Luna Park was a trolley park (a type of

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

) in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, from 1905 to 1929.

Specifications

Constructed by Frederick Ingersoll, the park occupied a hilly site bounded by Woodland Avenue, Woodhill, Mt. Carmel (originally Ingersoll Road), and East 110th Street and included

roller coaster A roller coaster is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

s, a fun house, a

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...

, a

roller rink A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of hardwood or concrete, used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located in ...

, a shoot-the-chutes ride, a

concert A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

shell, a

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...

, bumper cars, a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

field, and a 20,000-seat

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

(unofficially called "Luna Bowl", destroyed by fire in August, 19
Clipped From The Akron Beacon Journal
in which

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

was played. On May 18, 1905, Cleveland's Luna Park became the second Ingersoll park of that name (out of 44) to have opened before his death in 1927, and the second amusement park (after Luna Park, Pittsburgh, which opened weeks earlier) to be covered with electrical lighting.

History

The monetary demands of upgrading and maintaining his embryonic chain of amusement parks forced Ingersoll, the original owner of Cleveland's Luna Park, to declare bankruptcy in 1908; Ingersoll was forced to sell his Cleveland park to Matthew Bramley, an original investor in (and, later, owner of) Ingersoll's Luna Park Amusement Company who built the Cleveland Trinidad Paving Company into the largest paving company in the world. Bramley added rides to Luna Park as its popularity as a trolley park grew, in part because beer was sold on the park grounds. After the passage of the

Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) to the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and ratified by the requisite number of sta ...

and the beginning of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

(1920), a primary source of revenue was removed as the park's popularity waned. Bramley officially closed the gates to Luna Park in 1929 for the final time as the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

took hold in the United States. The park was beset with incidences of

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

, including the fire that destroyed the football stadium, and most of the rides were dismantled and moved to other amusement parks in the early 1930s. In June 1939, construction crews broke ground for a new housing development project to be built on the grounds where Luna Park once stood. Woodhill Homes was completed on November 1, 1940, making it one of the nation's first public housing projects.

Luna Bowl tenants

The stadium at Luna Park The Cleveland Panthers of the first American Football League and the

Cleveland Bulldogs The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However, after team owner ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

played their home games in Luna Bowl, and (after the dismantling of the amusement rides had begun) the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

Cleveland Green Sox, Luna Bowl was the home to

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

teams Cleveland Tigers (1928) Cleveland Stars (1932),

Cleveland Giants The Cleveland Giants were a Negro league baseball team. The team played for one year, 1933. Their home games were contested at Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland's Luna Bowl in Luna Park, Cleveland, Luna Park. History In 1933, the struggling Columbus ...

(1933), and Cleveland Red Sox (1934). Collegiately, Case School of Applied Science defeated

Western Reserve University Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

7–6 on November 19, 1927, during their annual rivalry football game, played only once at Luna Park. The winning touchdown was scored by Case's Frank Herzegh.

Woodland Rink

The roller rink was added to Luna Park when the park was sold to Matthew Bramley in 1910. The roller rink was known as the Woodland Rink. On December 12, 1938, the last vestige of the park, the skating rink, was destroyed by fire.

References

External links

First-year tour of Cleveland's Luna ParkSanborn map showing parts of Luna Park including athletic field
*
Looking back: Luna Park
{{Authority control Amusement parks in Ohio Culture of Cleveland Defunct amusement parks in Ohio Defunct American football venues in the United States American Football League (1926) venues Defunct baseball venues in the United States Defunct Negro league baseball venues History of Cleveland Sports venues in Cleveland 1905 establishments in Ohio 1929 disestablishments in Ohio Amusement parks opened in 1905 Amusement parks closed in 1929 Defunct sports venues in Ohio Federal League venues