Memories

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Just wanted to thank you for your wonderful website.  It brought back many happy memories.  I grew up within a half mile of Fontaine Ferry and spent hundreds of hours there in the 50's.  Attached is a picture you can add if you wish, taken about 1954.  Besides showing my little sister Kathy, about 7, it shows the famous white-washed trees, the Caterpillar, and something called the Rocket in the background- I don't remember which ride that was. It's the only  picture I have of the park.


Thank for you site.  My grandfather sold cotton candy at the park and I spent all kinds of time there.  Thanks for bringing back so many memories especially of the sugar bowl in Hillarity Hall.


I am sorry to have to email you like this, but I am writing a paper about Fontaine Ferry for a Kentucky History class I am taking at Georgetown College.  Your web site has been my main source of information because we have to use original research and the guest book has been a huge help in this area for me.  I am also citing the page in my bibliography and to do that I need your full name.  I know this sounds crazy, but I need it in order to make a good grade.  It's almost like asking you to help me with my homework...lol  I would appreciate it very much if I could have this information as soon as possible.  The paper is due on Friday.  Thank you very much.


I can not tell you what a moving experience it was to find your web site.  I was born in Louisville in 1958.  I had a childhood that I would rather forget, but one of the few things that I can remember as a "joy" to me was going to the park.  I guess that as a child I wasn't able to say "Fontaine", so I called it "Fountain Ferry Park".  Never told otherwise, I have assumed that that was the name and that was it!  So over the years I have occasionally run into a person or two who were from Louisville and have always brought up the park, but never got any information.  Of course not!  I have had the name wrong for a long time!!  After a minimal amount of digging, I found my park!  What a surprise to find out the actual name!  Maybe by my just being small, I can recall [vaguely] that I was terrified of some HUGE clown face displayed somewhere in the park???  Maybe I have read too many Stephen King books!  Anyway, The good times prevailed and have given me quite a few lasting memories.  I am curious if you have any information on the Kentucky State Fair of old?  We went every year and I stood at total facination looking at the "Big John" statue at the entrance.  It talked [a man hidden inside with a microphone] and the head turned from side to side.  Wow, hope that I haven't bored you to tears, but it sure was nice to blow the dust off of my child hood!  Thanks for making me remember!


I am very impressed with your website.  Lots of information and certainly what I am looking for.  My son is also doing a report on this place.  Do you have any idea where I might be able to locate an actual souvenir from this park?  It would certainly add to the report and since I live right here in Louisville, might you have a name of a place or person I could contact?  I am already in contact with the Filson Club and the Archives Dept. at U of L but nothing that can be taken out of the library.  The ornaments and possibly a charm would be great!


Hello.  Your website is great!  We were wondering if you have any information on the roller rink.  We got a hold of a corkscrew/bottle opener that says "Fourth Avenue Rink Louisville, KY" on one side and "Fontaine Ferry Enterprises" on the other.  We were wondering when the roller rink fell into the time line of the park.  Anything you can tell us would be greatly appreciated.


I'm so happy and excited to see your site!  I found it by pure accident when I was doing a search for the history of Forest Park in St. Louis.  I had been trying to find it by spelling "Fountain."  My grandfather, Alfred Doerr, was one of the final three principals in Fontaine Ferry.  I only got to go to the park one time, in 1966.  I was 14.  When the park was closed due to the riots, my grandfather and I had a big argument about race relations.  I have referred your site to my family, and if my father wants to, he will reply to you.  My father is a major genealogist and I think he will get into this.


Thank you so much for this web site!!!!! I am a granddaughter of majority owners of the park in it's later years.  They were Alfred and Emelie Doerr of St. Louis.  They lived in Louisville for six months of each year.  We were able to visit the park only once, for 4th of July week in 1966.  I was 11.  For some reason we took no pictures and have had only faint memories until seeing you web site.  Thanks again.  I will never forget riding the Comet 3 times in a row, then having front row vantage point from the tracks to view the fireworks display.  I also remember the ferris wheel that was tall enough to tower over the venerable oak trees around the park affording a great view of the river.  What was the name of the ferris wheel?  Of course the carousel was a centerpiece of the park and I will go to Chicago next summer to see it again, now that I know it is there.  My father told me recently that there was also a dance hall and that the policy was for whites only in the pool and dance hall.  What a shame!  I wish that my grandparents had had the foresight to have changed the policies of the park in not admitting blacks.  I light of the racial tensions of 1968 they should have made changes by the following season.  I believe it would still be in business today and perhaps I would own a share of it.  Thank you so much again for the web site.  I would be interested in communicating with anyone about it.  It would be interesting to have a guestbook/memory book on the web site.


My grandparents owned an amusement part in Louisville.  They inherited it from an Aunt of my grandmother's.  The story about Fontaine Ferry Park mimics, in many regards, what I have heard about the closure of the park.  My grandparents were particularly racist I am sad to say.  I had heard the park was burned down during the race riots in the 60's and my family did not speak of it much.  I don't know if this is the park they owned, but I went to the park when I was very young, somewhere betweem 1964 and 1968.  Could it be the same park?  Do you know the names of the owners of Fontaine Ferry Park during those years?


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