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Posted March 24, 2011 to photo album "Hanna's Spree Park and Other Haunted Amusement Parks"
Germany’s surreal Spree Park gets a cameo in Hanna. But it’s just one of dozens abandoned amusement parks that people still visit.
Glen Echo Amusement Park (Glen Echo, MD)
Built in 1881 as a cultural center, Glen Echo turned into an amusement park at the start of the 20th century when the park got electrified. Among its first big attractions were a 1900 slide show “The Battle of Manila.” The Park continued to grow in popularity, adding touches that spoke to times. During the World War II, the beanbag toss was swapped out for a contest that allowed visitors to hit Hitler’s face with a baseball. However the park remained backward in one way: until civil rights protestors forced it to change its rules in 1960, the park had a whites-only exclusionary policy. In the ‘60s, the park gained the unfortunate reputation of being overrun by petty criminals and gangs. With a downturn in visitors, the park closed its doors in 1968. In 1971, the area came under the auspices of the National Park Service, which has slowly been attempting renovate some of the site’s most historically significant buildings.
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