Palisades Amusement Park - Demise

Demise

Two key factors contributed to the eventual closing of Palisades Amusement Park: near-gridlock traffic conditions in its vicinity due to inadequate parking facilities along with growing uncertainty over its future. By 1967, Jack Rosenthal had died of Parkinson's disease leaving his brother Irving as sole owner. Irving, in his 70s by then, was not expected to run the park for much longer and with no family heirs, it was unclear as to who would eventually assume ownership. Meanwhile the park had become so popular that the towns of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee were being overwhelmed by the hordes of people who were "coming on over" in response to the park's ads, and the traffic situation had become intolerable. Local residents, tired of the traffic jams, litter and other problems (i.e., changing racial demographics) caused by the park's immense popularity, demanded action from local elected officials. Developers saw an opportunity to cash in on the Palisades' spectacular view of Manhattan, and they successfully pressured the local government to re-zone the amusement park site for high-rise apartment housing and condemn it under eminent domain. Thus the fate of Palisades Amusement Park was sealed, a victim of gentrification.

Over the next few years, the land was surveyed by a number of builders who made lucrative offers, but Rosenthal tried to postpone the park's inevitable closing and refused to sell. During the heyday of "Palisades Park" in the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Irving, as he was called at work, would refer to Fort Lee as his town.

The right offer finally came in January 1971. A Texas developer, Winston-Centex Corporation, acquired the property for $12.5 million and agreed to lease it back to Irving Rosenthal so that Palisades Amusement Park could operate for one final season. The park closed its gates for the last time on Sunday, September 12, 1971.

After it closed, Morgan "Mickey" Hughes and Fletch Crammer, Jr. tried to reopen the park for one more season and obtained a lease from Winston-Centex. However, the town of Fort Lee would not issue a business license until the following spring and even then they could not ensure it would be forthcoming. Alas, the buildings were subsequently demolished and rides sold, dismantled and transported to other amusement operators in the United States and Canada. The towns of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee considered using the park's salt-water swimming pool for municipal recreation, only to find that its filtration system had been damaged beyond repair by vandals.

Three high-rise luxury apartment buildings stand on the old park site today. The first to be built was Winston Towers; it and Carlyle Towers now stand in Cliffside Park, while a third building, the Buckingham, is in Fort Lee. In 1998, on the centennial of the opening of the original Park on the Palisades, Winston Towers management dedicated a monument to Palisades Amusement Park on its property.