Who Killed Kiddieland? After 80 years the Chicagoland amusement park will be closing in September to make way for an unnamed big box retailer. [Chicago Tribune]
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Since their carneys stopped being the go-to source for Crystal Meth, Kiddyland just hasn’t been the same…
I didnt even know this place was still around. Last time I went there i was a kid, and it seemed kind of ghetto back then…
I was very sad to hear about this earlier today. Some of the earliest memories I have are from that place. Was hoping to take my daughter there some day when she was old enough to enjoy it. Seeing as though she’s only 16 months old, there’s probably not much she would enjoy right now there, but we’ll go anyways this summer for one last hurrah there.
I didn’t think Kiddyland was ‘ghetto’. It was the perfect place to take kids who were too short to ride Six Flags rides and it was much cheaper. I would be sad, however, I mourned the death of Kiddyland like 10 years ago when they first said they were closing.
@calquist:
Cheaper and closer, more convenient. I (vaguely) remember going there as a kid. However, I also thought they closed a long time ago.
Overcharging for admission and rides that were out of date in 1970. That’s what killed Kiddieland.
I thought it was this Kiddyland that you were talking about.
+ Watch video
If that Kiddyland went away, I would totally be sad.
Aw man, I went there all the time when I was a kid in the mid 80s.
Sucks, sucks bad.
Quick trivia! What big box retailer has recently been on a mad push for hypermarket superstores anchoring retail plazas?
Michael Jackson weeps.
The park is closing because the owners of the land (Kiddieland leases the land) will not renew their lease. Big family feud, basically:
Ronald F. Rynes Jr. – co-owner of park, wants it to stay
Shirley and Glenn Rynes – mother and brother of Ronald, own the land. Won’t least to Ronald again.
Shirley and Glenn own “Rynes Development”, the company in question that owns the land. I called and the answering machine was recorded by a guy named “Glenn”, so it sounds like the right place.
If you’d like to contact them to let them know how displeased (or pleased, I guess) you are that Kiddieland is not having it’s lease renewed, here’s their contact info:
Rynes Development Inc
(owned by Glann)
1490 Abington Cambs Dr
Lake Forest, IL 60045
847-234-2605
Shirley M Rynes (husband is Ronald S Rynes)
25 Park Ln
Park Ridge, IL 60068-2834
I went to Kiddieland in the late sixties/early seventies as a kid and it was pretty fun. I loved the train that went around the perimeter of the park. Lots of Chicago area people have fond memories of the place.
Another area landmark bites the dust.
@minsky: Yep, and you always had to yell really loud when going through the train tunnel.
/cries
Yep, I had been there a bunch of times when I was younger. From what I hear, it’s getting really run-down and isn’t what it used to be. Perhaps it really was time to let it go away.
Took my kids there as recently as last year. They’re getting a little big for it, but it was still a decent place. Overpriced? Sure, in comparison to the 1970s prices I remember. But cheap compared to Six Flags. Maybe a little on the shabby side, but not rundown.
And “ghetto”? WTF? Maybe if you’re so used to pure suburuban whitebread that the sight of non-white skin gives you the vapors…
Too bad about the family feud. I think there was some kinda lawsuit about it last year. Evidently some part of the family thinks that now is the time to find another tenant, since the commercial real estate market is so wonderful.
There was a place way west called Santa’s Village. I always liked that place much more, but it closed a few years ago. They also had a water park and petting zoo (though you had to pay extra for the water park).
@mzs: I grew downstate about 1 1/2 hours and don’t recall Kiddieland, but have been to Santa’s Village a few times. SV always seemed to be running commercials on WFLD or WGN in the mid-70s. I also remember commercials for somebody’s Castle of Toys?
I grew up going to Indiana Beach. It’s a bit of a drive, but the admission is under $3 so you don’t pay a fortune to watch the little ones go on the rides.
[www.indianabeach.com]
@halo969: I loved Indiana Beach as a kid (70s). I was there in the late 80s and it still wasn’t too bad then. I remember they had a “waterslide” which was a small track that started about 30-40 feet in height and ended in the lake. It was a ball to ride the sleds down the ramp into the lake. At least that is how I remember it being 35 years ago…
there’s something somewhat poetic about this, in the way that it started during the great depression, and will be ending in the 2009 “recession”…
in other news, why does a big box retailer want to build a new building? why can’t they reuse one of the vacant kmart/circuit city/compUSA/linens and things buildings?
here in charlotte, there’s an old super kamrt building that closed back in 2001/2002 that sat vacant for several years, probably until 2005 when Steve & Barry’s moved in, utilizing approximately half of the store… (it’s now back up for sale. i’d be willing to bet it gets purchased, torn down, and completely redeveloped)
Hmm. Maybe I was a little too old for it (I moved to Chicago when I was 13), but I’ve never heard of this place. Oh, well. (I did go to Old Chicago, which was like a regular amusement park that got swallowed whole by a gigantic Chuck E. Cheese.)