Idora Park
" Idora Park"
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Idora Park was a 17.5-acre Victorian era trolley park in north Oakland, California, constructed by in 1904 on the site of an informal park setting called Ayala Park on the north banks of Temescal Creek. Idora Park was leased by the 'Ingersoll Pleasure and Amusement Park Company' that ran several eastern pleasure parks. What began as a pleasure ground in a rural setting for Sunday picnics evolved over time into the finest amusement park in the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as the East Bay. The popularity of the park declined after the advent of the automobile, and in 1929, Idora Park was razed.
History
The Realty Syndicate constructed the park in 1903, on the site of Ayala Park that including an opera house, ranchlands and greenhouses on the north banks of Temescal Creek. Rodney Ingersoll erected the first figure eight "sky railway" on the site in 1903. Idora Park was leased by the Ingersoll Pleasure and Amusement Park Company that ran several eastern pleasure parks and originally the name was to be Kennywood Park (the name of an amusement park in Pennsylvania).
It was reported that Mr. Ingersoll named the park after his daughter, Idora, but there is some question about the name because of the park with the same name, Idora Park, located in Youngstown, Ohio. That park was said to have been named either by a contest winner claiming, "I adore it!" or after a local Indian tribe.
The Realty Syndicate also owned and operated what later became known as the Key System transit company, the Claremont Hotel and the Key Route Inn. Major partners of the company were Frank C. Havens and Francis "Borax" Smith, who earned his fortune in borax mining, subsequently investing it in transit, commercial and housing properties in the East Bay area.
Location
Located on the block bounded by Telegraph Avenue, Shattuck, 56th and 58th streets in the northern section of Oakland, Idora Park was famous for its Opera house. Idora Park was a walled-in park and admission to the park was 10 cents and it was open thirty or more weeks a year. A man named Bertrand York managed the park from 1917 until its demise in 1929.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, comic stars from the TivoliTheater relocated to Oakland and renamed themselves the Idora Park Comic Opera Company. Shows like The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and The Wizard of the Nile were performed under the direction of Paul Steindorff in a large wooden opera house called the Wigwam Theater. Also, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, hundreds of displaced people camped at the park, and the Pacific Coast League of baseball relocated to Idora Park. In 1919 when Oakland's own 159th Regiment returned from France, the Park was opened to the fighting men at no charge.
Rides
Idora Park rides cost 5 cents. Many of the rides were advertised as being the "largest" or the "first."
- Circle Swing - a large round flat disk or bench suspended by chains from a central pole, people could sit on the bench to swing
- Social Whirl - a platform inside a structure which people would sit on until the centrifugal force pushed them off
- Barrel-of-fun
- Trip through Hades
- Helter Skelter - a slide type ride
- The Shoot-the-Chutes
- a miniature steam railroad,
- Haunted Swings
- Ferris Wheel
- Touring cars
- Circle Wave
- Flying Swing - a swings ride with cars suspended from a central point that turned fast enough for the cars to become elevated (similar to the Chair-O-Planes ride)
- The Tickler - appears to be a ride with a car on a twisting track
- a merry-go-round
- The Mountain Slide - appears to be a slide down through a mountain
- a miniature auto course.
Rides were renamed regularly and one finds titles such as Dodge 'em, The Whip, Over the Top, Race through the Clouds and the Magic Carpet.
Roller coasters
The park featured five traditional roller coasters during its history:
- Ingersoll Figure 8 roller coaster Toboggan, 1906-1916.
- L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway, 1906-1921. (owned and operated by the Thompson Company).
- Race Thru The Clouds, a twin track coaster, dates unknown.
- The Big (or Giant) Dipper, 1922-1928 John A. Miller designed at a cost of $60,000
- Skyrocket (or Thunderbolt), also designed by Miller, 1927-1928.
Attractions
Idora Park boasted the first outdoor public address system built by Magnavox, the first radio theater in the West and a huge searchlight -- like many things at Idora Park -- reputed to be the largest in the world.
Idora Park was a walled-in park that had a zoo, an ostrich farm, animal shows, a dance hall, racetrack, a huge outdoor amphitheater, a Japanese garden, bear grotto and a main street called the Glad Way, Penny Arcade, photo gallery and shooting gallery. In 1904 a ballpark with a 3000 seat double deck grandstand was erected and after the '06 earthquake the Pacific Coast Baseball League relocated there. The park had the largest roller skating rink in California and largest West of Chicago that rented clamp-on skates and had a bandstand in its center, and a Mountain slide that sported a firework volcanic display on Saturday nights and balloon ascensions wherein the husband and wife acrobat team of Frank and Carrie Hamilton parachuteted down after their act.
One attraction was "The Laying Hens" where you threw a ball at a wooden hen sitting on a barnyard fence and if you hit it, it fell over and delivered a hard-boiled egg for you to eat. The park offered electric souvenirs, so-called "Jap" ping-pong, a musical arcade, dancing pavilion, Roof Garden and Grill, lunch counters, open air concerts and numerous refreshment booths.
Entertainment
Vaudeville performers used Idora Park stages; famous stars who emerged from Oakland included Hobart Bosworth, a widely known leading man in the early days of film, Fatty Arbuckle and possibly Lon Chaney, Sr. It has been said that Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton improved their skating skills at the Idora Park skating rink described (in 1913) as the largest in the world. Something called the Cabaret de la Mort existed for a time. Jack London's daughter Becky describes trips to Idora Park with her father (link below).
The "Temperance Movement" leader Aimee Semple McPherson held the largest outdoor baptism to date before 10,000 spectators in the Idora Park swimming tanks after returning from the "Orient" following the death of her husband, Robert Semple from dysentery.
Refreshments
Idora Park was famous for its crispy sour milk waffles. Food at the park, if you didn't bring your own, was available; Ice Cream, popcorn and Coney Island "Red Hots" were a nickel, whiskey a dime, Busch Beer from St. Louis was five cents. The Park's restaurant featured full course meals for seventy-five cents to one dollar and soda pop came in 12 ounce bottles.
Demise
Late in life, Idora Park was eclipsed by the rise of the automobile and Neptune Beach, California in Alameda, California. In 1929, Idora Park was razed and a plan to develop the "Central Square", an apartment and business complex, was announced. But the depression intervened and a variety of small Storybook Houses and worker housing apartment blocks were constructed on the 17 acre site. This is said to be the first neighborhood with undergrounded utilities in the west.
References
- Clippings file, Oakland History Room, Oakland Public Library, 125 14th Street Oakland CA 94612
- Oakland Enquirer - April 12, 1902, May 6, 1902, November 26, 1903
- Oakland Herald - April 20, 1907
- Berkeley Daily Gazzette - February 4, 1943
- Montclarion - July 26, 1978, January 24, 1997
- Oakland Herald April 20, 1907
- Oakland Tribune - July 19, 1908, January 27, 1929, April 26, 1931, June 30. 1929, October 7, 1943, July 23, 1944, & January 1, 1961, May 10 & 17, 1970
External links
- picture postcards of Idora Park
- roller coaster database
- Becky London's memories
- Oakland History room
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