Midway attractions with a midway
A year-round or seasonal place with rides or a midway that isn't a full amusement park: a pier, a boardwalk or a family fun centre.
A midway attraction is a place with rides or a midway that isn’t a full amusement park: a seaside boardwalk, a pier, a family fun centre. The seaside kind is old. Santa Cruz’s boardwalk has run since 1907, and San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach ran from 1913 to 1972.
What it is
Boardwalks and piers grew where people already gathered, at the beach. A bathhouse came first, then a carousel, then a coaster and a row of games.
History, era by era
- 1865
- The Santa Cruz boardwalk’s roots go back to 1865, when John Leibrandt opened a public bathhouse near the mouth of the San Lorenzo River.1
- 1907
- The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk opened in 1907 and is still family owned; it calls itself the oldest amusement park in California.1
- 1913–1972
- Playland at the Beach opened beside San Francisco’s Great Highway in 1913 and closed in 1972; machines from it, including Laffing Sal, went on to the Musée Mécanique.2
- Today
- Rides at Santa Cruz such as the Giant Dipper and the Looff Carousel are National Historic Landmarks.1
The midway connection
A boardwalk is the midway laid along a beach: rides at one end, games and food along the planks, the walk itself the point.1
When a seaside midway closes, its games can live on. Coin-op machines from San Francisco’s Playland are still played at the Musée Mécanique, a family-run collection now on Pier 45.32
Wherever people walk a row of booths, the midway is there in some form: the full kind, with rides, games of skill and food joints, or the quieter kind, with craft tables, home baking and a booth like ours. That walk, with family and friends and something to look at every few steps, is what this directory is about.
One fact worth knowing
- The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk describes itself as one of the last seaside amusement parks on the West Coast.1
Questions people ask
What makes an attraction different from an amusement park?
Size and setting: a pier, boardwalk or fun centre with some rides, rather than a full park. Santa Cruz is a boardwalk that grew from a bathhouse.1
What happened to San Francisco’s Playland?
It closed in 1972; some of its coin-op machines survive at the Musée Mécanique.2
Sources
- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: Boardwalk history. Read on · official
- National Park Service, Golden Gate: Vestiges of the Cliff House. Read on · government
- Musée Mécanique: Musée Mécanique. Read on · official
Short listings from the census
Checked and sourced, but without a full page yet. Each one links to its row on its province or state page.
The Midway Mailbag
New fairs, festivals, midways and attractions as we add them to the directory. About twice a month in fair season, less in winter.
Running a fair, a booth or a fundraiser?
Bring the Machine to your event: sell printed reading tickets, or run the machine on a screen facing the crowd. Reading codes for booths and fundraisers.
All kinds of fairs · Midway Directory
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