The LVRR Picnic Ground - Extra

1891-1950

This website has a lengthy section and videos of the Lake's most memorable attraction, Hanson's Amusement Park. This article explores in more detail the park's earliest years when it was created by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and known as the Picnic Ground or Grounds.

 

Introduction

In late 1885 Albert Lewis, the Lumber King of Wyoming Valley, began construction of a railroad from Luzerne to Harvey's Lake. His long-range plan was to harvest lumber and ice from the Lake region, Noxen and Ricketts Glen to mills he would build along the route. By June 1887, Lewis constructed a 12-mile route from Luzerne to the Lake at its Alderson section. In August 1887, Lewis sold the railroad to the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR). The LVRR created a park near Alderson which opened in June 1891 known as the Lehigh Valley Picnic Ground (or Grounds). The LVRR would eventually extend the rail line, called the Bowmans Creek Branch, and along with the LVRR's State Line and Sullivan Branch it cut through the wild North Mountain country to Towanda by September 1892.

 

The LVRR Years

In early June 1891, the LVRR was rushing to complete the park. A 150-foot long by 60-foot wide dancing pavilion was still under construction, and the railroad was extending tracks from the station at Alderson to the park. The LVRR Picnic Ground would open on June 9, 1891, when the Canton Union No. 28 (Pittston) and Canton Union No. 31 (Wilkes-Barre) I.O.O.F (Odd Fellows) lodges chartered a 20-car railroad excursion to the Lake on the occasion of Odd Fellows Memorial Day. An estimated 400 Fellows attended the opening of the park.

The Lake park was an immediate success and the LVRR was already planning to build a hotel on a bluff near the park - which did not materialize. In July 1891 a news account stated the LVRR park at the Lake was doing "big business." In July 1891 the LVRR built a large steamboat landing extending 180-feet out into the Lake with a 90-foot extended arm at the end. The LVRR was also building bath houses to accommodate bathers and retaining lifeguards and attendants.

This was an era of intense local social engagement. From mining communities to larger towns, there was an array of social, fraternal, ethnic, religious, union and political associations in every town. Most held an annual picnic at one of the Valley's many local parks, often coupled with a train or trolley excursion. The Lake's Picnic Ground was a favorite destination. The Lake park's chief competitors were Fernbrook Park in Dallas, Sans Souci in Hanover Township, Rocky Glen near Moosic and Mountain Park on Wilkes-Barre Mountain. Some picnics at the Lake park could draw thousands of guests even though it was basically a true "picnic ground" with a few amusements and a dance pavilion, not an amusement park in the current sense. Local bands were a favored attraction, and the Forty Fort Band was the best-known in its time. In mid-August 1891 the LVRR booked ten rail cars for a Forty Fort Band concert at the Picnic Ground.

In May 1894 the Lehigh Valley Railroad announced it would close another park it owned, Luzerne Grove, near Wanamie in Newport Township, and relocate its equipment to the Lake park. Luzerne Grove had opened in August 1882. In July 1904 the D.L&W. Coal Company sunk shafts at the Luzerne Grove site to reach coal 2,600 feet under the surface.

Another feature at the Lake park in the 1890s was a photographic gallery where visitors could have a photograph taken as a souvenir of a park visit. C.F. Cook was the park photographer in 1892, followed by W.H. Sturdevant in 1894. Other photographers succeeded in later years.

Given the success of the LVRR Picnic Ground, it was a surprise when the Times-Leader reported on May 24, 1904, that the LVRR was considering closing the park. The single-track rail line to the Lake with its many sharp curves was considered a safety hazard, especially for the haulage of multi-car picnic excursions. Moreover, in 1898 a trolley service opened from the Valley to Sunset at the Lake with steamboat service to the park, and ridership on the train line was dropping. The LVRR was also building a new park at Lake Carey. In any event, the LVRR soon withdrew consideration of closing the Harvey's Lake park.

As early as 1903 a Law and Order League was established to deal with the Lake's growing concerns with gambling and the illegal sale of liquor by the summer crowds at the Lake. The league denounced the failure to control the "gamblers and fakirs" at the Picnic Ground. There was also no rationale to permit illegal beer sales at the picnic ground with the excuse it may benefit societies who sponsored excursion parties.

Three years later the issue was unabated. An August 1906 news article noted, "The observance of the Sabbath on the Harvey's Lake picnic ground is very lax. Drinking and other forms of carousal have disgusted those of Puritanical proclivities."

 

The Redington Years

There was no resolution of the park's concerns until March 1906, when the LVRR leased the Harvey's Lake park to John A. Redington, Sr. (1868-1941). He had planned to prohibit liquor sales at the Picnic Ground.

In the meantime, the LVRR opened the Lehigh Valley Railroad Picnic Ground at Lake Carey in 1904 which the LVRR also leased to Redington. The Rosalind, a Harvey's Lake steamboat, was hauled by railroad in 1905 to Lake Carey and two of Harvey's Lake's best steamboat men, Capt. E. J. Carpenter and Reuben L. Shaver, relocated to Lake Carey to manage the park there and to operate the Rosalind, but the Lake Carey Picnic Ground closed after the 1910 season. The Rosalind was abandoned and sunk into the mud along the shore of the park grounds.

Nine months after Redington leased the Harvey's Lake park, a fire destroyed the Lake park on December 12, 1906. The dance pavilion, with the park's original carousel stored inside it, and other park buildings were totally gone. The Lake park was closed in 1907-1909.

The cause of the 1906 fire was not determined. It was rumored that tramps were camped there and carelessly caused the fire. Some speculated that opponents of the park, with its summer noise and rowdy patrons, deliberately set the fire. In 1907 a news article reported that "the cottagers are rejoicing that there are no picnics or Sunday excursions at the lake this year, many, especially those who live near the picnic ground, having been greatly annoyed in previous years by the crowds that came there on the Sunday excursions. The article described the Sunday crowds as more "rowdier," the cause of "disgraceful scenes," and the "speakeasies" as the only parties who missed the crowds.

In 1909, while planning for rebuilding of the park was underway, the LVRR leased the Picnic Ground to an unincorporated company titled the Harvey's Lake Park Company headed by John A. Redington, Sr. Other company directors were LVRR officials Charles S. Lee and George Heller, and Alfred Wintersteen, a future sole lease-holder of the park.

In the 1920s Redington was a household name in the Wyoming Valley. Born in Ireland in 1869, Redington immigrated to the United States in 1883. He operated a restaurant and hotel in White Haven, then a lumber and railroad boomtown. In 1892 he built a four-story hotel in downtown Wilkes-Barre opposite the LVRR station. In 1905 he erected the seven-story Redington Hotel which still stands as part of the Best Western-Genetti hotel complex near City Hall. The site of the LVRR station is now a parking lot serving the hotel and downtown.

Redington in 1901-1905 had leased the Oneonta Hotel at the Lake. He also had various real estate ventures in the Valley. He crossed the Atlantic by steamship 22 times to visit his birthplace in County Mayo and to explore much of Europe. In late January 1941 Redington died in his Redington suite.

Charles S. Lee had extensive experience with railroad enterprises in New England and the Mid-West before joining the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1893. His expertise was in passenger services. He established the LVRR's first-class passenger system. He spent his summers at the Lake managing excursion and visitor services for the Picnic Ground. He left the Harvey's Lake Park Company in 1925. In late 1926 Lee died in New York City. His home was in Flemington, N.J., but he previously lived longer in Roselle Park, N.J.

Heller also benefitted the Picnic Ground with his forty years of experience as a passenger and ticket agent for the LVRR. He preceded Lee in death in November 1923 at his Allentown home.

Wintersteen was a Philadelphia orphan who was raised by friends in Lehman. He became a prosperous dairy farmer in the Bald Mountain area and later a leasee of the Picnic Ground. He died in 1933. His wife, Netti, would become more prominently associated with the Picnic Ground than her husband.

The incomplete Picnic Ground was reopened for the long Independence Day holiday weekend in 1909. There was a new pavilion in place and the beach facilities were improved. There was a large circular track in the center of the park for foot races, baseball and athletic games. The Rowley Band played on Sunday, July 4. The LVRR resumed Sunday excursions to the Lake on Monday, July 5, for 50 cents round-trip, down 30 cents from previous rates. Monday, July 5 was also a holiday and Rowley's provided free dancing to LVRR ticket-holders. But the Picnic ground was still a traditional picnic park not an amusement park.

The Harvey's Lake Park Company reopened the Picnic Ground on July 4, 1910, after a $100,000 investment, including a new dance hall, merry-go-round, a planned roller-coaster, and a Ferris wheel. It was finally an amusement park.

A significant figure at the park with Redington was Charles Shelley, who built a roller-coaster for the park. It ran single-cars, not a train of cars, in a figure-8 pattern, and 13,000 tickets were sold on July 4, 1910, for the coaster ride. In later years, Shelley was the manager of the amusement park at Croop's Glen along Hunlock Creek. (He could have passed as a twin of actor Spencer Tracy.)

Shelley also built the water-front attraction called the Shoot-the-Chute, a giant 60-foot-high water slide into the Lake.

In the meantime, with the closure of the LVRR's venture at Lake Carey after 1910, the railroad was resuming railroad excursions to the Harvey's Lake park.

The Picnic Ground at the Lake, and the Lake attractions generally, also drew attention to gambling, liquor violations and other nuisance conduct at the Lake. Rule enforcement was the responsibility of the county sheriff. During the July 4, 1913, holiday, the sheriff's office was called to investigate and to arrest a fortune-telling racket near the park. There was also a raid on a speakeasy and disorderly house at Dougherty's, a former bar, built over the Lake in front of the park.

In May 1914, two new bath houses were built on the Lake front. The women's bath house was seemingly erected over the cribbing of the old L-shaped steamboat landing. The men's bath house was located on the shore opposite the Noxen Road. Each had a capacity of 300 lockers. A new artesian well, 267-feet deep, was also dug to supply the park. The steamboat company seemingly built another landing directly in front of the park at the beach area

By 1915 crowds at the Lake park were similar to those during the pre-1906 fire. In August 1915 the D.L.&W. Coal Company hosted 26 first-aid teams from regional coal companies for the demonstration of first-aid and emergency response techniques. More than 8,500 people attended the event. A few days later, 5,000 attended the annual Forty Fort Band Picnic at the park. The band gave an afternoon concert, and music for an evening dance was provided by the Oppenheim Orchestra.

On May 15, 1916, three refreshment stands and a novelty stand adjacent to the Picnic Ground were destroyed in a fire. A bucket brigade prevented the expansion of the fire to the park. W.F. Clark's photograph gallery at the edge of the park, however, was badly damaged, but saved from total loss. At the time, Clark was among the most prominent photographers in the Wyoming Valley. The lost refreshment stands were owned by Charles W. Lord and "Doc" Whipple. Lord would maintain an established lakefront restaurant across from the park for four decades.

On April 2, 1917, the United States entered into World War I, but it did not greatly impact the seasonal events at the Lake. The Picnic Ground also became a favorite venue for family reunions. Among the earliest settlers of the Lake region was the Allen family, which held its annual reunion at the Picnic Ground. Other family reunions representing pioneer families included a Sorber family reunion on August 14, 1918, and the reunion of the Montross-Kitchen families on September 3, 1918 (which held its first reunion in Noxen in 1907). The tenth annual Wright reunion was held at the park on August 8, 1918.

The July 4, 1918, holiday at the Picnic Ground was crowded by thousands of visitors, and described as "enormous." Bathers overran the privately-owned steamboat landing, where swimming was prohibited, and was supposed to be deterred by its barbed wire. The landing had to be closed. The steamboats had to use the Davis dock 150-yards down the road from the park.

WWI did impact the July 4, 1918, holiday in two ways. Fireworks were largely banned as a War-time measure supported by President Woodrow Wilson. It was intended to conserve gunpowder for the War. Sugar was also rationed, and park guests had to bring their own sugar as refreshment stands had no sugar for lemonade or coffee.

The annual picnic of the Forty Fort Band was held at the Picnic Ground on August 14, 1918. A crowd of four to five thousand attended with no rowdiness at all, likely because most younger men were engaged in War service. The State Police were managing traffic control at the Lake; no arrests occurred. All tables were full, and the extra crowd spilled on to the grass on the opposite side of the railroad tracks.

Later in the season the Federal Fuel Administration ordered "gasolineless Sundays" to limit gas usage to benefit the WWI effort. With some exceptions, the use of private autos or other gas-powered machinery was banned on Sundays. There were complaints that certain rides at the park continued to operate, along with the water-taxi, the Emily, owned by the steamboat company. These actions violated the federal edict.

The Wilkes-Barre Railway Company operated the trolley line from Wilkes-Barre to the Lake. It was the most efficient service to the resort. The trolley left Public Square at 5:00 AM and ran hourly until 10:00 PM. A run from the Lake left Sunset at 5:55 AM and thereafter from 7:00 AM hourly until 11:00 PM. The fare was 60 cents round-trip. A trip to Dallas and return to the city was 40 cents. Both the Lake and Dallas had taxi service in the Back Mountain from the Dallas Motor Car company or Daddow's Garage. Both also offered automobile repair services.

On Memorial Day, May 30, 1921, Redington opened a new two-story pavilion along the Lake road. The interior framework was made of steel. The ground floor had a cafeteria, refreshment stands and a cigar store. The second floor was exclusively for dancing. The Guy Hall Orchestra was engaged there for the entire season. This pavilion outlasted the actual amusement park and was demolished in December 2014.

Redington celebrated the opening of the new park restaurant by inviting 400 members and guests from the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs of Wilkes-Barre to an outing at the Lake. There was a chicken dinner, followed by dancing on the upper deck with Macluskie's Orchestra. During the dance "lucky number" contests were called. The winner of the first drawing was Mrs. John A. Redington, the hostess for the event. Ads at this time now advertised the summer playground at Harvey's Lake as Harvey's Lake Park but the Picnic Ground name was nearly impossible to shake. Even in to the late 1950s, older park visitors still called it the Picnic Ground.

Property owners at the Lake were paying $10,000 annually in taxes to Lake Township, but the property owners felt they were not receiving adequate traffic control or public protection from the township. There was talk of creating a new borough to govern the Lake. These concerns echoed discussions years earlier when Alderson residents and business interests, who paid the bulk of the taxes in the township, also questioned if a separate Alderson borough or township might be in their interests. The concerns raised in the early 1920s led to the creation of the Harvey's Lake Protective Association, and eventually to the Harvey's Lake fire and police departments.

In July 1922, John A. Redington, Sr., Charles S. Lee, George Heller and Alfred Wintersteen incorporated the Harvey's Lake Park Company to manage the lease from the LVRR for the park.

After the end of WWI, sales of private automobiles boomed and there was improved road access to the Lake. The LVRR again limited or discontinued railroad excursions to the Picnic Grounds.

In July 1923 the LVRR bypassed Lee, Heller and Wintersteen and sold the Picnic Ground to John A. Redington, Sr.

 

The Wintersteens

In October 1923 Redington leased the park to Alfred Wintersteen.

In many instances, churches, social organizations, unions and businesses held an annual picnic at the Picnic Ground or at other area parks. A company would declare the picnic as a holiday for its employees. In August 1924 twelve picnics were held at the Picnic Ground. Examples were the Luzerne Gas and Electric Company, Brothers of America, the Slovak Church in Larksville, Westmoreland Colliery, the Parsons Baptist Church, and the Welsh Presbyterian Church in Plymouth.

In 1925 Wintersteen added the Dodgem, Dangler and Caterpillar rides to the park. On Saturday, August 20, 1927, the Ku Klux Klan held a huge picnic at the Picnic Grounds and a large burning cross there sent smoke seen for miles around.

The LVRR at this time recognized that the railroad could no longer compete with the efficient, frequent trolley service to the Lake combined with its direct connection via the steamboat line's runs from Sunset to the Picnic Ground. In addition, the main highway from the Valley to the Lake had been improved with grades lessened and the "entire route can be taken 'in high' " (a reference to the highest or speediest shift on a manual transmission).

Plans were developed to transform the Picnic Ground beach with new lockers, a diving board, life-saving rafts and a revamped beach. Wintersteen also expanded access to refreshment stands, purchased new picnic tables, and provided free hot-water service to picnic parties. He foresaw the auto boom and created a free 150 car park, with more car spaces at the rear of the park with attendants at a nominal charge.

Weekend travel to the Lake was overwhelming. On Sunday, June 7, 1925, a Harvey's Lake traffic officer counted 3,247 cars passing a point on the Lake road at the park. Two hours were required for an auto to make the trip home through the congestion between Dallas and Luzerne. There was now a law prohibiting the riding on running boards of automobiles and arrests were demanded. Summer guests at the Lake were shocked that people were driving around in bathing suits.

Wintersteen soon engaged in battle with the Lake Transit Company because of issues with the steamboat landing in front of the park. The steamboat company owned the landing but park swimmers treated it as a public dock with risks incurred by both the steamboats and swimmers. The boat company built a new boat landing 375 feet down the shore nearer the Noxen Road. Wintersteen claimed the new dock placed his patrons at risk because they now had to walk along Lakeside Drive, which had heavy auto traffic to the park entrance.

The steamboat company was publicly-regulated by the PA Public Utility Company and Wintersteen filed a complaint with the PUC. The Lake Transit Company noted the old landing was in disrepair, and they would have rebuilt it if Wintersteen contributed to the costs, but Wintersteen refused. In addition, it was Wintersteen's patrons who abused the old dock which compelled building the relocated dock. The new dock was designed to also accommodate summer cottages and stands at its new location not to principally serve the Picnic Ground. It was also built in a location with a "greater line of sight" for boat passengers to more safely view auto traffic on Lakeside Drive to cross safely over to the park.

In April 1926 the PUC found in favor of the Lake Transit Company and allowed the use of the new sreamboat dock.

Wintersteen fell ill in 1929, and his wife, Netti, assumed the lease for the park. Her husband, Alfred, would die at the Retreat State Hospital in October 1933.

In June 1930, John A. Redington, Sr., sold the park to Nettie Wintersteen (1880-1945) for $61,500. The following month, Netti Wintersteen sold a 50 percent interest in the park to the Kingston contractor John E. Hanson. Their ambitious plans for the park included building a separate seaplane base on the waterfront. Hanson flew a seaplane called the "Bucket of Bolts." The base was not built. But another plan, a new roller-coaster, was built and opened in 1931.

The 65-foot high "Speed Hound" was constructed by Miller and Bittler, of Homewood, Illinois. Oscar M. Bittler (1896-1958), born in Moosic, was known as the "roller coaster king" who designed and erected many coasters in the eastern and mid-western United States. In 1937 he moved to Elmira and built the Eldridge Amusement Park which today has Bittler's only surviving coaster.

 

John E. Hanson

In March 1935, Netti Wintersteen sold her 50 percent interest in the park to John E. Hanson.

Wintersteen retained ownership of the merry-go-round and the Dodgem rides which over time descended to her heirs. Despite Hanson's full ownership of the park, during the next 15 years the park was still called the Harvey's Lake Picnic Ground 80 % of the time in newspaper ads and articles and as Harvey's Lake Park 20% of the time in ads and articles.

Finally, John Hanson retitled the park as Hanson's Amusement Center on May 27, 1950, for the Memorial Day weekend. Then in a major ad on July 3, 1950, Hanson used the title Hanson's Amusement Park, for the first time, for the Fourth of July holiday. It was the same season the park opened Kiddie Land. The title Harvey's Lake Picnic Ground stubbornly held on in some news articles throughout the 1950s but by the end of the decade it was decidedly Hanson's Amusement Park. In 1966, John Hanson died and in time his oldest son Donald became the park's owner. In the Spring of 1973, the park was again retitled as Don Hanson's Amusement Park until it closed after the 1984 season.

 

For additional information about the amusement park, see the articles elsewhere on this site on Hanson's Amusement Park and under Recent Additions as Don Hanson's Amusement Park.

As extensive chapter on the park is also found in the book titled Harvey's Lake, which can be accessed on the Home Page of this site.