Former Amusement Park a Roller Coaster of a Story

In the early 1900s, Montgomery was known as the home of a large and popular amusement park. Known as Riverview Park (and later Fox River Park), it was built in 1899 and dedicated in 1900, and it flourished for 25 years.

The park was a brainchild of Senator Henry Evans of Aurora. Evans was an entrepreneur who built the electric railroad to connect Aurora to Elgin. His plan was to continue the line south through Montgomery, eventually ending in Morris.

He ran into a snag when a farmer refused to sell him a strip of land for a right of way. So, after two years of haggling, he purchased the entire farm. But then he was left with another problem… what to do with the rest of the property?

The more he looked, the more impressed he was with the natural beauty of the area, with its large grove of trees and the river that ran along the eastern edge of the property. He pictured a picnic grove, a campground, and then a ball field for that location, and the idea grew from there.

He extended the railroad through the park on a line that ran through the village on the west side of the river, crossing the Oswego Bridge and turning south at Route 71 to Van Emmon Road. The line ended in downtown Yorkville.

The amusement park opened in November of 1899 with great fanfare. The entire village of Montgomery was decorated with flags. The Mayor of Aurora gave a speech and announced that this would be a prohibition park: "If anyone drinks liquor here he will have to bring it in his clothes," he said. (Prohibition for the country would begin 20 years later, but the movement for it was already building.)

There were 500 people in attendance that day to hear the speeches and dance to the music of Goddard’s String Band, but the cold weather forced the park to close until spring.

A three-day grand opening was held in the spring of 1900. The weather was ideal and the events were spectacular. The three-arched entrance and station, the dance and refreshment halls and the bandstand were all completed for the grand opening. There was a balloon ascension and a parachute drop to highlight the day.

Several rides were completed for the opening, including the Chute-the-Chutes and a merry-go-round. New rides were being added as quickly as they could be built and delivered. There were swings for the children and a baseball diamond.

Soon the park had an elegant entrance complete with ornate, lighted pillars. The final segment of the Aurora and Geneva Railway was completed in the summer of
1900 and opened up more direct streetcar connections to Riverview Park.

As new rides were added, the crowds came in droves. Large factories in Chicago would rent the entire park for the day for employee picnics. People would come by streetcar to Aurora to board an open-air car for the trip to Montgomery. The facilities were first class, built with the latest materials and techniques.

Among the attractions were the 3,000-foot roller coaster that extended to the riverbank and circled back to the midway, an auditorium, a restaurant and dance hall, the Merry Widow (not for the faint of heart—the faster it spun around, the higher the swings would lift off the ground), and a carousel.

Gus Albrecht owned and operated the paddleboat at the park. It was built with an
automobile engine in the back that ran the paddle. The operator steered it from the back end. There was a canopy on top, about eighteen feet long, made of wood. When the boat was not in use, Albrecht fastened it to a tree with a piece of steel cable.

Once, when the boat was full of people, some rascals hooked the cable back onto the boat, so that when it started up it acted like a pendulum, and the operator could not steer. The boat spun in a circle and ran into the bank of the river. Passengers had to take off their shoes and wade ashore.

A large steel auditorium was christened in 1907. It would hold 3,500 people in
comfortable seats placed at an incline. The stage would be used for the many entertainers and speakers who were regularly invited to the park. By August 1910 the park's name changed, to avoid confusion with Riverview Park in Chicago. After that time it was known as Fox River Park.

The baseball park was at the south end of Riverview. Many local teams, as well as the Wisconsin/Illinois League, played there. The late Casey Stengel played with the Aurora team in the W/I League between 1910 and 1915. He would later become well known as the manager of the New York Yankees.

The Aurora Chautauqua Assembly held an annual assembly there beginning in 1903. The Chautauqua movement started in the east, and spread throughout the country. Riverview Park was considered one of it’s finest facilities. More on the Chautauqua Assemblies will follow in next week’s column.