Location: Toledo Beach Park, MI

Toledo Beach Park was created by the Toledo Rail, Light and Power company when they purchased the Ottawa Beach Resort in 1907.

According to an article by David Eby in the Monroe Evening News, electric trolley service brought visitors from Ohio to the park. Calling it Toledo Beach added to the confusion. You will find many post cards of that era that say “Toledo Beach, Toledo Ohio” on them. All of them were wrong. The trolley also made stops at Lakeside, Lakewood, Allen’s Cove and the Luna Pier along the way.

He notes, that there were times when the park was shut down during hard economic times then reopened. It declined after the electric interurban trolleys stopped running in 1927.

Starting in the early 1900s the trolley cars of the Toledo, Ottawa Beach and Northern Railway made runs every 15 minutes to the Monroe County, Michigan, lakeside amusement park. Riders would depart the crowded cars and traverse the sidewalks to their favorite attraction.

The resort included a dance hall, which also served as a roller skating rink, a water slide built into the lake,

The magnificent Toledo Beach Dance Hall was electrified and built in 1905 with its own power plant. It also served as a roller skating rink. Other attractions followed like the giant water slide which was built in the lake. 

Notes

Eby continues, "Toledo Beach was advertised in the early 1900's as a getaway from the industrial waterfront of Toledo. It was only accessible by the trolley line from downtown Toledo.

According to [SBM] in 1916, Toledo Beach Park had a rail-side "waiting room/platform, nearby restaurant, stage platform, bath house, merry-go-round, bowling alley, roller skating building and dancing pavilion.

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