For your amusement

Fan reaches online for memories of long-closed Norumbega Park

When Darryn Carroll was a boy growing up in Newton's Auburndale section, his father would take him for walks along the Charles River and describe a lost piece of New England history: Norumbega Park.

At the river's edge, where the Boston Marriott Newton hotel now stands, had sprawled an amusement park complete with rides, exotic animals, canoeing and one of America's best-known ballrooms. Norumbega Park closed in 1963, the year before Carroll was born, but he never forgot his father's tales of its nearly seven-decade run.

"I can't explain the romance of the old park," Carroll said. "The guys went there in a suit, and everyone went in canoes."

After his father, John, died in 2001, "I had the sudden urge to do something in his memory," Carroll said. "I remember how he often talked about his time working at the park. He would often talk about how simple life was then, and how he looked forward to every time he went to work."

Carroll's tribute to his father and to Norumbega took the form of a website, norumbegapark.com, which he launched last year to provide those who visited or worked there in its heyday the opportunity to collaborate on a living narrative detailing its history.

He is not alone in his fascination with a time when "staycations" were the norm, and attractions ranging from fried dough and photo booths to big-band stars and a live leopard beckoned just a trolley ride away.

An exhibition at the Newton History Museum, "Norumbega: Romance and Recreation by the River," recalls the history of this "famous pleasure resort" - as early ads touted it - through photographs, drawings, postcards, advertisements, and artifacts, including a model trolley like those that transported people to the park.

"Norumbega Park is such a point of nostalgia for people," said Susan Abele, the museum's curator of manuscripts and photographs. The museum recently hosted a guided tour of the former grounds, some of which is now parkland, Abele said. For those who danced at the Totem Pole Ballroom or rode the Ferris wheel, she said, "it really brings back lots of wonderful memories."

The recreational complex was an invention of the Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway, which was trying to increase ridership along its trolley line. The park opened in 1897 and boasted a zoological garden with lions, leopards, and bison, along with rides, a restaurant, a rustic theater, canoeing, and open space for walking and picnics, according to the Newton History Museum.

About 12,000 people came to the park on opening day, and it remained popular through the years, even when others, like its sister park in Lexington, shut down during World War I.

Canoeing along the Charles River became popular; the boats filled the river between Newton Lower Falls and Waltham in the early 20th century. The year 1930 saw the opening of the Totem Pole Ballroom, which would come to host the era's leading big-band performers.

Now, it's up to local historians to keep the spirit of the park alive for new generations.

"It has been interesting and quite a rewarding feeling when visitors send their pictures and stories of the park," said Carroll, an auto mechanic now living in Norwood who writes books and designs websites in his free time.

"I'm always thinking that, when that generation of people passes away, there will be nobody who has that history of the park," Carroll said. On his website, he said, "people can enter a story or upload their own photos of their park. I want to see people writing about how they met their wife at the park. And pictures, pictures, pictures."

Carroll said his website has had more than 8,000 visitors since its launch, and he continues to try to make it as interactive as possible. It has also brought him into contact with another Norumbega historian, Joe Hunter, who worked with the late Bob Pollack to produce "Return to Norumbega," a DVD chronicling the park's history.

"It's good for people to be able to connect to the past," said Hunter, who is director of communication and assistant vice president of external relations at Olin College in Needham. "There are a lot of people around today who visited Norumbega and have a lot of warm memories of the park and the Totem Pole Ballroom."

Hunter, a West Newton resident, was born in West Virginia and never visited Norumbega when it was an amusement park. His interest in local history spurred him to seek out the Newton History Museum, which connected him with Pollack, an authority on Norumbega who collected pictures and memorabilia prior to his death in 2004. Pollack wrote the script for the DVD, which Hunter completed in 2005.

"It's always best when people can make a personal connection with history, and this was one of those projects where it was really possible," Hunter said. "If you're over a certain age and were raised in Massachusetts, you probably went to Norumbega at some point."

In the second half of the last century, an emerging highway system sounded the death knell for Norumbega Park.

The Newton History Museum's exhibition includes a 1950s ad proclaiming, "All roads lead to Norumbega Park, via the new Route 128 superhighway!" But the same road that Norumbega's owners hoped would bring more people to the park actually decreased its numbers, as area residents seized the opportunity to head out of the Boston area for summer activities.

The park closed on Labor Day in 1963; the Totem Pole ballroom closed the following February, and fires would destroy some of the buildings. Marriott bought a large part of the land in an auction and opened its hotel in 1970.

"It's a little ironic that the park was done in by the car and the television - people had other amusement options," Hunter said. "But now, we're again beginning to recognize the value of local places for entertainment."