Milwaukee’s Coney Island

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Amusement parks became part of America’s entertainment culture after engineer George Ferris built a huge, vertical steel wheel that lifted passengers into the air. Ferris’ wheel debuted at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and was more popular than all the scientific and cultural pavilions.  

When Milwaukee’s urban trolley lines extended passenger service beyond the city limits, speculators were encouraged to invest in previously inaccessible suburban land. Oscar Miller, the Alhambra theater manager, envisioned a New York-style amusement park with water slides, roller coasters, carousels, and Ferris’s wheel all constructed on a former picnic ground from 1870. Wealthy farmer Frederick Lueddeman used a portion of his land to build a summer recreation area that became known as Lueddeman’s-On-The-River in what is now Shorewood.  

Lueddeman’s park is replete with grandstands, gazebos and benches that overlook the river. On Sundays after church, parents eat picnic lunches and watch nearby boat races while their children swim in the cool waters. On the river’s west bank can be seen the stately summer homes of the Uihleins and other well-to-do Milwaukee families. In 1880 Lueddeman’s is purchased by businessman Otto Zwietusch, who adds a billiard hall, restaurant, and music pavilion. Zwietusch calls the updated resort Mineral Springs Park and uses it to increase sales for his already prosperous line of soda and mineral waters.

Twenty years later, it was the abandoned Mineral Springs park that sparked Oscar Miller’s imagination. Bounded by Menlo, Edgewood, and Oakland Avenues and the Milwaukee river, the land was suitable for a large-scale amusement park that sprawled across 33-acres. Otto Zweitusch’s heirs were looking to unload the property when Miller offered to lease it. Days later a front-page story in the Milwaukee Sentinel proclaimed, “One of Milwaukee’s greatest amusement enterprises will be launched early this summer.”

Miller names his park Coney Island and opens to the public on Sunday, June 10, 1900. The Scenic Railway, a huge wooden roller coaster, weaves its way through the grounds, and the Oriental Elephant, a massive funhouse, boasts a “haunted center,” if one can find it. Vaudeville theaters offer comic opera, acrobats, comedians, jugglers, dancers, and singers.  Beer gardens, restaurants, refreshment stands, shooting galleries, games of chance, a boat launch, band concerts, a high-wire daredevil act, and a zoo are among the park’s offerings. Coney Island serves more than 30,000 people by day’s end. Entrance is free, but the rides and shows are 10-cents for adults and a nickel for children. It costs the average family five dollars to go on several rides, see one of the shows, eat dinner, and travel to and from the park on the streetcar. When the park closes for the season, Miller’s ledgers are barely in the black.

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His worst fear came true when it became obvious that Coney Island couldn’t generate sufficient revenue in Milwaukee’s 14 weeks of warm weather. Another factor was the high cost to consumers. Many residents could afford to visit the park just once each summer. In 1903, Miller shut Coney Island down permanently. He was sued by the Zwietusch family for breach of contract, and they repossessed the park’s buildings, equipment, and rides. Miller’s return to the Alhambra was short-lived; he passed away two years later at age 48.

The park remained unoccupied until 1905 when a new owner reopened it under the name Wonderland. New rides, including water chutes, the 200-foot Electric Tower and a larger Ferris Wheel were added, and the crowds returned. Three months of warm weather and the high cost of attending the park plagued the management just as they had Oscar Miller, however, and Wonderland closed in 1909. 

Wonderland is purchased for a dime on the dollar by R. W Hopkins, who calls it Ravenna Park. He privately tells friends that the new name and a gaudy paint job will keep people from noticing he has done absolutely nothing to upgrade the park.  Under his management, Ravenna Park stays open for the next five years, making Hopkins the park’s most successful operator. But the park’s expanse is now surrounded on three sides by new homes and businesses. The loud music, garish lights, and crowds surging up and down Oakland Avenue are no longer welcome, and the Shorewood village board denies Hopkins an annual operating permit in 1916.  

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light company acquired the southern portion of the park land and constructed new streetcar barns. To the north, a subdivision was created, and Newton and Menlo Avenues and Morris Boulevard were extended. The remainder of the property became the site of what is now Hubbard Park. One hundred twenty-five years later, it’s challenging to picture thousands of people streaming off trolleys at the Menlo Avenue gates for a day in wonderland.