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Sliders: 1910

Cincinnati circa 1910. "Chester Park -- toboggan slide on the lake." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Cincinnati circa 1910. "Chester Park -- toboggan slide on the lake." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

An Accident Waiting To Happen

The wet balance beams are waiting for someone to slip and fall onto the neighboring beam. Fingers and toes are waiting to be rip off in the rollers of the slide. Not to mention there is no adult supervision at the slide or a life guard stand to be seen.

Same as it ever was

Just as when I was that age fifty or so years later, if someone's kid brother or the peewee of the group wanted to join in the fun, he always ended up with much of the heaving and hauling. Look at the little guy at the top of the up ramp.

Squirt Pistols

The lads at the foot of the slide look like they could have come directly out of any given British punk band of the 1976-78 era. Anarchy in the sluiceway!

Toboggan

Does anyone else think that toboggan slide looks like the most fun ever? I would love to give that thing a whirl!

Acme of Enjoyment

Other postcards identify the monument to the right as "The Statue of Liberty." I wonder how slimy and slippery the planks of that submerged pedestrian bridge were by late summer. The boys stepping out at the left end seem a bit unsure of their footing.


The Cincinnati Industrial Magazine, June, 1910.

Chester Park's distinctive characteristic is its large number of these amusement features, and the completeness and up-to-date manner in which they are presented. It is safe to say that there are more ways in which to enjoy one's self at Chester Park than in any park in the country, and all of them are innocent and harmless and such as to appeal to a fun loving public. You are not supposed to be serious when you go to Chester Park. You wear your broadest smile and your most comfortable clothes, and even the latter you exchange for a bathing suit if so inclined to indulge in that acme of enjoyment, the bathing beach.

The finished product

From the album listed in one of the previous posts.

Where the Guys Are

Looks like everyone is having a good time but I see no girls like me. When I was a kid I would rather have been sliding than sitting in a rowboat trying to keep my long skirt and frilly high-neck blouse dry. Once a tomboy, always a tomboy. But apparently not in this time and place.

According to SOAPHS

(Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society)

"The park was located at Spring Grove Avenue and Platt Avenue in Cincinnati's Winton Place area and was developed by George Stone in 1875."

http://www.soaphs.com/chesterpark/index.htm

"Today, the site is the home of the Cincinnati Water Works. Ironically, the park was forced to close due to an unpaid water bill."

A very nice photo album of the park can be found here:

http://chesterpark2.shutterfly.com/

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