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EspañolPALISADES AMUSEMENT PARK
'Palisades Amusement Park' was an amusement park located in Bergen County, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. It was atop the New Jersey Palisades and was partially in Cliffside Park and partly in Fort Lee. It was in operation from 1898 until 1971, and near the end of its life was still one of the most-visited amusement parks in the United States. Essentially, it became a victim of its own success. After the park closed, a high-rise luxury apartment complex was built on its site.
Palisades Park began as a trolley park called ''The Park on the Palisades'', which first opened in 1898. The park was designed and built by the Bergen County Traction Company, a trolley operator, to encourage use of its service between the Edgewater ferry landing and the top of the Palisades. Although at this time it was more of a traditional walking park with very few features of an amusement park, riders still took the trolley line to reach the sylvan recreation site atop the hill.
By 1908, the park had come under new ownership and been renamed ''Palisades Amusement Park'', and the new owners began adding amusement rides and attractions. In 1910, the park was purchased by Nicholas and Joseph Schenck, brothers who were prominent in the nascent motion picture industry then burgeoning in nearby Fort Lee. They renamed the park once again, calling it ''Schenck Bros. Palisade Park''. In 1913, the park added a salt-water swimming pool filled by pumping water from the saline Hudson River, 200 feet (60 meters) below. This pool, 400 by 600 feet (120 meters by 180 meters) in surface area, was billed as the largest salt-water pool in the nation.
As the park added more and more attractions, it became so famous by the 1920s that the Borough of Palisades Park, located just west of the amusement park, actually considered changing its name to avoid visitors' confusion.
In 1928 the park introduced the 3rd of Harry Traver's infamous Cyclone roller coasters, regarded as some of the most extreme and vicious coasters ever made. Unfortunately due to the high maintenance costs the ride only lasted 6 years before being removed.[1]
In 1934, Jack and Irving Rosenthal, Brooklyn brothers and entrepreneurs who had built a fortune as concessionaires at Coney Island, bought the park from the Schencks. The famous ''Cyclone'' roller coaster at Coney Island was the Rosenthals' creation in 1927, and is still running today. The Rosenthals restored the park's previous and most famous name, ''Palisades Amusement Park'', and kept it running through the Great Depression and up to the start of World War II.
In 1944, a fire that reportedly began underneath one of the park's rides destroyed much of the facility. The Rosenthals repaired the damage in short order, and the park was reopened in time for the 1945 season and continued to open each spring through 1971. One new attraction at the rebuilt park was a roller coaster called the ''Cyclone'', named after the Rosenthals' beloved Coney Island coaster. This new wooden coaster is said to have actually been built using part of the old ''Skyrocket'' coaster, which had been partially damaged in the fire.
The park's reputation and attendance continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s, largely due to saturation advertising and the continued success of the park's music pavilion, erected during the Schencks' ownership era. In the mid-1950s the park started featuring rock and roll shows hosted by local disc jockey Bruce Morrow, also known as "Cousin Brucie," and starting in the 1960s, Motown musical acts performed. The park's renown extended far beyond the New York City metropolitan area, as advertisements for it were frequently run in the back pages of 1950s and 1960s comic books. The Rosenthals realized that NYC-area youths represented the largest single market for comic books in the nation, and thus comic book advertising was a cheap way to reach thousands of potential customers. In 1962, Freddy Cannon recorded a song about the park, "Palisades Park," which got nationwide airplay and boosted the park's fame even further. Radio and TV commercials in the metropolitan New York area encouraged the public to, "Come on over!".
Behind the music stage lay the park's worst-kept secret: a hole in the fence used by local children to gain free admission to the park. Despite the fact that the management knew about this breach, it was purposely left unrepaired. Unlike more modern amusement parks, Palisades Amusement Park charged individual fees for each ride and attraction inside the park in addition to the entrance fee. Feeling that children, who had little money to start with, would be more willing to spend it at the park if they had more left after entering, Irving Rosenthal allowed this "secret" entrance to remain and instructed security personnel to look the other way if they saw anyone sneaking through it. The same thinking led Rosenthal to saturate the market with free-admission offers printed on matchbooks and in other places. Parking was also free for the same reasons, although in later years the onsite parking lot became woefully inadequate as the park attracted bigger and bigger crowds. Consequently many visitors were forced to park on nearby side streets, clogging traffic and taking up street parking spaces, much to the great frustration of many area residents. This chronic shortage of parking space ultimately sealed the fate of Palisades Amusement Park.
By 1967, Jack Rosenthal had died of Parkinson's disease1, leaving his brother Irving, now in his 70s with no family heirs, as the sole owner. He was not expected to run the park for much longer. 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 droves. Local residents, tired of the traffic jams, litter and other problems 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.
Over the next few years, the land was surveyed by a number of builders who made lucrative offers, but Rosenthal refused to sell. Finally in January 1971, a Texas developer, the Winston-Centex Corporation, purchased the property for $12 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. Its 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 famous 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.
1. http://www.coasterglobe.com/features/lostlegends-crystalbeachcyclone/index.cfm www.coasterglobe.com - Lost Legends: Crystal Beach Cyclone
★ List of abandoned amusement parks
★ Palisades Amusement Park Historical Society
| Contents |
| The Trolley Park Era |
| The Schenck Brothers: 1908-1934 |
| The Rosenthal Brothers: 1934-1971 |
| The Park's Demise |
| References |
| See also |
| External link |
The Trolley Park Era
Palisades Park began as a trolley park called ''The Park on the Palisades'', which first opened in 1898. The park was designed and built by the Bergen County Traction Company, a trolley operator, to encourage use of its service between the Edgewater ferry landing and the top of the Palisades. Although at this time it was more of a traditional walking park with very few features of an amusement park, riders still took the trolley line to reach the sylvan recreation site atop the hill.
The Schenck Brothers: 1908-1934
By 1908, the park had come under new ownership and been renamed ''Palisades Amusement Park'', and the new owners began adding amusement rides and attractions. In 1910, the park was purchased by Nicholas and Joseph Schenck, brothers who were prominent in the nascent motion picture industry then burgeoning in nearby Fort Lee. They renamed the park once again, calling it ''Schenck Bros. Palisade Park''. In 1913, the park added a salt-water swimming pool filled by pumping water from the saline Hudson River, 200 feet (60 meters) below. This pool, 400 by 600 feet (120 meters by 180 meters) in surface area, was billed as the largest salt-water pool in the nation.
As the park added more and more attractions, it became so famous by the 1920s that the Borough of Palisades Park, located just west of the amusement park, actually considered changing its name to avoid visitors' confusion.
In 1928 the park introduced the 3rd of Harry Traver's infamous Cyclone roller coasters, regarded as some of the most extreme and vicious coasters ever made. Unfortunately due to the high maintenance costs the ride only lasted 6 years before being removed.[1]
The Rosenthal Brothers: 1934-1971
In 1934, Jack and Irving Rosenthal, Brooklyn brothers and entrepreneurs who had built a fortune as concessionaires at Coney Island, bought the park from the Schencks. The famous ''Cyclone'' roller coaster at Coney Island was the Rosenthals' creation in 1927, and is still running today. The Rosenthals restored the park's previous and most famous name, ''Palisades Amusement Park'', and kept it running through the Great Depression and up to the start of World War II.
In 1944, a fire that reportedly began underneath one of the park's rides destroyed much of the facility. The Rosenthals repaired the damage in short order, and the park was reopened in time for the 1945 season and continued to open each spring through 1971. One new attraction at the rebuilt park was a roller coaster called the ''Cyclone'', named after the Rosenthals' beloved Coney Island coaster. This new wooden coaster is said to have actually been built using part of the old ''Skyrocket'' coaster, which had been partially damaged in the fire.
The park's reputation and attendance continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s, largely due to saturation advertising and the continued success of the park's music pavilion, erected during the Schencks' ownership era. In the mid-1950s the park started featuring rock and roll shows hosted by local disc jockey Bruce Morrow, also known as "Cousin Brucie," and starting in the 1960s, Motown musical acts performed. The park's renown extended far beyond the New York City metropolitan area, as advertisements for it were frequently run in the back pages of 1950s and 1960s comic books. The Rosenthals realized that NYC-area youths represented the largest single market for comic books in the nation, and thus comic book advertising was a cheap way to reach thousands of potential customers. In 1962, Freddy Cannon recorded a song about the park, "Palisades Park," which got nationwide airplay and boosted the park's fame even further. Radio and TV commercials in the metropolitan New York area encouraged the public to, "Come on over!".
Behind the music stage lay the park's worst-kept secret: a hole in the fence used by local children to gain free admission to the park. Despite the fact that the management knew about this breach, it was purposely left unrepaired. Unlike more modern amusement parks, Palisades Amusement Park charged individual fees for each ride and attraction inside the park in addition to the entrance fee. Feeling that children, who had little money to start with, would be more willing to spend it at the park if they had more left after entering, Irving Rosenthal allowed this "secret" entrance to remain and instructed security personnel to look the other way if they saw anyone sneaking through it. The same thinking led Rosenthal to saturate the market with free-admission offers printed on matchbooks and in other places. Parking was also free for the same reasons, although in later years the onsite parking lot became woefully inadequate as the park attracted bigger and bigger crowds. Consequently many visitors were forced to park on nearby side streets, clogging traffic and taking up street parking spaces, much to the great frustration of many area residents. This chronic shortage of parking space ultimately sealed the fate of Palisades Amusement Park.
The Park's Demise
By 1967, Jack Rosenthal had died of Parkinson's disease1, leaving his brother Irving, now in his 70s with no family heirs, as the sole owner. He was not expected to run the park for much longer. 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 droves. Local residents, tired of the traffic jams, litter and other problems 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.
Over the next few years, the land was surveyed by a number of builders who made lucrative offers, but Rosenthal refused to sell. Finally in January 1971, a Texas developer, the Winston-Centex Corporation, purchased the property for $12 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. Its 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 famous 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.
References
1. http://www.coasterglobe.com/features/lostlegends-crystalbeachcyclone/index.cfm www.coasterglobe.com - Lost Legends: Crystal Beach Cyclone
See also
★ List of abandoned amusement parks
External link
★ Palisades Amusement Park Historical Society
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