Inner Court Electric Park Detroit, Mich, photo by H.C. Hawkins

Today on Absolute Michigan we’re featuring a new festival called DLECTRICITY that is slated for October 5-6, 2012 on Detroit. DLECTRICITY organizers said that the name for the festival was inspired by Detroit’s first amusement park. The Detroit News Rearview Mirror page on Electric Park explains:

Electric Park, Detroit’s first mammoth amusement enterprise, opened May 26, 1906, near the Belle Isle Bridge approach. The Free Press heralded the opening of the park, “Detroit’s new Electric Park will be one of the largest in the world. Rome, with its seven hills will be a poor second to the roller coaster which is to be installed on the western site of the park. Here will be found l4 hills and any amount of hilarious fun my be derived within the enclosure.”

Owned by the Arthur Gaulker family, Electric Park, before it closed in 1928, went through many name changes and lengthy court battles over property rights. Some oldtimers remember the park’s nicknames: “Pike’s Peak, Lunar Park, Riverside or Granada.” Many of these names came from concessions located along the riverfront grounds.

You can read some more and see a whole bunch of great old photos at Electric Park on Water Winter Wonderland.