Historic Jersey Shore amusement park closes after generations of family thrills
OCEAN CITY, N.J. — For generations of♑ vacationers heading to Ocean City, the towering🌃 “Giant Wheel” was the first thing they saw from miles away.
The sight of the 140-foot-tall (42-meter) ride let them know they were getting close to the Jersey Shore tไown that calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” with its promise of kid-friendly𒈔 beaches, seagulls and sea shells, and a bustling boardwalk full of pizza, ice cream and cotton candy.
And in the heart of it was Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, an amusement park that wa🤡s the latest in nearly a century-long line of family-friendly amusement attractions operated by the family of Ocean City’s mayor.
But the rides were to fall s☂ilent and still Sunday night, as the park run by Ocean City’s mayor and nurtured by generations of his ancestors, closed down, the victim of financial woes made worse by the lingering aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Superstorm Sandy.
Gillian and his family have operated amusement rides and attractღions on the Ocean City Boardwalk for 94 years. The latest iteratio🐼n of the park, Wonderland, opened in 1965.
“I tried my best to sustain Wonderland for as long as possible, through increasingly difficult challenges each year,” Mayor Jay Gillian wrote in August when he ann🦹ounced the park would close. “It’s be♐en my life, my legacy and my family. But it’s no longer a viable business.”
Gillian did not respond t🍌o nuဣmerous requests for comment over the past week.
Sheryl Gross was at the park for its final💃 day with her two children and five g𒐪randchildren, enjoying it one last time.
“I’ve been coming hꦛere forever,” she said. “My daughter is 43 and I’ve been coming here sinc🍎e she was 2 years old in a stroller. Now I’m here with my grandchildren.”
She remembers decades of bringing her family from Gloucester Township in the southern New Jersey suburbs ofꦬ Philadelphia🅰 to create happy family memories at Wonderland.
“Just the excitement on their faces when they get on the rides,” she said. “It really made it f🐻eel family-friendly. A lot of that is going to be lost now.”
There were long lines Sunday 💎for the Giant Wheel, the log flume and other popular rides as people used the last of ride tickets many had bought earlier in the year, thinking Wonderland would go on forever.
A local non-profit group, Friends of OCNJ History and Culture, is raising money to try and save the amusement park, possibly under a new owner who might be more amenable to buying it with some financial assistance. Bill Merritt, one of the non-profit’s leade𝐆rs, said the group has raised over $1 million to help meet what could be a $20-million price tag for the property.
“Ocean City will be fundamentally different without this attraction,” he said. “This town relies on being family-friendly. The park has ꦍrides targeted at kids; it’s called ‘Woꦺnderland’ for a reason.”
The property’s 🦋current owner, Icona Resor𓃲ts, previously proposed a $150-million, 325-room luxury hotel elsewhere on Ocean City’s boardwalk, but the city rejected those plans.
Th﷽e company’s CEO, Eus🅺tace Mita, said earlier this year he would take at least until the end of the year to propose a use for the amusement park property.
Heཧ bought it in 2021 after Gillian’s family was in danger of defaulting on bank loans for the property.
At a community meeting last month, Gillian said ꦜWonderland could not bounce back from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the pandemic in 2020 and an increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage t๊hat doubled his payroll costs, leaving him $4 million in debt.
Mita put up funds to stave off a sheriff’s sale of the property, and gave the mayor tღhree years to turn the business around. That deadline expired this year.
Mita did not respond to requests for comment.
Merritt said he and others can’t imagꦰine Ocean City with🐻out Wonderland.
“You look at it with your heart, and you sayꦰ ‘You’re losing all the cherished memories and all the hi🌞story; how can you let that go?’” he said. “And then you look at it with your head and you say, ‘They are the reason this town is profitable; how can you let that go?’”
