Cedar Point photograph

Dated ca. 1935-1940, this photograph shows Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, on Lake Erie. Cedar Point's history as an entertainment venue began in 1870, when German immigrant Louis Zistel opened a beer garden and bathhouse. Men and women bathed in Lake Erie, separated from each other by screens, and picnicked in the meadows and woods. In the 1880s, William Slackford and Benjamin F. Dwelle gained possession of the peninsula. They took advantage of the large beach and steamboat service to the resort made it a popular vacation destination. In 1888, Dwelle partnered with other Cedar Point landowners Louis Adolph, Adam Stoll, Jacob Kuebler and Charles Baetz to build the Grand Pavilion. The majestic structure housed an auditorium, dining room, and bowling alley. Under the direction of George A. Boeckling and the Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company, the park added a roller coaster, the Breakers Hotel, a 1200-seat Opera House, and employee dormitories. Vacationers flocked to Cedar Point to see vaudeville acts and ride the roller coaster. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939