Where will you be vacationing this summer?
Will you head for Disney World in Florida, or maybe one of the Six Flags theme parks along the eastern United States and beyond?
Those gigantic roller coasters are a tremendous draw for tourists, but the summer destinations that thrilled Lewiston-Auburn residents years ago were much closer and entirely different attractions.
Among those must-see marvels was Linus, the Flaxen Haired. Linus was a magnificent horse with a wavy mane that reached a length of 14 feet, and he had a 12-foot tail. The animal was exhibited at fairs, parks and public venues throughout the country.
Where would L-A families see such a wonder? They would go to Island Garden, an amusement park at the Lewiston side of the Great Falls. It was an entertainment center that operated under the sponsorship of the Lewiston Auburn Horse Railroad Company. Patrons came into town aboard the “horse cars” which took them to a turnaround overlooking the falls.
The park was reached by crossing a suspension foot bridge about 100 feet long, and when families reached a sandy beach on this modest-sized mostly wooded island, they found a marvelously exotic world that was barely a stone’s throw from the city streets.
Island Garden featured a zoo with all kinds of wild animals, refreshment booths, plenty of spots for picnics, and an open-air building that served as a theater and a dancing pavilion.
I found a lot of information about this long-ago local amusement park among the manuscripts and clippings collected by my aunt, Edith Labbie, for her regular contributions that appeared nearly every Saturday in the Magazine Section of the Lewiston Evening Journal.
She said the island was owned by the Union Water Power Company, custodians of the canals that supplied water power to the massive Lewiston mills. The company gave a lease to the owners of the horse car company in 1890 with the provision that brush would be cut and the grounds would be maintained in a neat and attractive condition.
Construction of the steel suspension bridge was the first requirement for the horse railroad’s plan to offer a destination in Lewiston that would generate riders for the railway.
“Almost lacy in appearance, it was, nevertheless, very strong,” my aunt wrote. “Little boys used to race to the center of the bridge when a group of ladies had begun to cross on it. The lads would bounce up and down and start the bridge swaying. The ladies would shriek, park officials would shout and the boys disappeared before you could say scat.”
She also noted that a sudden storm upriver would cause the water of the Androscoggin to rise rapidly, adding to the excitement of crossing the bridge.
My aunt’s article speculated that it must have been necessary to lead Linus, the Flaxen Haired Horse, across that swaying bridge, and most likely that was a remarkable feat in itself.
The theater built on the island was noted for its fine floor. Stock companies and vaudeville acts were presented for the audiences there. The theater was available for local productions, and one of those shows was put on in 1895 by members of the Auburn Universalist Church.
In addition to the building’s use as a theatre and dance hall, it was used as a roller skating rink and a bowling alley in the latter part of the 1800s. The enterprise began failing financially when the horse cars were replaced by electric trolleys and Lake Grove at East Auburn became a more attractive destination for L-A residents.
Island Garden closed its doors (and bridge) as attendance diminished and fire destroyed the theater on May 22, 1899.
However, the interesting history of the Island Garden suspension bridge had one more chapter. The trolley lines had extended to Brunswick where they met a line going through South Freeport to Portland. Casco Castle, a turreted hotel built by the trolley interests in 1902, used the Island Garden bridge on its landscaped grounds.
Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He can be reached by sending email to dasargent@maine.com.
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