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Well before Six Flags, Ponce de Leon Park was Atlanta’s theme park when it opened in 1903.
The park was surrounded by green space and home to picnic tables, a theater, carousel, penny arcade, “Japanese ping pong parlor,” ponies, restaurants, snack stands and, of course, Ferris wheel. In Atlanta, and around the nation, streetcar companies developed amusement parks to increase ridership, as the park would be located at the last trolley stop.
In the 1920s, the park fell out of fashion and the Atlanta Cracker’s stadium was constructed, near where the old Sears building, and now Ponce City Market sits.
– Mark C. McDonald, Georgia Trust