Millbrook Park Trolley Station
|
Getting off the trolley at Millbrook Park trolley
station
|
Getting off the trolley at Millbrook Park
The
4 original streetcars had a seating capacity of 24 each.
|
Millbrook Park baseball field with roller coaster behind
it
The ballpark built in 1906 was redesigned in 1908 and a
grandstand built that seated 1,000 people. The cost to update the
field to a professional standard was $6,650. New Boston and Portsmouth
High schools used the ballpark and it was also a location for
training and professional games. In 1925, the Cincinnati Reds played an
exhibition game at the park. The ballpark grandstand was torn down in
1926. Most of the games had moved to the new stadium.
|
Millbrook Park baseball game
|
|
Millbrook another view trolley station on right
forefront. |
|
|
Millbrook Merry Goround
The
merry-go-round was purchased in 1905 at the cost of $3,900.The ride
consisted of beautiful painted animals along with seats for those not
wanting a pony ride. The ride operated Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon
until 10 p.m. The popular tune that played was "Goodbye My Blue
Bell".
|
|
|
Millbrook Park as pictured on a Flood Wall Mural in
Portsmouth
|
|
Millbrook Park view from the roller
coaster
|
Millbrook Pavilion
The two story Pavilion was
built in 1902, by Captain James Smith at the cost of $15,708, from
the lumber of the demolished city jail at Front and Washington Streets.
The building housed bowling alleys, a rifle range, a soda parlor with pool
tables and other games on the first floor. On the second floor was a
full-sized skating rink with a dance floor in the center. The famous River
City band played music for the dancers and skaters. In 1903, the new
pavilion added a restaurant.
|
|
Note the Merry Goround on top right.
|
Milllbrook Park picturesque picture
|
Millbrook park by the Lake side
|
|
Millbrook Park Picturesque Lakeside
|
Millbrook Park
|
Millbrook Park Bow Bridge
|
|
Millbrook "Y" bridge
|
|
|
Millbrook Park Bridges
|
Millbrook Park Casino Theatre abt 1910
|
Millbrook Park Casino Theatre
The "Casino was built in 1905, a large beautiful theatre, the two-story
frame was built at the cost of $21,500 and had a seating capacity of 500.
The Casino was located just inside the park gate (where Cornett Building
Supply now is located). The Casino was the area’s social place from 1905
to 1924. The River City Band would perform on Sunday evenings from
Memorial Day until Labor Day. Each season there would be plays, concerts,
films and even off-Broadway productions.
|
Millbrook Casino
|
Millbrook Park Casino
|
Millbrook Park Dancing Pavilion
|
Millbrook Park Pavilion
|
Millbrook Park c 1912
|
|
Millbrook Park view colorized
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Millbrook Park flowers shaped as a star
|
|
|
Building at Millbrook Park
|
Millbrook Park ladies by the
water
|
Millbrook Park ladies by water
|
Millbrook Park lake view
|
Millbrook Park lakeside view |
 |
| <> |
|
| A side friction coaster was built in 1902 by
Ingersoll, and at that time was the tallest one in the world. Research
shows it to have been approximately 60 feet high. It was a modified
version of the typical figure-8 layout. The coaster sat south of what is
now a series of telephone pole racks. The lift hill faced north. The Park
was also home to a carousel, theater, skating rink/dancing pavilion, ball
field that was very popular with grandstand seating, three-shaded picnic
groves, and a lake for boating. Only a couple structures remain next to
the Wal-Mart plaza, and the large recessed area of land north of the park
was home to the lake seen in many postcards. A liquor store uses the
former trolley station just north of the coaster site. Millbrook was a
beautiful place, and an ideal setting for a park. But like so many others,
being that close to the river proved fatal. The coaster survived a couple
floods, but the one in 1913 damaged it beyond repair and it was never
reopened due to the cost involved. The park itself found an end when the
great Ohio flood of 1937 wiped out everything along its banks, combined
with the growing steel industry that took over the park property.
Click here to see the scale model of the friction coaster:
MILLBROOK PARK SIDE
FRICTION |
The Street Railway and Light
Company in 1910 bought the roller coaster from the Foy Amusement Company
of Cincinnati. The cost was $15,000 for the ride and installation. With
more than a half mile of tracks, the coaster was located just west of the
ballpark. The coaster cars stopped at a different building than where they
started from, and were transferred to the starting point in an
enclosed building |
The roller Coaster was heavily damaged in the 1913 Flood and never
rebuilt because Millbrook Park's popularity had begun to fade so the
owners decided it would not be replaced. |
 |
 |
Millbrook park scene abt 1907
|
Looking down on Millbrook park about 1906
|
Rt. 52 over Millbrook Park lake
|
Millbrook park entrance to Steel Mills
|
Looking at steel mills from the Millbrook Park
area
In the late 1920s, the steel mill began to expand and
thus so they filled in several lagoons and canals and by 1935, the
park was almost completely
dismantled.
|
 |
|
