Massachusetts

Name: Mountain Park
Brand: Jay Ducharme
SKU: 9780738557328
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Ted Williams, lanky body coiled, wallops another rocket at Fenway’s Green Monster. A youthful “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman sprouts up in Longmeadow, while Howard Johnson plants his first franchise in Quincy. An old dune shack teems with life along the Cape Cod National Seashore. Seven hundred schoolchildren pour through Nantucket streets to march against King Alcohol. Whether it is a nostalgic jaunt through Cambridge or a bit of window shopping at Jordan Marsh, our Massachusetts history books catalogue celebrates every corner of Bay State history. [View all Massachusetts books]

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Mountain Park

Pleasure Island

Riverside Park

Lake Quinsigamond and White City Amusement Park

Mountain Park

9780738557328

$24.99

Following its opening in 1894 as a picturesque retreat on the side of Mount Tom, Mountain Park expanded and evolved into one of the most beloved amusement parks in New England. At the beginning of the 20th century, Holyoke was the most prosperous community in the state and the first planned industrial city in the United States. The city's progress drew crowds of visitors to Mountain Park, and the park gradually developed into a bustling destination. Although the park closed its gates in 1987, the echoes of laughter from generations of visitors still reverberate throughout the Pioneer Valley.

Pleasure Island

9780738564609

$24.99

Billed as Boston's answer to Disneyland, Pleasure Island opened on June 22, 1959. William Hawkes, president of Childlife Magazine, and executives at Cabot, Cabot and Forbes collaborated with Marco Engineering of Los Angeles to build what was called the "Disneyland of the East." Pleasure Island rose from the wetlands off of Route 128 into an 80-acre theme park. Through photographs, Pleasure Island recalls memories of boat rides to Pirate Cove, searching for the great white whale, driving a Jenney car, getting dizzy in the Slanty Shanty, and taking a ride on Old Smoky. At Pleasure Island, children and children at heart entered into a world that traditional amusement parks could not provide, where character actors continually put on a show and the entire park was the stage.

Riverside Park

9780738575049

$24.99

From its earliest days as a picnic grove to its subsequent evolution into a major amusement park, Riverside Park was synonymous with summer for generations of New Englanders. Situated on the banks of the Connecticut River at Agawam, Massachusetts, Riverside was enjoyed by area residents for more than a century. Thousands swam in Lake Takadip, danced to the most popular musical groups of the day in Cook's Dancing Pavilion, spent Saturday nights at the Riverside Park Speedway, roller skated at the Rollaway, and thrilled to the Cyclone roller coaster and countless other attractions. Riverside's status as the epicenter of summer recreation in the Northeast continues to this day with the park's current identity as Six Flags New England.

Lake Quinsigamond and White City Amusement Park

9780738536736

$24.99

In the 1800s and well into the 1900s, the area around Lake Quinsigamond, in Shrewsbury and Worcester, was one huge summer resort. Hotels, ethnic and social clubs, boat clubs, a horse racing track, picnic grounds, and two amusement parks, Lincoln Park and White City Park, lined the shore. Steamboats and smaller steam launches transported tourists to the area. Canoes, rowboats, sailboats, and motorboats crowded the lake on weekends. Crew boat regattas, which started in the 1850s, continue to this day. Lake Quinsigamond and White City Amusement Park lets readers experience the attractions, such as the shoot the chutes and White City roller coaster, and enjoy the fun atmosphere during those long-ago summers.