Celoron Park Marker.jpg in Oct. A historical marker for Celoron Amusement Park has been installed at the village park. From 1894 to 1962, the site was the home to the “Coney Island of Chautauqua.” P-J photo by Eric Tichy

CELORON — A historical marker recently installed at Lucille Ball Memorial Park will forever highlight an important part of the village’s past.

Located on the western side of the park, the marker notes the former site of Celoron Amusement Park. It reads, “Celoron Park. ‘Coney Island of Chautauqua’ featured entertainment and rides here from 1894-1962. Babe Ruth hit baseball into lake before 1921 game.”

Modeled after parks at Coney Island and in Atlantic City, Celoron Amusement Park for decades boasted several rides, a theater, auditorium and baseball field. The construction of hotels and rooming houses also provided places to stay.

The marker’s recent installation — funded with the assistance of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation — was kicked off by the village’s historian to highlight the former park.

It’s the first historical marker to be placed in Celoron, Mayor Scott Schrecengost previously told The Post-Journal.

“We have a lot of history in this village,” Schrecengost said in June 2022. He noted the October 1921 visit to the park by Babe Ruth, the famed baseball player. Several newspaper accounts said Ruth — then in his second year with the New York Yankees — hit a ball from the baseball field into Chautauqua Lake before an exhibition game.

The park’s heydays, at least according to a lengthy history of the grounds on the village’s website, occurred from its opening through the beginning of World War II. The “decline” of the park began at the onset of the war.

One of the park’s many attractions was the Phoenix, a 10-story Ferris wheel that opened in 1896 and was lit by 350 colored lights. In 1952, the Phoenix was dismantled and, a decade later, the park closed.

“There’s a lot of people who look for those markers,” Schrecengost said.