History UnderfootAtlanta

Status unknown · Location approximate

White City amusement park lake

A 1907 amusement park near Grant Park whose rowboat lake replaced a weedy field. Built by Councilman C. L. Chosewood; Parkside Elementary now stands there.

Open its history on the map

Aerial photo of White City amusement park lake, 1940
1940
Aerial photo of White City amusement park lake, 2013
2013
Lidar terrain shading around White City amusement park lake
Bare-earth lidar

From the air

No trace of the 1907 White City rowboat lake shows in any aerial photo from 1940 on. The hollow where it probably sat is now Parkside Elementary.

Read from aerial photos taken between 1940 and 2026 and from USGS 3DEP lidar, then checked by a second reading. How the photos were read.

History

White City opened in 1907 on a big open field just beyond Grant Park, built by City Councilman C. L. Chosewood and reached by the Fair Street 'White City' streetcar. On July 1, 1907 the Atlanta Georgian described a lake with rowboats and a bandstand where dogfennel had grown, a hilltop vaudeville theater, and a figure-eight roller coaster at one end of the lake. AJC adds a Ferris wheel, circle swing, skating rink and swimming pool. The site is now Parkside Elementary School. The lake's size, water source and end date are not found in the sources reached. 1234

Who built it

C. L. Chosewood, a city councilman and president of White City, built the park in 1907 on an open field beyond Grant Park. The Atlanta Georgian of July 1, 1907 quotes an onlooker saying 'They've sure been movin' dirt around these parts,' and says a pretty lake with rowboats and a bandstand 'had taken the place of the dogfennel that formerly prospered.' That suggests the lake was made for the park by earthmoving, but the newspaper does not say how it was dug or filled. No stream or spring supply is named. 134

Timeline

  1. 1907White City amusement park opens on land known as Little Switzerland, about a block east of today's Grant Park. Councilman C. L. Chosewood built it. The opening date is not given; it was open by June 22, 1907. 134
  2. Week ending June 22, 1907Chosewood, as president of White City, returns from New York having secured new attractions: a scenic railway, a chute-the-chutes and a carousel. A 247 by 137 ft skating rink deal closes, with opening set for Aug 1. Attendance is the highest of any week since opening. 3
  3. Week ending June 22, 1907The park hosts a picnic for about 300 children of the Hebrew Orphans' Home and Congregation Ahavath Achim, according to the same Atlanta Georgian page. 3
  4. July 1, 1907Atlanta Georgian feature calls the park new: a lake with rowboats and a bandstand, a theater on the hill with vaudeville, a soda fountain, a figure-eight roller coaster at one end of the lake, and electric lights at night. Fair Street 'White City' cars serve it. 4
  5. Aug 1907 to Apr 1910A Georgia Historic Newspapers search for 'White City' and Chosewood returns eight more Atlanta Georgian pages, from Aug 2, 1907 to Apr 25, 1910. Their contents were not read here. 5
  6. 1910Atlanta History Center photograph shows rides at White City Park; its record places the site where Parkside Elementary now stands. 2
  7. 1911AJC reports a 1911 map showing a 'Scenic railway 5 to 40 feet high' at the park. The map itself was not seen. Likely 1
  8. Date not foundThe park closes and the lake disappears. The closing year and how the water body was removed were not found. Uncertain 12

Names

White City
Name of the amusement park, also written White City Park. The lake was one feature of it. AJC says 'White City' was a popular amusement-park name at the time, tied to the 1893 Chicago exposition's white buildings. 134
Little Switzerland
AJC says the park sat on land known by this name. It is not clear whether the name applied to the lake. 1

The dam

No dam is documented, and the lake has no National Inventory of Dams record. It may have been a shallow pond dug or dammed on the field. That is unconfirmed and is a question for period maps and aerials.

Around the lake

Before 1861

The 1907 Georgian says the tract was an open field of dogfennel with 'old furrows' before the park, so it had been farmland. AJC calls the land 'Little Switzerland.' No pre-1860 land lot or road link was found.

Visiting

Getting there

The site is an active Atlanta Public Schools campus, Parkside Elementary at 685 Mercer Street SE. It is not a public park.

What you can see

Nothing of the lake or the park is documented as surviving. No historical marker is known to this study. A visitor sees the school and its surroundings only.

Look, don’t dig. Parks, cemeteries and preserves are off limits to digging and collecting, and private land needs the owner’s permission to enter.

Open questions

Know something? Write to hello@historyunderfoot.org. Family papers, photos and deeds often settle these.

Where to look next

Sources

  1. Exploring Atlanta's lost amusement parks Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  2. White City Amusement Park (1910 photograph), VIS 170.2378.001 Digital Library of Georgia / Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center
  3. Atlanta Georgian and News, June 22, 1907, image 12 (OCR page) Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia
  4. Atlanta Georgian and News, July 1, 1907, image 1 (OCR page) Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia
  5. Search results: 'White City' Chosewood, 1907-1915 Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia

Compiled September 2026 from the public record, with light archival coverage so far. How we know · Suggest a correction