Paradise Lost - The Last Voyage Of Noah's Ark P.10

Above: Standing in Old Orchard Street and looking toward the Palace Playland ride lot in the forties. The Rocket ride sits next to concession buildings near Bricky's Spa. In later years, this spot would be home to four different carousels.

Above right: The interior of the Palace pavilion showing the Heydey ride manufactured by Spillman Engineering Corp. of North Tonawanda, NY. The Heydey was somewhat like a combination of two Tilt-A-Whirls and a Whip ride.

Above: Carousel in Palace Playland pavilion. This ride, Philadelphia Toboggan Co. No. 84, began operation originally in Happyland Hastings Park in Vancouver, BC in 1928. It later made the trip across country, stopping first for a new paint job at PTC's factory and then on to Old Orchard in 1935. Here it operated on lease into the mid-forties until being reclaimed and rebuilt by PTC. Fortunately, it was removed prior to the Palace Playland fire of 1948. The ride was sold to Palisades Amusement Park in Fort Lee, NJ. When that park closed in 1971, the ride was acquired by Canada's Wonderland park in Ontario where it continues to operate today.

Below: Sections of the carousel lease contract between Herbert Schmeck of the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. and Charles Usen, president of Palace Playland. Schmeck also designed the Cyclone coaster that later burned in the fire of 1948.

In the fifties, a small gabled carousel pavilion stood near the sidewalk on the Palace lot.
Below left: The pavilion held the popular German or European carousel with miniature buses and motorcycles. At another time this building contained an Allen Herschell 3-row standard carousel.
Below right: When Cleveland's Euclid Beach Park closed in 1969, its grand carousel, the ornate 4-row 1910 Philadelphia Toboggan Co. No. 19, was purchased by Palace Playland and opened in this new large steel building which replaced the gabled pavilion in 1971. This beautiful ride operated until 1997 when it was purchased by a Euclid Beach Park memorial group and returned to Cleveland. It is in the process of being restored and is scheduled to be displayed in the Cleveland area as a memento of Euclid Beach Park. Currently, a carousel built by the Chance Ride Manufacturing Co. turns in this building at Palace Playland.