Getting There Was Half the Fun!

A pennant like this one could have been among the many prizes awarded on board the Senator, when folks from Rochester, PA and the surrounding area took their excursion steamboat to Rock Springs Park in 1940.

In my last blog post, I mentioned a Rochester steamboat excursion aboard the Senator to Rock Springs Park in 1940. What I didn’t include was the added description of a very long list of prizes which were to be awarded to the “fun-lovers” on board as they traveled along the Ohio River to "The Showcase of the East."

Beaver (PA) The Daily Times, June 20, 1940 – More prizes than Aunt Minnie’s jam ever won in the good old days of the County Fair! That is the good news for fun-lovers who will leave the Rochester Wharf Monday morning, July 8, at 9:30 o’clock on the excursion boat “Senator” for the annual boat ride and outing of the Rochester Board of Trade at Rock Springs Park.

An imposing list of prizes has been compiled with potential winners running the gamut of competition all the way from “jitterbugging” to the wearing of the loudest necktie.

Dancing on the boat will be enjoyed to Fate Marable’s Original Cotton Pickers who are still reported to be picking a pretty swingy brand of cotton.

FINE PRIZES OFFERED:

Following is the list of prizes to be awarded on the boat, and the various lines of competition from which the winners will be selected:

Tallest man on boat, dinner; tallest woman, dinner; shortest man, dinner; shortest woman, dinner; youngest baby on boat, upholstered rocker; boy with the most freckles, gallon ice cream; girl with most freckles, pair slippers; largest family, easy cut ham; newest married couple, electric toaster; oldest married couple, one year subscription to DAILY TIMES; oldest Man, basket fruit; oldest lady, basket groceries; boy with longest hair, box candy; girl with longest hair, purse; fattest boy, polo shirt; fattest girl, box candy; youngest twins, box candy; oldest twins, ham; couple coming farthest distance, electric iron; person wearing loudest necktie, straw hat; most novel dressed boy, dress shirt; most novel dressed girl, pair hose; best dancing couple, $2.50 in cash; longest married couple, porch tea wagon; boy with reddest hair, straw hat; girl with reddest hair, slack suit; man with biggest head, hat cleaned; man with oldest car, grease job; woman with oldest car, grease job; best jitterbug, $2.50 in cash; youngest married couple, coffee table; best dressed boy, pair tennis shoes; best dressed girl, pair tennis shoes.

OTHER AWARDS

The following prizes will also be awarded to various persons on the boat en route to the park: Japanese Garden, $2.00 in cash, coffee percolator, cleaning one hat, dinner, 2 pennants, hand bag, polo shirt, straw hat, carton cigarettes, suit pressed, polo shirt, billfold, razor, ladies’ umbrella, water set, table lamp, set Fiesta Ware, brake adjustment, 3lbs. Coffee, 10 bu. Coal, ham, set ice tea glasses, sack flour.

It's funny to imagine how some of these prizes were identified with the recipients. I get how “the youngest married couple” might enjoy a new “coffee table,” or how a man or woman with the “oldest cars” might need a “grease job;” but the “boy with the most freckles” a “gallon of ice cream” or the person wearing the “loudest necktie” a “straw hat”? I’m not sure about those. And, in a world of political correctness, some of these categories would not go over well today and might seem somewhat mean spirited.

Local Pharmacies Were Ticket Agents for Excursions to Rock Springs Park

Being from a family who owned more than half a dozen drugstores in the Tri-State Area (Herche's Rexall), it was interesting to discover, while reading The Beaver Daily Times, June 28, 1940, that local businesses, including many pharmacies, acted as ticket agents for steamboat excursions to Rock Springs.


Rochester, PA – Fun-lovers will leave the Rochester wharf Monday morning, July 8, at 9:30 on the excursion boat “Senator” for the annual boat ride and outing of the Rochester Board of Trade at Rock Springs Park. A capacity crowd of 3,000 people is expected to make the boat trip to the park. Roy Fisher, chairman of the ticket committee, has established convenient agencies at which tickets can be obtained. Get your tickets before Monday. None will be sold at the boat. Here are the established ticket agencies. Go get’em now!

Rochester - Powell’s Grocery, Hetzel’s Drug Store, Gordon’s Pharmacy (see tin), Kunsman Brothers, Clyde Batto market, Paul Huth, Campbell’s Confectionary; Freedom – Hartzel Furniture Company (see video); Bridgewater – Bruehl’s News Agency; Beaver - Bloom’s Pharmacy; New Brighton – Geyer Cook’s Pharmacy; Monaca – Citizens Pharmacy

Curious to see if any of these local businesses are still around in the Beaver area, I did a quick search and discovered that none, like my own family’s stores, are still in existence. A search result for Monaca pharmacies says it all: "CVS Pharmacy” and “Walmart Pharmacy, Monaca, Pa.”

This home movie footage uploaded to You Tube by Don Fraser shows Hartzel Furniture Company in 1941, a year after this article was written.

Hippodrome Mystery Remains Unanswered

This double image postcard shows the trolley station and entrance to Rock Springs Park (top) and the upper park midway and what at first appears to be an unidentified building (bottom right). Could it be the Hippodrome? No, it turns out this is the dance hall built in 1897 by J.E. McDonald which used to sit above the original trolley station and entrance on Carolina Avenue. It remained the dance hall until C.A. Smith razed it in 1905 to build his new Casino Dance Hall featured on many postcards from the period .

The location and size of the Hippodrome remains something of a mystery. In my previous blog post I wrote about this “mammoth” structure built prior to the 1910 summer season somewhere on the grounds of Rock Springs Park. Like its larger and more expensive counterpart, the great Frederick Thompson Hippodrome in New York City, Rock Springs Park’s Hippodrome was meant mainly for animal circus acts and acrobat troupes. By June 2, 1910, The Daily Times of Beaver, PA reported, “There is a fine bill at the Hippodrome, Rock Springs Park, this week, any of the acts being well worth the price of admission, including Carl Daman Family, Sensational Acrobats; the Orloff Troupe of Famous Russian Gymnasts and Roberti’s Bears, Dogs and Monkeys.” But the article goes on to say “Johnston, Davenport and Lorella” will appear in “The Football Players and the Farmer’ with music provided by Roceroto’s Concert Band. Performances are given every evening.” Discovering that a play was one of the featured acts made me speculate that perhaps the Summer Theatre in the lower park had been adapted or rebuilt as the “Hippodrome,” but that could not be the case as the newspaper also advertized “Sacred concerts Sunday afternoon and evening, the latest appropriate moving pictures, and classy Vaudeville at Theatre” in 1910. So, where was the Hippodrome and why wasn't it featured on any postcards or vintage photographs?

I’ve come across many mysteries like this one before while researching my book, Images of America: Rock Springs Park, and it seems, either by accident or persistence, the answer is usually revealed. Perhaps, someone reading this blog will provide the answer or the next clue.

Rock Springs Park Had Its Own Hippodrome

While I have seen postcard images of animal circus acts performing at Rock Springs Park, like the one pictured above, I never knew the park had a large building for such acts until I read about the “mammoth Hippodrome” added in 1910. I still have not seen any pictures of it.

Beaver (PA) The Daily Times, May 28, 1910 – For weeks Rock Springs Park has been a veritable hive of industry. The grounds have received attention from competent and experienced landscape gardeners, who have changed the designs and added new verdure. Hundreds of workmen have put the finishing touches to the mammoth Hippodrome – an entirely new amusement feature - the animals for which arrived at the park several days ago; and in addition to all this, every other attraction on the grounds has been improved and beautified, remodeled and enlarged until even those most familiar with the numberless attractions at the great pleasure resort will be unable to recognize any of them as the same features. The opening of the regular picnic season was today, it is estimated that more than $50,000 will have been invested by the owners of Rock Springs Park in placing the resort in shape for 1910.

While not so large or expensive as the great Frederick Thompson Hippodrome enterprises (see images below), that at the Rock Springs resort will be fully equal to the biggest features. No expense has been spared in securing trained animals, which will be part of each of day’s attraction at the park. In the regular circus department of the mammoth Hippodrome the management of Rock Springs has arranged for the very best talent to be obtained and a change of program will occur at regular intervals.

Decoration Day, May 30, is usually one of the most enjoyable of the entire season at the popular resort, and this year the added attractions will make it doubly so. On that day there will be a matinee at the Hippodrome and each evening thereafter.

Arrangements have already been completed for special car services on all interurban systems into the city and a special low rate will be granted out-of-town people within a radius of 50 miles on both steam roads and trolly [sic] lines at least once a week. This concession attracted thousands last year, and promises to be more popular this season.

Well Known Circus Acts Performed at Rock Springs

(Cropped Image Courtesy of Memory Lane Group; See full photo in Images of America: Rock Springs Park, p. 48)

Free attractions often performed in the mall area of the upper park in Rock Springs. Beginning August 15, 1911, the Six Flying Banyards, a world renowned acrobat troupe performed high above the crowd assembled on the main walk and steps of the carousel waiting platform at 3 and 10 p.m. daily (1). These “daring young men” and two women came direct from London’s Hippodrome to awe thrill-seekers in Chester, WV. The show consisted of an 80 foot long flying trapeze and strong arm acts which featured three men, two women and a 14 year old boy. Named were Charles Banyard, troupe, aerialists, Miss Maudie Banyard, and Miss Dora Banyard (2).

1. Beaver (PA) The Daily Times, August 14, 1911.
2. Waterloo (IA) Reporter, September 27, 1913.

Baby Show at Rock Springs Park Offered Handsome Prizes

Today amusement parks offer wagon or stroller rentals for park guests. In 1910 the Pennsylvania Railroad offered “Free Baby Carriage Cars” for pleasure seekers of the pint-size variety.

In an advertisement featured in The Daily Times, Beaver, PA on August 20, 1910, carriage cars were listed as available for couples planning to visit Rock Springs Park during the East Liverpool Morning Tribune’s Picnic and Baby Show. The event featured a decorated baby carriage parade, the winner of which was given $500.00 in “Handsome Prizes!” (No small prize considering 500 dollars in 1910 is valued at nearly 10,000 dollars today.) The Baby show also included the Carnival of Babies and presents for the Kings and Queens of Babyland. For adults, a Masked Carnival was held in the evening and a Public Wedding was another “Special Feature” performed in the morning on the arched bridge which spanned the Chutes Ride (pictured). According to the ad, a free entry blank could be secured by writing to the Baby Show Manager, Rock Springs Park, Chester, W. Va.

Rudy Bundy and His Orchestra at Rock Springs 1936

The Daily Times, Beaver, PA, August 5, 1936 - Rudy Bundy and his Orchestra will be this week’s feature attraction at Rock Springs Park, Chester, Wa. Appearing in Virginia Gardens Ballroom Thursday night. Bundy, who is said to be one of America’s foremost saxophone and clarinet artists is bringing his orchestra to the Chester ballroom direct from six week’s engagement at the Dells, near Chicago.

Radio fans in the district will remember Bundy, due to his many broadcasts on WLW, “the nation’s station,” while he and the orchestra were playing an engagement at the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati.

Give yourself a treat and listen to Rudy and his Orchestra playing "Mr. Sizzling Man" (1937). It's a lively number!