Al-Tro Island Park

Al-Tro Island Park was an amusement park built near the borders of Menands and Albany, NY, in the early 20th century on Pleasure Island. The island has since been covered with fill and used to support a highway.

History

In the late 1800s, thousands of visitors jammed Pleasure Island, also known as "Dreamland." In truth, it wasn't an actual island, but was separated from the mainland by the Erie Canal.

By Memorial Day, 1907, Pleasure Island was built up and re-opened as Al-Tro Island Park, named for the two cities it was located in between, Albany and Troy. It featured 40-piece orchestra in a dance hall, a roller-skating rink, a roller coaster, a theater with 4,000 seats, an own miniature railroad, a pony track, and more than a hundred other attractions. The park even had its own police force consisting of 15 uniformed officers to maintain safety and order. A boardwalk extended the entire length of the island. [ [http://www.colonie.org/historian/altro/record_article.pdf "Al-Tro Park in readiness for the public"] "Albany Times-Union" article dated May 27, 1907, reproduced in the "Sunday Record" on June 30, 1985. Retrieved 2003-09-16.]

By the early 1920s, Al-Tro Island Park began to fall out of favor due to changing tastes in leisure. No one knows exactly when it closed or what happened to it. Most agree that the park "vanished without a trace."

References