Delmar Gardens and questions for downtownguy

[Patrick]

downtownguy had a great story in his blog on Friday about Delmar Park. I'm guessing this was at NE 10th and Eastern where the zoo and State Fair Park used to be. Hey downtownguy, are there any remnants of these facilities left? I've never been over there. Looks like Douglas Center park is located there now???? Is that correct???? Any clue where on the grounds the state fair, amusement park, and Delmar Gardens used to be? Did this used to be Wheeler Park, because Wheeler Park is now at SW 13th and Walker? I'm guessing a new Wheeler Park was created at some point and the old park was renamed?
Also, was Douglas High School ever part of this park, or was it built after Delamr park was long gone?

Finally, was the river diverted south, or did it move itself south?

Just trying to get a clarification on where everything was located.


Anyways, you can see the article at: http://www.downtownguy.blogspot.com/
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Friday, September 17, 2004
The Oklahoma River ----- Our Past, Our Future
So why should a downtown guy like myself care about the Oklahoma River? It’s not really downtown, is it?

Define downtown. It’s not what it was a decade ago. And it’s not what it will be in 2014. To understand how downtown Oklahoma City will connect with the Oklahoma River (what we used to call the North Canadian River), it’s important to go back. Way back.









Delmar Gardens opened in 1902, a decade after the emergence of New York’s Coney Island. Waterside amusement parks graced with board walks were all the rage, and Oklahoma City was eager to join the latest entertainment fad.

John Sinopoulo and Joseph Marre, who trained at Delmar Gardens in St. Louis, opened the park on property owned by Charles Colcord. The park boasted of a theater, race track, baseball field, swimming pool, railway, beer hall, hotel and restaurant. The 40-acre park along the North Canadian River drew thousands of visitors and attracted entertainers like Lon Chaney, and boxers John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey.

Delmar Park, however, fronted a prairie river, and not the Atlantic Ocean. Mosquotoes and flooding made the spot less than ideal for the city’s recreational hot spot. Prohibition helped kill the park, which faded by 1910.





Ironically, the State Fair at its current location isn’t any further from the river than it was when it was opened at Northeast 10th and Eastern Avenue. The architecture of the old park, however, sure was more impressive than what we have now:



Once again, flooding motivated a move to Northwest 10th and May Avenue. The riverside Wheeler Park would remain – but it’s a ghost of what it once was. And the zoo that opened at Wheeler Park in 1904 moved to Northeast 50th and Eastern Avenue after most of the animals were killed in a major flood in 1923. The park was literally cut in two when the river, over flood stage, overtook the Lake Overholser dam.










The Oklahoma River will be a place to live, work and play.

- The Downtown Guy
www.downtownguy.blogspot.com

[Nuclear_2525]

what happened to the big trees on the canadian??? That looked awesome.

[okcpulse]

Well, nuclear2525, lets just put it this way... The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is fixing what they screwed up in the 1950's... our river. Since the Oklahoma River (formerly North Canadian) was responsible for so much flooding, the Corp cleared the trees, straightened the river channel and for forty plus years it was the ugliest piece of nature in Oklahoma City... a dried up ditch. The damage is being undone, thanks to MAPS, and the renaissance!!!

Speaking of Delmar Gardens, it would be awesome if some big investors took a risk to revive what I feel was Oklahoma City's greatest amusement park in its day. Perhaps rename Frontier City after its proposed expansion and call it "SIX FLAGS DELMAR GARDENS" in honor of our past park. Of course, I'm dreaming. The way things are at Six Flags right now, I question Frontier City's survival.

[Luke]

Is Frontier City planning an expansion? Or was that part of your dreaming too?

[Nuclear_2525]

Frontier City is planning an expansion...a big expansion. If I remember correctly they are expanding on to 80 acres of land that they own. This is expansion will more than double the size of the current park!

[Luke]

Wow, any information you can link me?

I'm very curious about this.

[BG918]

This was the Canadian River??? Wow, the Corps really did screw things up!

[okcpulse]

Yes, nuclear2525 is correct. Frontier City is planning to develop 80 acres it owns just west of the park in a major expansion project. The question is when. I hope soon.

[Patrick]

Hey BG...yup that's the old N. Canadian. It was sure a beauty wasn't it? But it also had a lot of flooding problems. Unfortunately, around here when flooding occurs, we clear out all the trees and concrete it in. Just look at all of the nice creeks we used to have around here. The city has pretty much concreted them all in. It's a shame.

Instead of ruining our nice creeks, our city needs to stop issuing building permits on flood plains around these creeks.

By the way, our city used to have a lot more lakes as well. Take Belle Isle Lake for instance. Belle Isle Station Shopping Center now sits there. It's a shame. There used to be lakes where Shepherd Mall now sits.

I wish all of the developers around here would've used the same concept that the developers of Ski Island, Blue Stem, and Silver Lake used. Leaving the water can make pretty nice developments.

Instead of turning the N. Canadian River into a ditch, the city should've restricted the businesses and houses locating there. But, like everything else in this city...it's all poor planning and we're paying the price now.

Here in a few years, we'll say the same thing about the Crosstown project. We'll have wished we would've saved the old Union Station Rail yard. Officials from Dallas have come to our city many times and tried to urger our city leaders to save Union Station Rail Yard. Dallas has had to pay the price of destroying theirs many years ago.....DART has been an expensive project, and the rail yard was the most expensive piece.

[Patrick]

By the way, downtownguy....I'm still a little confused. Did Delmar Gardens later become Wheeler Park??? Also, I'm guessing the old State Fair site had nothing to do with this since it was at NE 10th and Eastern??? Is that correct? I'm guessing this is where Douglas Park and Douglas High School now sit???

So the zoo was at the Delmar Park/Wheeler Park location????

Can you get me a rough estimate of where Delmar Gardens and Wheeler Park were in terms of street names?

[Doug Loudenback]

Researching on the net for Delmar Gardens came up with this OLD thread via Google!

Here are some snippets & sources of what I've found so far:

From http://www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/amuseparks.htm

Delmar Gardens, one of the earliest Oklahoma examples, enriched life in Oklahoma City from 1902 until 1910. John Sinopoulo and Joseph Marre, who trained at Delmar Gardens in St. Louis, opened the park on land owned by Charles Colcord. The amenities included a theater, race track, baseball field, swimming pool, railway, beer garden, hotel, restaurant, and swimming pool. Located on 140 acres near the North Canadian River, the Gardens enjoyed a large clientele and attracted entertainers like Lon Chaney, boxers John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey, and Dan Patch, a legendary race horse. Unfortunately, swarms of mosquitoes that accompanied the river's annual flooding contributed to Delmar Gardens' demise, and the advent of prohibition was the death blow.

From http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...4/ai_n10147289

Oklahoma City's Farmers Market was built in 1927 in a hotbed of controversy.

It was built on part of the old Delmar Garden property. Delmar Garden featured a horse racing track, beer gardens, roller coaster, Ferris wheel, carnival rides, dance hall, restaurant, swimming pool and a 3,000-seat theater that hosted the great entertainers of the day and Oklahoma's first statehood convention. The amusement park was destroyed by flood in 1910.

From http://www.adherents.com/people/pc/Lon_Chaney.html

Blake, pages 21-22:

In the spring of 1905, the company [the acting company Lon Chaney was part of] arrived in Oklahoma City where auditions were held at Delmar Gardens for some local chorus girls. One of the locals to audition was a 16-year-old girl with a particularly beautiful singing voice; her name was Cleva Creighton.
Most stories relating to Lon and Cleva's romance and subsequent marriae give the date of their wedding as May 31, 1905; however, according to city records, Lon and Cleva were marred on May 31, 1906 by Thomas H. Harper, pastor of the People's Temple Church. It seems unlikely that Lon and Cleva would have waited three months after the birth of their child to marry, since bearing a child out of wedlock was considered unthinkable at that time. Possibly the city records are incorrect, or the Chaneys were married while on tour and had a more formal ceremony the next year when they returned to Cleva's home town. However, another item supporting the city records appeared in the Daily Oklahoman on June 1, 1906: "A marriage permit was issued from the probate court yesterday to Lon Chaney and Miss Cleva Creighton, both residents of Oklahoma City."

Regardless of the actual marriage date, they left the touring company in December of 1905 and returned to Oklahoma City to prepare for the birth of their child.

I'm also looking into Wheeler Park since it's included in the area of my revised downtown map ... but Delmar Gardens isn't ... it would be a few blocks west on Reno in the area of the Farmers Market, as best I can tell so far.

[Doug Loudenback]

By way of follow-up, this is from an article at the Metropolitan Library website (you may have to click your refresh (F5) button after clicking the following link for the aricle to load (often true with links to that particular website): http://webinfo2.mls.lib.ok.us/okimag...&WCU=000000041

Delmar Garden was the premiere playground for Oklahoma City in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. Located on the north side of the North Canadian River at Noble (now SW 3rd) and S Western, Delmar Garden was built by Greek immigrant John Sinopoulo in 1902. Sinopoulo came from St. Louis and fashioned Delmar Garden after a park of the same name there. The recreation spot featured a dance pavillion, outdoor dining, a horse racing track, a beer garden, theatre and amusement rides.

Famous performers include Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, and boxer John L. Sullivan. While not a true "trolley park" like Belle Isle would be, Delmar Garden had a close relationship with the street car system and thousands of riders visited the park every year. Delmar Garden eventually fell victim to prohibition after statehood in 1907 and the capricious North Candian River, which flooded the area regularly, and closed in 1910. The Public Market now stands on part of the original Delmar porperty.

Several actual good quality photos (not artists drawings) are at the same website (and ditto what I said about the F5 (refresh)): http://webinfo2.mls.lib.ok.us/okimag...esults&WCU=183

And, at this website, http://cinematreasures.org/theater/16488/ is an article contributed by Jeff Chapman describing a "3000 seat theater" ...

Athel Boiter, a sweetheart of a man who was a film booker knowledgeable in theater lore, once told me the history of Delmar Garden Theater.
Mr. Boiter said that John Sinopoulo was a Greek immigrant who wanted to build a stylish amusement complex that held a uniting theme throughout a park setting. In 1902 Sinopoulo opened on the banks of the North Canadian River his Delmar Gardens Amusement Park, which was designed in elaborate Art Nouveau styling that blended blissfully with surrounding wooded acreage.

Delmar Gardens Park offered an exotic animal zoo, festive penny arcade, thrill rides, cafes and a fine restaurant, a floating wedding chapel, a swank ballroom, a blue ribbon horse racing track, a tranquil boardwalk beer garden, a high class saloon dance hall, and a top notch 3000 seat theater.

Delmar Garden Theater interior was designed in intricate Victorian gingerbread, with Art Nouveau accents. Orchestra seating held leather upholstered opera chairs, box seats contained comfortable wicker chairs and love-seats, and three horseshoe shaped balconies were equiped with steep pitch bleachers. While the auditorium had soft gas lighting, the heavily draped stage was brilliantly illuminated by electric switchboard lighting.

Built to be a vaudeville house, Delmar Garden Theater also installed film equipment in 1903 to feature "The Great Train Robbery", which ran for eleven weeks. Regardless of the fact that film showings at the Delmar proved to be successful, management preferred to continue mainly as a two-a-day vaudeville venue, with only an occasional movie thrown in at the end of a weak vaudeville program. (One advantage for vaudvillians appearing on the family oriented Delmar stage was that they could also present "adult material" in late night sketches at the Delmar Saloon).

Lon Chaney, Sr. was appearing at Delmar Theater in 1905 when he rescued a beautiful 16 year-old songbird from a flooded basement dressing room. Her name was Cleva Crieghton, and after a whirlwind courtship the couple married there in Oklahoma City, but whether or not they took advantage of the romantic Delmar Garden floating chapel is lost to time.

Back in those early days, every spring the North Canadian River overflowed its banks causing extensive water damage to Delmar Gardens Park. Flooding was the reason for an early demise of this lovely pleasuredome. It closed in 1910, and was razed the following year.

Also, see the Farmers Market website, http://www.okcfarmersmarket.com/history.html

[Doug Loudenback]

Here's another follow-up from a nice site maintained by UCO ... the page linked next contains some nice audio clips from UCO's audio series on "Newcomers
To A New Land":
http://library.ucok.edu/archives/pag...-a-newland.asp

There, click the Sinopolo Brothers ... link to play a 4:20 mpeg audio clip. Pretty nice.

[Patrick]

That's awesome Doug. I love reading information like this! It's a shame that we no longer have Delmar Gardens. What a short existence. I'm amazed with how many amusement parks we've had over the years. And now we basically have nothing. To some extent I wish I could've seen those days when Delmar was around, and we had shops downtown, etc. Seems like we've ruined so many of our nice attractions over the years....Spring Lake, Wedgewood, Belle Isle, Delmar Gardens, etc.

[Patrick]

Well, it's 2006 now, did the renovations at Farmer's Market ever get completed? I never hear much about it. I wish we had a Farmer's Market that everyone could be proud of, and that could be a tourist attraction for our city.

[Doug Loudenback]

Well, it's 2006 now, did the renovations at Farmer's Market ever get completed? I never hear much about it. I wish we had a Farmer's Market that everyone could be proud of, and that could be a tourist attraction for our city.

At first, I said, "No." But then I looked at some pics here: http://www.okcfarmersmarket.com/photos.html which do indicate that interior changes have been made. But, nothing "external" that I've noticed ... my wife and I go to the vegitable and flower vendors adjacent to the main building fairly often, and I've seen nothing "external" to the main building that looks different ... certainly nothing like the images at this link: http://www.okcfarmersmarket.com/renovation.html

[metro]

It's in the works, the new one downtown has really taken off. Additionally the old one just south of Reno near downtown has really taken off and they are doing alot with it. But I agree I would like to see them more frequently than 2 days a week and alot bigger.

[Patrick]

metro, where is the new one downtown? I guess I haven't heard about it.

[John]

metro, where is the new one downtown? I guess I haven't heard about it.

The wednesday market in Couch Park.

[jbrown84]

It's such a tragedy that Delmar Gardens is completely gone with not a single remnant. I just don't understand why people had no mind for preservation back then.

It would be very cool for a developer to buy up that land and recreate the park with the same architecture (which would be cool and "retro") and a lot of the same kind of attractions. Cafes, restaurants, shops, bars, a theatre/music venue, etc.

[Doug Loudenback]

I've speculated a little as to the possible general location of Delmar Gardens in my map revision thread, here: http://www.okctalk.com/57196-post35.html

[writerranger]

VERY nice post, Doug! Good work and I would think you are pretty close to being spot-on with Delmar Gardens.
Impressive job!

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[Doug Loudenback]

VERY nice post, Doug! Good work and I would think you are pretty close to being spot-on with Delmar Gardens.
Impressive job!
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Wow! Thanks alot! But, the BEST thing that happened to me today was ... (drum roll.....) getting a "new" used car to replace my dead Cougar that died which is ... (another drum roll ...) The Color TEAL!



NOW, I'm a REAL Hornets Fan! :boff:

GO OKLAHOMA CITY HORNETS!

Sorry ... I'm supposed to be in therapy until October to work on that particular affliction ... but relapses do happen. Now, back to downtown Oklahoma City ...