Customer Reviews

Rhode Island's Amusement Parks (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing))

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As a former New England resident I was able to visit three of these wonderful old amusement parks before they were bulldozed. This book tells the story and history of America's oldest amusement parks. My fovorate was Rocky Point Park of Rhode Island, the SECOND oldest amusement park in America. Rocky Point had a good run, opend in 1847 and lost to economic changes in 1995. The first Presidential telephone call was placed at Rocky Point by President, Rutherford B. Hayes to Alexander Grahm Bell in Providence. George M. Cohen first performed "Yankee Doodle Dandy" at Rocky Point. The Three Stoogies made many appearances at Rocky Point. These amusment parks were invented by the Trolley Companies. They built the parks on Trolley Routes to promote their services and boost ridership. The parks were originally called "Trolley Parks" and most major cities had them. Coney Island got it's start from a Trolley Service in New York. This book also contains many old photographs of the New England parks. An awsome read about some historical old amusement parks, great book!

This book is great because it contains tons of photos spanning the complete history of Crescent Park in Riverside, Rhode Island. It has become a treasured heirloom because most of my family (McCuskers, Phillips, and Martin's) grew up working at the park. Even though I wasn't around during the parks hayday, having been born in the mid-1970's, stories about the park still fascinate me to this day.