Before Playland '', January 26, 1884 The area that was Playland began as a 19th-century squatter's settlement, "Mooneysville-by-the-Sea," named for
Workingmen's Party orator Con Mooney. By 1884, a
steam railroad was in place to bring people to the first
amusement ride at the city’s ocean side — a "Gravity Railroad"
roller coaster, and to the Ocean Beach Pavilion for concerts and dancing. By 1890,
trolley lines reached Ocean Beach — the
Ferries and Cliff House Railroad, the
Park and Ocean Railroad, and the Sutro Railroad — that encouraged commercial amusement development as a
trolley park. The
Cliff House, which opened in 1863, and
Sutro Baths, which opened in 1896, drew thousands of visitors. For example, John Friedle owned a
shooting gallery and baseball-throwing
concession. All of the rides at Chutes at the Beach were purchased new or built there, including the
Shoot-the-Chutes, which inspired the first official name for the amusement area —
Chutes at the Beach. Around 1913,
Arthur Looff leased a piece of land for a
carousel and its house — the Looff Hippodrome, located next to John Friedle's concessions. Friedle and Looff became partners in Looff’s Hippodrome and began to buy other concessions Attractions included Arthur Looff’s Bob Sled Dipper roller coaster, also known as "the Bobs" (1921), the Looff-designed Big Dipper roller coaster (1922), Shoot-the-Chutes, the carousel, Aeroplane Swing, the
Whip, Dodg 'Em, the Ship of Joy, the
Ferris wheel, Noah’s Ark, and almost a hundred concessionaires. By 1924, the Whitney brothers owned four shooting galleries and a
souvenir shop in addition to the quick-photo studio. Although the attractions continued to be operated as independent concessionaires, during the late 1920s and 1930s, especially during
the Depression when concessions began to fail, George and Leo began to purchase the attractions outright. The Whitneys bought the roller coaster in 1936 and the merry-go-round in 1942. Playland took up three city blocks and, in 1934, the Midway had 14 rides, 25 concessions, and four restaurants besides
Topsy's Roost. Although Playland's attractions originally sat upon leased land, the Whitneys eventually purchased the land beneath Playland, as well as several adjacent lots for future expansion. In 1937, George Whitney Sr. purchased the then-vacant
Cliff House from the Sutro estate and reopened it as an upscale roadhouse that same year. George Whitney was called “The
Barnum of the
Golden Gate” as he went on to buy up the concessions and even bought the
Sutro Baths in 1952. He bought out his brother in 1952 and continued to operate the area on his own until he died in 1958. Despite this expansion, the post-war years saw the tearing down of the Shoot the Chutes in 1950 and the Big Dipper in 1955, and after George Whitney died in 1958, Playland was never quite the same. For a while after George Whitney's death, Playland was operated by his son, George K. Whitney Jr., and then by prolific developer Bob Fraser, responsible for more than 30 major projects, many significantly altering skylines in San Francisco. It was eventually sold to Jeremy Ets-Hokin (a millionaire developer) in 1971 and torn down on September 4, 1972. Condominiums were completed on the Playland property in 1982 and 1983, and a permanent art project commemorating Playland was installed in 1996. ==Attractions==