Riverview Park (Chicago)

Riverview Park was an amusement park in Chicago, Illinois, which operated from 1904 to 1967. It was located on 74 acres bound on the south by Belmont Avenue, on the east by Western Avenue, on the north by Lane Tech College Prep High School, and on the west by the North Branch of the Chicago River. It was located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago's North Center community area.

Founding
Riverview was established in 1904 by William Schmidt, on the grounds of his private skeet shooting range. The Schmidt family owned and operated the park throughout its lifetime.



"Big Bill" Haywood, the Industrial Workers of the World leader, once spoke here to a crowd of almost 80,000 people.

Rides and attractions
Riverview was famous for The Bobs wooden roller coaster. Other popular coasters were The Comet, The Silver Flash, The Fireball and the Jetstream. Aladdin's Castle was a classic fun house with a collapsing stairway, mazes and turning barrel. Shoot the Chutes, Hades, the Rotor, Tilt-a-Whirl, Wild Mouse, the Mill on the Floss (Tunnel of Love), and Flying Turns were just a few of the many classic rides. "The Pair-O-Chutes at Riverview Park'll shake us up all day" is a line from the Beach Boys' song "Amusement Parks U.S.A." from their 1965 album, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). There were over 120 rides in the park.

Racism and closing
Riverview closed in 1967. Urban myths endure, describing the park's "seedy" atmosphere in the 1960s, as it coincidentally became more integrated. Contemporaneous articles in black publications, such as the Chicago Defender, described black patrons being subject to both latent and overt racism; the most overt being a longstanding attraction (not owned by Riverview) but by an outside concessionaire renting space from the park. It was unofficially called "Dunk the Nigger", but officially named "African Dip" and then later renamed "Dip", which the NAACP along with newspaper columnist Mike Royko successfully lobbied to shut down in the 1950s.

According to Victoria Wolcott, author of 2012 book Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters

"“You see this thing a lot, when African Americans begin going in large numbers [to amusement parks], the parks are increasingly associated with danger and criminality...”"

Chuck Wlodarczyk, author of Riverview Gone But Not Forgotten, once performed shows about the park and reported people often approached him afterwards to report hearsay of someone raped in the park restrooms by a black man, however no actual record of these crimes exist. A Chicago Tribune article from late 1967 also blames violence for the park's closure, however Wolcott says there is little evidence of increased violence at the park.

Ultimately, white flight contributed to financial decline at the park, making the land upon which Riverview was built far more valuable than the park itself. The Schmidt family sold to developers and later stated a newspaper's reported estimated sale price of $6.8 million ($0 in ) was too low.

The grounds became home to Riverview Plaza shopping center, the Chicago Police Area 3 Detective Division, DePaul College Prep High School, dental equipment manufacturer Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, and Richard Clark Park of the Chicago Park District. The south end of Clark Park has a wooded area where many of the Riverview Park foundations remain visible, and it is used as a bicycle dirt jump and pump track park maintained by the Chicago Area Mountain Bikers. A sculpture entitled Riverview by local artist Jerry Peart stands in front of the police station.

Memorabilia
Many items from Riverview, as well as paintings portraying the park, were on display at Riverview Tavern, located on the corner of West Roscoe Street and Damen Avenue from 2005 to 2018. The Riverview Carousel continues to operate at Six Flags Over Georgia. It was the only ride to be saved.

Bally and Williams tie-ins
The Bally Manufacturing Corporation 1972 pinball machine Fireball was named after the park's Fireball roller coaster. Also, Bally's Aladdin's Castle amusement arcade division was renamed from Carousel Time to honor the Riverview Park Aladdin's Castle funhouse. Bally's Aladdin's Castle pinball machine was also inspired by the same funhouse at Riverview. The 1979 Williams Electronics' pinball game Flash and their 1985 Comet were named after the park's roller coasters with these names. Bally Manufacturing and Williams Electronics had their headquarters and primary manufacturing facilities just west of Riverview Park during the later years of the park's operating life.