Idora Park 1907

Description:
Idora Park (looking northeast). Thompson Scenic Railway roller coaster in foreground, Temescal District, Oakland, Calif.

Date of Document:
5-Aug-07

Document Author:
M. B. Coll

Geographic Location:
57th Street and Carberry Avenue, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
Idora Park was an amusement park that opened in the Temescal district of North Oakland, Calif. in 1904. Constructed on the site of an earlier pastoral pleasure ground, Ayala Park, Idora Park s 17 acres extended from 56th Street north to 58th Street and from Telegraph Avenue west to Shattuck Avenue Idora Park was owned by the Realty Syndicate, whose land holdings in North Oakland were extensive. The Realty Syndicate, which also owned the Key System transit company, established Idora Park to promote both streetcar use and real estate sales in the area. Among Idora Park s popular attractions were an opera house, dance hall, skating rink, amphitheater, a small zoo, miniature railway, rollercoaster, ferris wheel, and hot air balloon demonstrations. Reputed to have been the largest amusement park in the Bay Area, Idora Park closed in 1929 as streetcar use fell into decline and North Oakland had become built out. The park was razed that same year and in the 1930s replaced with a development of Storybook Houses becoming the first neighborhood in the west built with undergrounded utilities.