33. LAKEWOOD PARK
(open May to October), Lakewood Ave., SW, a rolling
wooded area of 370.9 acres, is an amusement park and fair ground with
permanent exhibit buildings, midway attractions, a race track, and a
large artificial lake. Lakewood was formerly the site of the city
waterworks, and the lake was a reservoir created by damming the South
River. Soon after the present waterworks on the Chattahoochee River was
completed in 1893, this site was leased to the Lakewood Park Company
and converted into an amusement center. Since 1915 Lakewood has been
under lease to the Southeastern Fair Association,
During the summer the midway attracts thousands of pleasure seekers.
The Whip and the Shoot-the-Chute afford the more thrilling rides, but
the Old Mill and the Merry-Go-Round remain perennial favorites. A dirt
track encircling the lake is the scene of exciting automobile, bicycle,
and sulky races. Many racing celebrities have established records here
in their various mediums. "Lucky Teeter," with his famed "Hell
Drivers," frequently stages an auto-hazard show on the track. Motorboat
races are held on the lake.
Barbecue pits and picnic tables dot the grounds, and delegates of
virtually every convention held in Atlanta are entertained with a
barbecue or watermelon cutting here. Band concerts, roller skating, and
dances complete the summer program. The park is closed during the
winter.
The Southeastern Fair (first week in October, no fixed admission price), Atlanta's
largest annual event, attracts more visitors from over the entire
Southeast than any other city enterprise. In the three permanent
buildings, large concrete structures built along mission lines, are
displayed exhibits of farm products, agricultural machinery, preserved
and canned foods, needlework, and handicrafts. The exhibit of livestock
and poultry is one of the most important showings in the South.
During the week of the Fair, when the permanent carnival attractions
are augmented by those of a traveling show, the midway is packed with
people eating hotdogs and cotton candy and drinking soda pop. Lucky
winners at the game booths come away loaded with tinselled dolls,
bright Indian blankets, gaudy lamps, and other gewgaws, while others
purchase balloons, swagger sticks, and various noise-makers.
Special days are designated in honor of various groups, but the
farmer who brings his showings of cattle settles down for the entire
week with his family in a near-by tourist camp and spends every day on
the grounds. The changing program features keep the crowds rushing from
grandstand to exhibit buildings to the midway during the day, but at
night all wind up again at the grandstand to witness the spectacular
fireworks display across the lake.
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