It was reported recently that the a Westmoreland County park with deep roots in African-American history has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and named a historic landmark by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Fairview Park near Delmont, Pennsylvania was created in 1945 in response to the segregation of amusement parks throughout western Pennsylvania (and the North) and remained in operation until the mid-1970’s. It remains one of the first and only all-black amusement parks in Pennsylvania history, a title alone that makes it worth of recognition and preservation in the long struggle for civil rights and equality in the Commonwealth.
(To read more on this story from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, click here)
(To visit the National Register of Historic Places website, click here)
During World War II, African-American served their country bravely in the hopes of proving Hitler’s racial theories wrong and to try and improve their own standings in American society. However, the continuing stigma of Jim Crow dashed such hopes. Though Pennsylvania had been one of the first states to formally outlaw African slavery in the 19th Century, Pennsylvanians (even into the 20th Century) were unwilling as a majority to give African-American equal rights. Racial segregation existed everywhere from swimming pools to residential neighborhoods to amusement parks. The desire to have an area where African-American families in the mid-state could interact and have fun was the brainchild of Fairview Park.
Created by a coalition of local churches, the fifty-two acre park featured a roller coaster, merry-go-round, skating rink and swimming pool. The founders had “foresight and vision,” said Ernest Jackson, president of the Fairview Park Association, a non-profit community organization that is attempting to save what remained of the once thriving park, in a published interview. “Fairview Park enabled a lot of people, including a lot of young people, to get out of the inner city and spend time in the country.” “There was no opportunity to go somewhere you felt welcome,” Harvey Moore, a former Fairview Park employee in the 1950’s, told the PittsburghPost-Gazette in a recent interview. “It was a place that belonged to you. You weren’t having to seek permission to be there.”
(Past History Examiner writings: “Remembering Dr. King in the Commonwealth”)
(Past History Examiner writings: “The Loss of a Philadelphia Icon”)
With the coming of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and the desegregation of many of the Commonwealth’s local attractions, Fairview Park’s crowds started to grow smaller. By the early 1970’s, many of the amusement rides and other attractions at the park were dismantled though photographs show row after row of buses jammed with fun-seekers pulling up to the park entrance. Apparently Fairview Park had become more than just a place to have a good time; it had become a symbol of hope for Pennsylvania’s African-American community. “Places like Fairmont Park are important to [the African-American community], not only because they can be placed within a prideful history of ownership and self determination of African Americans, but also because they can be reborn in new ways, limited only be the extent of our imaginations,” said Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis, executive director of the Historic Hill Institute, a Pittsburgh-based organization that works to preserve historic sites, a recent interview.
(Past History Examiner writings: “Before There Was Obama…There Was Bassett”)
(Past History Examiner writings: “The Politics of Pa & The Story of Octavius Catto”)
Today, Fairview Park consists of aging swings sets and slides, a basketball court, a ball field and several picnic pavilions, but it has not lost its place in the hearts and minds of many of its local residence. Founded in the early part of the 21st Century, the Fairview Park Association is working to purchase all of the former amusement park’s land and each summer hosts an annual Old-Fashioned Picnic at the park with a petting zoo and other amusements. Volunteers maintain the property regularly. The new designation will now allow state and Federal money to help in the Park preservation.
“Obtaining National Historic Status assists with community development because they can now offer tax credits that will attract more developers and is a prominent advertisement for tourism, which will further aid the park in becoming a sustainable property,” says Ellis. “Because Delmont decided to mark a place and space that was special to them and teach us why it’s important for us, we now have a renewed interest in its future and can assist the owners in accomplishing and re-imagining their goals.”
As I have written about in other columns, efforts at historical preservation in the mid-state are efforts that go unsung in our current economic situation. With the hope that a new budget from Harrisburg will be favorable to our Commonwealth’s past, let’s hope work can continue to be done to preserve the memory of this unique mid-state treasure.
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