Ramona Park

Ramona Park. . , In the 1880s the Grand Rapids Street Railway Company began developing a trolley park at the end of its line at Reeds Lake. In 1886 a Grand Rapids newspaper held a naming contest for the park. A half-dozen judges selected the winning name, "Ramona," after the heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's novel of the same name. In 1897 the company built a theater pavilion that was also named Ramona. It hosted thespians, operettas, dancing troupes, Vaudeville acts, and movies. Popular amusement park attractions included a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a miniature railway, bumper cars, a fun house, and the "Jack Rabbit Derby Racer," a double-tracked roller coaster. Roller skaters enjoyed the rink at the Ramona Gardens dance pavilion, where big bands also performed. The twenty-acre park was roughly bounded by Wealthy Street, Lovett Avenue, and Lakeside Drive., Reverse , This is the last section of iron fence that surrounded Ramona Park. For many residents of West Michigan--including President Gerald R. Ford, who recalled Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees playing a Grand Rapids minor league baseball team at Ramona Ball Park --the park was a place for fond memories that included hot-air balloon ascensions on Sunday afternoons and steamboat trips around Reeds Lake. By the late 1940s, new entertainment options and a declining need for public transportation decreased park attendance. Desiring a new use for the area, the community called for the park's removal. Its last season was in 1954. That December, East Grand Rapids citizens passed a referendum to rezone the park for apartments and a shopping center. The Poisson family's steamer Ramona, an iconic park feature, toured Reeds Lake one final time in late August 1955.