Penny Arcade (Midway)
| Other Name(s) | Arcade, North Arcade and Wonderland |
|---|---|
| Type | Arcade Skill-based Games |
| Park Section | Midway |
| Built | 1910 |
| Opened | 1910 |
| Closed | 1911 (fire) |
| Fires | 1911 |
| Replaced | Billiards and Pool |
| Replaced By | Ye Olde Mill (2) |
At least two Penny Arcades existed at Olentangy Park. The second one was installed in the Midway. It replaced the Bowling and Pool section.[1] It and several other attractions burned down in the Midway Fire of 1911.[2][3] Penny Arcades were attractions with coin-operated devices, including kinetoscopes, mutoscopes, fortune-telling machinery, slot machines, love tester machines, peepshows (animation/moving pictures), skill-based games such as skee-ball, box-ball, and shooter games.[4]
It was also referred to as "North Arcade and Wonderland" by some news outlets, [5][6][7][8] but Wonderland is its own attraction.
The average trolley park arcade in 1906 had about 15 mutoscopes and 18 phonographs along the walls, with a perfume machine, a stick candy dispenser, a gum dispenser, a scale, a punching bag, a "test your strength" hand gripper and lifter games, a mechanical fortune teller, a postcard machine, an engraving machine, other games around the room.[9] A cashier was generally front and center with view machines and gum dispensers near them. Many featured a piano with snacks and card dispensers nearby. The cashiers were able to provide pennies in change for the machines. A size of the building suggested in 1906 was 40 feet square with free-flowing air.[10]
See Also
References
- ↑ Postcard. "Olentangy Park, Columbus, Ohio." Accessed through the Columbus Metropolitan Library Digital Collections.
- ↑ "Fire at Olentangy Park." The News-Herald (Hillsboro, Ohio). July 27, 1911. Page 1.
- ↑ "Suspect Arson in Destructive Fire at Olentangy Park." Columbus Evening Dispatch. July 17, 1911. Page 1.
- ↑ "Penny Arcade." Wikipedia.org.
- ↑ "Fire at Olentangy Park." The News-Herald (Hillsboro, Ohio). July 27, 1911. Page 1. Accessed through Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Suspect Arson in Destructive Fire at Olentangy Park." Columbus Evening Dispatch. July 17, 1911. Page 1.
- ↑ Photographs, The Columbus Evening Dispatch. July 17, 1911. Page 1.
- ↑ "Suspect Arson in Destructive Fire at Olentangy Park." The Columbus Evening Dispatch. July 17, 1911. Page 1.
- ↑ Wilk, Stephen R. Lost Wonderland: The Brief and Brilliant Life of Boston's Million Dollar Amusement Park. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2020. Pages 67-69.
- ↑ "The Construction and Operation of Penny Arcades for Service in Railway Parks." The Street Railway Journal. March 24, 1906. Vol. 27. No. 12. Pages 470-471. Accessed through the Internet Archive.