Freedomland U.S.A.


Freedomland U.S.A. was a theme park in the Baychester section of the northeastern Bronx, New York City. Dedicated to American history, it operated from 1960 to 1964.
Freedomland was built on a tract of marshland owned by the Webb & Knapp development company, of which William Zeckendorf Sr. was the major owner. Zeckendorf announced his plans for Freedomland in May 1959. The park layout was conceived and built by C. V. Wood, and consisted of over 40 attractions arranged in the shape of a large map of the contiguous United States. Groundbreaking ceremonies for Freedomland occurred in late 1959, and Freedomland opened on June 19, 1960, to large crowds.
Due to Freedomland's $65 million cost, the park already faced financial issues at the time of its opening, and by the end of the 1961 season, Freedomland was $8 million in debt. To generate revenue, the park added more exhibits and conventional amusements. By 1963, further financial issues led the owners to sell off a portion of Freedomland's lot to a pension fund of the Teamsters Union, as well as close off a section of the park. Even though Freedomland's planners anticipated that the park would eventually be developed into a full-time amusement area, it closed for the last time at the end of the 1964 season. On September 14, 1964, Freedomland filed for bankruptcy.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the site of Freedomland was redeveloped as Co-op City, the world's largest housing cooperative. Also built on the site were the Bay Plaza Shopping Center and an indoor mall. Many Freedomland attractions and design features were auctioned or sold to other parks, and many of these rides no longer exist. While little physical evidence of Freedomland remains, several media works commemorate the former amusement park.

Creation

Freedomland was conceived and built by C. V. Wood, a Texan who had worked in the planning, construction, and management of Disneyland, which opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. After Disneyland's opening, Wood's relationship with the Disney brothers became strained because of various disputes, and he was ousted from Disneyland management by early 1956. He soon became involved in the creation of other amusement parks across the United States, under his company Marco Engineering. Wood had devised plans for an American-history theme park as early as 1957, in conjunction with Milton Ted Raynor, who later became president of Freedomland Inc. The new theme park would be themed entirely around American history, in a more historically accurate version of the Disneyland layout, which initially included four distinct areas: Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Frontierland.

Site

Two consultants at Marco Engineering performed a feasibility study for the location of Wood's proposed American-history theme park. By late 1958, Wood had pitched his American-history park concept to the Webb & Knapp development company. Early the next year, a site was selected: a portion of a plot owned by Webb & Knapp in the northeast Bronx, New York City. The site, in the northeast Bronx, was a former municipal landfill, originally marshland fed by Rattlesnake Creek and the Hutchinson River. This led to a profusion of mosquitoes during certain periods of the year.
The International Recreation Corporation was incorporated in Boston, Massachusetts, in April 1959 to oversee development of the proposed park. Webb & Knapp's principal owner, William Zeckendorf Sr., announced the plans for Freedomland on April 30, 1959. National Development Corporation, a Webb & Knapp subsidiary, as well as Freedomland Inc., an IRC subsidiary, were created to operate and manage the theme park. Freedomland Inc. leased some of that site for a 50-year period. Of this, about would be developed for the park itself and would house parking, maintenance areas, and other service areas. IRC issued about one million shares, which were then sold to NDC and Freedomland Inc. Under the terms of the lease agreement, the park was to pay an annual rent of $600,000 for the first five years, $750,000 for the next ten years, and $1 million thereafter. In late 1959, Wood presented the plans for the park to Zeckendorf Sr. and his son William Zeckendorf Jr.

Construction

A groundbreaking ceremony for Freedomland was initially planned for July 4, 1959, coinciding with Independence Day. Ultimately, the ceremony occurred on August 26, 1959. The ceremony featured a helicopter ride over the premises for the park's backers, and hired a specially reserved subway train to take people to the ceremony. The festivities included performances from cowboys and showgirls; the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; performances from costumed actors; and a musical number from New York City Department of Sanitation's 60-piece band. The ceremony was only attended by 19 people, excluding sponsors and performers.
Over the next months, more than 2,000 workers were hired, mostly by the two major contractors, Turner Construction and Aberthaw Construction. Work was completed within just under 300 days. Some of land were excavated to create of canals. Land was raised by up to to create the park's natural-looking features. Major contractors were hired to furnish the props and attractions, including Arrow Dynamics, Enco National Corporation, The Brass Rail, and Todd Shipyards. On March 24, 1960, six small unfinished buildings were destroyed by fire and were razed; however, this did not affect progress on the rest of the park. The burned structures were reused as props for Freedomland's Chicago Fire attraction.

Opening

When announced, Freedomland was supposed to be completed in June 1960 at a cost of $15.5 million, which was paid for through Freedomland Inc's stock issues. The final cost was significantly higher, at $65 million; the land was valued at $30 million and the scenery another $33 million. The eateries comprised another $1 million of the cost. The actual theme park consisted of of the 205-acre site leased by the IRC. Prior to opening day, Freedomland launched an aggressive advertising campaign. The first phase, targeting the 10 million people living within of New York City, consisted of daily advertisements in the city's newspapers, radio and TV stations, and subway cars. Advertisements were found as far away as from the Bronx, and several contests and promotions for Freedomland were held in the greater New York City area. Several taglines were devised to advertise Freedomland, including "The World's Newest and Largest Outdoor Entertainment Center", "The World's Largest Entertainment Center", "The World's Largest Family Entertainment Center", and "The World's Largest Outdoor Entertainment Center". Marketers also used the generic slogan "A World of Fun for Everyone", while one slogan that was not used was "Freedomland is fifty states of happiness!". A promotional jingle was also developed for Freedomland.
Freedomland's opening was originally set for June 1, 1960; it was then pushed back to July 1 so that the park could be ready for the expected crowds, and then rescheduled again to June 18 due to high excitement generated by the marketing campaign. On June 18, 1960, Freedomland was dedicated with 25,000 people in attendance for a ceremony and a special day that raised funds for local youth programs. The following day, June 19, the park officially opened. To draw more visitors, Freedomland started a second advertising campaign on that day, targeting ten major populated areas within a radius of. Admission was $1.50 for adults, with an additional surcharge of up to 50 cents for some rides.
On the first day of operation, people lined up to get into the park two and a half hours before its official 9:00 a.m. opening. The ribbon was officially cut by singer Pat Boone at 8:30 a.m. Traffic built up quickly, and by noon, radio announcers were warning people not to go to Freedomland; the parking lot was full and visitors were reportedly parking on side streets up to from the main gate. By 2:05 p.m., Freedomland stopped selling tickets due to traffic jams on highways and local roads leading to the park. Ultimately, the park recorded 61,500 visitors, one-third less than the expected maximum capacity, and closed at 9:00 p.m., three hours before its intended closing. At the time, Freedomland was described as having an unfinished quality: one security guard was quoted as saying that the drinking fountains were non-functional, the restrooms were few and far between, the concessionaires were poorly equipped for operation, and many exhibits were not yet painted or decorated. Satellite City and the Chicago Fire were not operational until a few weeks after opening day, the former due to "electrical difficulties". In total, Freedomland was only 85% complete at the time of its opening. Parts of the original proposal, such as a Freedomland Inn and a movie studio, were never completed.

Themed areas and attractions

The designers of Freedomland under Wood created a history-themed concept, divided into seven themed areas based on the history of the United States. Each section featured attractions, shops, and restaurants that fit with the theme of that section. The property layout was arranged in the shape of a large map of the contiguous United States and designed like a movie set. As guests entered from the parking lot, they walked into Little Old New York of the 1890s. Baychester Avenue and the New England Thruway at the park's western edge approximately represented Freedomland's border with Canada. The designers added decor such as vintage building advertisements and a night-lighting system. Upon opening, Freedomland's attraction offerings were significantly different from what had originally been planned. Of the 16 areas and attractions announced in an August 1959 press release, 12 were operating on opening day, some of which were themed to a completely different time span than in the original plan. As conceived, the park also focused on history from a narrow time span, between roughly 1850 and 1900, rather than on a larger time span.
The park could accommodate up to 32,000 visitors at once or 90,000 visitors per day. The premises included of navigable waterways and lakes, 10,000 newly planted trees, more than 18 restaurants and snack bars, and parking for 7,200 cars for guests and 1,800 for employees. At Freedomland's opening, there were 41 attractions, as well as performances reenacted by a cast of over 2,000. The programs were designed to be interactive: for instance, children were enlisted to participate in fighting a reenacted Great Chicago Fire. None of the rides at opening were traditional fairground attractions such as roller coasters. As attendance failed to meet the operators' expectations, generic fairground attractions were added to the park in subsequent opening seasons, and the park had 45 rides and over 200 performance programs by 1962. Like at Disneyland, many of Freedomland's attractions received corporate sponsorships, and there was a ban on alcoholic beverages in Freedomland.
The site was accessible from the rest of the city via the New York City Subway's Pelham Bay Park station, served by the, and the Gun Hill Road station, served by the. Furthermore, the presence of several highways, such as the New England Thruway, made the site accessible from the surrounding metropolitan area, whose population exceeded 10 million. Express bus service was provided from Manhattan, as well as to the Pelham Bay Park and Gun Hill Road subway stations. For the wealthy, Flotair operated a seaplane service that could reach Manhattan in five minutes.

Intra-park transport

Freedomland U.S.A. had a railroad and an aerial lift ride carrying passengers between different parts of the park. The narrow gauge Santa Fe Railroad traveled between the Chicago and San Francisco areas of the park. The ride was approximately six minutes in duration and consisted of a loop stretching about. Two locomotives named Monson No. 3 and Monson No. 4, as well as passenger coaches and flatbeds, were leased from the Edaville Railroad in Massachusetts, and transported back to the Edaville Railroad via truck in between seasons.
A two-passenger double Von Roll sky ride, the Tuscon Mining Company Sky Ride, traveled between the Old Southwest and Old Chicago sections of the park. The ride used gondolas manufactured by Gangloff Cabins, supposedly obtained from the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, and designed as replicas of ore cars. Sixty-four gondolas were used. The attraction was the company's first Double Von Roll 101 sky ride. The attraction contained two extended cables, although guests perceived these as four cables, two traveling in each direction. For the 1960 and 1961 seasons, the sky ride was a round trip only, but starting in 1962, guests could board at Chicago.

Little Old New York (1850–1900)

This section was geographically located at the north end of the park, and depicted New York City as it appeared in the late 19th century. Little Old New York was geographically closest to the main entrance, and as such, contained an information booth, stroller rental, and lockers. Attractions included:
Restaurants and refreshments included:
Shops included a print shop to purchase vintage-style posters, apothecary shop, glass blower shop, and other stores. The stores were generally separated internally, like actual shops on city streets, but unlike in Disneyland where the shops were connected to each other. Macy's recreated its original Manhattan store, Macy's Herald Square. There was also a live street show that included a German band, an 1880s Tammany speech, political pep rally, campaigning suffragettes and a New York gangland robbery of the Little Old New York Bank.

Old Chicago (1871)

This section was located on the western border of the park, south of Old New York. One of the main geographical features of Old Chicago was an imitation of the Great Lakes. This water body was deep, covered a surface area of, and could hold.
Attractions included:
Restaurants and refreshments included:
Shops included:
This section was located south of Old Chicago. Attractions included:
Restaurants and refreshments included:
This section was located at the south end of the park. Attractions included:
Restaurants, refreshments, and shops included:
This section was located on the eastern border of the park, north of Old San Francisco. Attractions included:
This section was located north of the Old Southwest. Attractions included:
This section was located at the southeast section of the park. Attractions included:
In addition, the park would have been supplemented by the Freedomland Inn, an off-site hotel south of the park, which would have had between 300 and 600 rooms. Architect William B. Tabler was hired to design the inn, which would have been directly south of the park, and contained amenities such as a wading pool, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. When Webb & Knapp auctioned off the proposed inn's site in 1963, only a slab had been developed, and upon the park's eventual demise, some props were dumped over the slab and used as landfill.

Operations

1960 and 1961

From the start, Freedomland's high cost left it $7 million in debt from opening day, and led it to be described as a "gamble". General manager Frederich V. Schumacher hoped that Freedomland would be as large a New York City icon as Central Park or the Statue of Liberty. However, although optimistic projections called for up to 5 million visitors a year, Freedomland would have needed to see two million visitors in its first season in order to break even. Toward the end of the season, first-year visitation projections were decreased by two-thirds, from 4.8 million to 1.7 million; the park ultimately saw 1.5 million visitors, a statistic that was never surpassed in subsequent seasons. For the 1960 operating season, Freedomland was open seven days a week until September 18, when its operating hours were cut to weekends only for the rest of the season. The last operating day of the 1960 season was at the end of October.
On August 28, 1960, three armed men stole the day's receipts of over $28,000, though the thieves were caught soon after and most of the money was recovered. A month later, on September 30, The New York Times reported that Freedomland had failed to pay the city a 5% amusement tax totaling $148,200; the unpaid tax was resolved by the following week. The 1960 season was also marked by several incidents involving patron injuries. On June 25, 1960, days after the grand opening, a horse-drawn stagecoach overturned in the Great Plains section of the park and injured 10 people. Another incident occurred on October 24, 1960, when a children's train ride overturned and injured two boys. These patron lawsuits, as well as additional lawsuits from contractors left the park in debt. By the end of the season, Freedomland was financially troubled, having failed to sell stock. Webb & Knapp bought a 40% share in the project, only for the stock to drop by almost two-thirds, from $17.50 to $6.25 a share. Zeckendorf Sr. hired Art K. Moss, a marketing expert who cut costs by decreasing the $150,000 weekly payroll by 20% and forbidding employees from collecting overtime.
At the end of the 1960 season, park operators initially predicted that the park would reopen in May 1961, though the reopening date was later pushed back to June. Freedomland continued to experience financial troubles: before the beginning of the 1961 season, it was $8 million in debt. This led the IRC to propose that Zeckendorf sell the leaseholds on several Manhattan hotels to Freedomland Inc. in exchange for a $16.35 million mortgage note. This plan was approved just prior to the start of the new operating season. Zeckendorf also unsuccessfully attempted a merger with Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino. Yonkers Raceway's owners declined, though the IRC was able to purchase a controlling interest in the raceway that October.
The park reopened on June 10, 1961. At that time, admission fees were raised to $2.95 for a park-wide entrance ticket, and pay-per-ride admission was abolished. To entice visitors, Freedomland started to add more traditional amusement rides, such as the Moon Bowl dance floor, as well as expanded its schedule of performances. The Freedomland Inn, which had been planned to open in the park's second season, had not started construction. During the 1961 season, over 1.7 million visitors entered Freedomland. The park still had a myriad of issues: for instance, to satiate employees' demands for pay raises, the security budget was decreased, which resulted in people sneaking into the park without an admission ticket. To combat the park's declining reputation, Moss announced that taxicab drivers of New York City and their families would be able to enter Freedomland for free.

1962 and 1963

Prior to the 1962 season, Freedomland spent $1 million to add and expand its offerings. The improvements included a 5,000-seat arena and a midway-themed area with children's rides, as well as the Astro-Ride roller coaster and a Wiggly-Worm caterpillar ride. The 1962 season started on May 27 of that year; it was open weekends only for the first month, expanding its schedule to seven days a week in late June. For the new season, Freedomland had raised admission fees to $3.50 for admission to all rides. It appeared to be doing well economically: after implementing a system of portable radios, the park was able to lay off 700 of its 3,000 workers during that season. Additionally, it had started offering a $2.50 ticket for visitors who entered after 6 p.m. In the long term, there were plans to make Freedomland into a year-round destination.
The changes also resulted in a lawsuit: on September 5, 1962, Benjamin Moore, a paint company that sponsored an exhibit in Satellite City, unsuccessfully sued Freedomland for $150,000 in damages. The company sought to void its lease for exhibit space, citing "historical and educational" changes to the park's character. The suit was dismissed in the New York Supreme Court. Concessionaires also started complaining of high rents, which had increased to, a price that many vendors could not pay with their low profits. Total admission for 1962 was estimated at 1.4 million.
The 1963 season started on April 21 of that year, at which point it was open weekends only until that June. Admission had been reduced to one dollar. By that time, the themes of the amusements and events had little to do with history in general, let alone American history. The events advertised at the park included a children's zoo, puppet shows, DJ shows, clown performances, and circus parades. The park also saw the addition of the Meteor single-rail coaster, bumper cars, side shows, a wax display, and a reconstructed carousel from the Dentzel Carousel Company. In total, Freedomland earned a combined $3 million from admissions from the 1962 and 1963 seasons. However, Freedomland still had a large amount of debt. In December 1963, Zeckendorf sold a portion of Freedomland's property to a pension fund of the Teamsters Union, which made a mortgage loan of $25 million to the park in December of that year, thus resolving its short-term debt. Zeckendorf was also considering ways to keep Freedomland open year-round, proposing ideas such as a ski slope, a horse-racing track, a bowling alley, and a series of Christmas events.

1964

Freedomland's fifth, and ultimately final, operating season began on May 16, 1964, with the park operating weekends only until June. As Freedomland opened for the 1964 season, its San Francisco themed area already had been walled off to park guests. For several months prior to the start of the 1964 season, there were rumors that Freedomland would be moved to Florida, where it could operate year-round. Staff members were also told that only Little Old New York, Old Chicago, and Satellite City might be open for 1965, and that the rest of the park would be developed.
In July, the IRC acquired the controlling interest in Freedomland Inc., and National Development Corporation president Hyman Green had bought the controlling interest from Zeckendorf. The transactions were intended to relieve Webb & Knapp of its large debt, which it had incurred after writing off $17.9 million in investments in IRC and Freedomland Inc. the previous year. Zeckendorf later said that Webb & Knapp's involvement in Freedomland "hurt the financial position of Webb and Knapp more than anything we've ever done." Toward the end of the 1964 operating season, Freedomland had only collected $738,000 in admissions, but was still expected to reopen the following year. However, in an indication of its deep financial troubles, The New York Times reported that Freedomland Inc. had paid its employees with bad checks totaling $60,000.

Demise

Bankruptcy

On September 13, 1964, Freedomland closed for the last time. The next day, Freedomland Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing competition from the 1964 New York World's Fair. At the time, Freedomland Inc.'s liabilities were $27.041 million and its assets were $9.741 million, meaning that its equity was negative $17.3 million. The largest creditors, in order, were the IRC, the NDC, Zeckendorf, and the Internal Revenue Service. Freedomland Inc. had never earned a net profit in each of its five operating seasons, but with a downsize to, Freedomland estimated that it could possibly earn a $25,000 profit if it were to reopen in 1965.
Freedomland never reopened, and Freedomland attractions, buildings and other features were auctioned and sold during 1965. At the time, the traditional New York City amusement area of Coney Island was also in a state of decline: its last integrated amusement park, Steeplechase Park, had also shuttered for the last time in 1964. Michael Virgintino, who authored a book about Freedomland's history, wrote that the World's Fair was unlikely to be the main reason for Freedomland's bankruptcy: it had been announced in 1959, and many of the fair's visitors only attended that event a few times.
There have been several other theories proposed for Freedomland's failure. First, it only operated seasonally, thus reducing potential income; this contrasted with Disneyland, which operated year-round. Disneyland had seen 6 million guests in all of 1964, while Freedomland was only open for three or four months a year, and thus could only potentially see a fraction of that visitation amount. Second, the marshland was unstable and contributed to damage to many of the structures, requiring additional repair costs. A third factor was the weak sense of identity in Freedomland, as people wishing for more traditional attractions could go to other places like Coney Island or Rye Playland. A fourth explanation suggested that Freedomland was never intended to last long from the outset. As William Zeckendorf Sr. said in a 1970 interview, Freedomland was a "placeholder" to obtain land variances to permit more lucrative residential and commercial development of the marshland; the durability of the amusement structures obviated the need to undergo a proper monitoring period of 15 to 20 years.

Redevelopment

Most of the Freedomland site was quickly developed. The NDC sold the property to the United Housing Foundation, which in February 1965 announced plans for the residential Co-op City development, the world's largest housing cooperative, on the site. Even as these plans were announced, Freedomland was still negotiating to operate 30 acres adjacent to Co-op City. The plans for Co-op City were announced in May 1965, with no provisions for an amusement park. By early the next year, most remaining portions of Freedomland were destroyed. During the late 1960s, Co-op City was constructed on Freedomland's parking lot and the Little Old New York and Satellite City areas of the park. The construction of Co-op City contributed to large areas of salt marsh degradation, exacerbating a process that had commenced with Freedomland's initial construction.
The rest of the park remained decrepit and undeveloped through the 1970s, and some of the park's abandoned buildings remained on site. During the early 1980s, Bay Plaza Shopping Center was constructed on the land that featured the additional five themed areas of the park. In nearby neighborhoods such as Williamsbridge, motels built primarily for Freedomland remained operational, despite the dearth of visitor attractions in the northeast Bronx. A small part of the Freedomland development—a tract at the convergence of the New England Thruway and Hutchinson River Parkway, which had been intended for the Freedomland Inn—remained undeveloped until 2012, when an expansion of Bay Plaza Shopping Center opened at the site.

Critical review

The areas were not completely historically or geographically accurate, and primarily featured events from the late 19th century. A writer for The New York Times stated that the themed lands were "perhaps not quite acceptable to the Geodetic Survey because so many dull places have been left out", and Time magazine called the park "nothing less than a replica of the continental U.S.A., 833 yds from parkway to shining parkway". Furthermore, most of the attractions were themed on the American frontier, a factor influenced by Wood's and Raynor's respective upbringings in Texas and Chicago, as well as Zeckendorf's grandfather's adventures in Arizona Territory. This led writer Paul D. Naish to state that "The photographed streetscapes at Freedomland have a distinctly generic quality".
Freedomland in general received negative attention from members of the media. For instance, at the groundbreaking ceremony, writer Gay Talese observed that the park, characterized by its backers as the future "'greatest outdoor entertainment center in the history of man'", was to be built on such a "vast wasteland". Historian Walter Muir Whitehill described Freedomland as an operation with a "veneer of pseudo history" whose main purpose was to make money. Time magazine wrote of the simulated attractions in the park, which included "an electromagnetic dragon real buffalo grazing the prairies", as well as so-called "birch-bark Chippewa war canoes" that were actually fiberglass Cherokee ships. However, the magazine also stated that the public did not initially seem to mind these false representations. Soon after the park's opening, it also gained a negative reputation among the public: toward its final years, mention of Freedomland was generally said to garner reactions of either "ridicule or apathy". After the park closed, a Newsday writer called Freedomland a "flop" and said of many of the opening day visitors: "They came. They saw. They left. And most never came back."
In 1993, The Walt Disney Company proposed to build Disney's America, an American history theme park near Manassas, Virginia. The proposal bore large similarities to the Freedomland concept, but was abandoned only the following year after massive opposition. Russell Miller, one of the critics of Disney's America, found that plan deficient compared to Freedomland. Miller praised Freedomland as "an open-air theatre promised not historical truth but national myth, infused with a spirit", while he questioned whether Disney's America was "a theme park or a bad night on PBS".

Legacy

Site

In August 2013, a plaque commemorating the park was installed near the site of its flagpoles. During mid-2019, remnants of Totsie, one of the New York Harbor tugboats, were placed near the plaque. The remains of Totsie were donated by Rob Friedman, an unofficial archivist of Freedomland history.
A small portion of the former park site, at the northeast corner of Bartow and Baychester Avenues, remains zoned as a C7 district. Such districts are reserved "for large open amusement parks"; Coney Island is the only other such district in the city. The zoning district is a holdover from Freedomland's operation. Due to its C7 zoning, the lot lacked any restrictions for the surface areas of signs located within its limits, but following a 2019 controversy involving a tall billboard on the lot, Co-op City residents proposed changing the lot's zoning to a standard commercial use.

Attractions moved to other parks

Many Freedomland attractions and design features were auctioned or sold to other parks. Many no longer exist.
Freedomland's history has been the subject of several historical writings, including:
In 1999, a website dedicated to the history of Freedomland was set up by Friedman. The New York Times reported at the time that "the site quickly became a lightning rod for Freedomland enthusiasts, receiving 6 to 10 E-mail messages a week with reminiscences and offers of material for its creator's growing collection."

Citations