There were more than 1,000 of these parks in the United States prior to The Great Depression of 1929. Some were simply a picnic grove with an athletic field and swimming area. Others were full-fledged amusement parks with a variety of rides, games, dance halls and roller skating rinks. The rail companies built many of the parks themselves, usually at one end of a rail line, to generate passenger traffic on the weekends.
Today there are only 11 "trolley parks" still operating in the nation, and Quassy Amusement Park on Lake Quassapaug in Connecticut is one of them. Native Americans reportedly named the lake centuries ago, and depending on the source of the interpretation, it means "greatest pond," "rock pond" or "big pond."
The 20-acre park, simply called Quassy today, was founded in 1908, the same year a trolley line from Waterbury to Middlebury was completed by the Connecticut Trolley Company. Prior to that, the lake was known for its outstanding fishing, sparkling water and the Lake Grove House (1888), where clambakes were the specialty.
A trolley trip to the park in 1909 cost 15 cents, according to newspaper clippings compiled in scrapbooks by late Middlebury resident Helen Benson. Settled in 1702, Middlebury was appropriately named, as the community was established between Waterbury and Woodbury. If you came to the park in the early 1900s, it was for swimming, dancing and picnicking. In 1910, a dance pavilion was constructed near the lakefront and later converted into a bathhouse, according to Bob Goldsack, a New England amusement parks historian and author. A new and much larger dance hall was built in 1915. Today, the structure serves as a redemption arcade and is the oldest existing building in the park.
While Quassy didn't capture a lot of headlines during its early days, the trolley line did. The Benson scrapbooks contain a newspaper clipping reporting 20 people were injured in a head-on trolley car collision at a switch in Middlebury in 1917. Dancing became so popular during the "Roaring '20s" that the park hosted bands seven nights a week during the summer months, Goldsack notes in his book, "A Century of Fun, A Pictorial History of New England Amusement Parks."
Boat and canoe rides on the lake were also a favorite of guests, as numerous postcards and photos from that era reveal. Goldsack also mentions the park had several riding devices and concession stands during the 1920s.
In 1928, major improvements were made to the road (Route 64) leading to the lake, and that soon spelled disaster for the trolleys. Buses started making the run to and from the park, and by 1930, the trolley era came to a close at Quassy. The trolley line had lasted a mere 22 years.
The nation also sank into The Great Depression in 1929, and many businesses--including amusement parks--started to fold. Quassy "limped along" during the difficult years of the Depression, Goldsack says in his book. In 1937, John Frantzis, George Terezakis and Mike Leon purchased the property. The new owners decided to start using the large dance hall for roller skating on evenings when dancing was not held. A 1940 advertisement appearing in the local newspaper promoted the merry-go-round, roller skating, motor boats, bathing and dancing at Quassy. That year, the park also constructed a building referred to as the Tea Room overlooking the lake, which was later converted into a restaurant.
The United States was drawn into World War II the following year, but Quassy maintained its presence in the region. Round-trip bus rides to the park from Waterbury were advertised for 35 cents in 1941. That same year, ice 14 inches thick was harvested from the lake and shipped to regional hotels and warehouses, according to the Benson scrapbooks. Ice harvesting was an important part of the local economy during the winter months, as the lake provided clear, clean ice for personal and commercial use. The park also donated its property across Route 64 to the Town of Middlebury for a baseball field. It was on this parcel of land that the Quassy trolley station once stood.
Quassy did not open for Memorial Day in 1943 due to a ban on pleasure driving during the height of World War II. While the property did function during the summer of '43, there were no fireworks that year at the park, newspaper accounts in the scrapbooks say. The war ended in 1945, and Quassy promoted new rides for the 1946 season.
