Sylvan Beach - La Porte, TX
Posted by: 
jhuoni
N 29° 39.192 W 095° 00.644
15R E 305378 N 3282048
Once a seaside amusement park and pavillion, hurricanes in the 1940s closed this park. It was not reopened until Harris County reopened it in 1955, minus the rides and concessions.
Waymark Code: WMXZPF
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/23/2018
Views: 1
Sylvan Beach
When the original developers laid out the new town of La Porte, they set aside 22 acres as a city park. Known originally as “The Grove” because of the beautiful trees that reached the water's edge, and later as “Sylvan Grove,” it has always been a privately owned park. It was renamed “Sylvan Beach” shortly after the town was created.
In the early 1900s, the park was purchased by Mr. G.D. Samuels, who developed it into a public amusement park nand built a grand entrance gate to Sylvan Beach. It flourished until 1915 when Mother Nature devastated the park and destroyed the gate. Mr. Samuels sold the park to Mr. J.F. “Uncle Ed” Eiseman.
Mr. Eiseman redeveloped the park and instituted many popular events including a water rodeo, Sylvan Beach Day and the tremendously popular bathing beauty contest. During Eiseman’s ownership the park became nationally known. The Parks Brothers Sylvan Beach Band toured in the winter months and advertised “the largest dance floor in the South” at the Sylvan Beach Pavilion.
In the 1930s the park changed hands again when it was purchased by Mr. E.L. Crane, who remodeled the entire park with a new art deco entrance and many rides and concessions. In 1936, the Rudy Vallee Band played at Sylvan and ushered in the Big Band Era to the park and the South.
Many notable people passed through the gates of Sylvan Beach Park. Walter Cronkite sold hamburgers, Howard Hughes would anchor off the beach and listen to the music and Dr. Denton Cooley, Heart Specialist, had a summer job here when a boy.
Destructive hurricanes in 1941 and 1943 did considerable damage to the park and with World War II on the horizon Sylvan Beach Park went dark and remained so until it was purchased by Harris County in 1955 as a county park.