Bay Beach Amusement Park
Bay Beach Park's history began in 1892 when a young entrepreneur, Mitchell Nejedlo, was attracted to the natural beauty of the area and purchased a small strip of land at the north end of what is now Irwin Avenue and began developing the land for a private beach resort which he named Bay View Beach.
He built a dance hall, bar, and a small bathhouse and planned to sell individual lots as summer cottage sites. Nejedlo had difficulty attracting visitors over the poor roads, and swampy, mosquito infested land. Back then horse and buggy were the mode of transportation and when it rained, the road turned into an impassable mud hole.
In 1902, Nejedlo teamed up with Captain John Cusick, who bought out Nejedlo in 1908. Cusick bought a steamboat and began transporting passengers from their dock just south of the Walnut Street Bridge to the new dock at Bay View Beach. The boat could haul up to 400 passengers. The dock extended 570 feet into the bay and was 8 feet wide. At the end where the boat anchored, there was a covered pavilion 30 by 30 feet.
Swimming became popular at Bay View Beach and the rental of swimsuits at 10 cents apiece became a gold mine for Cusick. On a good day the bathhouse took in as much as $450.00, and even though the suits were never quite dry or free of sand, people kept wearing them anyway.
The original pavilion consisted of a center portion with two stories and two large wings on either side. In the downstairs center portion, there were dining rooms and a kitchen. The west wing served as a roller skating rink while the east wing was a dance hall.
A roller coaster operated at the park from 1901 - 1922, the Jack Rabbit, and a second coaster, the Greyhound, from 1929 - 1936. This coaster was finally dismantled in 1936 due to insurance issues with the owners.
In 1908 Cusick started park expansion by putting in the Shoot-the-Chutes. This ride was an early version of the modern log rides which first appeared at Sea Lion Park at Coney Island only a few years earlier. Twelve passengers boarded a flat-bottomed boat at the top of an approximately 50-foot tower. The boat would whoosh down the slide, hitting the Bay with a splashy bounce, and skim across the water for several yards. After each ride, the boat would be cranked back to the top of the ramp by a winch. It cost the rider 10 cents for the thrill. Disastrous freezing and ice breakups destroyed the ride after the 2nd or 3rd season.
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