Delmar Gardens facts for kids
Delmar Gardens of Oklahoma City was a fun amusement park in Oklahoma City. It was open for visitors from 1902 to 1910.
After the famous Coney Island park opened in New York, many similar parks started popping up across the country. These parks often had wooden boardwalks and were built near water. Even though Oklahoma City was quite new (founded in 1889), its leaders wanted to build a cool park like that too.
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What Was Delmar Gardens?
Two people named John Sinopoulo and Joseph Marre helped create Delmar Gardens. They had learned about amusement parks at the first Delmar Gardens in St. Louis. They built this new park on the east side of the North Canadian River. The land was owned by a local leader named Charles Colcord.
Park Location and Size
The park covered about 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land. This is like 30 football fields! It was located between Reno, Western, and the river. Today, a place called Wheeler Park is part of where Delmar Gardens used to be.
Fun Things to Do at the Park
Delmar Gardens had many exciting attractions:
- A large theater with 3,000 seats
- A dance hall
- A horse racing track
- A baseball field
- A swimming pool
- A zoo with interesting animals
- A small railway
- A boardwalk area with refreshments
- Different amusement rides
- A penny arcade (where you played games for a penny)
- A special floating chapel for weddings
- A hotel and a restaurant
People could easily get to the park using the city's trolley service. Trolleys brought visitors from far away in just a few minutes.
How the Park Was Designed
Trolleys arrived at the Delmar Park station. This station had a raised platform and a bridge that led to the dance hall and other buildings. All these structures were designed by a local architect named William A. Wells. He had studied architecture in Chicago.
John Sinopoulo, one of the park's builders, was from Greece. He wanted to create a stylish amusement park with a special theme. He used a beautiful design style called Art Nouveau. This style blended well with the surrounding woods and the river.
Inside the Delmar Garden Theater
The Delmar Garden Theater had a detailed Victorian design with Art Nouveau touches. The main seating area had comfy leather chairs. Special box seats had wicker chairs and love-seats. There were also three curved balconies with bleacher seats. The main part of the theater had soft gas lighting. But the stage was very bright with electric lights!
The theater was built for vaudeville shows. Vaudeville was a type of entertainment with different acts like singers, dancers, and comedians. In 1903, the theater also started showing movies. They showed a popular film called The Great Train Robbery for eleven weeks! Even though movies were popular, the park managers mostly wanted to keep showing live vaudeville acts.
Famous Visitors and Performers
During its time, Delmar Gardens was Oklahoma City's top spot for fun. Thousands of people visited, and many famous entertainers came to perform.
Celebrities at Delmar Gardens
Some of the well-known people who visited or performed included:
- Actors like Lon Chaney Sr. and Buster Keaton
- Boxers like John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey
- The legendary race horse Dan Patch
In 1905, Lon Chaney Sr. was performing at the Delmar Theater. He met a young singer named Cleva Crieghton there. They fell in love quickly and got married in Oklahoma City. We don't know if they used the romantic floating chapel at Delmar Gardens for their wedding.
In 1904, Tom Mix, a famous cowboy actor, performed at Delmar Gardens with the Oklahoma Cavalry Band. While he was there, he met Kitty Jewel Perrine and they got engaged.
The End of Delmar Gardens
Delmar Gardens was next to Wheeler Park and the city's first zoo. In 1902, James B. Wheeler gave land to Oklahoma City. He wanted it to be a public park for everyone to use for free. He also said the park's name should never be changed.
However, Delmar Gardens was built next to a prairie river, not the ocean. This caused problems. Swarms of mosquitoes came with the river's yearly floods. This made it less fun to visit. Also, new laws against alcohol (prohibition) hurt the park's business.
Delmar Gardens closed in 1910. Its buildings were taken down the next year. The zoo, which opened in 1904, moved to a new location after many animals died in a big flood in 1923. That zoo became the start of today's Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
What Remains Today
Today, not much is left of Delmar Gardens, except for Wheeler Park.
The Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market
On June 16, 1928, a new building called the Market Theatre opened on part of the old Delmar site. It was a large building, about 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2), and cost a lot of money to build.
- The first floor was a market where farmers sold fresh food.
- The second floor hosted concerts, dances, boxing matches, and roller skating.
Many famous musicians have performed there, including Hank Williams, Bob Wills, and Count Basie. Today, it is known as the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market. The original ticket booth, balcony, and stage are still there. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
On March 19, 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama visited the Farmers Market during his campaign to become president.
