All that remained was concrete. Concrete and some old worn pilings seen only during the lowest of tides. Forlorn, it was. Nearly forgotten, Luna Park. But it wasn’t always that way. No, during the heyday of Luna Park lights glowed, children laughed at clowns, adults squealed aboard the Great Figure Eight Roller Coaster. Families packed the boardwalk entranced by Don Carlo’s Trained Monkey and Dog Circus, marveled at the Original Human Ostrich, became stunned as they stared into a live bear pit. While their children rode the Zeum Carousel fathers imbibed in a beer or a stiff drink at “the longest and best-stacked bar on Elliott Bay.” The ladies, parasols in hand, promenaded to the Natatorium, home to heated saltwater and freshwater swimming pools – crystal clear. Under the muck of scandal, however, West Seattle’s twinkling jewel of a park faded, closing six years after it opened. The Natatorium remained until 1931 when an arsonist set it, and the remains of Luna Park, ablaze.
“The Greatest Amusement Park on the West Coast” is how it was heralded. Designed by Charles Looff, who carved and installed Coney Island’s first carousel, it grew in 1907 on acreage near the Duwamish Head in West Seattle. Hailed it was, what with its Trocadero Theater, its Cave of Mystery, the Joy Wheel, the Dance Palace, the Summer Garden Restaurants serving up roast beef sandwiches to hungry park-goers, the Great Whirl, the Infant Electrobator, the Shoot-the-Chutes, the various games of chance, the cool drinks on hot days.
Those peering over Elliott Bay from downtown Seattle at night would see the glittering lights, the oasis of fun for both young and old. But was it really family friendly? There were those who thought not. “The Forces of Decency” saw the park, particularly its nighttime festivities of boozing and dance hall girls, as a threat to the moral fiber of the community at large. Prohibitionists, progressives, and women who now had the right to vote, rose up crusading against the park.
A scandal at the mayor’s office didn’t help Luna Park’s backers. W.W. Powers, manager of Luna Park and a supported of Seattle’s mayor Hi Gill, got wrapped up in a scandal involving Seattle’s chief of police, finances changing hands, and a 500-room brothel in Beacon Hill.
In 1913 Luna Park closed. The rides were disassembled or sold away. The music halls were shuttered. The restaurant kitchens grew cold. The theatrical acts pulled stakes, moved on. The Natatorium remained until an arsonist lit a match on April 14, 1931.
Pilings remain. That’s about all. Travel to Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco if you want to see vestiges of Seattle’s fabled Luna Park. It is there that calliope music still plays. Luna Park’s carousel, Looff’s four row carousel he carved himself still revolves. The laughter of children still resides there, filtering back, it does, into the mists of time, mingling with the joyous shouts of Seattle’s children one hundred years ago.
Jonathan Shipley
8/20/2009
“The Greatest Amusement Park on the West Coast” is how it was heralded. Designed by Charles Looff, who carved and installed Coney Island’s first carousel, it grew in 1907 on acreage near the Duwamish Head in West Seattle. Hailed it was, what with its Trocadero Theater, its Cave of Mystery, the Joy Wheel, the Dance Palace, the Summer Garden Restaurants serving up roast beef sandwiches to hungry park-goers, the Great Whirl, the Infant Electrobator, the Shoot-the-Chutes, the various games of chance, the cool drinks on hot days.
Those peering over Elliott Bay from downtown Seattle at night would see the glittering lights, the oasis of fun for both young and old. But was it really family friendly? There were those who thought not. “The Forces of Decency” saw the park, particularly its nighttime festivities of boozing and dance hall girls, as a threat to the moral fiber of the community at large. Prohibitionists, progressives, and women who now had the right to vote, rose up crusading against the park.
A scandal at the mayor’s office didn’t help Luna Park’s backers. W.W. Powers, manager of Luna Park and a supported of Seattle’s mayor Hi Gill, got wrapped up in a scandal involving Seattle’s chief of police, finances changing hands, and a 500-room brothel in Beacon Hill.
In 1913 Luna Park closed. The rides were disassembled or sold away. The music halls were shuttered. The restaurant kitchens grew cold. The theatrical acts pulled stakes, moved on. The Natatorium remained until an arsonist lit a match on April 14, 1931.
Pilings remain. That’s about all. Travel to Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco if you want to see vestiges of Seattle’s fabled Luna Park. It is there that calliope music still plays. Luna Park’s carousel, Looff’s four row carousel he carved himself still revolves. The laughter of children still resides there, filtering back, it does, into the mists of time, mingling with the joyous shouts of Seattle’s children one hundred years ago.
Jonathan Shipley
8/20/2009
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| Man standing in remains of Luna Park Natatorium (later Luna Pool). Apr 9, 1947. Photograph courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives. |
I finally know the 5W’s and 1H of Luna Park. Thank you, Jonathan.
What a fantastic write-up! I truly had no idea that Luna Park was only open for 6 years, so I think it even more amazing that during the very low tides, people can comb the beach there and still find Luna Park items a century later.
Wow…1913 Seattle sounds a lot like Seattle today. I wish we still had that spirit of “fun.”