Lost and Found
Written by PA Heritage Staff in the Lost and Found category and the Summer 1999 issue Topics in this article: Altoona, Bangor Park, Blair County, Edward Joy Morris, Leap-the-Dips (roller coaster), National Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places, Northampton County, Philadelphia, Works Progress Administration (WPA)Lost
Opened in 1938, the Bangor Park Swimming Pool was built by the Works Progress Administration and the Borough of Bangor, located in Northampton County’s “slate belt.” Its design, conceived by architect Wesley Blintz, was unusual: instead of being dug into the ground, the huge pool was built above the ground, and locker rooms, lobby, and concession stand were tucked below the concrete deck. Interior cabinets and counters were fashioned from locally quarried slate. Its most distinctive feature, the Art Deco style entrance, was built of poured concrete. Despite the community’s fervent desire to preserve the pool, years of deterioration forced the borough to demolish it. All that remains is the entrance.
Found
Leap-the-Dips is the world’s oldest roller coaster! Erected in 1902 at Lakemont Park in AlÂtoona, Blair County, by the E. Joy Morris Company of Philadelphia, the amusement park ride cost twelve thousand dollars to build. It is the last known example in the United States of a side-friction figure-eight roller coaster. The wooden structure – named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and designated a National Historic Landmark five years later – had been neglected and out of operation for fourteen years. However, a one-million dollar restoration this year put the roller coaster back on track, and it recently opened for the 1999 summer season.
