Historic HHH: Fairyland Amusement Park

During the last year I have gotten many comments from a lot of my readers. Often you guys are the source for my article topics, and I always try to look into everything that you suggest. A few people have mentioned to me that remember an amusement park that was located on Jericho Turnpike near where DSW is now located.  So I decided to see what I could find out about it. 

In 1952 Fairyland Kiddie Park opened in Brooklyn. When it closed in 2003, it had 10 rides and 40 arcade games. It became a Brooklyn landmark, and even on the Internet today, the Brooklyn natives remember it fondly. 

In the early 1960s the owner decided to expand and open up a second location.  Since he lived in Huntington, he chose a location near his home.  The location was near the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Elwood Road, next to what is today a Shell gas station (interestingly, when the amusement park opened that was already a gas station). This location was named Fairyland at Harvey’s.  The park had a ferries wheel, merry-go-round, and several other rides for kids.  Harvey’s served as the game room, and miniature golf was also on the premises. 

Unfortunately, in 1964 something happened that would forever haunt the owner of the park, and would case him to close it down just a few short years after opening. 

On June 30, 1964 The New York Times reported that, “A 2 ½ year old girl was fatally injured when she fell 60 feet from a Ferris wheel at an amusement park last night.  The girl was riding with her parents when their seat flipped over at the top of the wheel, according to the Suffolk County police.”  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shaw fell to the seats below them, but their daughter, Deborah, fell all the way to the ground.  The entire family was sent to nearby Elwood General Hospital, (see my ), where the parents were listed in critical condition and their daughter passed away. 

The July 2, 1964 Long-Islander article gives further details, stating that Deborah, “fell almost 60 feet to the ground…”  The family was sitting in car number 7 when, “the door of the unoccupied section of their car apparently came loose and jammed in the mechanism of the wheel, causing the car to tip over as the wheel continued to move.”  The article reported that a 15-year-old who witnessed the accident was operating the ride.  The Long-Islander article also stated that this was not the first time the Ferris wheel had had problems.  The previous April, “a door fell from one of the Ferris wheel cars, bounced off the ground and struck an adult passenger on another ride, but did not severely injure him.”  However, the police did report that an inspection was done in May and the Ferris wheel was deemed to be in proper working order.

The New York State Department of Labor’s Industrial Safety Division investigated the accident.  On July 7, 1964 they held a hearing in which the 15-year old operator of the ride testified about the accident.  The hearing was unable to determine the cause of the accident, but did determine that the owners were in violation of the law by allowing someone under the age of 18 to operate the ride.  The hearing was reported in the July 9, 1964 Long-Islander, at which time Mr. and Mrs. Shaw were still at Elwood General Hospital but were now listed in “fair” condition.

By August 6, 1964 the Suffolk County DA’s office decided to present to the grand jury and try to determine whether or not the owner’s of the amusement park should be indicted on manslaughter charges.  This announcement came as the Department of Labor’s investigation concluded with the determination that, “the accident resulted from the faulty operation of the Ferris wheel in that an operator failed to lock the door of the south compartment of the gondola.”  (Long-Islander, August 6, 1964) 

On September 2, 1964 the District Attorney presented the case to the grand jury.  They decided not to return a manslaughter indictment and instead order the District Attorney to file charges against the amusement parks’ owner for being in violation of state law in allowing a minor to operate the machine.

Following this, Mr. & Mrs. Shaw decided to file a negligence suit of their own, and claimed $2,000,000 in damages against the park.  The park owners moved for a dismissal of the case.  They succeeded in getting some of the causes listed in the case dismissed, however they did not dismiss all of the causes and so the lawsuit moved forward.  (Robert Shaw vs. Fairyland at Harvey’s, findacase.com) 

I could not however find a record of the outcome of the lawsuit.  It is possible they chose to settle, or perhaps the outcome was just kept out of the newspaper.

I did, however; get the opportunity to speak with the son in law of the owner of Fairyland, (the owner has passed away).  He did tell me that his father in law was so heartbroken over what happened, that he decided to close the park shortly after the accident occurred.  The owner was not on the premises when the accident occurred, but always felt that if he had been it would never have happened. The miniature golf stayed long after the amusement park left, and batting cages were added.