Houston's Luna Park, was an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

that was operated from 1924 until about 1934. The "

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

of Texas" was built at a cost of $325,000 and featured a

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...

areas, live entertainment (including

diving horse A diving horse is an attraction that was popular in the mid-1880s, in which a horse would dive into a pool of water, sometimes from as high as 60 feet.

s), a dance

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

with spring-supported floors, and various mechanical rides, including the Giant Skyrocket

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

. At night the park (located near 2200 Houston Avenue) was bathed in the light emitted from 50,000 light bulbs. While it was a trolley park, Houston's Luna Park was one of the first amusement parks to offer free automobile

parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' ...

to its patrons.

Grand Opening

Located on the banks of White Oak Bayou, Luna Park opened to the public for the first time 26 June 1924. Contemporary press coverage (printed 27 July 1924) stated that the park had “… virtually every variety of amusement device known in the world of showdom.” Houston's first roller coaster,Betty Trapp Chapman, ''Historic Photos of Houston'' (Turner Publishing Company 2006) the -tall Skyrocket featured an drop and was billed (with a length of more than 1.25 miles) as the "largest" and "highest" roller coaster in the United States at that time. The popularity of the Skyrocket was immense as it carried between 2500 and 3000 passengers daily.The Houstonian:Luna Park
/ref> In addition, "a monstrous seaplane swing also has been installed in the park, as has a

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

, a

merry-go-round A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

dodgem Dodgem is a simple abstract strategy game Abstract strategy games admit a number of definitions which distinguish these from strategy games in general, mostly involving no or minimal narrative theme, outcomes determined only by player choice ( ...

, baby airplane swing, junior Ferris wheel, miniature railway and other devices." The scenic railway was reported to be two feet taller than that of

's. The pavilion was also advertised as the largest in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

; live entertainment was offered in the form of aerobatics, little people (billed as Williamson's Midget City), and shows entitled "See America First" and "The Mysterious Sensation."

Controversy and contention

The brief existence of the Houston Luna Park was tumultuous and controversial, from a 1924

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

by a patron who accused park employees of treating her roughly as she was waiting in line for the Skyrocket to claims of discrimination against Mexican people (a police

deputy sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

was arrested for assaulting a Mexican national but was eventually acquitted) to the October 1924 deaths of three people (two were killed from a fall from the Skyrocket; the third was professional

parachutist Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

Montie LeMay, who died after her

parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

failed to open after attempting a stunt). The following August, the local barber was stabbed while on the Luna Park grounds.

Activities in Luna Park

In addition to the mechanical rides, Luna Park patrons were offered a variety of activities, including boxing and wrestling exhibitions,

dance marathon Dance marathons (or marathon dances) are events in which people dance or walk to music for an extended period of time. They started as dance contests in the 1920s and developed into entertainment events during the Great Depression in the 1930s. ...

s (with a first prize of $750), beauty pageants, and a variety of outdoor competitions for the entire family. By 1928, the park was observing Mexican Independence Day, with activities organized by the Mexican consulate (including "patriotic speeches, patriotic music… and the reading of the Mexican Declaration of Independence"). The success of the dancing marathons prompted the park to schedule (for 1929) a "floating marathon" in a water tank specially built for the event.

Demise

The original owners sold the property to a local lawyer (Abe W. Wagner) who held a contest to choose a new name. The eventual winner was Venice Park. He also changed the address to 2212. While the latter half of the 1920s appeared to be the best of times for Luna Park, the

1929 stock market crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

was the beginning of a sequence of events that spelled doom for it. People were reluctant to leave home and go to the park after Black Tuesday, and that was not the park's only problem. The misfortunes that marked the first two years of Luna Park's existence returned, first with the discovery of a man's corpse on the park's grounds in 1930; two years later, a farmer was hijacked in his car while in Luna Park. By 1934, the park had closed; the Skyrocket, built and opened in 1925, was moved to a new amusement park nearby, Playland. Since then, the northern and eastern edges of the park's grounds have been occupied by two

Interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

s (

I-10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

and I-45). The rest of the property is currently occupied by various businesses near a small residential development.

References

{{Reflist Amusement parks in Texas Defunct amusement parks in Texas 1924 establishments in Texas 1934 disestablishments in Texas History of Houston Amusement parks opened in 1924 Amusement parks closed in 1934