Volume 3, No. 16. August 22,2003
Hillcrest
crossroads
Bittersweet
irony is the only way to describe the intersection of two institutions heading
in two different directions. That intersection came on Friday, July 25, when
the National Amusement Park Historical Association celebrated its 25th anniversary
at Hillcrest Park in Lemont, Illinois, the private picnic and amusement park
that has served the Chicago area 52 years but will be closing after this season.
“Hillcrest
is a really unique place in the amusement industry,” said NAPHA Historian
Jim Futrell. “It’s not open to the general public. It has a wooden
roller coaster, and a lot of enthusiasts say, ‘How do we get there?’”
NAPHA, based in Chicago, has had a “casual relationship” with Hillcrest
Corporation President Rick Barrie over the years but the park was always booked
on weekends and has no lights for evening operations. “When we found out
they were closing we said, ‘We’ve got to work it out.’ For so
many members this would be the only chance to experience the wood coaster at
Hillcrest Park.”
That coaster is
a 1952 Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters Little Dipper built for a Chicago
shopping center and moved to Hillcrest in the mid 1960s. PTC sold the coaster
as a kit that parks could order and put together on their own. Only two remain,
Futrell said, the other also in Chicago at Kiddie Land in Melrose Park.
Like the other
kiddie rides and equipment at Hillcrest, the Little Dipper is currently
up for sale. “We’ve had lots of talkers, but no real takers yet,”
said the 53-year-old Barrie, who began working for his father at Hillcrest when
he was 11 years old. He did have his train sold to a museum in Bristol, Florida,
but the local government pulled the grant because of a budget crisis.
The economy that
hounded Hillcrest into closing continues to dog it still, it seems. Three years
ago Hillcrest hosted 48 events; this year it has only 26. Six years ago a dozen
picnics had more than 3,000 people, and another dozen more than 2,000; now only
a couple pull more than 3,000, and no more than four get more than 2,000. “This
was kind of a new thing for us,” Barrie said. “In the past we were
recession proof. We would lose two or three or four picnics, but nothing like
this last season.”
He doesn’t
wholly blame the corporation bosses. Years ago, employees stayed with companies
longer and those companies showed more loyalty, so in economic hard times the
picnic was “One of the last things that went,” Barrie said. “Now
people change jobs three or four times in a career, employees are not that loyal,
so companies don’t need to be loyal, so picnics are the first thing to
go. We don’t see anything getting better.” So, when a developer offered
a tidy sum for the property to develop it, like the surrounding neighborhood,
into a warehouse center, Barrie accepted.
“It’s
going to be real hard when that last picnic is over,” he said. He at least
enjoyed having the 150 NAPHA enthusiasts out. “I thought it was kind of
neat that they wanted to come, and I wanted them to come,” he said. “It
was kind of neat talking to them all about the coaster.” NAPHA, meantime,
used the occasion to advance its mission of preserving the amusement park heritage
by conducting a mailing to inform other parks around the country of Hillcrest’s
closing and the rides that are available. “Hopefully the Little Dipper
will run again somewhere,” Futrell said.
For NAPHA members the moment was probably particularly special since the organization got its start in a gathering of operators and fans of Chicago’s Riverview Park, which closed in 1967. Chicago is losing another treasure, and the industry is losing another member that represented a now-dwindling sector.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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