Historical Society Signs Deal to Acquire Idora Collection
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society intends for the newly donated collection of artifacts from the city’s iconic Idora Park to have a reach beyond those who experienced the park personally.
Jim and Toni Amey, founders of the Idora Park Experience, and Bill Lawson, MVHS executive director, signed a formal agreement Monday morning for MVHS to accept the collection of Idora Park memorabilia that the Ameys have collected over the years.
The historical society will convert the second floor of the former IBM Building, which it purchased in 2023, and part of the ground floor garage into exhibit space for the collection.
“It may be a cliché to say this is the end of the beginning, but we are beginning something new. We’re going for uncharted territory,” Lawson said. “This collection being here in downtown Youngstown will be something to behold and for generations to come, even beyond those of us who knew Idora Park personally from growing up here. We want to make sure what we do here with our exhibit will be long-term, and generations will understand the significance of Idora Park and its history from 1899 to 1984.”
Idora Park was an amusement park that operated on the South Side for 85 years until 1984, closing at the end of a final season after a fire destroyed the Wild Cat roller coaster, considered its signature attraction. A 2001 fire destroyed the property’s historic ballroom, and the remaining buildings on the property were later demolished.
Jim Amey, a former midway games employee at the amusement park, started collecting Idora Park artifacts when he walked through the property in 1993, the first time he had seen the park since the fire – and came across a light socket in one of the booths he worked in. Over the years, the Ameys, who were living in the Washington, D.C., area, accumulated more artifacts, including a Wild Cat car and a Jack Rabbit car.
After they retired, they moved to Canfield with their collection, eventually opening the Idora Park Experience. They also have written books about their collection and their experiences collecting the various artifacts.
“We came back here so we could share it,” Toni Amey said.
The agreement signed Monday represents the culmination of about nine years of discussions that developed into two years and three months of negotiations until an agreement was reached Sept. 17, Lawson said.
“Jim and Toni were looking at their options, and they really wanted to have something in place sooner rather than later,” Lawson said.
“When you think of Youngstown, at least when I think of Youngstown, I think of steel mills and Idora Park and Boots Bell and all the great things that were around when I was a kid,” Jim Amey said. While there is a museum focusing on the local steel mills, there isn’t anything for Idora, and the Ameys’ collection has outgrown them.
“We’ve always just felt like we were the custodians of it,” Toni Amey said. “It was our job to bring it together. Now it’s our job to put it out there in the public, and if we don’t do it this way, then what’s going to end up happening is it’s going to go back into storage, and it’s going to disappear piece by piece, and people will forget that Idora Park ever existed. And we can’t have that.”
Under terms of the agreement, MVHS has 25 months to develop the exhibit, Lawson said. Much remains to be done in terms of getting an architect to look at the spaces planned to be used for the exhibit, as well as addressing the building’s mechanical systems.
MVHS is in the planning and feasibility phase now and already has $2.4 million in state funds, but the historical society is looking to raise $11 million for projects at its Arms Family Museum and Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center, as well as the IBM site. The bulk of the money – about $7.5 million – will be invested at IBM.
“Our vision is really multifaceted because you have the amusement entertainment side, which sparks a lot of fond memories from anybody that experienced the park,” he continued. “But there’s bigger issues than that in terms of multigenerational affection for this amusement park in Youngstown, Ohio.”
In addition, he wants the exhibit to reflect the various church and civic groups that held events there, as well as the company days hosted by various local industries and labor unions for their annual picnics. National musical acts performed there, and political rallies were held in the park ballroom. Major League Baseball teams played exhibition games at the park’s baseball field, where Negro League teams also played.
“So these are all the social and cultural impact things about Idora Park that we need to put in this exhibit as well, because it is indelible to understanding the history of our whole community in the 20th century,” he said.
Jim Amey said the announcement of the Idora collection donation hopefully would inspire others to donate artifacts to the collection now that it will be in the historical society’s custody. “There are things that are hidden out there in people’s garages, in their backyards,” he said. “This might open the door for them to put them someplace where the items belong, in the public eye,” he said.
Pictured at top: Bill Lawson, MVHS executive director, and Toni and Jim Amey stand in front of a restored Hooterville Highway car.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
