In 1967, John Kudley, Jr. drove from Orange to Geauga Lake Amusement Park to see Paul Revere & The Raiders at WIXY-1260’s World Series of Rock Appreciation Day concert. The ride, though made with friends, was long.
“Who the heck would ever want to live in Aurora?” Kudley remembers thinking.
Kudley, now a retired history teacher, answered the question himself. In 1974, Kudley moved to Aurora to teach. He’s involved in Aurora City Council, Aurora’s Landmark Commission, serves as director of the Aurora Historical Society and stuck around long enough to see the amusement park reduced to leftover bits and pieces.
A number of these mementos now make up the Aurora Historical Society Museum’s collection. And despite the museum’s close during the pandemic, Kudley continued to educate the public on area history, writing weekly articles in the Aurora Advocate.
Today, the articles are a monthly project. Amassing more than 60 in number, the Aurora History Society is in the process of compiling Kudley’s work into a book, titled A Look Into Aurora’s Past.
“I think it has a unique side of the history of all of Northeast Ohio and what was the Connecticut Western Reserve,” Kudley says of Aurora, citing its christening as the cheese capital of the world in the early 1900s as an example.
The Aurora Historical Society hopes to reopen its museum to visitors in December, following a floor replacement. The revamp has allowed Kudley to consider how to make the Geauga Lake display more interactive for the future.
Until then, we caught up with Kudley to talk about some of his favorite Geauga Lake relics.
Photo Album 1925
About 20 photographs in sharp black and white adorn the pages of Geauga Lake’s 1925 photo album. Capturing the park in pristine condition, Kudley says the album was commissioned ahead of its official June 1925 opening to attract investors. “A lot of the concessions and a lot of the midway games they leased out rather than trying to own them and operate it themselves, so there was a lot of cooperation with different people,” Kudley says. The album is only one of 25 authorized by park developer Harry Hammond, and it’s the only one Kudley knows to still exist.
Harry Hammond Diaries
How Cleveland Heights attorney Harry Hammond became involved in Geauga Lake isn’t clear, but his dedication to the park is. From 1924-1935, Hammond’s diaries simultaneously recorded the growth of the park and Cleveland. Obtaining lumber for Sky Rocket (aka Big Dipper) from the Cleveland Lumber Company, redesigning the coaster not to run into the water tower, attending ride conventions in Chicago and seeing planes whiz about the Terminal Tower in a 1930s airshow that included Charles Lindbergh, are all recorded in his hand. “When you spend so much time reading what these people did, and especially Hammond, it’s almost like you know them personally,” Kudley says.
Turnstile
When Geauga Lake shuttered indefinitely in 2007, Kudley says the Aurora Historical Society had arrangements with then-owner Cedar Fair to dispatch a photographer the next morning. Armed with up to 300 photos capturing the empty rides and walkways as they were, Kudley was able to access any relics he wanted to save. The monorail turnstile was one. Kudley explains Geauga Lake bought these turnstiles specifically from Cleveland Memorial Stadium when it was demolished in 1997. “It’s got double history to it,” Kudley says. “Kids come to the museum and they like to walk through it.”
Get ahead of the weekend by signing up for our free weekly “In the CLE” newsletter — your guide to fun throughout The Land. Arriving in your inbox every Wednesday, this weekend to-do list fills you in on everything from concerts to museum exhibits — and more. Click here to subscribe.