I would like to know the location of "The Chutes." I have read where it was located at 10th Avenue and Fulton, but most references place it at Playland at the Beach. Was it moved?

-- Michael Binetti (mbinetti@boldata.com), March 26, 2001

Answers

The first Chutes amusement park in San Francisco was built on Haight Street at Schrader in about 1895. It operated on Haight until 1901, when a new park was built on Fulton, I think between 10th and 11th. It stayed there until at least 1908. At some point after that, a new Chutes ride opened at the beach where Playland was eventually located. People still called the area "the Chutes" well into the 1940's. Shoot the Chutes rides were very popular amusement park rides in the late 19th century.

-- Joe Thompson (cable_car_guy@hotmail.com), March 26, 2001.

Here is a photo of the Chutes. Copy and paste it into URL address line. Bill http://americahurrah.com/SanFrancisco/1905/1905-10-TheChutes.html

-- Bill Roddy (bill@americahurrah.com), May 13, 2001.

From my files I copied what I have as "basic facts": The Chutes

#1 - Nov. 2, 1895 - March? 1902 - Haight Street between Cole & Clayton

#2 - May 1, 1902 - ? 1909? - Fulton Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, (possibly extending to nearly to 12 th?). Bounded on North by Cabrillo St. Featured: 350 ft. long waterslide. scenic railway, 4,000 seat Vaudeville Theater, zoo, ice skating rink, dance hall, merry-go-round, shooting gallery, miniature bowling alley, penny arcade and photograph gallery. Closed after the earthquake from 4/18/06 to 1/21/07. Reopened on Jan. 22, 1907 #3 - July 14, 1909 - May 29, 1911. - Fillmore, Webster, Eddy and Turk streets. Destroyed by fire started at 1 a.m. in the restaurant.

#4 - about 1920 - 1950 - Chutes-at -the-Beach. Part of a larger amusement park. Demolished 2/15/50

The 2nd Chutes was the one that shows up most often in old post cards. As far as I can determine, it had the most attractions. The 4th Chutes seems to have had a lot of different venues under the tilte "chutes". The name The-Chutes-At-The-Beach was coined in Oct. 1921, replacing a number of other titles for the location. It did feature a "chutes" ride of a gondola desending from a ramp making a splash in the pool below. That attraction was torn down in 1950. The Whitney Brothers renamed the whole amusement complex Playland-at-the-Beach in 1928, and the "Chutes" was only one of the attractions.

So, you can see there was a secession of Chutes in 4 different locations.

-- John Freeman (freeman@igc.org), July 31, 2001.