Kiddieland 1929-2009

Riding the Bumper Cars at Kiddieland. 1973.

After 80 years, the cherished local amusement park Kiddieland gave its last ride on September 27th.  Located just west of Elmwood Park at North and 1st Avenue in Maywood Park, Kiddieland has served as a getaway for area children since the Great Depression.  Started by Arthur Fritz in 1929, Kiddieland began with only a few ponies but eventually added bumper cars, scooters, and the famous Little Dipper rollercoaster.  Kiddieland will certainly be missed.  We have more pictures of Kiddieland on our Flickr page for you to enoy.  Please  share your Kiddieland memories in our comments section.

A Village Grows: Fifty Years of Life in Elmwood Park is now online

Our LSTA Digitization Grant Project is now online and complete.  A Villiage Grows: Fifty Years of Life in Elmwood Park is our collection of 408 photographs and artifacts from the first 50 years of the Village of Elmwood Park.  We hope that you enjoy the collection and if you have any stories or can supply any missing information about any of the items, please let us know in the comments section.  We would love to hear from you.  We would like to thank the Illinois State Library for all their help putting the collection online.

World War II Memorabilia

Through the generous donation of Jonathan Charnes of Elmwood Park, the Library recently received several World War II uniform pieces belonging to his father, Alvin Charnes. Lt. Alvin E. Charnes was a U.S. Army Air Force pilot of a B-24 bomber in missions over Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria and Italy. He was a member of the 719^th Bombardment Squadron and 449^th Bombardment Group (H), United States Army. Lt. Charnes’ World War II A-2 jacket, U.S. Army Air Corps khaki dress coat, U.S. Army Air Corps blue dress coat and a life preserver vest with inflatable gas cartridges worn by the air crew on his B-24 bomber. Lt. Charnes’ crew flew a complete combat tour of 50 missions from October 1944 through April 1945. Alvin Charnes resided at 908 Linden Avenue in Oak Park, Il. You may view several of these World War II photos right here at this site.

The Elmwood Park Public Library is planning a special Veterans Program on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, at 7:00 PM in the John Ferrentino Meeting Room. Our special guests will be local veterans from all wars and conflicts. Many of our veterans will speak about their wartime experiences. If you would like to participate as a speaker, please notify Russ Parker, (708) 395-1218, at the Library. In attendance will also be several members of our local John R. Beck VFW Post 1891. This is an excellent opportunity to see and hear first-hand what our local heroes had to endure in the trying times of war. You can view the documentaries and read the books, but do not miss this rare opportunity to witness true accounts of battle-time activities. Several of Lt. Charnes’ military memorabilia will also be on display. See you on the ^11th!!!