Sea Lion Park was a
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 ...
started in 1895 on
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 ...
by
Paul Boyton. He fenced the property and charged admission, the park becoming the first enclosed and permanent amusement park in North America. Up until the establishment of this park, amusement areas around the country consisted of pay-as-you-go concessions.
[History of Enduring Coney Island](_blank)
Retrieved 4 August 2007. In 1903, Sea Lion Park was replaced by
Luna Park.
History
Paul Boyton achieved international notice with various demonstrations of a rubber suit, which was a life saving device, similar to a type of kayak, for example, by crossing the
English Channel.
[Stanton, Jeffrey (1998]
Coney Island-Sea Lion Park
retrieved 4 August 2007 He travelled around the United States with an aquatic circus and in 1894 established an amusement park in
Chicago. He then decided to settle in Coney Island and purchased the land behind the
Elephant Hotel
The Elephant Hotel is a historic former hotel which today serves as the town hall in Somers, in Westchester County, New York, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on August 7, 1974 as Somers Town House ...
as a permanent location for his aquatic show featuring 40 sea lions.
Rides and attractions
The most popular attraction, aside from the aquatic show, was a ride called the
Water Chute. The attraction, designed by Boyton and Thomas Polk, consisted of flat bottomed boat that slid down a ramp into a pool of water at the bottom. When the boat hit the pool it would skim across the surface of the pool.
Boyton, a consummate showman, also publicized the ride by staging contests in which animals ranging from lions to bears and even baby elephants would ride the chutes.
The park also included the infamous ''
Flip Flap Railway'', which was a roller coaster ride, designed by
Lina Beecher, that inverted the riders in a loop after fall from a height of 20m.
[Luna Park History site](_blank)
Retrieved 4 August 2007 The ride was too dangerous and was closed. Boyton also added an old mill style ride called Cages of Wild Wolves, and a ballroom (1899).
Demise
By 1902, Boyton could not keep up the pace of new attraction introductions that the public craved.
Boyton tried to keep the public interested by investing $100,000 in a revamp of Sea Lion Park during the winter of 1901, and he also purchased
Topsy Topsy may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Topsy, a character in the novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''
* Topsy, a character in the 2018 film ''Mary Poppins Returns''
* ''Topsy and Eva'', a 1928 film based on ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''
* ''Topsy and Tim'', ...
, a well-known elephant, early in the spring of 1902 from Forepaugh's Circus.
However, the 1902 season was rainy and not profitable.
The nearby
Steeplechase Park had opened on Coney Island in 1897 and was presenting even newer competition. By the end of 1902,
Frederic Thompson and
Elmer "Skip" Dundy obtained a long term lease for Sea Lion Park and it was re-opened as
Luna Park.
Samuel Hawley, TOPSY THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT, .samuelhawley.com (research collected for the novel "Bad Elephant Far Stream")
/ref>
See also
* List of abandoned amusement parks
References
External links
Captain Paul Boyton and Sea Lion Park
at Heart of Coney Island
{{Coney Island
Amusement parks opened in 1895
Amusement parks closed in 1903
Animal theme parks
Coney Island
Cultural history of New York City
1895 establishments in New York City
1903 disestablishments in New York (state)
Defunct amusement parks in New York (state)