White City Amusement Park - Dayton, OH - Defunct Amusement Parks on Waymarking.com

Wikipedia tells us:

White City is the common name of dozens of amusement parks in the United States. Inspired by the White City and Midway Plaisance sections of the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, the parks started gaining in popularity in the last few years of the 19th century.

From the history webpage of Island MetroPark:

Island MetroPark was formerly known as the White City Amusement Park in the late 19th century. The park had a dance pavilion, amusement rides, canoe lockers, refreshment stand, and other recreation features. By 1907 the park had become run down and not well maintained. In 1910, Dayton started leasing the park land for $3,000 a year, and in 1911, a recommendation to buy the land was proposed in the report submitted by the Olmsted Brothers.

The Great Flood of 1913 left the Dayton area incapacitated and knocked out the bridge that allowed passage; and damaged a number of buildings at the White City Amusement Park. Because of the park was located in a flood area there was initially no redeeming quality to replace the bridge that connected the park at Helena Street to the Main St. car line.

Then, on July 13, 1913, the Dayton Canoe Club held is first regatta. D.W. Begley the owner to the boathouse across from White City park ferried spectators across the river free of charge. Consequently, after two more successful regattas’ that summer the Dayton city officials decided to rebuild White City. On June 20, 1914, the park formally opened as Island Park. The park became an ideal location in the coming years for programming that included bathing, picnicking, canoeing, boating, dancing, ice skating, water carnivals, evening band concerts, and general recreation.

Date Park Closed: 01/01/1907 Address: 101 East Helena Street Dayton, Ohio USA Current Use or Function: Municipal Park Is the park still there?: No If not, what is in its place now?: Island MetroPark Date Park Opened: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
You must post at least one original picture at the posted coords to post a visit log for this waymark. Extra points if you are in the spirit of the park (i.e., in costume, etc.).

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   06/11/2016 stevepre2 visited it 09/02/2012 powertool visited it 06/12/2012 Clan RunningBison visited it

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