The "Havin' A Good Time In Lancaster: Part I" Story

A view of Witmer Bridge along the Lincoln Highway.
This was one of the locations that the Lady Gay
would pick up passengers.

It was an ordinary day.  Standing next to the Witmer Bridge on Lincoln Highway East trying to imagine what it must have been like to ride the "Lady Gay" down river on a Saturday afternoon, heading to Demuth's Park to swim and have a nice picnic lunch.  Sound like something you might want to do on a piping hot summer day?  

This would have been the view years ago.  The bridge seen
here had been replaced in later years.

Well, that's what Lancasterians did for years and years during the late-1800s to the mid-to-late 1900s.  The "Lady Gay" was called "a grubby little steamboat" which was owned by John B. Peoples.  It ferried passengers on the Conestoga River between Conestoga Park and Rocky Springs Park beginning at the turn of the century.  

A post card showing the Lady Gay traveling on the Conestoga.

I knew Rocky Springs as an amusement park, roller rink and swimming pool for most of my life, but at one time it was just a place for a nice picnic.  Any swimming done there was in the Conestoga River.  In 1855 a Lancaster butcher, Michael Trissler, purchased the property and built an inn and picnic grounds for picnicking.  27 years later he sold it to Samuel J. Demuth who operated a confectionery and ice cream garden in nearby downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Lady Gay dropping patrons off at Rocky Springs Park.
Click on images to enlarge.

 Mr. Demuth erected a few buildings and planted a few bushes and named it Demuth's Park.  It was a fabulous place and used by many for parties.  A few years later he bought an additional 14 acres to enlarge his park.  Demuth died in 1888 and the park fell into the hands of his heirs as well as the Anderson family who happened to have a small side-wheeled steamboat called "Lady Gay" which was used to take passengers to the park.  In 1890 Demuth's estate leased the park to John B. Peoples for five years.  

The swimming pool at Rocky Springs Park.  I swam in
this pool on numerous occasions.  

John added picnic tables and about 100 benches around the park to go with a big fountain filled with goldfish that stood at the entrance to the park.  There were amusements, one such being the shooting gallery, tennis courts, children's swings, a cane game and a game where you threw baseballs.  

The Merry-Go-Round at Rocky Sprigs Park.

A refreshment stand and photo- grapher's booth where you could have a tintype taken were all part of the park.  And, it was free to enter the park.  By 1894 the local newspaper reported that hundreds of people visited the park.  John eventually added bathing houses and made a sand beach along the Conestoga.  Then in 1896 the park was leased to Herman B. Griffiths and Emma J. Wiener of Philadelphia.  Mr. Peoples opened and operated another amusement park across the Conestoga River from Demuth's Park as well as operating his boat, the second "Lady Gay", which took 16 minutes to get from the wharf at Witmer's Bridge to the park.  Well, Emma Wiener got upset with Peoples, accusing him of charging only a nickel to get people from Witmer to his park while charging ten cents to her Demuth's Park.  

The "Wild Cat" at Rocky Springs.

The case was dismissed!  Then in 1899 the park's name was changed back to Rocky Springs Park and the Demuth heirs sold a third of the property to Thomas Rees, a fellow from Pittsburgh, who saw it as an investment.  Griffiths was still leasing the park and decided to add more steamboats to carry people to the park.  He named them Emma Belle and Evelyn B.  It was at this time that the merry-go-round, dance pavilion, show pavilion and boat-passenger pavilion were added.  Shortly the coal oil torches and lamps, used to illuminate the park after dark, were changed to electric lights.  In 1907 a roller-skating rink with white maple floor was placed at Rocky Springs park.  As to who owned the park by now...the 1910 Lancaster census listed Mr. Griffiths as the proprietor of the park and Emma Wiener as a boarder at the Rocky Springs Mansion.  

The Lancaster Coin Club added this coin to their
collection in 1971.  It features the "Lady Gay Steamer."

I began to head to the park as a child in the early 1950s.  I never knew it as anything other than an amusement park and never rode the "Lady Gay" to the park.  My grandpap Bill would always load us in his car and drive us the 15 minutes to the park.  Wonderful memories never to be forgotten.  Well, I snapped my photo of the Witmer Bridge and hopped back in the car to tell my wife my tale which you have just read.  After a few minutes she said, "You've told me the same tale hundreds of time!  Anything else new you can share?"  I relied, "Nah, you got it all!"  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

PS - In 1963 a man by the name of Earl Clark, a Lancaster County potato farmer who sold potatoes to area potato chip factories, opened what is today known as Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA and what is so neat is that he used the "Lady Gay" riverboat in his amusement park.  More tales of Rocky Springs Park can be found if you type Rocky Springs Park in the white box at the top left of this story.

Black and white photo of the Lady Gay Steam boat.