When I think of riding and racing an ostrich, the first thing that comes to mind is the scene from the movie The Swiss Family Robinson where the sons race ostriches during their day of festivities. But did you know that ostrich racing was a major tourist attraction around the turn of the twentieth century? Neither did I!
In 1898 Charles D. Fraser opened Jacksonville, Florida's first amusement park--the Florida Ostrich Farm. Patrons could takes rides and watch ostrich races. Oliver W. Jr. was the amusement park's famed attraction; his driver is seated in a small carriage known as a sulky.
The park was renamed the New Ostrich Farm, Amusement Park and Zoo and moved from the Fairfield neighborhood near downtown Jacksonville to Phoenix Park north of downtown in 1912. Streetcars serviced the amusement park along the Talleyrand Avenue line. Phoenix Park hosted the amusement park for four short years, when New Ostrich Farm merged with Alligator Joe's Florida Alligator Farm, another animal-centric amusement park, in 1916. The newly joined amusements parks became Southland Amusement Park and relocated to across the St. Johns River to South Jacksonville near the former Dixieland (nicknamed the Coney Island of the South) amusement park.
Judging from a 1940s aerial image of South Jacksonville (now San Marco) found here, the amusement park may have operated into that decade. But no definitive date of closure for the Southland Amusement Park may be found. Additionally, no comprehensive history of the park has been written at this time.
Today, Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, both in Orlando, are the most notable Florida amusement parks. But a century ago, crowds didn't flock to visit a mouse, duck, or dog, but rather racing ostriches.
To see more postcards about the Florida Ostrich Farm, check out this collection from the Jacksonville Public Library.
Check out my shop for more great vintage postcard finds!
Source
Andrew Bachmann and Maria E. Mediavilla, Jacksonville Revisited (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007): 113-116.
Debra Webb Rogers, San Marco (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010): 38-44.
In 1898 Charles D. Fraser opened Jacksonville, Florida's first amusement park--the Florida Ostrich Farm. Patrons could takes rides and watch ostrich races. Oliver W. Jr. was the amusement park's famed attraction; his driver is seated in a small carriage known as a sulky.
The park was renamed the New Ostrich Farm, Amusement Park and Zoo and moved from the Fairfield neighborhood near downtown Jacksonville to Phoenix Park north of downtown in 1912. Streetcars serviced the amusement park along the Talleyrand Avenue line. Phoenix Park hosted the amusement park for four short years, when New Ostrich Farm merged with Alligator Joe's Florida Alligator Farm, another animal-centric amusement park, in 1916. The newly joined amusements parks became Southland Amusement Park and relocated to across the St. Johns River to South Jacksonville near the former Dixieland (nicknamed the Coney Island of the South) amusement park.
Judging from a 1940s aerial image of South Jacksonville (now San Marco) found here, the amusement park may have operated into that decade. But no definitive date of closure for the Southland Amusement Park may be found. Additionally, no comprehensive history of the park has been written at this time.
Today, Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, both in Orlando, are the most notable Florida amusement parks. But a century ago, crowds didn't flock to visit a mouse, duck, or dog, but rather racing ostriches.
To see more postcards about the Florida Ostrich Farm, check out this collection from the Jacksonville Public Library.
Check out my shop for more great vintage postcard finds!
Source
Andrew Bachmann and Maria E. Mediavilla, Jacksonville Revisited (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007): 113-116.
Debra Webb Rogers, San Marco (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010): 38-44.