BLOG: Changing Point of View 4 – Charles R. Wood Park Site in Lake George | Blogs
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Use the slider above to compare a 2004 satellite view of the former Gaslight Village / Lake George Action Park site with a 2018 satellite view of Charles R. Wood Park in the same location to see the transformation.
Wood Park was in full swing this summer: a barbecue and blues music event, an automobile meet, the Adirondack Independence Music Festival, the Lake George Art & Craft Festival, to name a few. It’s like this grassy place has always been the festival space, but it isn’t. But it has been a place of entertainment and fun for decades.
After the closure of Gaslight Village from the creator of the mid-20th century amusement park (late 1980s) and the closure of his Lake George Action Park (it operated in the second half of the 90s), the area has been fenced and dormant. Grants and donations have helped local municipalities and environmental groups begin the property’s slow march into an inviting public venue for concerts and wine and food festivals. Walking paths, a skate park, toilets, a children’s play area and an environmental component occupy the perimeter. The park was officially opened in 2019.
The festival area, skate park, and restrooms are to the north, and a nature walk and system of constructed wetlands that filter runoff before it enters the lake can be seen to the south, from across the old West Brook Road (recently renamed Elizabeth O’Connor Little Boulevard) in the 2018 satellite photo.
The outline of a go-kart track at Action Park can be seen near Canada Street (Route 9) in the 2004 photo. The old Waxlife USA museum building in Wood, which later became Charley’s Saloon, is still standing. visible in the 2004 image, where the wetlands are currently located.
Two more satellite images, from 2013 and 2015, are below and show how the park has developed. Also included here is a 2008 park concept sketch and some views of the abandoned Gaslight Village property from 2007 and 2008.
For photos of Gaslight Village when it was in operation, there is a large Facebook page, simply called Gaslight Village, Lake George, New York, to consult.
Bob Condon is the local editor of The after-star. He can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 518-742-3250 (office) or 518-932-5277 (cell). To help support all local reports in The post-star and on poststar.com, please consider a digital subscription. Our latest offer to new subscribers is here.
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