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N7hn
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Username: N7hn

Post Number: 33
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 8:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thoswolfe... so we were neighbors. Were were on woodbine near the house that had the dismemberment murder and after death sex photos . TOpinka;s burnt down years earlier tho, I never salvaged anything, but always wanted in. At that time id get into any abandon building i could just to look around. anyway Howdy neighbor.
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 40
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 6:07 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When I was a kid in the 50's, They had a real "fun house" at edgewater. It was a 2 story one with off angle walk ways, crazy mirrors, & a lot more. Kind of like that big one in the "little rascals" short.
When I was old enough to drive, the fun house had been shut down. They said because of too many kids falling from that upper walkway. I remember BATMAN & ROBIN appearing there in the 60's. They had them on top of one of the buildings. HUGE crowd 4 that. Also it was POP, or Pay one price. You paid $3 to get in and you could ride all day.
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Shovelhead
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Username: Shovelhead

Post Number: 10
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 9:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Actually, the Walled Lake Amusement Park and the neighboring Walled Lake Casino were in the city limits of Novi, not Walled Lake.
Fourteen Mile Road is the northernmost boundary in that area.
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1928
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 10:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"I wish some of these mega churches and new charities would look into the old Cass Tech Building to move to."

...and do what? Move into it or do you mean level it an build next to the school on the corner of a major intersection @ a freeway ramp. There are so many reasons that wouldn't make sense, not to mention parking issues. If you are speaking in reference to the Edgewater land being owned by a "mega church", it's not like they bout the park and tore down the amusement park. It had been closed for years and torn down for years.

(Message edited by viziondetroit on August 02, 2008)
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Jgavrile
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Username: Jgavrile

Post Number: 172
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 11:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Before Topinka's ,That building was a restaurant called "The Sea Food Grotto" Same family that use to own Jim's Garage downtown.
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Reddog289
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Username: Reddog289

Post Number: 509
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 1:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The gone but not forgotten resturants thread has a picture of Topinkas burning. That was one of my earliest memories, thought Santa was dead.
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Softailrider
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Username: Softailrider

Post Number: 169
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 3:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If I remember correctly , Bonnie Brook started as a really good 9 hole layout . Then they turned it into a short 18 hole course. I'm pretty sure that's the way it was .
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 43
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 9:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

At it's end, Walled lake had gotten rid of all it's rides and had a weekend FLEA MARKET in it's old casino building. We used to visit it in the 80's before it burned down. They used to have a beach with a pedestrian tunnel under the highway to the park. After the park closed it was filled with debris & fencing to keep you out. There was a wooden roller coaster that was locally famous but I can't remember the name of it.
My Dad told me that the roller coaster at EDGEWATER park once flew off the track and crashed into the creek, killing several people. (There was a scene like that on CSI that reminded me of that). He used to take my mom there in the 40's and won a pirate ship lamp that we had for years.
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Sean_of_detroit
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Username: Sean_of_detroit

Post Number: 1323
Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 10:19 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nevermind, that was way off topic. I'll save that for another time.


That old aerial picture posted in the link above, well it's just amazing. While Edgewater may have been small, most parks (including Cedar Point) were of a similar size back then. Cedar Point (in my opinion) survived strictly because of location, good business practice, and some good old fashioned luck. It is hard to imagine how many parks existed pre depression. While the 1990's is often called the second golden age of amusement park (now most likely over), it didn't even come close to the true golden age, that was just before the great depression. At that time, there were roughly double the amount of roller coasters in the U.S. then there are today.

Many parks survived into the 1970s, and a few into the 1980s. What often happened, was that everyone saw Disney's success, and tried to duplicate it. It seems to me, that the companies buying these parks, did not realize how much it took to run a park. They were not simple turn key cash cows like they seemed to think.

So most were ran into the ground that way. Crime and the automobile were also an issue. As stated above, most parks were built at the end of rail lines to increase weekend patronage on the line (the Chippewa Lake Park in Ohio that I mentioned before actually has a full old style steam train, complete with rustic caboose sitting abandoned in it's overgrowth). Many had no parking lots, and no room for parking lots.

You then had location. These parks were usually in urban areas, and crime had become a issue. The parks that survived were usually not urban by any means. Boblo and Cedar Point are perfect examples. They stuck around a little longer (CP is still open). Kings Island is a relatively newer park (I think). If memory serves me correctly, there was a park called Coney Island (a generic name of many parks at one time). Facing all the parking, crime, and other issues, they decided to demolish the whole park, and the owners built Kings Island a few miles away.

This little recession/depression thing were in is really hurting parks. History (in my view) is repeating. The now larger, once popular family parks are either closing, or being sold to large companies... which are then proving unable to save them. Six Flags future is pretty grim. I don't think they will be around much longer. Michigan's Adventure was really saved by Cedar Fair. However, I don't know about Cedar Fair's future either. I think some of their parks will survive, but not the parent company in it's current form.

I think Michigan Adventure, Indiana Beach, Kokomos (Saginaw), and one or two future (not yet existing) parks will be opening and/or expanding after the recession. This is because those type of places are local, and typically do okay (or even better) during times like these. People stick closer to home when money is tight, but usually still have some entertainment dollars to spend.

It's kind of neat and exciting to see happening first hand. I mean, it's sad to see the past fade, but like that song says... "Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end". The best is always ahead. It doesn't matter how dismal things appear.

(Sigh... I typed that while taking notice of the left column demo pics... and Tiger Stadium's destruction on the above banner. :-( ).
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Jcole
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Username: Jcole

Post Number: 2933
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Sunday, August 03, 2008 - 10:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Allenjerky, if my memory is correct, the rollerscoaster derailment happened during one of the Police picnics. Friends of our family were in the third car from the front and ended up hanging over the edge of the track in their car as the other two went flying off. They were banged up, but not killed. We hadn't gone that year, and my mother used the coaster crash as a 'See, there was a reason we didn't go'
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 52
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 5:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jcole- Thanks for confirming my Dad's story. He also used it as a reason "not to take" us there.
"YOU'LL GET KILLED ON THE *%<#@ ROLLER COASTER!"
Instead, he'd take us to a tiny little amusement park on 8 mile, between Coolidge & Greenfield, called 'Kiddie Land". The entrance was bordered by two giant concrete clowns that held the joint's name between them. It consisted of about 8 rides. Small scale stuff like you'd see in a mall today.
A merry-go-round, boat ride, short ferris wheel, a small roller coaster like the one at "Jeepers". My favorite was the train track layout with the hand cars you had to pump. I'd stop mine in the tunnel and the attendant would come over and yell at me to keep moving. One day we drove by and it was gone. All that was left were the clowns & sign which were torn down after a few years.
My folks told me there was a good sized amusement park at the east end of 8 mile too. I don't know the name, but they used to ride the streetcar over to it.
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Jcole
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Username: Jcole

Post Number: 3080
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 5:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There was a place on 8 Mile and Gratiot, called Eastwood Park, I think, but that was before my time, and there was a park in St. Clair Shores, called Jefferson Beach, which is now a marina
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Richie
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Username: Richie

Post Number: 69
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 7:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My parents loved Topinka's but I never went there. I remember around '91 driving by there on the way to work every day and seeing the place picked apart brick by brick, it seemed to be a one man demo. In time an old farm house emerged. it was pretty cool seeing this old home that had been right on the main drag but largely hidden for decades. When it was gone they started building the strip mall, for a while it had a sign at the corner of Telegraph and 7 Mile stating "Topinka's Plaza" or something like that but the sign disappeared I think before the place opened, I do not think it has a name now. Last weekend my friend gave me an old book of matches from the place. A few years later I would watch as Bonnniebrook would vanish day by day. Far as I know the remaining parcel was supposed to be a driving range.
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Gron
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Username: Gron

Post Number: 9
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 7:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone remember Northland having a carnival / amusement park set up in their parking lot?
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 53
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 11:14 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, but I remember a big swimming pool at the corner of Greenfield and 8 mile.
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Steve
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Username: Steve

Post Number: 244
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 12:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Crystal Pool.

I thought I was the only one who remembered Kiddieland. When did it disappear? My memories are from about 1958.
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Pkbroch
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Username: Pkbroch

Post Number: 60
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 2:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember Crystal Pool the water was so full of chlorine it would make your eyes and nose burn. Never went there much.
Eastwood gardens and Park was at 8 & gratiot, north of eight mile. It had rides but was known for it's live bands and dancing during the thirties. Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman etc. played there before WWII. My mother always talked about that Eastwood Gardens Ballroom.

This is a link to a great website which shows pix of Eastwood and other great things,

http://www.waterwinterwonderla nd.com/amuse.asp?id=304&type=2
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1962
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 2:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Is that where they got the name for that cheezy motel Crystal House on the southeast side of greenfield/8 mile?
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Jgavrile
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Username: Jgavrile

Post Number: 173
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 2:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Never could get up the balls to dive off of the high board at Crystal pool.It sure was a neat pool though.
Does anyone have a picture?? Seems like they built a "Shoppers Fair" in its place on Greenfield
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Sean_of_detroit
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Username: Sean_of_detroit

Post Number: 1384
Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 2:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh yeah, the parks always had a ballroom didn't they (if you ever go to Cedar Point and you like history, be sure to check out the "Coliseum's" second floor. It's off the main midway. The second floor was the ballroom. They leave it open all Summer for the elders to walk through, sit and reminisce. That, and an occasional employee training session is the only time the ever seem to use it).

I'm intrigued by the history here. Was going dancing after dinner the same as dinner and a movie is today? Our "dance" clubs have certainly changed. Would these be going back to far? That would be pre-boomer times.

How about the ruins.... I know there are some Detroit ballroom pics somewhere out there...

(Message edited by Sean_of_Detroit on August 06, 2008)
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Gary
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Username: Gary

Post Number: 317
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 3:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember the kiddie rides at Northland very well, this was maybe 1960.

Crystal pool was on northeast corner of 8 Mile and Greenfield. They closed because the owner(s) refused to integrate the place. There is a huge self storage place on that corner now.
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65memories
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Username: 65memories

Post Number: 597
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 4:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wasn't Kiddieland next to the Westside Drive-In Theatre on 8 Mile? My parents used to take me there in the '50s. I don't think it was at Northland, unless we're talking about two different places.
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Gary
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Post Number: 318
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Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 4:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

We're talking two different places, 65memories. The West Side had a kiddieland, but so did Northland; it was at the northern end of the property.
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Chrissy_snow
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Username: Chrissy_snow

Post Number: 20
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 6:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"I'm not knocking Edgewater. It was the be all, end all of amusement parks back in the day. It's just funny that it was so small and we loved it so much, and kids today have to go to some huge-ass place to have fun."

We had much lower expectations and were easier to please back then!

I never got a chance to go to Edgewater. My older siblings went often and I yearned for the day I could go, but by the time I got older, it was gone. All I remember was that it was close to home, easy to get to, and apparently very affordable!
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 54
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 11:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'd heard that a lot of the "big bands" also played at "Walled Lake Amusement Park". They had photos on the walls. "Ozzie Nelson" was a band leader who played there before he turned his "family" into a cash cow on radio & tv. Also Benny goodman & Glen Miller. Kiddieland wasn't AT Northland center. It was closer to the drive-in movie on 8 mile. Between Coolidge & Greenfield. Are there any other Drive-in movies left besides the one in Dearborne? Maybe upstate?
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Gary
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Post Number: 320
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Posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008 - 7:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OK, here we go again for for the 3rd time...Northland had an area of kiddie rides during the late 50s/early 60s. This was definitely AT Northland on the northern end of the property. The "Kiddieland" adjacent to the old West Side Drive-In was nearly 2 miles away and was a totally separate place.
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Gron
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Posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008 - 1:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gary - Thanks for backing me up. The kiddie rides and soft serve ice cream cones were the best part of being a kid at Northland.
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Jita1
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Username: Jita1

Post Number: 6
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008 - 2:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Greater Grace Temple currently sits on the land where Edgewater used to be, if I'm not mistaken.

I miss Edgewater and Bob-Lo.
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 55
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2008 - 12:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

On our senior trip to Washington DC in 1968, We went to an amusement park that reminded me of BOBLO. We had to get on a big boat that could have been a sister ship of one of the Boblo boats. Then we cruised down the river for an hour or so to the park. I forget it's name. It was old looking though. I don't know if it still exists.
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Catman_dude
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Username: Catman_dude

Post Number: 287
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2008 - 2:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I did the same thing, Alienjerky, in my 7th grade class. We all went to Washington DC in 1974 and took the big boat on the Potomac River to an amusement park island. Had a lot of fun playing Skeeball there. But even in today's Google satellite feature, I couldn't find the park or the ruins.
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 56
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2008 - 6:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Good to know I didn't imagine it. It's probably been bulldozed for luxury housing like Boblo. Hey! Let's all pool our money, buy some luxury housing, bulldoze it and build an amusement park! We'll start a reverse-trend. Who's with me?
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Alienjerky
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Username: Alienjerky

Post Number: 59
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 5:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

a few years ago, we we ate at a place in Grand Rapids called "Rosie's". It was a high class resturant that had been at this lakeside location since the early part of the 1900's. Looking at old photos on the walls showed us that it was also an "Amusement Park" with a roller coaster & other rides as well as a large beach. There were photos of some kind of ride that involved the riders going into the lake water as well. Anybody ever hear of this?

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