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| Construction of the art deco style bath house, 1941; a ramp connected it to the swimming pools. |
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| Pontchartrain Beach at its first location, where it remained from 1928 to 1939, when it moved to the area where the former resort town of Milneburg had once stood. |
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| The new Pontchartrain Beach Midway - 1940 |
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| At the beach, at the beach, at Pontchartrain beach, You'll have fun, you'll have fun, every day of the week. You'll love the thrilling rides, laugh til you split your sides, Atttttt....Pontchartrain Beach! |
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| The old Milneburg Lighthouse, also, known as the Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse, was constructed in the lake just off the south shore in 1838 in the resort town of Milneburg. This is the spot where Pontchartrain Beach was eventually built (the area having, long ago, been annexed by the city of New Orleans). Milneburg was popular among the city's residents in the 1800's and early 1900's; it contained many houses, or camps, built on piers over the water. In the 1930's, the levee board did a reclamation project and the Milneburg camps were destroyed, as what had been water, became land. However, the lighthouse survived and turned into a popular landmark when the amusement park was built around it. |
| 1940 - About the time the beach opened; notice the Milneburg Lighthouse, still in the same spot, but now located on land and on the amusement park's midway. |
| The old Milneburg Lighthouse stood at the entrance to Kiddieland and was a popular meeting place for beach-goers - as was the clown head in the photo above. |
| The Zepher |
| The historic Milneburg Lighthouse as it is today, fallen into a state of disrepair, waiting for someone to rescue it. It rests on property now owned by the University of New Orleans. As far as I know, they have shown no interest in preserving this historic landmark. |
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| The lighthouse when the community of Milneburg was still there. |
| View from the lighthouse after the reclamation, but before the amusement park was built. |
| Another view of the lighthouse after the camps were destroyed, but before the reclamation. |
| This page is part of the Old New Orleans site, it is not intended to be removed from the site. Do not use the 'Send Page' feature of your computer to send this whole page in the form of an e-mail message. If you would like to share this page, copy & paste the link onto a message or use the form below. Please don't make me to remove this page permanently and ruin it for others who wish to view it. Nancy The link for this page is: http://old-new-orleans.com/NO_Pontchartrain_Beach.html |
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| Pontchartrain Beach first opened its gates near the intersection of Robert E. Lee Blvd. and Bayou St. John in 1928 (just a stone's throw from the old Spanish Fort Amusement Park). In 1940, it moved to the Lake at Elysian fields, where the old resort community of Milneburg once stood. And from 1940 until it closed in 1983, Pontchartrain Beach was the summer fun destination of choice for New Orleanians of all ages. You could swim, wade or build sandcastles on the man-made beach; swim in one of the three pools; take a chance at a game of skill in the Penny Arcade; enjoy the wide variety of rides - the Zepher was the hands-down favorite, a roller coaster of serious proportions - or the Ragin Cajun, the "Wild Maus," the Ferris Wheel - what a beautiful view to behold from the top of the Ferris Wheel at night, looking out over the lake and the lights of the midway - the Bug, the Tilt-o-Whirl, the Haunted House, Bumper Cars, Laff-in-the-Dark, Flying Horses or dozens of others. For the little ones, there was Kiddieland, complete with a Junior Zepher; or you could stake out a choice spot to watch the famous stage shows (Elvis even performed there once). If you were in the mood for something more "elegant" than hot dogs and cotton candy, you could have dinner in the Tiki Room of the Bali Hai Restaurant. Whichever you chose, it was guaranteed to be fun. -- Nancy Brister ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please do not separate this page from the site by using the "Send Page" feature of your computer to send the entire page in an e-mail message format. If you'd like to share it PLEASE JUST SEND THE LINK. |
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