Max Wolpoff wasn’t going to negotiate. With a baseball in hand, Max, a 9-year-old from Potomac, listened unsympathetically to the pleas of John Marino who sat in the dunk tank. "Can’t we talk this over?" Marino asked.
Max’s answer was a fastball, right on target, that struck the button and sent Marino plunging into the water.
After they’d each dunked Marino, Max and his 11-year-old brother Zachary queued up again for another shot at the dunk tank at Glen Echo Park on Saturday, July 1, just one of Glen Echo’s many faces on display for Glen Echo’s "Then and Wow" celebration. The park’s identity fuses the educational, recreational and historical, all of which were on full display on Saturday.
There were plenty of reminders of Glen Echo’s 69-year history as an amusement park, with the Dentzel Carousel, mini-golf and the Turbo Tubs ride. But Glen Echo in the 21st century has largely returned to its educational and cultural roots, as shown by ceramic and glassblowing displays around the park, or the hikes led by Discovery Creek.
Then and Wow was also a day to celebrate Glen Echo’s history. By the old trolley car stop at the park’s front entrance there was a trolley exhibit and a video of a trolley ride through Washington, D.C. Photos showed the roller coaster that rumbled through the park.
GLEN ECHO TIMELINE
1874
National Chautauqua movement begins as a summer education camp on the banks of Chautauqua Lake in New York state. The concept of the Chautauqua movement is to provide educational opportunities for Americans outside the upper-middle classes, and a respite for those living in urban areas.
1891
Glen Echo Park opens as a National Chautauqua Assembly, which taught the sciences, arts, languages and literature to adults. Brothers Edwin and Edward Baltzley decided to support the Chautauqua program, and deeded 80 acres of their development to a corporation known as the National Chautauqua of Glen Echo. Construction quickly begins on an 8,000-seat amphitheater and a Hall of Philosophy. The Old Stone Tower is the only usable structure from this period; it now hosts art exhibits.
1892
After a successful first season for Glen Echo, Henry Spencer, a Glen Echo teacher, dies of pneumonia; and rumors spread through the Washington area that he died of malaria. People become reluctant to visit the area, and the Chautauqua program closes in July.
1899
After the Glen Echo site is rented out to traveling show companies for five years, the newly formed Glen Echo Company installs a small amusement park on this site.
1911
The Baltzley brothers sell the Glen Echo land to the Washington Railway and Electric Company, which continues to develop an amusement park. The company will own the site for the next 45 years, and extends a trolley line to Glen Echo to make it accessible to those living in the District. The amphitheater is remodeled as the park’s "Midway."
1921
Glen Echo Park installs the Dentzel Carousel, the canopy and carved figures made by the Dentzel Carousel Company of Germantown, Pa. The figures are handcarved from wood.
1923
The Scooter is built; it is the original structure that, after several revisions, will become the park’s Bumper Car Pavilion, which still stands and hosts dances.
1931
A dance hall charges five cents per dance, and a roller coaster and bumper cars are soon to be added. The Crystal Pool is built to accommodate 3,000 swimmers, with 1.5 million gallons of circulating water.
1933
Mediterranean style Art Deco building built on site of earlier dance pavilion. The building is now Glen Echo’s Spanish Ballroom, which continues to draw premier musicians and avid dancers from the Washington area and beyond.
1955
Washington Railway and Electric Company sells Glen Echo to Baker Brothers.
1956
The Midway is condemned and burned to make room for an extended parking lot.
1960
A multiracial group of protesters picket Glen Echo Park, standing outside the gates with signs, and demanding that the park end its racial segregation policy.
1961
Glen Echo Park integrates, ending its practice of denying admission to African Americans.
1968
Glen Echo closes as a commercial amusement park. The Dentzel carousel is later sold to a private owner.
<ro>1970
Local citizens raise $80,000 to purchase the Dentzel Carousel so it can remain on the site. An additional $10,000 ensures the return of the carousel’s Wurlitzer organ.
1971
The National Park Service acquires Glen Echo.
2002
The National Park Service transfers management of Glen Echo Park to Montgomery County, which in turn forms the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture. The National Park Service continues to manage the grounds and provide historic interpretation, while the Partnership oversees facilities and programs.
2003
A 20-year project to restore the Dentzel Carousel is completed.
— Sources: Glen Echo Web site (www.glenechopark .org), the National Park Service’s Glen Echo site (www.nps .gov/glec) and National Park Service’s "Glen Echo Park: Center for Education and Recreation"