Edgewater Park, the Amusement Park That Disappeared: Detroit, Mi

Driving by the area of Seven Mile Road and Berg Road, you’ll notice a block that contains the greater Grace Conference Center and Temple. To anyone born after 1980, you’d never know there used to be one of Detroit’s most popular amusement parks on that very spot.

It was Edgewater Park – 23 acres of amusements and shows for everyone in the family which opened in the summer of 1927. It opened at the perfect time; Michigan was reeling from the Great Depression, Prohibition, and gang wars…a diversion from these inescapable everyday miseries was sorely needed.

Edgewater kicked off with just seven rides but when the park was purchased in 1947, owner Henry Wagner upped that number to twenty-three. When Henry died in 1952, his family continued to run the park. In 1960, a brilliant idea was hatched: why not have just one price of admission that would allow visitors to ride as many rides as they wanted all day long? The price? A buck and a half. This concept was enthusiastically received by the public and the park was able to remain hangin’ in there for a while longer.

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As the 60s continued, sometimes the ticket price would include a concert, many times by one of the nearby Motown stable of artists: Four Tops, Temptations, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, etc.

Some of the rides at Edgewater included a carousel, dance hall, Dodgem cars, a 110-foot tall Ferris Wheel, funhouse, the Hall of Mirrors, Octopus, Paratrooper, and the park’s most popular ride, The Wild Beast – a wooden, creaky roller coaster guaranteed to make many sick to their stomachs. From 1927 until it closed fifty-four years later, there was only one reported fatality caused by a ride: in 1976 an eight-year-old little girl jumped off the Ferris wheel before it had stopped, and was struck in the head by one of the gondolas.

With other close-by amusement parks like Bob-Lo Island and Cedar Point luring customers away, Edgewater was finally forced to close for good in September 1981. Now the space is occupied by Greater Grace.

Take a look at the gallery below for some photos of some of Edgewater Park’s old rides – and try to picture that if you ever drive by Seven Mile and Berg Roads…..