Customer Reviews

Riverview Amusement Park (IL) (Images of America)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't deny that a lot of research went into this book, but I still found it disappointing because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. The bulk of this volume deals with Riverview's pre-1930 history, while the period from World War II to the park's sudden demise in 1967 only gets limited coverage photo-wise. If you're curious about Riverview's early years or if you're an aficionado of amusement-park history, this book may interest you. However, if you have indelible memories of visiting Riverview during the last two or three decades of its existence, you won't find much photo material here. And photographs are the main appeal of an image-laden publication like this.

Let's face it: the people who are still around to remember Riverview these days are people who remember it from its post-WWII period. There's simply not enough material from this era to satisfy this demographic.

I grew up in Chicago on the Northwest side so was excited to find a book on Riverview Amusement Park because in my mind there has never been another amusement park like it after it closed. This book gives an excellent view on the background of the park and how it came to be through the years - in an odd bit of fate I ended up working on the grounds of the park after it was demolished and the City of Chicago built a police station on part of it.

Riverview Amusement Park is gone, but not forgotten. Many older Chicago residents still remember that grand amusement park as one of the greatest attractions Chicago had. Well, this book does a pretty darn good job of bringing the park back to life. It is chockfull of black-and-white pictures, covering its history from the original 19th century Sharpshooters Park, through to its final demise in 1967.

Now, as you might expect with such a slim book, it cannot possibly cover all parts of the park's history in much depth. In fact, it is quite true that there are few post-WW2 pictures included. But, nonetheless, I found this to be an interesting history of the park, including many wonderful pictures and interesting text. I don't hesitate to recommend this wonderful book.

I grew up on Chicago's northwest side, and Riverview was a place
we went as a family - at least once a year or so, then later I went
with my teen-aged friends.
It is so great to see the pictures and remember the various rides
and amusements, even though many pics are from before my time.
My favorite was the Chute the Chutes...must have been a fav for many
others as well, as the lines were always longer than long.
Nevertheless, we often got off, then got right back in line to go again
and again!

If you spent any time at all at Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, then you will be thrilled to see the photos in this book. The writing of it's history is very good but brief and the book's writing is comprisied mostly of long captions under each photo with several anecdotes. The photos alone, will bring those childhood or teen-date memories back.

This book contains many photographs of the famous Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago. It is well-documented and the desciptions are informative.

I re-read this book over and over again - it's that good! I grew up on The South Side and South Suburbs and spent many a happy day at Riverview when I was a kid. This book captures the magic of the place and the photos are priceless. Highly recommended!

a wonderful book about a chicago amusement park - one we miss dearly