Last article in a seven-part series.
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During the last several years at Freedomland U.S.A., the companies that supported the park’s management started to suffer from financial problems. Transactions removed real estate firm Webb & Knapp from the project and its interest was sold to National Development Corp., which owned the land and had leased the property to build and operate the park.
In an article, published by Long Island daily newspaper Newsday after the park permanently closed, Hyman Green, president of National Development, was reported to have been upbeat about the attraction. According to the newspaper, he had stated: “We have every reason to be highly optimistic about the future of Freedomland…”
However, a short time after Green's statement, Amusement Business, a trade publication of the period, reported: “The park is nearly sliced in half. Its San Francisco area, with its Earthquake Ride, Train Station and Big Fur Trappers Ride is walled off….Originally projected as a Disney-type theme park, Freedomland now abounds in standard riding devices and a host of concession games.”
Freedomland Begins To Close
Catching the public by surprise, Freedomland did close parts of the park during 1964. It also sold park souvenirs for 25 cents each. Then, on September 15, 1964, the park filed for bankruptcy. The filing included plans to reduce the 85-acre park to 30 acres and to begin construction of a planned housing project on the remaining land. The courts reported that Freedomland had assets of $9,741,000 and liabilities of $27,041,000.
Freedomland never opened for the 1965 season. Instead attractions and supplies were sold to other amusement parks around the country as the developers began to prepare the entire property for the massive housing project.
Plans for the housing project on the National Development property actually began about 10 years earlier. New York City's political and business leaders knew that homes eventually would be needed for the many residents who would flee the urban blight that had started to affect the south Bronx. Their strategy included the construction of more than 30 apartment buildings of 24 to 33 stories on northeast Bronx marshland. The site eventually would attract about 60,000 residents and it would become the world's largest cooperative housing project.
The blueprint included allowing Freedomland to operate on a portion of the property for five years. As part of the theme park, four-story and five-story buildings were constructed on the converted marshland to house the attractions. By remaining intact for five years without incurring damage or settling issues, these buildings, it is believed, allowed the developers to receive the proper property variances needed to eliminate a15 to 20-year study period before high-rise housing could be built on the land.
Freedomland Today
Six months after the park filed for bankruptcy, the housing project was announced to the public by New York City Mayor Robert Wagner, whose 1960 welcoming letter had appeared in the park's first guide book and in related advertising and promotion. Called Co-op City, the complex was built by a combination of housing cooperatives, labor unions and civic organizations. Through loan defaults by National Development, the pension fund for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters eventually became the title holder of the property where most of the park had been located. The pension fund sold its holdings during 1986 to a developer who built the Bay Plaza Shopping Center on land that once had been Freedomland.
A small portion of the original Freedomland terrain remained undeveloped until 2012. At the time of the park, this land to the south of today's shopping center was designated for the Freedomland Inn, a 300-room hotel. The foundation had been placed in the ground during the early 1960s. But, the project was abandoned and the foundation eventually was buried under landfill. During 2012, Macy's began construction for an indoor mall on the property.
An interesting twist to the entire story occurred about 10 years after the closing of Freedomland. Fractures were found in ceilings and walls of apartments on the top floors of some of the apartment buildings that now occupied the converted marshland. Cracks also were found in sidewalks and at building entrances while cement terraces started to crumble.
As these structural problems caused legal and financial issues for Co-op City's management company and apartment owners, the last remaining Freedomland structure (one of the skyride's terminal buildings) stood watch over vacant land that once had been an exceptional theme park. The building deteriorated slowly before it was removed to permit construction of the shopping center.
Over the last few years, some parts of the shopping plaza's parking lot also have experienced damage. While some of the conditions in the buildings and the lot have been attributed to poor construction, movement of the underlying marshland also has been cited as a factor.
Freedomland Remnants
Far from the site of Freedomland, a few remnants of the park and its attractions still can be found as part of other attractions or amusement areas. However, Freedomland mostly lives on in photos, books ("Disney's Dream Weavers" and "Images of America: Freedomland"), DVDs, family home movies, souvenir collections, internet sites and in the memories of those who enjoyed the park and its history-themed entertainment.
Freedomland was a unique concept that was ahead of its time and it never will be duplicated. If Freedomland U.S.A. had been supported and managed correctly, rather than used to achieve the objectives of developers and politicians, it could have provided The Bronx with many more years of quality entertainment.
This is the last article in a series of articles about Freedomland U.S.A. that describes the creation of the park, the sponsors and attractions, and its planned demise even before its fabulous opening day. The sixth article in this series about Freedomland U.S.A. revealed that the park didn’t fail due to its history theme or entertainment value. Plans had been designed for a housing project on the land even before the park was announced during 1959. Visit Freedomland U.S.A. today on Facebook.
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The author of this series, Mike Virgintino, not only attended Freedomland but lived within walking distance of the park. At night, he could hear the crowd noise rising from the park and watch the fireworks from his bedroom window. Anyone with information about Freedomland can contact him directly at freedomlandusa@yahoo.com. Additional articles about the history of Freedomland have and will continue to be published.
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