the park was managed by William R. Ryan, Sr., who ran a park with gambling, a beer garden, and freak shows. In 1897, Lee Holtzman became Euclid Beach's new director, but he offered it for sale in 1901.
Dudley S. Humphrey, Jr., led six members of his family in managing the park as of 1901 (they had previously operated concessions at the park, but had been particularly unhappy with the way Ryan ran it). They expanded the beach and bathing facilities, including adding a lakeside swing, added many new attractions, and advertised to locals with the slogan, "one fare, free gate and no beer."
Designed to be a family-friendly park, the Humphreys would not admit anyone who had consumed a beer at a nearby bar. Signs throughout the park instructed that only children were permitted to wear shorts, because the Humphreys thought that proper dress would promote a family-friendly atmosphere. At one point the park advertised that it would "present nothing that would demoralize or depress," and that visitors would "never be exposed to undesirable people." In August 1910, the park was the site of an exhibition flight by aviator Glenn Curtiss from Euclid Beach to Cedar Point and back.
Read more about Euclid Beach Park: Rides and Attractions, The Euclid Beach Park Riot, Decline and Closure
Famous quotes containing the words beach and/or park:
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?”
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)