Baby Show Day - Steeplechase Island, (Pleasure Beach) Bridgeport Connecticut - Vintage Post Card Reproduction

Product Features

When Bridgeport annexed the borough of West Stratford in 1889, the acquisition came with a a small 37-acre parcel of land on a barrier island at the mouth of Bridgeport Harbor. The island, thanks to its promotion as a mysterious site tied to pirate folklore, became a popular tourist destination. It eventually became an amusement park known as Steeplechase Island and the Bridgeport portion is still remembered today by it later name, Pleasure Beach.

In 1905, George C. Tilyou, owner of Steeplechase Park on Coney Island bought the small park in Bridgeport. It received the name Steeplechase Island for its carousel-style horse ride that raced visitors down a metal track as if they were steeplechase participants.

Just two years after Tilyou’s purchase, the island played host to an exhibition baseball game in which a fan carelessly dropped a lighted match into some dry grass under the stadium’s bleachers. The resulting fire tore through the grandstand, the earthquake house, and the steeplechase ride. By the time the park’s manager, Paul Boynton, extinguished the flames by igniting three charges of dynamite the park had suffered $60,000 worth of damage.

Image presents a southward view of the boardwalk crowded with people attired in fancy dress clothes for Baby Show Day in 1911. The building on the left housed the carousel, which must have been very busy on this day.

Read more about the history HERE