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Volume 2, No. 10. June 14, 2002

Rebirths

It’s a boardwalk arcade!
Wonderland Park in Amarillo, Texas, announces the rebirth of its games center, May 24, 2002.

After his arcade burned down last June of undetermined cause, Paul Borchardt, president of Wonderland Park, decided to bring the game center back bigger and better than before, with an effective touch of nostalgia. He added a 1,000-square-foot (303-square-meter) extension onto the original 2,500-square-foot (758-square-meter) building, giving the structure an L-shape. He used brick-lined walls for the interior with green and white paint, to give it an “Old Chicago motif,” he said. “It has to do with the ‘30s and ‘40s,” he said. The resurrected game center has party rooms, is heavy on crane games, and uses the Shooting Star as its anchor.

But it is the entrance that sets this arcade apart from any west of New Jersey. Out front Borchardt built what he calls the Wonderland Boardwalk, which looks out over an artificial pond surrounded by Texas panhandle vegetation, including cactus, butterfly trees and orange rose bushes. “We thought we would have a boardwalk in the middle of Texas,” Borchardt said. “It’s better than the asphalt we did have there. It is a nice pleasant view, and it also draws people inside the game center. Once inside, they’re captive.”

Borchardt staged no formal reopening of his arcade, but he did celebrate the day in his own way. “The thing I always celebrate is emptying the cash box,” he said. “Then I did my favorite ride: to the bank.”