Glen Echo Park

Glen Echo Park - History

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Historic Drawings

Architects drawing of 1891 amphitheater
This is the architects view of the original Chautauqua Amphitheater.
It was situated where the Minnehaha creek now runs through the Park
It is what you would have seen when you arrived in the car park

Tower of Philosophy
This is the architects view of the Chautauqua Tower of Philosophy.
Only a small stone arch hidden in the trees behind the Clara Barton house remains

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Photos of the Amusement Park

There is a permanent display of historic photographs in the park office and there are albums of old prints that can be browsed by visitors.

Click here or on the above picture to see a larger version of the picture which was taken in 1968, the year that the amusement park closed.

Does anyone out there have any old family snapshots or home movies of an outing to the park? Let us know (301-492-6229) if you are prepared to let us borrow them to make a copy for the archives or to display here.

A History of Glen Echo Park

A short history of the park including a number of previously unpublished photographs from the Richard Cook collection.

A short pictorial history of the Bumper Car pavilion with more of the photographs from the Richard Cook collection.

Theodor Horydczak Historic Photographs of the Park

This tells you how to get a list of photos to select from.

  1. Select the link Historic photographs (below)
  2. When the American Memory Collection Search page is displayed type "glen echo"
  3. The Glen Echo Amusement Park pictures are the first 39 pictures listed.

The historic photographs are from the Washington As It Was show of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division
- American Memory pages.

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