Luna Park, Scranton

Luna Park, an amusement park in Scranton, Pennsylvania, from 1906 to 1916, initially designed, built, and operated by two companies affiliated with amusement park pioneer Frederick Ingersoll, occupied a mostly western-facing 20-acre tract of land on Moosic Mountain along the eastern side of Roaring Brook gorge, opposite present-day Nay Aug Park. No historical marker commemorates the site of the park.

Despite similar names, the park is not affiliated with Thompson & Dundy's park on Coney Island, New York, USA, or the "Hippodrome". Thompson & Dundy, however, first promoted ideas of franchising in August 1904 but did not file for trademark or copyright protection. Although many types of parks, exhibitions, and entertainment attractions existed at this time, Ingersoll capitalized on standardization, following a formula that characterizes all his "Luna Parks": the first two, in Pittsburgh and Cleveland opened in 1905, a park in Washington, DC and Indianapolis opened in the same year as Scranton, one in Mexico City the following year, then others, forming the first amusement park chain. Advertising in trade publications, such as The Billboard, Ingersoll sought regional investors with catch-phrases as "We use the best materials, perfect plans, expert builders, and reasonable price. We build for you or build and operate." Construction was standardized, and vaudevillian acts, circus, and other exhibitions were able to be rotated between parks as low-cost entertainment. Parks were designed and built using expertise of his Ingersoll Construction Company employees, then operated by a local company which could acquire services, such as entertainment and technical help, from him.

As such, Ingersoll Construction Company with funding of $300,000, designed and constructed the park beginning November 14, 1905. The Scranton Luna Park Company began operating the park on May 28, 1906. Newspaper articles from the Scranton Republican, The Scranton Truth, and other local newspapers suggest a decision to proceed was based on increasing levels of public interest beginning as early as July 17, 1900.

Between 1903 and 1905, besides related interest pieces, such as "The Execution of Topsy the Elephant", and "Moon Queen to Become Bride", among others, local newspapers published an ever-increasing number of advertisements regarding chartered excursions by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley Railroad to Luna Park, Coney Island. This did not escape notice of local financiers, publicly known initially as Thomas F. Penman, John H. Brooks, C.K. Bedford, S.S. Spruks, Charles Gunster, Herman Osthaus, and Hayden Evans, suggesting the public's increasing interest was income that could otherwise be earned locally. Similarly, the investors noticed remarkably heavy patronage of "Carbondale's Luna Park", a temporary fund raising effort facilitated by multiple volunteer fire companies recreating a "miniature-Luna Park" in the borough for a short time. In this same period, perhaps submitted by Ingersoll himself, the Scranton Republican ran a lengthy article, "The Marvels of Luna Park - How a 39-acre Mud Hole Evolved into a Multi-million Dollar Entertainment Enterprise", showing a time and cost breakdown per patron per amusement. Reasonable estimates of anticipated income and profitability, and knowledge of available support services, provided the investors with the business justification to approve Ingersoll's announcement of "Luna Park, Scranton" in the fall of 1905 and proceed with construction.

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