When I heard they were getting rid of the park it broke my heart. I remember being very unhappy when Paragon was closed because the beachfront was more valuable for condos and snickering at the condo developer going broke when the 1980s bubble burst. Beach was great! What are two most common biomes in Africa? A 14-year-old boy died after he fell Thursday night from a drop tower amusement ride that recently opened at the Orlando area's ICON Park entertainment complex, authorities said. Where is the Paragon Park roller coaster now, given this? A roller coaster in Japan known for its "super death" acceleration to triple-digit speeds was reportedly shut down after riders suffered serious bone fractures. Googling Pleasure Island Massachusetts will yield many fan sites as well as old and new information, not the least of which is a Friends of Pleasure Island website. We did just one stop at Bensons when I was a child and didnt like it. White City was the bestthe whole family would go on a Sunday afternooncousins, aunts and uncleswhat a blast! Each week, it seemed, brought a new development proposal. Within two seasons, however, Paragon was falling short of its financial projections, Eastern Parks investors wanted to abandon the concept. Rebecca thanks for visiting Retro Roadmap, and best of luck with your novel. Most of the time, news of an injury or death at a theme park involves a roller coaster. There were dances, performances, and exhibitions at the Alhambra Ballroom; the dinner hall on a bluff overlooking the bay was famed for its Rhode Island shore dinners (steamed clams, clam chowder, lobster, clam cakes, fish, corn on the cob, and watermelon). Waves are just as likely to come from local windswells as distant groundswells, and the best swell direction comes from the northeast. Till I was twelve, lived in Naugatuck CT and lived to ride Summing lessons in Lake Whalom, wonderful memories. So many memories of the roller coaster and other rides, as well as swimming at the beach across the street from the park where the water was very cold indeed! Here are 10 Disney movies that we think would make particularly great theme park rides, whether it be a dark ride, flume ride, or rollercoaster. Lincoln Park in Dartmouth, MA, just part of New Bedford, MA! The most visible prize at the June auction didnt attract the highest bid, but garnered the most attention. Dartmouths Child World Store Was Way Better Than Toys R Us, Dartmouth Bootleggers Role in Ending Prohibition, Dartmouth Responds to Homelessness [TOWNSQUARE SUNDAY], Cheers to National Margarita Day at These SouthCoast Spots, Dartmouth Man Pledges $25,000 to Shawmut Diner Rehab, Dartmouth To Be Home Of First SouthCoast Crumbl Cookies, New Bedford Shawmut Diner Donor to Bristol County Sheriff: Use It or Give It Back, Dartmouth School Bus Rear-Ended in Morning Crash, Have Heart-Shaped Pizza Delivered This Valentines Day. Paragon Park is where I spent almost every summer night. I had so many old photos of me so young with families and cousins srbthede park, Canobie is still open, far as I could tell, Canobie Lake Park is definitely not closed. Sorry when it closed. It still is the best! True story. I remember that was my choice Pleasure Island or a birthday party, and I always picked going to that park! On March 28, 1923, flames ripped through Paragon, causing $500,000 in damage and destroying much of the southern end of the park and the cottages along the way toward Atlantic Hill. One day in June 1911 while the roller coaster company's owner was standing up in a roller coaster car delivering a speech to other passengers about safety, he ironically fell to his death. I do remember Whalom Park and Bensons Wild Animal farm as well, we took our own children there a few times as well! As a South Shore kid I really miss Paragon Park in Hull MA (Nantasket Beach). The roller coaster, known as the Green Streak, replaced an earlier, figure-8 model that had been located at the rear of the complex next to the Palm Garden. A 14-year-old girl has died after a roller coaster car came off the track at an amusement park in Denmark. As Paragon lumbered along, relatively little changed during the following two decades except the names and locations of some of the rides. Roller coasters, water slides, bumper cars; it had it all. Hands down, Mountain Park in Holyoke (Western Massachusetts). I also remember Bensons fondly . Wow spent every summer thare as a kid into my teenage yrs. I have vague memories of Savin Rock in West Haven, CT. Paragon Park in Hull, MA was the best of the lot of amusement parks, Id say! There was a beautiful picnic area and was home to to the Mountain Park Playhouse for avid theater goers. But they would find that recovering from a flood was entirely different. I remember Savin Rock very well. That is the first one for me about 1952. In late 1915, he had leased parts of the park to fruit peddler David Stone and fellow hotelier Albert A. Damage estimates topped $300,000. As one of the most historic and popular highways in North America (and dare we say the world), Route 66 has gone through a series of changes since its inception in 1926, going from . Within weeks, however, Kahn-Quinn and the Stones had moved up the closing, deciding that opening the gates to souvenir-seekers, litigious loiterers, and potential vandals was too risky. Lots of fun and memories were made from my time spent at Whalom. But if you are feeling nostalgic, all is not lost: Scenes from Whalom Park were preserved for posterity in the 1982 music video for Touch and Go by the Cars. Paragon fans were getting used to the idea that there would be no final season. . The Chicago event introduced the concept of the midway of attractions now common at amusement parks and carnivals (known then as the Midway Plaisance), and inspired the construction of hundreds of enclosed parks across the country, many of which took their names from the White City nickname of the whitewashed buildings that surrounded the Columbian Expositions central lagoon. Giant Coaster Paragon Park (Hull, Massachusetts, United States) Removed, Operated from 1917 to 1985. Follow The History of Paragon Park on WordPress.com, Paragons Administration Building an original from 1905. This thing was the greatest. In Africa, what three biomes are the most common? Built in 1917, the wooden. He grew up on Lake Quinsigamond, so Im familiar with White City as well , as the wild animal farm, Nantasket, ( I eventually settled in nearby Cohasset, the carousel is still there. During the 1930s, part of the Giant Coaster was rebuilt and a brightly colored Art Deco main entrance was erected in 1937. Maurer Rides, a company from Germany,. We used to go every year! They flew around the 2,456-foot circuit and the coaster utilized two lift hills, each almost 100-feet high. Growing up in Everett,MA I know several of these parks. I went for a visit recently and got inspired for a novel Im working on, but I was looking for some photographic inspiration. Zoom in Zoom out Rotate right Fit screen Full expand. In short, we The skeet ball game. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. Share. Happy Anniversary to you both. https://vimeo.com/382437881, Paragon PkSo MUCH fun My Family would go into Boston and take the boat I cant remember what pier but it took about 1/2hr 2 get 2 Nantasket BeachIt was a LIFE time ago the Memorys last FOREVER. Ill never forget Lincoln Park Great Great Memories. In addition to the amusement parks there were shows (I remember seeing Loretta Lynn and others) and they also had auto races on Saturday nights. Take a ride down Memory. It was always fun to hang on the beach side with the arcades. The Summer of 1985 seemed like the longest ever, as day by day more and more of Paragon disappeared. Cyndinow living in South Jersey but always a New Englander. I thought it was pretty cool that the Paragon Giant Coaster was on the list of the Smithsonians Top Ten Coasters list. It remained on the site for a short time after the closing, a hulking ghost of the parks past. peter; There were daily parades and a scenic railroad, too. On Wednesday, June 12, 1985, hundreds of former employees, nostalgic patrons, and park operators from around the country braved a rainstorm to watch as bids were placed on each part of the park, from ticket booths and ride equipment to signs bearing the Paragon name. 2022 Dennis Connors Photography. My cousin owned the pizza shop across the street from the parking lot and lived there. In its 96 years, 1985 was the only season of operation the roller coaster has missed. Great memories growing up there with the park, the bowling alley and the roller skating rink! We were bused to school at Hingham. Except for the flying swings incident. Yet some may have taken a day trip away from the New Bedford and Fall River areas to visit another of New Englands great amusement parks of old the seaside gem Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts. It operated there from 1917 to 1984. Roller coasters Past This list is incomplete, please expand it if you can. It closed in 1984. Title . Please see my listings for other defunct New England Amusement Park shirts. Revere Beach was the closest, and we visited often. Grew up going to Lincoln Park many times,roller rink, bowling alley , battle of the bands on weekends as a teenager and the rides,Kiddieland and famous for wooden rollercoaster then went to McCrays for fried clams on RT 6 . Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA has to be the most beloved old amusement park in New England and one of the top 10 in the country. Almost all of the rides were dismantled and auctioned off. My favorite ride was the music express but not too soon after eating. Hi Joanne, I skated most every week end at the roller rink, Lil and her husband were great. I miss Pleasure Island in Wakefield MA! Also, not far from the park was the original (and still is) Frank Pepes pizzeria. Even the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 did little to improve things, although the ability to obtain liquor licenses made it manageable. Wildcat, Bell's Amusement Park, 1997. John- what great evocative memories you have of Hull! The carousel was always a favorite ride no matter how young or old I was. But most significantly, Dodge looked to make an impact with the new and improved park. Doesnt anyone remember two of the most popular parks in CT Savin Rock in New Haven, CT and Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport, Ct that was a lot smaller than the Rock but had one of the best ballrooms in the country with constant top named performing bands in attendance. The roller coaster was the worlds tallest when it was built in 1917. [1] More rides that Paragon hosted over the years were the Trabant, the Tilt-A-Whirl, Galaxy Coaster, the Skydiver, Paratrooper, Matterhorn, Himalaya, Round Up, Scrambler, Crazy Tea Cups, Twister Kiddie Coaster, Caterpillar, the Whip, Batman-slide, Super-slide, Salt and Pepper Shakers, Swing ride, Rotor, along with many rides that were smaller versions of these, geared towards children. The centerpiece of the complex a metal track on which riders raced their horses against each other, based on the old English horse race through the countryside, usually with a distant church steeple as the finish line was only part of the show. Although he and Eastern Park sold off the Rockland House as part of their 1907 separation, Dodge later bought the Pemberton Hotel and Pemberton Inn, adjacent hotels at the farthest end of the Hull peninsula. It officially became an amusement park in 1980 and featured a number of flat rides mostly from HUSS Maschinenfabrik as it served as a U.S. showcase for new Huss rides during the 1980s. Only six years before its inclusion on the list of National Historic Landmarks, the 85-foot-high ride with a top speed of 60 mph proved deadly to one rider. Till I was a teenager lived in Naugatuck CT and lived to ride the wonderful carousel at nearby Lake Quassapaug! What wouldnt be kept in town, however, were the rides and equipment that now stood in the way of the Plaza at Paragon Park. I see lots of amusement parks in RI in this article, but I dont remember driving , but maybe we did go to the one mentioned in Warwick. He proposed twin 18-story towers, each double the height of the world-famous roller coasters first hill. On a dark winter evening homeward-bound in the front passenger seat in our 53 Chevy after Christmas shopping at the Paragon Parks Arcade Bazaar a warehouse-like fluorescent-lit discount toy store in Nantasket Beach my mom told me the heartbreaking truth about Santa Claus. They married in 1935. I loved White City! It was a complicated transaction, as Dodge still was leasing the property from the railroad, and subleased the operation to Stone and Golden. In late 1984, they accepted Kahns offer. My parents had season tickets on Tuesday nights for years. Maybe 1977? 1950s. Among the amusement rides in operation during Paragon Park's history was a traditional-style Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel (PTC #85) built in 1928 with hand-crafted horses, a bumper cars ride known as "Auto Scooters", a Ferris wheel, a horror-themed dark ride called "Kooky Kastle", and a wooden roller coaster known as The Giant Coaster.[1]. Loved going to Rocky Point sometimes just for the chowder and clam cakes but always ended up in the amusement park. This is an unused Paragon Park t-shirt from the long defunct amusement park that was located in Nantasket Beach, Hull Ma. It remained so until 1925, when it was topped by two feet by the Revere Beach Cyclone just down the road. She convinced me to ride the corkscrew roller coaster and that was the beginning of my love of roller coasters. The Great Blizzard of 1978 put the park under six feet of water as the Atlantic Ocean and Hull Bay converged on the Hull peninsula and left a wake of destruction. The developers said theyd received at least 100 deposits from potential condo buyers; evidence, they said, that the market existed for high-rise units overlooking the ocean and the bay. Younger brother Larry, 30, and mother Rose, 73, were left carry on the management of the family business. Yet, in 14 years (1990-2004), there were only 54 amusement park fatalities. Im now a Hull year-round resident, 1/4 mile from where the park once stood. Thanks so much for adding them to the thread here on Retro Roadmap. Such fond memories. We would make sure to hit every ride and try our luck at the various games of chance as well. My Aunt bought a house near back entrance. I was in 5th grade so spent much of the summer watching the fishing boats come and leave from Pemberton Pier. day. It is 1984! You say Wonderland may have helped inspire Disneyland, but Disney employees were actually involved with Pleasure Island in Wakefield, Massachusetts. In 2019, there were 1,299 injuries in US amusement parks. Its assets were sold off in 1979, with the land being cleared for a housing development. The coaster was 1,400 feet long and featured an 88-foot drop. I spend my life in that park. but still good memories. I liked Riverside Park in the 70s. I found this video in my archives! New England offers plenty of memorable amusement park experiences, from Six Flags New England and Canobie Lake Park to Story Land and Lake Compounce. I know it was small compared to others mentioned, Salem Willows was always a blast! With the dragon that breathed real fire that you could see from the main Route. The park's Ferris wheel was moved to the New Bedford waterfront and the Comet roller coaster was torn down on July 11, 2012. I know the Congo Cruise was called the Red Mill at one point but I think that was in my mothers generation, I always remember it as the Congo Cruise. Then in myn40s met a man. I took my children there all the time ides were reasonable for a family. Skeeball and pinball machines were favorite games at Paragon Park's penny arcade. By the 1980s, attendance had started to decline, along with the facility itself. I still think of it and its thrills in y late 70s. I lived in Leominister and took the bus to whalom Park on Saturdays. It was the place to go. Download Go. Kings Castle, Whitman, great amusements for kids to age 10 maybe 12. I have a 24 doll won by my aunt at the Nantasket beach, the doll has no markings, but has the tag still stapled on the voil dress she has on, the tag said won at Luckys Nantasket beach park . At the very last minute, it would make a sharp turn to keep everyone dry. I also remember the Revere Beach Amusements alomng Revere Beach in the 50s and 60s. With the Stones out of town on vacation, disaster duty fell to Klayman. 20 Best Things to Do in New England in March, 10 Best Things to Do in The Spring in New England, 40 Cozy Fireside Experiences in New England, Yankee Magazines Ultimate Guide to Autumn in New England, Yankee Magazines Ultimate New England Winter Guide, Yankee Magazines Ultimate New England Summer Guide, 63 Reasons Why We Love the Cape & Islands, For $14 Million, You Could Own Provincetowns Iconic Lobster Pot Restaurant. Launched as a trolley park (parks at the terminus of trolley lines were all the rage at the time), the property soon evolved from a series of serene walking paths to a bustling destination filled with midway games and rides like Ferris wheels and carousels. Vendors along the boardwalk sold fried clams, salt water taffy made in a pulling machine visible to patrons, hot dogs and other food. A park worker's fatal joyride Raymond Boyd/Getty Images The later years at Bensons they had Christmas displays. Roller Coaster Death: Five amusement park deaths that will shock roller coaster fans 1. My best memories of my being a teenager is my time being at Paragon Park. WHAT IS IT? I worked for Paragon Park as a ride operator for three consecitives summers from the age 14-17. Ive nothing but great memories of how it used to be around here (sounds of the park were like music to my ears. The wooden coaster was previously known as Giant Coaster when it was located at Paragon Park in Hull, Massachusetts. Could hear the train whistle every Saturday from my yard. Subsequent owners added various entertainments, including a baseball field on which Babe Ruth once played. Who lived where the park was. There was a tunnel of love dubbed the Rivers of Venice, an on-site radio station, and of course all manner of roller coasters and other thrill rides. It was similar to another of its kind in the Adirondacks north of Schroon Lake, Frontiertown. It must have been about 1956 when we went to Cowboy Village. We lived in Hamden and Dad thought it was fairly close by in Killingworth. Great times and wonderful memories of a time long gone by. David Stone lost two houses on Rockland House Road in the fire; others involved in area concessions lost their homes and businesses as well. Its most famous piece is functioning a huge light up cross at the top of a summit overlooking I-84, clearly seen from the highway at all hours. Ive been on the one at Canobie and maybe one other but that was enough for me! I can remember Whalom as it were yesterday, spent lots of hrs at the park, stayed with my aunt a lot, lived on Chase ave, down by the play house cabins for the stars. Very scary, but such an adventure. From 1971-78, I spent my entire summers at Paragon Park. The park, which had been in the family of Larry and Phyllis Stone for 65 years, closed after the 1984 season and was sold for a condominium development. The person, who has not been identified, was flung about 10 feet out . 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