Memphis Kiddie Park, Brooklyn, Ohio: An Excellent Little Family Park

We were heading back from Cedar Point and ended up in suburban Cleveland. We ran into this park and checked it out on a whim. I had heard of the park a while back and decided to check it out.

As the name suggests, this is a park geared towards little ones and a historic one at that. The park was built in 1952, at a time when these sorts of community amusement parks sprouted up across the country. In the time since then, the vast majority of these parks have closed, especially in Ohio, where consolidation and competition has left only a handful of parks. This is one of the few survivors and it truly is a treasure. 

The builder of this park, Stuart Wintner, also built parks in Columbus and Philadelphia, though this is the only one that remained. 

This park is a showplace of rides from the Allan Herschell Company. Eight of the eleven rides at the park were built by that company, including the main showpieces of the park, the carousel, train ride, and the Little Dipper, North America's oldest continuously operating steel roller coaster. The train goes in a loop around this small park.

I had never ridden one of these little Herschell coasters, so I opted to take a ride. For its size, it really offers some strong airtime and lateral forces. It is also the oldest continuously operating steel coaster in North America.

A classic car ride sits within the infield of the ride. 

I was really impressed with how much they were able to do with such a small area of land. If you have a family in the Cleveland area, this is certainly place that you want to check out. It has a nice selection of family rides, and the pricing is excellent. With free parking and no entrance fee, all you have to do is purchase individual tickets to ride. Single tickets are $2.50, and they are discounted in larger increments. When compared with other amusement options, this is an excellent deal. In addition to the nice selection of rides, they also have a miniature golf course. This is a great place to spend an afternoon or evening and we highly recommend it if you have a family with small children.