I'm sort of obsessed with them.
Let's start off this this one in the village of Pripyat, Ukraine. It never even opened because of the disaster at Chernobyl.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Glen Echo Park, Maryland
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Somewhere in S. Korea
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
What remains of the Little Dipper roller coaster ride at Chippewa Lake Park in Chippewa Lake, Ohio:
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is awesome
― zone 6 polar bear (J0rdan S.), Monday, 4 May 2009 01:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
wow, how old is the little dipper? that's some pretty solid regrowth!
― juniper jazz (haitch), Monday, 4 May 2009 01:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Chippewa Lake Park was basically just abandoned with many of the rides still standing. The park was home to 3 roller coasters - A Wild Mouse, A steel kiddie coaster named the Little Dipper and a larger wooden coaster. The wood coaster was earlier named the Big Dipper but was referred to as just "Coaster" in the later years. The ride was built about 1924 or 1925 by Fred Pearce."
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Park closed in 1978 so regrowth since then I guess.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
i wish i had a car so i could go to chippewa lake park!
― erudite e-scholar (harbl), Monday, 4 May 2009 01:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
Okpo Land in South Korea
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
x-post Yeah! I have this dream of driving across the country and visiting all the abandoned amusement parks and taking pics. I'll do it one day!
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 01:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
i love these
― erudite e-scholar (harbl), Monday, 4 May 2009 01:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
Benson's Wild Animal Park - Hudson, NH closed in 1987
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Lots of them here:
http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/13/abandoned-amusement-parks/
http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/parks.htm
Lots of them at Weird NJ too I think (at least they used to show up in the magazine a lot):
http://www.weirdnj.com/
And here are abandoned malls, while we're at it:
http://deadmalls.com/
― xhuxk, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fairy Tale Forest Oak Ridge, NJ closed in 2003.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
x-post Yep - a lot of these are from those sites. Just thought a pic thread could be fun.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Spreepark, Berlin
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
This used to be a lake with mechanical swan boats in it when I was about 13 or 14 (so, the early-mid 80s)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xole/345159587/
Sorry the guys's got a lock on the images so you'll have to look at his flickr.
― 65daysofsugban (Trayce), Monday, 4 May 2009 02:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
Awesome. I love this stuff.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Geauga Lake Aurora, Ohio. Bought out by Six Flags in the mid-nineties who proceeded to totally ruin it. Closed in 2007. Oh how I loved it when I was a kid.
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 4 May 2009 02:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Whalom Park, Lunenberg, Mass. closed in 2000 after 100+ years of operation, when its handlers went into deep deep debt. o how I loved it as a wee one, etc.
this is what it looked like in 2005 (most of the rides were demolished a year or two later):
― voyeuristischer busch (unregistered), Monday, 4 May 2009 04:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Whalom's carousel, before & after:
― voyeuristischer busch (unregistered), Monday, 4 May 2009 04:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/gallery/dogpatch
― •--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 4 May 2009 04:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
I was married across the lake from Chippewa Lake Park!
― kate78, Monday, 4 May 2009 07:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
i knew this thread was going to be good.
the cheap (mostly German) fairy forest parks i visited looked sort of abandoned, even when still open. there's some very melancholic about small-time amusement parks.
― Ludo, Monday, 4 May 2009 09:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
There's loads more here
― Krapp's lesser-known First Tape (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 4 May 2009 09:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Also, a bumper car ride in Pripyat, near Chernobyl:
― Krapp's lesser-known First Tape (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 4 May 2009 09:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
The Defunct Parks website is a goldmine!
― Krapp's lesser-known First Tape (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 4 May 2009 09:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
i always love threads like this.
― MRSA Marchant (get bent), Monday, 4 May 2009 10:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
― m coleman, Monday, 4 May 2009 10:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
― m coleman, Monday, 4 May 2009 10:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
here's the former petting zoo
― m coleman, Monday, 4 May 2009 10:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
"tom sawyer's cabin" ride
― m coleman, Monday, 4 May 2009 10:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
this was the 1st amusement park I ever visited. RIP
i am having trouble finding the right superlative for that "all day family fun" poster. it is a joy.
― MRSA Marchant (get bent), Monday, 4 May 2009 13:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
DISNEY-TYPE PLAYGROUND
― snoball, Monday, 4 May 2009 13:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
i wanna go to the three bears' house
― MRSA Marchant (get bent), Monday, 4 May 2009 13:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
This thread is like the definition of the word "poignant."
Yeah, and it was great how they announced the closing right after the end of the season, so if you didn't happen to go that year, tough crap for you. Blargh. In high school I think I once rode the Big Dipper like 12 times in a row.
― naturally unfunny, though mechanically sound (Pancakes Hackman), Monday, 4 May 2009 13:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
Heritage USA which was apparantly built by Jim Bakker as a Christian themed park. It closed in 1989.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 13:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
I went to the Alice Cooper Haunted House for halloween one year at Geauga Lake. I rode my first and only rollercoaster there.
― bela fregosi (brownie), Monday, 4 May 2009 13:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
Monorail from Santa's Village in Skyforest, CA.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 13:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
Also from Santa's Village:
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 14:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
This thread is beautiful and very creepy and almost unbearably poignant all at once.
― Enormous Epic (Matt DC), Monday, 4 May 2009 14:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
U_U
― Batsman (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 4 May 2009 14:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Six Flags New Orleans, in the Ninth Ward. The pictures of the flooded park after Katrina are astonishing, but these are more recent:
― dulce est desipere in loco (Euler), Monday, 4 May 2009 14:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I went to the Santa's Village outside of Chicago all the time when I was growing up!
― homage is parody gone sour (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 4 May 2009 14:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
Apparently Santa's Villages were the first franchised theme parks in the US.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 14:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think that my interest in this sort of thing started when I went to Asbury Park for the first time.
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 14:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Also from the Asbury Park, NJ boardwalk:
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 14:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
One in Japan called Utopia
― ENBB, Monday, 4 May 2009 21:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
some of these pictures are pulitzer-worthy,
― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 03:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
These pictures are very goth and I approve.
― Smart, Long, Lifephones (Bimble), Wednesday, 6 May 2009 05:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol bimble.
x-post - I can't decide which is my favorite. I think the Gulliver one might win though because it's just so insanely bizarre and beautiful with the mountain in the back etc.
― i'm still sick, he's still drunk (ENBB), Wednesday, 6 May 2009 11:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wow - this one is awesome. Russian themed park in Japan that was only open for 6 moths.
now, that's selective.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 12:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol yeah, no wonder it went bust
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 6 May 2009 12:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
;-p
― i'm still sick, he's still drunk (ENBB), Wednesday, 6 May 2009 13:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
Isn't there somewhere in Japan that's setting up a Thomas Hardy village as a themepark? You want selective, you GOT selective.
― James Morrison, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 23:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol
Fantazy Land.
― i'm still sick, he's still drunk (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 00:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
i love that name
― erudite e-scholar (harbl), Thursday, 7 May 2009 00:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Hey E, A+++ thead. Another great, and similarly themed, thread: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here (pic thread). Surprised this hasn't been linked to yet (if it has, I didn't see it).
― tevin "ratt" campbell (Pillbox), Thursday, 7 May 2009 01:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
I hadn't seen that one actually - thanks!
― i'm still sick, he's still drunk (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 01:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
this thread is so sad! esp. the sunken mushroom house and the kiddie slide in the abandoned pool
― I wish I was the royal trux (sunny successor), Thursday, 7 May 2009 03:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ok, this may or may not be abandoned but I couldn't resist posting this slide from a children's playground in Poland
It's not abandoned:
― Fyodor Lolstoevsky (Pillbox), Thursday, 7 May 2009 04:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh God.
― a sweet ballet dancer (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 04:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, I almost feel bad for having posted that, but it was relevant to the discussion, so what can you do?
― Fyodor Lolstoevsky (Pillbox), Thursday, 7 May 2009 04:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Re: The Asbury Park "Tillie" Face:
Tillie is the nickname of two murals of a grinning figure that was painted on the side of the Palace Amusements building in Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States. Tillie is an amusement park "fun face," painted over the winter of 1955-1956... The mural has been featured in movies, TV shows such as The Sopranos, Weird NJ magazine, and a famous photo of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band early in their career.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23021987@N06/2258955833/
― xhuxk, Thursday, 7 May 2009 04:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Tillie is pretty creepy IMO.
I love this one:
― a sweet ballet dancer (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 18:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
I went to a swing dance in the bumper car pavilion of Glen Echo Park, Maryland (the second park pictured on the thread. It's a wonderful place to visit if you are ever in the D.C. area.
― Virginia Plain, Thursday, 7 May 2009 20:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
VP - I love that picture a lot. I want to go to D.C. just to go there. I really like the design of sign/train/etc. It reminds me a lot of a print I have hanging in my apt.
― a sweet ballet dancer (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 20:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
Storyland - somewhere in PA
― a sweet ballet dancer (ENBB), Thursday, 7 May 2009 20:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh man . . . .
Sex ed theme park demolished before it even opens:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8054893.stm
― Noooo! Cats are not for eating!!! (ENBB), Monday, 18 May 2009 12:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh man, skygreenleopard, I live 40 miles from El Paso. So sad I can't see Magic Landing, it looks hypnotic. If it makes you feel better, I hear 5-6 radio ads a day for Western Playland, which have great jingles. In fact, every radio ad I've heard for an amusement park has been super catchy and heartbreakingly naive.
(Just so you know, Western Playland is now in Sunland Park, NM, but El Paso still has...something you know, I'm sure.)
― cant go with u too many bees (Abbott), Monday, 18 May 2009 17:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fantasy Gardens in Richmond, BC, Canada - themed gardens with a few of the classic "zones" - wild west, faux medieval etc. And at least 3 windmills.
― everything, Friday, 7 August 2009 17:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://weburbanist.com/2010/03/17/uber-creepy-tour-abandoned-six-flags-new-orleans-69-pics/
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 23 March 2010 21:37 (5 months ago) Permalink
Oh Jordan this is great! Looking through them now. <3 I had forgotten about this thread. Thanking you for the revive. :D
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 22:58 (5 months ago) Permalink
The worn and weathered Mardi Gras character hanging over the roof of the haunted car ride seems menacing now
Now? Pretty sure this thing was always pretty fucking creepy.
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 22:59 (5 months ago) Permalink
http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/fade2black.jpg
love these
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 23:02 (5 months ago) Permalink
oops
Wish that they had kept the original name Jazzland.
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 23:03 (5 months ago) Permalink
My all-time favorite ILX thread! One of these amazing pix is my desktop pic.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 23 March 2010 23:27 (5 months ago) Permalink
:D
Which one?
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 01:02 (5 months ago) Permalink
terrific thread.
Jazzland / New Orleans Six Flags pics are really interesing
― dig yrself (lukevalentine), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 02:33 (5 months ago) Permalink
Jazzland >< Sexpark
― Mark G, Wednesday, 24 March 2010 11:36 (5 months ago) Permalink
http://io9.com/5584389/scenes-from-an-underground-russian-dinosaur-mine/gallery/1
― latebloomer, Monday, 12 July 2010 09:51 (1 month ago) Permalink
― latebloomer, Monday, 12 July 2010 09:52 (1 month ago) Permalink
pachycephalosaurus, meet Uncle Fester:
― latebloomer, Monday, 12 July 2010 09:53 (1 month ago) Permalink
― latebloomer, Monday, 12 July 2010 09:54 (1 month ago) Permalink
― latebloomer, Monday, 12 July 2010 09:55 (1 month ago) Permalink
:D awesome
― o sh!t a ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (ENBB), Monday, 12 July 2010 09:58 (1 month ago) Permalink
These are all from Berlin's Spree Park which I know has been featured itt but I don't think these were:
― o sh!t a ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (ENBB), Monday, 12 July 2010 12:00 (1 month ago) Permalink
Oh my god, those are insane.
― kkvgz, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:08 (1 month ago) Permalink
Here's a link to some pictures of Enchanted Forest, which was featured in the John Waters film Cry Baby. My friends and I used to tresspass here and drink 40s, back when we was kids.
http://www.enchantedforestmd.org/index.php?a=48
― kkvgz, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:12 (1 month ago) Permalink
Some more from there:
http://www.opacity.us/gallery70_through_the_fog.htm
― kkvgz, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:14 (1 month ago) Permalink
Oh I've read about that one before. I have this dream of taking a big road trip and visiting a bunch of these some day.
― o sh!t a ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (ENBB), Monday, 12 July 2010 12:19 (1 month ago) Permalink
An obviously cool thing about these abandoned parks is that they're outside. So if you're the type of person who likes to poke around in derelict structures, you have an easy approach and getaway as opposed to breaking into an abandoned coat factory or something. Also probably less chance of coming into contact with toxic chemicals and building materials.
― kkvgz, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:29 (1 month ago) Permalink
Fun N Wheels, I-Drive, Orlando
― PappaWheelie V, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:56 (1 month ago) Permalink
Also, http://www.lostparks.com/
― PappaWheelie V, Monday, 12 July 2010 12:57 (1 month ago) Permalink
not limited to amusement parks, but there's some good stuff in this thread:
Famous Places that No Longer Exist (Picture Thread)
― andrew m., Monday, 12 July 2010 14:29 (1 month ago) Permalink