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Norumbega Park was a recreation area and amusement park located in "Auburndale-on-the-Charles" near Boston, Massachusetts. The associated Totem Pole Ballroom became a well-known dancing and entertainment venue for big bands touring during the 1940s. The park offered canoeing and pedal boating on the Charles River, a theater, gardens, restaurants and food vendors, a penny arcade, picnic areas, a zoo and amusement rides. Norumbega Park closed on Labor Day 1963. The Totem Pole Ballroom closed a few months later, on February 8, 1964.〔 ==History== Norumbega Park opened in June 1897 and was built by the directors of the Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway in an attempt to increase patronage and revenues on the trolley line running between Boston and Auburndale. The park's name was taken from the Norumbega Tower, a stone tower that Eben Norton Horsford had built across the river in Weston to mark the supposed Norse settlement of Norumbega. The park’s "Pavilion Restaurant" was managed by Joseph Lee, a skilled chef and former slave from South Carolina. Lee had owned and operated the exclusive Woodland Park Hotel in Auburndale before taking over the restaurant at Norumbega Park.〔 Norumbega Park attracted hundreds of thousands of patrons each season. Its location on the Charles River meant that the park was accessible by water as well as via steam train, electric trolley, and (more so as the decades went on) automobile. Like other so-called "trolley parks" of its era, Norumbega Park became popular with the increasingly urbanized, middle class population who sought affordable recreation outside the city environment.〔 By the 1905 season, the outdoor theater at Norumbega Park was replaced by a luxurious enclosed facility called the Great Steel Theater. The new venue featured vaudeville acts, plays (dramas, comedies, and musicals) as well as moving pictures shown on a novel device called a "Komograph". The Great Steel Theater was the largest theater in New England, and the park’s zoo was the largest in New England.〔 Norumbega Park's success continued through the 1920s and beyond. In addition to the original carousel, new attractions were added including bumper cars and a huge Ferris wheel. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Norumbega Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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