Riverside Amusement Park (Chicago)

Riverview Park was an amusement park in Chicago, Illinois, which operated from 1904 to 1967. It was located on bound on the south by Belmont Avenue, on the east by Western Avenue, on the north by Lane Tech College Prep High School, and on the west by the North Branch of the Chicago River. It was located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago's North Center community area.

Founding

Riverview was established in 1904 by William Schmidt, on the grounds of his private skeet shooting range. The Schmidt family owned and operated the park throughout its lifetime.

"Big Bill" Haywood, the Industrial Workers of the World leader, once spoke here to a crowd of almost 80,000 people.

Rides and attractions

Riverview was famous for The Bobs wooden roller coaster. Other popular coasters were The Comet, The Silver Flash, The Fireball and the Jetstream. Aladdin's Castle was a classic fun house with a collapsing stairway, mazes and turning barrel. Shoot the Chutes, Hades, the Rotor, Tilt-a-Whirl, Wild Mouse, the Mill on the Floss (Tunnel of Love), and Flying Turns were just a few of the many classic rides. "The Pair-O-Chutes at Riverview Park'll shake us up all day" is a line from the Beach Boys' song " Amusement Parks U.S.A." from their 1965 album, ''Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)''. There were over 120 rides in the park.

Racism and closing

Riverview closed in 1967. Enduring urban myths describe the park's "seedy" atmosphere in the '60s as it coincidentally became more integrated. Contemporaneous articles in black publications such as the ''Chicago Defender'' described black patrons being subject to latent and overt racism. The most overt was a longstanding attraction officially named "African Dip" and later truncated to "Dip", but unofficially called "Dunk the Nigger". It was not owned by Riverview, but by an outside concessionaire that rented space from the park. In the 1950s, the NAACP and Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko successfully lobbied to shut it down.

According to Victoria Wolcott, author of the 2012 book ''Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters:''

Chuck Wlodarczyk, author of ''Riverview: Gone But Not Forgotten'', once performed shows about the park. He noted that people often approached him afterwards to report hearsay of someone raped in the restrooms by a black man. However, no actual record of such crimes exist. A ''Chicago Tribune'' article from late 1967 also blamed violence for the park's closure, although Wolcott said there was little evidence to support this.

Ultimately, white flight contributed to Riverview's financial decline, making the land on which it was built more valuable than the park itself. The Schmidt family sold to developers and later stated a newspaper's reported estimated sale price of $6.8 million ($ in ) was too low.

The grounds eventually became home to the Riverview Plaza shopping center, the Chicago Police Area 3 Detective Division, DePaul College Prep High School, dental equipment manufacturer Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, and Richard Clark Park of the Chicago Park District. The south end of Clark Park has a wooded area where many of the Riverview foundations are visible; it's used as a bicycle dirt jump and pump track park maintained by the Chicago Area Mountain Bikers. A sculpture entitled ''Riverview'' by local artist Jerry Peart stands in front of the police station.

Memorabilia

Many items from Riverview, as well as paintings of the park, were displayed at Riverview Tavern (West Roscoe and Damen Avenue) from 2005 - 2018. The Riverview Carousel, the only ride from the park to be saved, continues to operate at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Bally and Williams tie-ins

Bally Manufacturing Corporation and Williams Electronics had their headquarters and primary manufacturing facilities just west of Riverview during the park's later years. ''Fireball'', Bally's 1972 pinball machine, was named after Riverview's Fireball roller coaster. Bally's Aladdin's Castle amusement arcade division (formerly Carousel Time) was renamed to honor the Aladdin's Castle funhouse; the ''Aladdin's Castle'' pinball machine was similarly inspired.

Williams Electronics' pinball games ''Flash'' (1979) and ''Comet'' (1985) were named after two Riverview roller coasters. Williams' 1990 amusement park-themed pinball machine FunHouse was also inspired by Riverview; the Riverview Carousel is depicted on the machine's backglass.

List of rides

See also

*Flying Cars, former ride

References

Further reading

*
* Riverview Park Remembered, Facebook

External links

* {{RCDB, 5427, Riverview Park

Sharpshooters Productions Inc.'s Riverview Park site

Dolores Haugh Riverview Amusement Park Collection
at Newberry Library

Sanborn map of Riverview Park, 1913

1904 establishments in Illinois
1967 disestablishments in Illinois
Amusement parks opened in 1904
Amusement parks closed in 1967
Defunct amusement parks in Illinois
Demolished buildings and structures in Chicago
Former buildings and structures in Chicago
History of racism in Illinois
Tourist attractions in Chicago