Years ago a trip to the amusement park didn't include hanging upside down three stories above a lake and plummeting 60 miles an hour towards what seems like sure death. Not for either the faint of heart or for me. Back in "my day" the place to go was Glen Echo Park in Maryland. With a simple wooden roller coaster (clack clack clack) bumper cars and a fantastic carousel it was the place to go on a summer evening. Even better was the huge swimming pool to dive into at the end of your fun on the rides.
The history of Glen Echo Park goes way beyond those days as a great amusement park. In 1888 two brothers, Edwin and Edward Balztley purchased 516 acres and named it Glen Echo on the Potomac. They compared the location to the Rhine River in Germany and began to build on the property. As the years went by the Park grew and by 1931 most of the amusement rides were in place and the huge "Crystal Pool" which could accommodate up to 3000 swimmers was open. By the 1940's the park was starting to fall on hard times with many of the men who maintained the property being called to active duty in the military.
The park closed its doors 1968 with the owners deciding to sell the property to developers who planned to build apartments on the banks of the Potomac River overlooking the C&O Canal. Fortunately because of the location and land use restrictions the owners instead traded the land to the National Park Service for another piece of property and Glen Echo was saved.
For a few years the park remained in limbo and then it opened again, not as an amusement park but as an arts education facility offering classes for all ages. Unfortunately the buildings, many of them nice examples of the Art Deco Style were falling into disrepair. In cooperation with Montgomery County the Park Service was able to create a partnership to raise funds to save most of the buildings and restore the Carousel the centerpiece of the entire park.
Today hundreds of courses are taught every year, including glass arts, dancing, puppetry, photography and painting. The Friday night dances in the Spanish Ballroom are packed with both novices and experts alike.
If you haven't taken a trip to check out this piece of local history put it on your plans. Located just off McArthur Blvd and the Clara Barton parkway it is easy to get to and you can also enjoy a walk along the locks of the C&O Canal at the same time.
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Goodness, memories. My parents took me to Glen Echo Park when I was a child. We took the streetcar. It was a wonderful park for the family.
Thanks for the memories. Veronica
I too have great memories of Glen Echo Park, and Im sure many of us white baby boomers that grew up in the area share those same memories. I enjoyed shopping at Woodies too. There are others however that have different memories of a segragated Washington, DC in the 50's
consider this from the Washington Post archives:
"A friend handed Greene a 75-cent ticket for a ride on the merry-go-round, the spectacular Dentzel with hand-carved horses, rabbits, tigers and ostriches that whirled round and round under the wings of smiling white angels. She clambered onto the nearest horse, a spotted yellow one.
In her starched dress and low-heeled pumps, she held onto the shiny brass pole as if it were her lifeline. Her legs shook. Her heart beat fast. And then it began.
"Miss, you have five minutes to leave the park," a security guard told her, "or you will be arrested."
It was June 30, 1960 -- six years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that the nation's public schools should no longer be segregated, 4 1/2 years after Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in Alabama. Yet Glen Echo Park in suburban Maryland, just 20 minutes north of the Capitol, was open only to white people. And Gwendolyn Greene was black.
The Glen Echo Park civil rights protests would last five long, hot weeks that summer. Picketers, both black and white, carrying signs with such slogans as "Bigotry is no fun," would wear a narrow dirt path into the grassy roadside of MacArthur Boulevard in Montgomery County, along the trolley tracks that deposited revelers at the gates of the park"
read the whole article here
Cindy, what a nice localism piece. I love hearing the history and would love to visit. I have so many places to visit because of AR. Nice read!
Cindy-it reminds me of the old days on the Jersey Shore and all of the amusement parks there. Thanks for bringing back some warm memories.
I have really enjoyed reading your blog. I am relatively new to AR and have noticed you have received a lot of points and have achieved a remarkable high ranking. Congratulations! May I ask if you have had success in turning your high ranking into business? I am curious if it has been a profitable venture personally as well as financially. Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your business.
What a great piece of cultural history! These places are so worthy of saving! I am sure it is a wonderful place. did they restore the Crystal Pool?
Rich-Unfortunately no. It is a great place for classes of all types. I've been a student at the glass schoold for three years and taken a few dance lessons at the Spanish Ballroom.