Acrobats and the Auto Club

Wednesday, August 17, 1910

On this date, "Great Thriller" Arthur C. Holden, the compact athletic acrobat, performed his sensational "Loop the Loop" act at Rock Springs Park. Read more at http://rockspringspark.blogspot.com/2011/08/daredevil-holden-appeared-at-rock.html.

Friday, August 17, 1928

The first free basket picnic of the Syria Temple Automible Club was held at Rock Springs Park. Read more at http://rockspringspark.blogspot.com/2011/08/directional-arrows.html.

A caravan left Pittsburgh and proceed through Coraopolis, Carnot Sheffield, Monaca, Rochester, Beaver to East Liverpool and then to Rock Springs Park. Syria auto arrow signs were posted along the route.

Chester or East Liverpool?

Look through enough early postcards pictures of Rock Springs Park and you will begin to notice that while most credit the location of the park to Chester, WV, a few identify it as being in East Liverpool, OH.
Some have suggested that the mix up might be the fault of the printer, since many early postcards were produced in Germany.
It is also possible that since Chester was not incorporated until 1907 and was known simply as “The South Side” of East Liverpool for many years, its official address might have been Liverpool.

However, the confusion with Rock Springs’ location is most likely due to the first two owners' connections to the trolley, bridge, and electric company which were all located in East Liverpool.

This postcard accurately describes the location of the park as being in "Chester, W.Va. near East Liverpool, Ohio".The 1905-1906 Julius Cahn's Official Theatrical Guide wisely chose to identify the park as belonging to both shores of the Ohio River and to both states. Rock Springs Park gets credit in the guide under Ohio and West Virginia.


Nonetheless, people throughout the Tri-State Region of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia lay claim to the park and consider it their own, which is fitting as Rock Springs Park belongs to all - those who knew her and to those who know of her!

Basketball in the Park

Most people, who are familiar with Rock Springs Park, will know that part of the upper park grounds included a baseball field and large grandstand for baseball games and other outdoor events during the C.A. Smith Years, 1900 – 1925. (See Images of America: Rock Springs Park, pp. 42-43.)

The ball field was located where the old Chester High School would later be built, next to Smith's World's Greatest Scenic Railway.

But few may realize that basketball games were also a regular feature at the park and more surprisingly that for a time some games were played inside the carousel pavilion. These games would have been held in the off season, of course.

Author and Chester historian Roy C. Cashdollar wrote in his History of Chester: The Gateway to the West, "C.A. Smith sponsored a professional team at one time and not only were games played here (in the carousel pavilion pictured below) but also on the third floor of the Bank Building (in Chester)."

Carousel Pavilion being razed in 1974

In a feature found in The Pittsburgh Press dated April 2, 1905, the hoped-for upcoming baseball season is referenced in the first paragraph with “Prospects are more encouraging than ever for the formation of a first-class baseball team in this city”, but the last paragraph references the end of the1905 basketball season and an East Liverpool team backed by Smith who played their home games in Rock Springs Park.

The Pittsburgh Press - April 2, 1905 – The basketball game to be played at Rock Springs Park on next Tuesday evening by the East Liverpool and South Side teams promises to be the most interesting event of the year in basketball circles. East Liverpool appreciates the fact that South Side is the strongest team that it has ever played with, but after a patched-up team, local people are expecting a victory on Tuesday.

I know that in later years, and during WWII when the park was closed for a time, portable rides were stored inside the boarded up carousel pavilion. I always assumed that the Dentzel Carousel, installed in 1927 under the ownership of C.C. Macdonald, was left intact and the portable rides were placed around it on the deck of the waiting platform, but Cashdollar’s statement indicating that basketball games were played inside the carousel pavilion, suggests that, at least at one point during the Smith years, his carousel was completely removed and stored in another building and the games played under the octagonal roof of the carousel pavilion. This is conceivable considering the crowd could have watched the game sitting in-the-round on the loading platform, but I still have a hard time picturing it.

Good for What Ails You

In an age in which one can jump into an automobile and travel wherever one wishes after work, it’s hard to imagine a life completely dependent upon public transportation for any trip out of town. In the summer of 1904, C.A. Smith’s East Liverpool Traction and Light Company offered, for the first time, evening trolley excursions during the workweek to Rock Springs Park so that townspeople in the Beaver Valley area could enjoy “the cool, life-giving, ozone-laden breezes from the pine-clad mountains of West Virginia.” Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

The Daily Tribune, Beaver Falls, PA – June 20, 1904

A Popular Move

Rock Springs Special from Beaver Valley Will Be Popular – Low Rates

The Rock Springs Special, to be run from the Beaver Valley to East Liverpool, over the Pennsylvania lines, on Tuesday evening, June 21, promises to be one of the most popular innovations ever attempted in the excursion line in this section. An opportunity of spending an evening at beautiful Rock Springs Park has never before been granted the people of the valley at so low a cost. In fact, the rate is so low that any young man can take his best girl on this trip cheaper than he can take her to the opera.

The schedule of the special has been so arranged that the entire evening may be spent at the park and yet no time need be lost from work or employment. This is expected to prove one of the most attractive features of this excursion, as many people would spend an evening in the woods if they could do so without loss of time from their work.

Rock Springs Park has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful and popular picnic grounds and summer resorts in the part of this United States, and it is visited annually by hundreds of thousands of people. Some twenty different forms of amusement may be enjoyed by visitors. Among these are dancing, bowling, boating, tennis and all kinds of outdoor sports. Large and costly roller coasters and merry-go-rounds furnish amusements for the young people.
But to the majority of people the most attractive feature is the cool, life-giving, ozone-laden breezes from the pine-clad mountains of West Virginia. An evening's outing in such an atmosphere will repair the ravages of weeks spent amid the dust, dirt and smoke of the towns.

The special will leave Beaver Falls at 6:45; New Brighton, 6:52; Rochester, 7:00; Beaver, 7:10, Eastern time. Returning the special leaves East Liverpool at 11:30 and arrives Beaver Falls at 12:30, Eastern time. The fare is fifty cents for the round trip.



This postcard picture shows that the dirt and smoke of the city soon encroached on Rock Spring’s “ozone-laden breezes.”

1904 marks the beginning of the automobile craze in the United States, including the introduction of Ford’s first car, the Model B.