Paragon Park was once known as ‘The Playground of New England’ – MASHAHER

This summer we take a look back at the playgrounds of yesteryear in our series THE SOUTH SHORE AS IT WAS. 

HULL − For nearly 80 years and several generations, one of the region’s most beloved summer attractions was right in Hull: Paragon Park.

Nearly everyone in the small peninsula town had a friend or a relative who worked there, and the sounds and sights of the park shaped their summertime memories.

One of those people is Christoper Haraden, of Hanover, who grew up a couple of streets over from the park on Rockview Road. Haraden was too young to work at Paragon Park before it closed, but he worked in the Playland Penny Arcade along the Nantasket strip.

His grandfather, Frank Infusino, spent the mornings working as a mechanic on the rollercoaster after his overnight shift as a police officer.

“I loved listening to him talk about the park and I became fascinated with it,” said Haraden, who has been working on a book about Paragon Park. “I so wish I had taken out a tape recorder while listening to him and his friends talk about it, so I’ve been trying to re-create those memories.”

The early days of Paragon Park

Once known as “The Playground of New England,” Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach was built by Boston businessman George Dodge and opened in 1905.

Designed in the style of a world’s fair, the park in its early days had exhibits like a model of the Johnstown Flood, a replica of a street in Cairo and exotic animals. There was a lagoon in the center of the park where visitors could ride gondolas.

Since only the rich could visit places like Europe and Asia by boat, Haraden said Paragon Park re-created the experiences with shows and exhibits.

Many visitors arrived by train or steamboat and stayed for a week or two at a time. The park also had a food and dance hall in the back, where many of the people visiting would eat and spend their evenings.

Paragon Park shifts to games and rides

Eventually, the park added thrill rides and games and became more of a standard amusement park. On a busy summer day, as many as 50,000 people would travel to the park by ferry or car.

Haraden said admission into the park was free, and you paid per ride or game. As a result, it became a hangout spot for many people.

“It was a place people gathered and you saw your friends and people you knew and you felt safe,” he said. “There was always something happening.”

The staple ride was the Giant Roller Coaster, built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. It was 1,400 feet long and 98 feet tall at its peak, making it the world’s tallest roller coaster from 1917 to 1925, when it was surpassed by the roller coaster at Revere Beach.

The roller coaster hit speeds of up to 53 mph during a ride of less than two minutes.

The roller coaster survived several fires, including in 1932 and 1962. After the first fire, it was partially redesigned by Herbert Paul Schmeck, who worked on its original construction.

Haraden said the noises from the park − the roller coaster, music and yelling of children − were a huge part of his childhood.

“It was part of the atmosphere,” he said.

To this day he will stand in his mother’s driveway, look out to where the roller coaster stood and imagine he can still hear it.

“It was part of growing up,” he said.

The closure of Paragon Park

Paragon Park operated until the end of the 1984 season. Larry and Phyllis Stone, whose family owned it for 65 years, sold the park in 1985 to a condominium development group. The remaining rides were sold at auction.

The Giant Roller Coaster was moved to Six Flags in Maryland, where it has been renovated several times and still operates today. Now called the Wild One, it is the oldest coaster at any Six Flags park.

The Paragon Carousel, which was added in 1928, is still in operation as the last remaining ride from the old amusement park. Paragon Park Museum is in the Clock Tower Building next to the carousel so visitors can learn about the old park. The museum is operated by the Friends of the Paragon Carousel, the nonprofit that now owns the carousel. Haraden served on the advisory board for the organization.

He said the fact that the carousel remained is a nice way to have some memory of the park.

“There’s a whole generation or two who, for them, the carousel is its own thing. They don’t see it as part of something else or something bigger,” he said. “It shows how things change.”

For years after the park closed, workers would hold annual reunions at a pavilion across Nantasket Avenue from where the park once stood.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Paragon Park was a summer staple on the South Shore for generations