Fire
Steeplechase burned during the 1907 season, destroying most of the park. The morning after the fire Tilyou posted a sign outside the park. It read:
To enquiring friends: I have troubles today that I had not yesterday. I had troubles yesterday which I have not today. On this site will be built a bigger, better, Steeplechase Park. Admission to the burning ruins -- Ten cents.
The park was rebuilt for the 1908 season, although the new park was not fully open until 1909. It now included a "Pavilion of Fun" in an indoor enclosure covered by steel and glass that covered 5 acres (20,000 m2). Steeplechase burned again in less-destructive incidents in 1936 and 1939.
Three years after the park fully reopened, Tilyou died, leaving the care of the park to his children, who continued to operate it for the next fifty years.
Read more about this topic: Steeplechase Park
Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“O none but gods have power their love to hide,
Affection by the count’nance is descride.
The light of hidden fire it selfe discovers,
And love that is conceal’d, betraies poore lovers.”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched seabeams glitter in the dark near the Tennhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.”
—David Webb Peoples, U.S. screenwriter, and Ridley Scott. Roy Batty, Blade Runner, final words before dying—as an android he had a built-in life span that expired (1982)
“The fire burns as the novel taught it how.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)