Just like a carousel, Parker Beach’s life revolved around Chippewa Lake Park. He arrived as an infant and left as a senior citizen.
Growing up in an amusement park was a dream come true for a little boy. Behind the scenes, though, it took a lot of hard work to create such a fun atmosphere.
The Beach family was associated for more than 70 years with the Medina County resort, which began in the mid-1870s with a small hotel, restaurant and dance hall. Parker’s father, Albert “Mac” McDowell Beach (1877-1943), a Seville man, joined the summer staff in the late 19th century as a soft-drink vendor. A few years later, he was promoted to general manager.
Mac Beach and his wife, Bertha, welcomed a baby boy in 1905 and took him to Chippewa Lake a month after his birth. With a name like Parker Beach, the kid was destined to run a lakeside resort.
“I’ve been here ever since, and I’ve done every job in the park and never asked a man to do a job I wouldn’t do myself,” he noted decades later in a Beacon Journal interview.
Beach and his little brother, Fred, worked as vendors as children. In 1921, their father formed the Chippewa Lake Park Co., which purchased the resort in Lafayette Township. The company made many improvements, adding a new ballroom, picnic areas, bath houses and rides.
“Whether yours is a small family gathering or an industrial outing of thousands of people, Chippewa Lake Park is the IDEAL place for your picnic,” the resort advertised. “Free parking space … lots of picnic tables … bathing, boating, rides … fun for everybody.”
Hundreds of companies held picnics at the “Million Dollar Play-Land,” including Firestone, General Tire, M. O’Neil, Ohio Edison, Timken, Babcock & Wilcox, Ohio Bell and Rubbermaid. The park’s famous visitors included Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford.
Always a promoter, Parker Beach touted Chippewa Lake as the greatest site in the state.
“This is the largest, spring-fed, natural body in Ohio,” he boasted. “There is no pollution. Fifty-four percent of the population of Ohio lives within an hour’s drive of Chippewa.”
Among the attractions along the midway were a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, miniature railroad, carousel, penny arcade, shooting gallery, fun house and kiddie land. Over the years, popular rides included the Tumble Bug, Dodgem, Himalaya, Flying Cages, Caterpillar, Flying Scooter, Octopus, Tilt-A-Whirl and Rocket Ship.
Vaudeville shows, beauty contests, boxing matches, baseball games, church revivals and political events were held at Chippewa Lake.
Visitors strolled the boardwalk, sunned themselves at the beach and enjoyed boating excursions aboard the Miss Chippewa. Couples danced in the Starlight Ballroom to famous bands such as Glenn Miller, Lawrence Welk, Benny Goodman, Guy Lombardo, Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey.
In 1929, Beach fell in love with Janet Klove, an Ohio University student working in the park office. They married that summer, a union that lasted more than 60 years. “If I’ve accomplished anything in my life, it’s because of Janet,” he said. “Night and day, through the hard times and the good times, she’s been at my side.”
The Great Depression took a toll on receipts, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy in 1934. With the family business at stake, Parker Beach took a big gamble and bid $3,500 to purchase the property at auction.
“I had $18 in my pockets when I bought the park at a sheriff’s sale in 1937,” he told the Beacon Journal in 1969. “There were 80 people at the sale, and I was the only one who made a bid. People said I was crazy, and my dad, who had run the park for 30 years, felt the same way.”
Over the next 20 years, he paid off $250,000 in debt. Beach worked 16 to 18 hours a day at the park. On busy weekends, it wasn’t unusual for him to start at 6:30 a.m. and finish at 3 a.m. He ran a tight ship, overseeing every aspect of business and making sure that the park was safe, clean and well-maintained.
When Mac Beach died in 1943, his sons turned on every light in the amusement park as a glowing tribute.
Chippewa Lake held its own against competitors Cedar Point, Summit Beach, Geauga Lake, Meyers Lake, Euclid Beach and Idora Park. Crowds flocked to Chippewa in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, backing up traffic for miles.
Parker Beach became a well-known figure in the park. Riding a horse, he served as marshal every year for the Fourth of July parade sponsored by the Lions Club.
“The last five years I ran the park, I did it with a .357 strapped to my hip,” Beach recalled later in life. “I’m not a tough man by nature, but at the lake I was the law. I was responsible for the safety of everyone who came on the grounds.
“Most of the people who came to the park were there to have fun, but you always get a few jokers. In the 1960s, we had more than our share of motorcycle gangs.”
Faced with rising operating costs, escalating insurance premiums, a shrinking labor force and rising land value, Beach was 64 when he made the difficult decision to sell the park in 1969. Continental Business Enterprises of Cleveland paid him $1.5 million for the 386-acre lake, 95-acre resort and 45-acre farm.
“If I were 20 years younger, there wouldn’t be enough money in this world to buy this land and lake from me,” Beach told a reporter.
He and his wife retired to raise horses on an 80-acre ranch on Stone Road in York Township about 12 miles north of the park. They planned to spend more time with their daughter, Lynn, and five grandchildren.
“I’m a lucky guy,” Beach said. “The good Lord has been good to me. Millions of people have come through that gate, and we made most of them happy. It’s been a satisfying life.”
After the ownership transferred, Continental Business Enterprises President G.E. DiGeronimo announced: “Our objective is to make this one of America’s most attractive, high-grade leisure time resorts. And at the same time, a rewarding investment for our shareholders.”
Neither came to pass. Although Chippewa Lake added new rides and attractions, the park lost money in the 1970s. Following a centennial celebration in 1978, the resort abruptly shut down. Plans to resuscitate it failed.
Rust and decay took over the midway as the park was allowed to disintegrate. Vandals sneaked onto the property to set fires and create mischief. Nature slowly reclaimed the park, choking it off with heavy vegetation. Vines crept along the roller coaster and a tree grew up through the metal frame of the old Ferris wheel.
Parker and Janet Beach moved to Florida after he had a heart attack in 1976. He died of heart failure in 1992 at age 86. His wife passed away 10 years later.
The former owner and operator of Chippewa Lake Park hoped the sprawling property would be redeveloped. Various proposals have fallen through over the years.
“This park has been my life,” Parker Beach said.
Copy editor Mark J. Price is author of The Rest Is History: True Tales From Akron’s Vibrant Past, a book from the University of Akron Press. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.