Q: Here’s another question about a gone, but not forgotten amusement park. Growing up in Marietta, I remember going to a small park called Storyland, just south of Cumberland Mall. We moved, but we would visit Storyland on trips to Atlanta. Do you have information on this place?
—Lewis Jackson, Newnan
A: Mother Goose's whole crew was there.
Little Red Riding Hood, Little Jack Horner and the Three Little Pigs were among the attractions at Storyland, which was on what we simply called the Four Lane (U.S. 41 or Cobb Parkway these days) while growing up near Marietta in the 1960s and ’70s.
The rhymes came alive at Storyland, where sometimes teens dressed as Mary (of Little Lamb fame) or Little Bo Peep, in addition to life-sized static or animated exhibits of other fairy tale stars, such as Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill and even the old woman who lived in a shoe with all her kids.
And you couldn’t have a Mary without her lamb, one of several small animals that lived at the 15-acre park that opened in 1956, about 1 mile north of the Chattahoochee River, according to a Marietta Daily Journal article from July 1 of that year.
“I remember it being sort of a upscale attraction at that time,” said Covington’s Grier Sims, who worked at Lockheed.
The exhibits were made of a durable plastic by a local artist and were set up in a wooded area. Kids and their parents followed a trail through the trees to spend time with each rhyme.
There was a kiddie train when the park opened, and other rides – including a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round — and attractions were added through the years.
More than 20,000 people visited the park in 1961.
The last half of that decade brought visits from Batman and Robin – riding a wave of popularity from the “Batman” TV show – and Braves players in 1966, their first year in Atlanta. A witch’s cave with goblins was added in 1968.
I vaguely remember either hosting or attending a birthday party there in the early 1970s, before Storyland closed later that decade.
Every fairy tale must come to an end.
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