INTRODUCTION

When 16-year-old Ralph Lodge told his father he hoped one day to be able to buy the beautiful body of water now known as Silver Lake, his father, George, smiled, thinking it was a boyhood whim. When, 28 years later, Ralph did buy the lake and announced plans to create a park along its shores, some area residents thought it was a fanciful dream. And when Ralph began planting 1,000 maple trees on his new property to beautify the grounds, local farmers shook their heads, thinking he was ruining good farmland.

In the end, however, it was Ralph Lodge and his family who had the last laugh when the modest summer resort he established grew to become one of Ohio’s best loved amusement parks. With several dozen rides and attractions ranging from roller coasters, a merry-go-round, miniature railway, and water toboggans to swimming, boating, camping, live animal exhibits, a popular Chautauqua series, an early aviation field, and one of the largest dance floors in the area, Silver Lake Park soon became the “Coney Island of the West.”

Ralph Lodge’s dream to buy Silver Lake began in 1846, when Ralph and his father, George H. Lodge, were performing masonry work on a Stow Township home owned by the Thorndyke family. After completing the day’s work, father and son would cross the road and enjoy a cool, relaxing dip in Silver Lake, which was then known as Stow Lake or Wetmore’s Pond. It was then that Ralph first mentioned his desire to purchase the lake and live along its shores.

Many years later, after having established a successful career as a market gardener in Cleveland, Ralph returned to the area for a visit, and his interest in the lake was rekindled. As a result, in 1874, he purchased the 100-acre Silver Lake and approximately 35 acres on its southwest shores. Two years later, he moved his wife and family to their new homestead and began setting out a number of crops. Initially, those farming operations were the family’s primary source of income. However, in the meantime, Lodge saw the potential to generate additional income by offering boating, fishing, swimming, or picnic privileges at the lake.

At the start, Lodge’s hopes for this enterprise were relatively modest. He told his father he could see the time when he might earn as much as $100 a day from his resort. Little did he know that during the park’s peak years in the early 1900s, Silver Lake Park would grow to encompass approximately 600 acres, generate $2,000 to $5,000 a day, and employ approximately 100 to 150 people. A model of self-sufficiency, the park would also go on establish its own bakery, garden, police force, electric plant, and water and sewage systems.

In its early years, however, Silver Lake Park’s operations were far more modest. According to Ralph Lodge’s son William, attendance at the park was initially so erratic that the man who operated the refreshment stand often didn’t bother to open for the day. Fortunately, those slow days did not last, and attendance figures steadily climbed as more area schools, churches, and businesses chose Silver Lake as their preferred destination for picnics and reunions.

The park received its next major boost in the early 1880s, as railway lines established additional excursion stops down the road at Cuyahoga Falls. Up to that time, the beauties of Silver Lake Park were primarily known to local residents. However, thanks to the popularity of the High Bridge Glens and Caves park, the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus (CA&C) Railway announced it was establishing an excursion stop/platform at Cuyahoga Falls for travelers wishing to visit the Glens. According to William Lodge, after the CA&C stop was added, many out-of-town visitors who came to see the Glens or nearby Gaylord’s Grove heard about how lovely Silver Lake was and made the 1.5-mile carriage ride to enjoy that park’s amenities. Upon returning home, those excursionists told their friends about Silver Lake, raising the park’s visibility throughout the state and creating a spike in tourism that made it feasible for Ralph Lodge to consider investing in additional improvements at his park.

By 1884, Lodge was well on his way to achieving his initial goal; Fourth of July receipts were $50.

During the park’s first two decades, the Lodges added a number of features and activities for their visitors’ enjoyment, including dining and dance halls, a bathhouse and diving table, steamboat rides, rowboats, water toboggans, a merry-go-round, a shooting gallery, and goldfish ponds. In addition, guests could participate in camping, fishing, swimming, and baseball and purchase items from the park’s refreshment stands or seashell souvenir shop.

Other improvements included a stone icehouse and one of the first attractions at the park’s menagerie: an American bald eagle.

While the eagle exhibit was one of the first menagerie attractions, it was by no means the last. In 1888, Ralph Lodge received two black bear cubs, Patrick and Topsy, which were featured in the park’s bear pits. Over the years, the bruin family grew, with a total of 78 cubs being raised at the park. At that time, raising black bears in captivity was considered such a rare feat that the Smithsonian Institution documented the park’s techniques in a 1904 publication.

The bears were not the only animals on display at the park. The menagerie grew to include elk, deer, raccoons, monkeys, spotted lynx, pumas, Belgian hares, pigeons, squirrels, Canadian porcupines, anteaters, wolves, goats, woodchucks, owls, beavers, swans, alligators, and more.

Keeping pace with technology, the park also had telephone service installed—its phone number was 49.

In addition to rides and attractions, the park booked some of the area’s best entertainers. Besides hiring some of the most popular local bands to perform in the park’s dance pavilion, the Lodges also secured unusual acts, such as “Enoc the man-fish,” whom newspapers indicated enthralled guests by performing such bizarre feats as smoking a pipe, playing the trombone, and juggling eggs under water. Another impressive entertainer was Captain Blondell, who swam his way to a deep part of the lake, where he would tread water for an extended period of time while performing a curious array of activities, such as building a raft, eating supper, setting off fireworks, and destroying a boat. Still brimming with energy, he then swam back to shore and gave a speech about the art of swimming.

As the Lodge family worked to bring new and exciting offerings to the public, the park attracted additional visitors not only from the Buckeye State but also from New York, Pennsylvania, and beyond.

Part of the park’s success was due to the wholesome manner in which it was operated. Lodge, who was a devout Methodist, insisted that the park avoid “anything that would tend to demoralize.” That meant gambling and alcohol were strictly forbidden. In fact, early handbills for the park indicated that no alcohol was available within a 1.25-mile radius of Silver Lake. To further ensure peace and quiet, campers at the park were instructed to begin “quiet time” at 10:00 p.m. Lodge also insisted that Silver Lake’s attractions were “positively closed” on the Sabbath.

According to the magazine Gleanings in Bee Culture, one trolley car company representative tried to convince Lodge to open the park on Sunday, but Lodge stuck to his principles and steadfastly refused. While some thought Silver Lake Park’s six-day-a-week operation would put it at a disadvantage, the Lodges indicated that their park consistently earned more revenues than competitors that were open seven days a week.

With the extension of trolley service to Silver Lake in the early 1890s, the park’s popularity soared again. Silver Lake’s success, however, did not go unnoticed by its competitors. In 1895, Tom Walsh, president of the Akron & Cuyahoga Falls Rapid Transit Company, built an amusement park called Randolph Park on a parcel of land between Silver Lake and nearby Crystal Lake. While smaller in acreage than Silver Lake, Randolph Park offered swimming, camping and dancing, as well as spectacular attractions including vaudeville-style entertainment, fireworks displays, and other extravaganzas. Despite its best efforts, Randolph Park could not compete effectively against Silver Lake Park. Randolph Park lasted only a few years, closing its doors after the 1901 season.

While Randolph Park was wrapping up operations, in 1901 Silver Lake Park was preparing for its next milestone and announced plans to be incorporated by the State of Ohio. Ralph Lodge was named president and treasurer of the new Silver Lake Park Company, and his son William became secretary and general manager. Other Lodge children served as directors.

In newspaper interviews, the Lodges hinted that exciting things were in store for the park in coming years, but they would not be unveiled until the appropriate time. That day came in 1903, when park officials announced they were making more than $50,000 worth of improvements that season. Those enhancements included a new merry-go-round and a roller coaster to be installed by the Ingersoll Pleasure Amusement Company. The coaster was described as being a “Figure 8 toboggan” in which riders glided down an 1,800-foot track in a series of three figure eight–style loops.

The park also added an ornamental laughing gallery, an elegant fun house building featuring more than $3,000 worth of curved French glass mirrors designed to distort visitors’ appearance for comic effect. For the younger set, the Lodges created a pony track, complete with 16 Shetland ponies and carriages. To accommodate the ever-growing number of guests at the park, the Lodges also remodeled the former dining hall and converted it into a 32-room hotel.

By far, the most impressive of the improvements at the park for 1903 involved the dance pavilion. Since the time of the park’s founding, Silver Lake had a series of increasingly larger pavilions, the most recent being completed in 1898. In 1903, the Lodges more than doubled the size of that pavilion by creating an addition on the southern end of the existing structure. When completed, the pavilion measured 90 by 236 feet and had approximately 15,000 square feet of dance floor.

By the end of 1903, Silver Lake had one more expansion to announce. The Lodge family was offered the chance to buy the former Randolph Park’s property and buildings for the bargain price of $5,000. The purchase was completed at the end of the year.

As a result of these many improvements, the park was enjoying some of its strongest attendance figures ever. Several thousand visitors a day flocked to the park—sometimes as many as 10,000–20,000 visitors for the park’s biggest events, which included the annual Summit County Farmers’ Picnic and employee picnics for the rubber companies in Akron.

The park’s increasing popularity enabled it to continue to debut new features. In 1907, the park introduced one that Ralph Lodge had been dreaming of for years: a public aquarium. The circular structure, patterned after similar aquariums in Battery Park, New York, and Belle Isle in Michigan, included several dozen fish, as well as taxidermy specimens and a live pair of sea lions. Sadly, Lodge never got to see the aquarium’s opening day. He passed away in May 1907, just prior to the park’s season opening, at the age of 76.

With the passing of Ralph Lodge, his children played a larger role in the park. William Lodge, who had served as his father’s right-hand man, now served as the park’s general manager. Will’s older brother Ballard, who then had a thriving dental practice in Cleveland, later became president of Silver Lake Park Company. Brothers George and Lou lent their talents to designing the park’s miniature railway and electric plant, respectively. Sisters Lillian and Daisy managed various functions, including running the park’s souvenir stands.

In the park’s final years, the Lodges continued to introduce innovative features to Silver Lake. In 1908, the park found a new use for the former Randolph property it had acquired a few years earlier and opened a summer Chautauqua. The Chautauqua, held over two weeks in late summer, featured the country’s leading orators, musicians, and entertainers, including William Jennings Bryan.

In 1912, Silver Lake added an attraction that captured the imagination of a public fascinated by the newly emerging field of aviation: an airfield that was described as being the first in Summit County. Local residents watched in awe as early aviators executed daring maneuvers in their airplanes. The truly brave paid $25 to accompany an aviator on a short flight over the lake.

To accommodate its visitors, the Lodges turned the old Thorndyke home into the Gaylord Inn, which quickly became known for its tasty $1 chicken dinners. After the flood of 1913 destroyed the former Summit County Fairgrounds in Akron, the fair was moved to Silver Lake for several years—a move which prompted the addition of a half-mile track that was used for horse, automobile, and motorcycle racing. And, as always, the Lodges continued to bring some of the best entertainment around, including a troupe of Native American actors performing Hiawatha by the lake and a four-day extravaganza commemorating the opening of the Panama Canal.

Despite the continued popularity of the park, several events outside the park’s control changed its fortunes. In 1912, the railroads serving the park announced they were discontinuing excursion traffic, instead focusing on transporting goods and materials. This was a huge blow, as excursionists accounted for two-thirds of Silver Lake Park’s business and tended to spend more at the park than local visitors. Also, as World War I intensified and many local men entered military service, attendance declined again. Despite several valiant efforts to keep the park going in the face of these obstacles, members of the Lodge family voted to sell the park grounds to a local company, which announced plans to develop an upscale residential area known as Silver Lake Estates in what would become the village of Silver Lake. According to the Cuyahoga Falls Reporter, the park’s final season concluded on September 9, 1917, signalling the end of one of Summit County’s oldest and best loved amusement parks.