Highlighting Historical Hampden

Text by Paula Sloane

“Nothing Doing Anywhere Else - Everything Doing Here”

Although not a trace of it remains today, for eighteen years, from 1898 until 1916, Hampden’s own Riverside Park was one of the premier entertainment spots in Eastern Maine. Back then, just ten cents bought lucky area residents a carefree ride on an open trolley car, as well as admission to a destination that promised “good, healthy amusement for all” in a glorious natural setting.

Riverside Park was not unlike other amusement parks and resorts of the period. Landscape and civil engineer Frank Blaisdell drew up the plans for the park; he was an excellent candidate for the job, with vast experience designing a number of other amusement parks, including Riverton in Portland and Merrymeeting in Brunswick.

Situated on an idyllic 10-acre parcel in Hampden, Riverside Park overlooked the tranquil Hampden Narrows of the Penobscot River. Owned by the Stern family of Hampden, the park was leased by the Bangor, Hampden & Winterport Electric Company who operated the trolley. The trolley was later owned and operated by the Bangor Railway and Electric Company.

Easily accessible from Bangor and Brewer by trolley, Riverside Park offered city dwellers from all classes a diversion from urban life, a day of amusement in the country. The efficiently run trolley was not the only means of transportation to the park, however. Patrons could also arrive, in more romantic fashion, by boat, canoe, or ferry. From the slip at river’s edge, it was a climb up a steep set of steps, a walk across a footbridge over a ravine and then on through the main entrance. It was said that some children gained free admission by hiding out in the bushes there and then blending in with the crowd entering the Park.

Opened to an eagerly awaiting public in June 1898, at the peak of America’s “Gilded Age,” Riverside Park offered a dizzying array of entertainment. One of the park’s newspaper ads said it best with this slogan: “Nothing Doing Anywhere Else - Everything Doing Here.” But all that entertainment was also prudently managed so as to uphold the highest standards of decency. At a time when class distinctions were meticulously maintained, Secretary of the Bangor Board of Trade Edward Mitchell Blanding assured the public that Riverside Park offered suitable amusements approved of by “the best classes of society,” and at the same time accessible to “about every class of person.” To further ensure and maintain its respectability, the park employed a stable of security guards, as well as police officers Fred Flynn and Harry Edgecomb, available to escort any riffraff from the park as deemed necessary.

One of the main attractions at Riverside Park was the impressive open-air theater, with the Penobscot River and its passing boat traffic serving as a breathtaking backdrop. The theater had a pitched roof, beamed ceiling, and square platform stage. For the elite set, there were reserved chairs in the front rows covered by an awning, and the remaining seating consisted of settees, for the common folk, arranged at an incline. On Sunday afternoons, band concerts were performed by the Bangor Band or the Ladies Orchestra conducted by Lena Howe. Patrons could then indulge in a matinee or evening performance of “corking good vaudeville,” as one ad put it, all nationally-known acts contracted through Boston and New York agencies that included singing and dancing comedians, musical comedies, acrobats, comic opera, trick dogs, aerialists, wizards of the tight wire, soft shoe dancers, burlesque magicians and illusionists, jugglers, gymnasts, cyclists, and contortionists. These shows were managed by Joseph Flynn, and later by J.W. Gorman, and performers often boarded at private homes or area hotels, which provided a boost to the local economy.

Pleasure-seekers could also stroll Riverside Park’s midway and test their skill at the shooting gallery and baseball throw at the arcades, or visit the concession stands, which sold hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, candy, and soda. There were also exhibit booths, as well as a bowling alley, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, wooden swings, dancing pavilion, open-air stage casino, picnic spots along the shore, and even live alligators on display in their own specially built pools. Early silent movies, including popular Buster Brown comedy shorts, and cartoons were shown on weekends.

Riverside Park also hosted private business parties as well as Waterman’s Annual Excursions, sponsored by the J. Waterman Company of Bangor, where boys of all ages were invited to compete in 100 yard dashes. On the Fourth of July, patrons were enticed with the promise of “gorgeous fireworks!” in advertisements that also included band concerts and vaudeville performances as part of the “big holiday celebration!” Three-course dinners, catered by C. W. Lutz, were served at the park for twenty five cents, and a Sunday menu offered a choice of Penobscot River salmon, roast spring lamb, cold boiled ham, sandwiches, lobster salad, boiled or mashed potatoes, and peas, with ice cream or cake for dessert.

Riverside Park proved to be a smashing success. It wasn’t unusual, on weekends, to see crowds of up to 10,000, but on one particular day, the park hosted a record number of patrons. A newspaper ad crowed, “12,000 People at the park yesterday. Nothing like it ever known in Eastern Maine.”

By 1912, however, interest in the attractions of Riverside Park began to fade with the progression of World War I and the arrival of the automobile, which allowed area residents freedom to travel farther distances to other amusement parks and resorts, now all within easy reach by car. But these may not have been the only culprits in the eventual demise of Riverside Park. Bangor’s two gleaming new movie theaters may have also lured crowds away. Or perhaps it was as simple as one patron, who fondly recalled visits to the Park in its heyday, surmised, “I don’t know [why the park closed] unless it had run its course and was no longer paying.”

Whatever the reasons, Riverside Park ceased operations in September 1916, but not without one last effort to win back paying patrons, a desperate plea in the guise of a newspaper promotion which boasted that Riverside Park would position itself as “the amusement center of the city” and that it “will mark a new era in the history of summer vaudeville entertainment.” This noble attempt to revive the park, however, was destined to fail; the public had spoken. Riverside Park had enjoyed a grand run and the time had come to bid a fond farewell.

Yet it wasn’t until 1918 that the official closing of the Park was solemnly announced in the newspaper. “The Bangor Railway and Electric Co. has decided not to renew the lease of the grounds, which expires soon,” it was reported, “and the buildings are being removed or demolished...the war situation being responsible for the decision.”

The closing of Riverside Park marked the end of an innocent era in America’s history, where “good, healthy amusement for all” could be had for the price of a dime. Today, nothing of the park remains. The 10-acre tract of land that was once home to one of the preeminent amusement parks of Eastern Maine, host to nationally-known traveling performers, and accommodating up to 12,000 patrons a day, now borders the present-day Avalon Village Retirement Community off Route 1A. But memories are kept alive in the stories told by an ever-shrinking population of residents who fondly recall a simpler time long ago, on a summer’s day at Riverside Park.

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