On June 19, 1960, a Sunday that also was Father’s Day, New Yorkers were introduced to a unique theme park. Unlike any other park, Freedomland U.S.A. (five seasons 1960-1964) combined America’s history with family entertainment.
In the northeast section of the Bronx, on land now occupied by Co-op City, the country’s largest residential development, Freedomland U.S.A. was billed as “the world’s largest entertainment center.” On opening day, more than 60,000 people passed through its gates. They experienced cowboy shootouts, train robberies and space travel. All of it was situated on 85 acres carved into the shape of a map of the continental United States.
Freedomland was dubbed the “Disneyland of the East,” but it was so much more than a fantasy land. The park blended entertainment with education. It opened at a time when children were taught about the early history of the country in grade schools while television and theaters featured many popular westerns with historical themes.
Creation and construction of Freedomland was under the direction of Cornelius Vanderbilt (C.V.) Wood, Jr., founder and president of the Marco Engineering Company of Los Angeles. A few years earlier, Woody had been named the first employee of Disneyland and he was instrumental in the development of that park. After he and the Disney brothers parted ways, Woody began designing theme parks around the country for entrepreneurs and investors. Only a handful were developed beyond the planning stages, and only one continues to operate – Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Woody’s research and design team that developed Freedomland consisted of 200 leading artists and architects. A considerable number of the creators had worked for Disney while others were veterans of Hollywood, Broadway and television. This talented group featured 19 Academy Award nominees.
The home for Freedomland was marshland owned by William Zeckendorf, Sr., the real estate baron of the day, and his Webb & Knapp company. Zeckendorf knew Woody. He was an investor in Disneyland and the other parks created by Marco Engineering. Zeckendorf championed placing the proposed Freedomland on his land, which faced development restrictions from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He anticipated that Freedomland might serve as the catalyst that could remove these restrictions – and he was correct!
History And Entertainment
Freedomland featured seven themed historical areas. Little Old New York focused on lower Manhattan of the late 1800s. In Old Chicago of 1871, children and adults fought the great fire. The Great Plains of 1803-1900 showcased a fort and farmland while San Francisco of 1906 introduced a dark ride that simulated the devastating earthquake. The Old Southwest of 1890 incorporated the tough western towns of the time. New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras and was the location of the centennial commemoration of the American Civil War. Satellite City showcased the future of space flight and technology.
During the park’s lifetime, attractions touted more than 25 corporate sponsors that included American Express, The Bank of New York, The Borden Company, Braniff International Airways, Eastman Kodak, Hallmark, R.H. Macy, the Santa Fe Railway and the F&M Schaefer Brewing Company.
For Freedomland’s second season (1961), management conceived an idea to attract repeat audiences beyond families with young children. The Moon Bowl and the world’s largest outdoor dance floor (15,000 square feet) were added to Satellite City. The music venue hosted swing bands from the 1940s for older adults and contemporary pop and rock stars for young adults and teenagers. More than 150 celebrity singers, musicians and other entertainers appeared in the spotlight, including Paul Anka, Tony Bennett (from Queens), Count Basie, Chubby Checker, Dick Clark, Bobby Darin and Dion DiMucci (Bronx guys), Benny Goodman, Harry James, Gene Krupa (resident of Yonkers), Brenda Lee, the Lennon Sisters, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Rydell, The Supremes and The Temptations.
Comic relief was provided by “Toody” and “Muldoon” (Joe E. Ross and Fred Gwynne) from the popular television show Car 54, Where Are You? that filmed on location a few miles from Freedomland, The Three Stooges (Moe Howard was from Brooklyn) and other comedians of the time. Popular children’s television hosts (including Sandy Becker, Claude Kirchner and Chuck McCann) from New York City often appeared at the park while many of the city’s cool and groovy radio DJs (among them were Herb Oscar Anderson, Harry Harrison, Murray the K Kaufman, Bob Lewis and Scott Muni) hosted their shows at Freedomland’s space ship in Satellite City and the Opera House and Saloon in The Old Southwest.
Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey And Beyond
Freedomland featured significant ties to communities beyond the limits of New York City. Tens of thousands of residents from nearby Westchester County, Long Island and New Jersey enjoyed Freedomland each season and a considerable number of people from these nearby suburbs were employed at the park. Tourists from as far as Canada to the north, Florida to the south, Maine to the east and Missouri to the west included the park on their itineraries when they visited the big city.
Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island
East Farmingdale: Students at the SUNY Long Island Agricultural and Technical Institute were employed at the Borden Farm to care for Elsie the cow and her calves.
Eastport: Assisting the landscape contractor, Country Gardens Nursery delivered shrubs and smaller plants.
Garden City: The Roosevelt Field mall was built by William Zeckendorf, Sr. His company, Webb & Knapp, owned the marshland under Freedomland.
Malverne: Residents included a teenager who portrayed a cowboy and one of the park’s photographers.
Massapequa: Freedomland’s Glass Blower Shop was owned by Martin Finkel. He owned a similar shop at the New York World’s Fair.
North Bellmore: Diane Sabia performed as a twirler in the park parades.
Sayville: Pinky was a Freedomlad mule. Loughlin Vineyards adopted the mule and created a rosé to commemorate Pinky’s memory.
Schering Corporation, Long Island Division: Seymour “Zel” S. Fahrer managed the Apothecary Shop that featured an old-time apothecary while promoting the company’s new Coricidin brand cold and flu treatment.
Shirley: Two young deer from the hamlet became residents of the Borden Farm.
Westchester County
Dobbs Ferry: The June 18, 1960 Preview Day attracted about 25,000 people. Organized as a fundraiser (actress Debbie Reynolds sold tickets on Broadway in Manhattan), the proceeds benefited several youth charities, including The Children’s Village Interfaith Chapel Fund.
Mamaroneck: Freedomland participated in a 1962 parade. A park stagecoach featured an actual Penobscot Nation chief along with a rodeo, stage and television actor who portrayed park cowboy Johnny Freedom.
New Rochelle: Pasquale Sposeto, known professionally as Paul Ashley, was a park creator and lived here at the time. He is best known for creating puppets for Chuck McCann’s local shows and many national television programs.
Port Chester: “The American” sternwheeler was moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, after the park closed its gates. It later became a private party boat on the Port Chester side of the Byram River. The sternwheeler was destroyed accidentally during 2018.
Scarsdale: Lawrence Labriola Nurseries and Morgan Press supported, respectively, park landscaping and printing.
Yonkers: Crown Paper Company was a park supplier during the inaugural season.
White Plains: Structural steel and iron were provided by White Plains Iron Works.
New Jersey
Hoboken: The east coast facility of Todd Shipyards, the builders of the park’s sternwheelers, was located in the city.
Jersey City: Jim Quartier and his son, Phil, operated a livery stable and supplied many animals for Freedomland.
Newark: The nursery Jackson & Perkins furnished many rose bushes that bloomed at the park.
Freedomland Begins To Change
Unknown to Woody and his park creators, along with the sponsors, employees and Freedomland’s fans, landowner Zeckendorf, with local and state politicians, city planners and construction unions, considered the park a temporary occupant of the property that was ripe for development. However, land variances first were needed to permit permanent modern construction on the marshland.
Behind the scenes and unknown to the public, an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers eliminated two decades of pre-development environmental evaluation for the marshland. All sides agreed to replace this mandatory testing with a five-year review period. Freedomland occupied 205 acres (besides the attractions this included workshops, stables and a 10,000-car lot) of the 400-plus acre property. The stability of the park’s multi-level structures would determine the sustainability of the land. The five-year review coincided with the park’s projected timeline.
To ensure that Freedomland operated for five years, met the required conditions to obtain the land variances and still made money (with much of it skimmed from the accounting books), the park began to market the availability of its attractions as early as the second season. Simultaneously, Freedomland added games of chance, amusement rides for children and thrill rides for adults.
One original park sponsor, Benjamin Moore & Company, a paint and varnish manufacturer, immediately sued the park for breach of contract. The complaint indicated that the company had leased exhibit space for the Science of Color exhibit in Satellite City with the understanding that Freedomland would be “an historical and educational family recreation and entertainment center…to be maintained with dignity and propriety.” The company alleged in the suit that management changed the character of the park, charging that Freedomland had become a park of “commonplace and vulgar mass unrestrained teen-age entertainment” that drifted from the original agreement to operate an American history theme park. The company lost the $150,000 lawsuit.
Freedomland Begins To Close
Catching the public by surprise, much of the San Francisco area of the park was not accessible during 1964 as management proclaimed that a “bigger and better” Freedomland was the objective for 1965. Chuck McCann, the popular local children’s television host, taped a 1964 Halloween show from the park earlier that summer and, with the park’s encouragement, shared with his young audience the news that Freedomland would return during the new year with new attractions.
Then, during September 1964, the park filed for bankruptcy. Freedomland never opened for the 1965 season. Proposed suggestions included reducing the park to 30 acres while developing the remaining land and moving the entire park to Dunedin, Florida. The latter idea was dismissed when the industry learned that companies silently were purchasing undeveloped Florida land for Walt Disney. All this confusion about Freedomland’s fate contributed to the excuse that rose to the level of an urban myth that persists today: Freedomland could not compete with the New York World’s Fair. The public did not know about the agreement that required Freedomland to operate for only five years. Coincidentally, the last year of Freedomland corresponded with the first year of the fair. Once Freedomland was declared a bankrupt entity, preparation and construction began for the pre-planned Co-op City housing project.
Freedomland Today
As the land was prepared for 42 apartment buildings (35 high-rise buildings and seven townhouse clusters), Freedomland’s structures and attractions gradually were removed from the property. The one exception was one of two buildings that served the park’s sky ride. This final survivor lasted until about 1980 when a shopping center was added to the property.
Among the many attractions, Freedomland had featured four dark rides created by Arrow Development. One attraction, Tornado, was removed from the New Orleans section and sold to Kennywood Amusement Park (Mifflin, Pennsylvania) as early as 1962 and then it traveled to Storytown USA (currently Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor) in the Lake George, New York, region. Storytown also purchased other buildings and attractions from Freedomland, but almost all have been removed from the park. The Buccaneer dark ride in New Orleans became the Pirate Ride at Cedar Point, Ohio, and that park also obtained the Earthquake dark ride that originated in Freedomland’s San Francisco themed area. Both attractions were removed more than 25 years ago by Cedar Point. The fate of the fourth dark ride, Mine Caverns from The Old Southwest section, remains elusive.
The park’s two sternwheelers and one of its two tugs ventured to three separate locations in Connecticut. All are gone. Two authentic steam engines dating to the late 1800s and early 1900s can be found at separate museums in Maine. The towers from Freedomland’s sky ride stood for an additional 50-plus years to support a similar attraction (from the New York World’s Fair) at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. That attraction recently closed and has been dismantled during the last several months. Requests were made to secure remnants of a tower for museums, but Six Flags management has not acknowledged these inquiries. Remnants of Freedomland (two train stations, lampposts and bricks from buildings) still can be seen at Clark’s Bears (Clark’s Trading Post) in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, a small park on the north side of Co-op City’s main street, Bartow Avenue, features a plaque that commemorates Freedomland. It was dedicated during 2013. A few years later, remnants from one of the tugs were returned to the site and positioned near the plaque.
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Mike Virgintino is the author of two books about Freedomland published by Theme Park Press. Freedomland U.S.A.: The Definitive History and Freedomland U.S.A.: More Definitive History can be found on Amazon and other online retailers. The author also is the administrator of four Freedomland social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, X and Pinterest) and he provides presentations about the park at local libraries, historical societies, and civic and other organizations. Contact him at Freedomlandusa@yahoo.com .
Photo Captions
Photo 1: Two sternwheelers from Todd Shipyards in Hoboken and two tugs from Minneford Yacht Yard on City Island in the Bronx traveled the park’s Great Lakes. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
Photo 2: Freedomland opened as an American history theme park. During its five seasons, the park featured two actual steam trains sponsored by the Santa Fe Railway that dated to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
Photo 3: During the 1962 season, this unidentified Yonkers woman and her children ride the circa 1912 Dentzel King Rex Carrousel that was featured in the New Orleans themed area of the park. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
Photo 4: One of the Freedomland trains crosses a trestle that straddled Little Old New York on the left that featured a brewery sponsored by the F&M Schaefer Brewing Company and Old Chicago on the right, where riders could see sternwheeler smokestacks. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
Photo: Freedomland Celebrity Collage. More than 150 musicians, singers, comedians and other entertainers appeared at Freedomland. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
Photo: Freedomland 65th Anniversary Collage. Freedomland opened 65 years ago on June 19, 1960. Credit: Michael R. Virgintino Freedomland U.S.A. Collection
