This post is a bit of a longer one; I hope you like the change!
At the south end of the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, there's a building that has been a fixture of the amusement park it is part of, Trimper's, for over 100 years. At the heart of both the building and the park is a historic, turn-of-the-century (I find conflicting dates everywhere.) carousel. It was manufactured by the Herschell-Spillman Company and is kept in very good shape.
Here's the machine's "lead horse," or the animal that is most ornately designed. However, this carousel is of the menagerie variety, which means that there's everything from the rooster in the background of this picture to a frog wearing a tuxedo.
A look around shows that there is more in this structure than just the carousel.
This Snoopy-themed Sky Fighter ride has most likely been the exact same from the 1960s, and it's been personalized in a way truly unique to the park. Take this, for example:
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| "If my brakes fail me, I'll be stuck on that Merry-Go-Round!" |
Unsurprisingly, the Merry-Go-Round is right there!
These "wet" boats (real water) are very cool and quite large.
These clown faces are pretty prevalent among classic amusement parks, and Trimper's has two of them.
These buildings are real old-school amusement park experiences, trips back in time. They seem to be found pretty commonly on coastlines, with their collection of older kiddie rides, but the Trimper's collection is among the best remaining. But although it's my favorite place in the park, there's more to Trimper's than just this inside portion, and we'll be taking a look at in the future. There'll be more to come from the old rides in this building, as well.
Comments have been changed to a pop-up window format, which will hopefully be more user-friendly. Thanks for reading!
17 comments:
Oh, wow! This place is a gem! Never really wanted to visit Ocean City before, but that just changed. Thanks!
Chuck, I'm glad you enjoyed this! Even being so far away, I've been to Trimper's a lot; it was actually my first amusement park I ever went to when I was two years old.
Mine was Disneyland, same age. It obviously left a fairly strong impression. :-)
I still can remember specific vignettes, several of which I talked myself years later into believing I had imagined...until I visited as an adult after a 17-year absence and discovered that the visuals were accurate - I'd just forgotten or misinterpreted the context.
How cool! Sort of strange to see all of those rides completely indoors (instead of under a tent-like roof, but outdoors) - but cool. I love the antique look of some of those rides. Presumably Charles Schulz gave the OK forthe Snoopy Sky Fighter, which is nice. It's great that this place exists. Now I need one of those giant clown faces!
Trimper's Rides is such a cool place. It has still retained it's old-school charm while adding some modern thrills.
You really do have access to some of the best traditional parks in the nation. The eastern U.S. is really great for that. Thanks, Andrew.
And thanks for converting to pop-up window format. It makes it much more user-friendly.
Major Pepperidge, I think the rides you are referring to are the ones that were manufactured by Hampton and commonly referred to as "umbrella rides" because of their ubiquitous blue, red, and yellow canopies. They made everything from motorcycles to the variety rides like Trimper's has.
The Trimper rides did still have the canopies until very recently, probably until about 7 years ago. I like that they have added new decorations to the rides' centers instead of leaving them blank.
It's questionable if Schultz gave character use permission to this little park on the Atlantic coast, but we can definitely hope. Don't tell anyone!
I want one of those clown faces as well. It would look great above the family garage.
K. Martinez, thanks for reading. I often count my blessings and appreciate that I live in Pennsylvania, which is a great state for amusement parks. I don't know what I would do if I lived in Montana or somewhere. I probably would've just picked up a different hobby in the first place...
Andrew, you sure do a great job with this blog! (And thanks for making it easier for me to post comments!)
This post happily takes me down memory lane - as Kiddieland (in Melrose Park, IL) was near my house and I went there a lot, especially with my grandparents, as a youngster. These are the exact rides like at Kiddieland - how fun! Though they look so little and simple, I sure do remember the thrill and excitement from riding these. It was especially fun to have a birthday party at that little park, and ride with friends - celebrating your special day.
Sadly, Kiddieland (which opened in 1929) closed 10 years ago. And what did they replace it with?! A Costco.
Sue
Sue, thanks for giving this a look!
I've heard of the Kiddieland in Illinois before. That's great that you got to make childhood memories there. These rides were fairly standard across Kiddielands, from what I've seen. There certainly aren't a lot of true old kiddielands around today with just kiddie rides. Most of them have either closed or evolved to have bigger rides too. There's a little kiddie park in Cleveland that's on my list to see!
I first learned about the Kiddieland in Melrose Park from a picture in a book that I got from the library about amusement parks, a long time ago. It was a picture of the sign, which is pretty iconic and certainly piqued my interest. I saw that the sign has sort of been preserved, but all the neon is gone. :(
Thanks again for reading and commenting!
Andrew, these are beautiful photos, what an amazing carousel. Who wouldn't want to ride a giant rooster or a frog in a tuxedo. Only the best frogs are in formal wear.
Also, thanks for changing the comment window. This one recognizes my account sign-in automatically.
Cheers!
JG
JG, I'm sorry it took me so long to change the comment format. I really should've thought to make it like this earlier!
I might have to post a picture of the tuxedo-wearing frog on here. A figure like that is the sign of a good carousel! Cheers to you as well.
I like a carousel with a good mix of animals! Sometimes, you just want to ride a giant rooster instead of a horse!
Like Sue, I grew up with a little "kiddieland" very close to home. It was called, "Rideland" and it had rides very similar to these, including the boats in real water. Sadly, the little park was torn down and replaced with a Taco Bell and a McDonalds. :-(
Great post, Andrew! I'm looking forward to seeing more of this park!
TokyoMagic!, when I was real little, I thought it was cool how I could ride on a dragon on this carousel! I was sure I wanted to do it, even when the attendant reassured me that "this one doesn't go up and down." I guess that's all some kids care about.
Rideland? Love the name! The kiddie boats are often seen in the circular version, but I can't think of any others left with this larger, oval layout.
Thanks for reading!
Yeah, the name "Rideland" it's so simple and straightforward! Blogger "outsidetheberm" informed me that in addition to the park going by "Rideland," it was also sometimes referred to as Walteria Kiddieland. I posted a couple pics from it on my blog back in June of 2018. I have about a half dozen more photos from that park, which I will try to get posted in the future.
I should have mentioned that the park's kiddie boat ride was smaller than the one in your photo. It was just the circular kind and it had a tent over it.
TokyoMagic, I found the post; very nice stuff! I'm glad to see that you cover a variety of topics on your blog.
How charming! The wee baby Whip is just exquisite!
Melissa, I'll bet that it's the one of the most detailed kiddie rides anywhere!
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