The Original Marineland Was A Great Place To Visit

2012-01-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

1-3-2011: Marineland announces the park has been sold to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta for 9.1 million from developer Jim Jacoby. Officials announce no immediate changes are planned for Marineland of Florida. Since Jacoby, a land developer who is on the Georgia Aquarium board, obviously had the connection to unload Marineland after he purchased it in 2001 and proceded to demolish and destroy this once historic landmark. The original Marineland of Florida was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and thanks to Jacoby Marineland is truely a distant memory for many former visitors who for decades fondly remember visiting this once quaint and wonderful park. Many websites do not recommend visiting todays Marineland. The main attraction is swimming with the dolphins for 20 minutes at a cost of $149. Admission is adult $8.50 and childrens $4. But everyone should go and judge for themselves.

9-5-2010: I just returned from Marineland on 9-1-10. It had been 3 years since I was here, and they were tearing down the park at that time. See the photos I took at Marineland and my views on what the park has become at the end of this blog.

Also I just found a review from a writer (who failed to include his name on the article, imagine that) on frommers.com who called the Original Marineland of Florida 'schlocky'. That means cheap and trashy. Hmmm? Here is the link. While we all have opinions, this is really a cheap and trashy comment, and I think I'm not alone in this assessment.

Welcome to my blog on the original Marineland of Florida. A lot of people are not aware of the history and story of the first marinelife park created in the world. And an interesting history it is. Marineland of Florida was created by W. Douglas Burton, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Sherman Pratt, and llya Tolsen which opened in 1938. Their concept was to have a place to film marine life. What they did was build a very special place. These four people were visionaries who brought to life a great parkand attraction that people of all ages could love. In the 1960's, Marineland became the top tourist attraction drawing over 300,000 visitors.

With the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971, Marineland saw their attendance decline. However, with returning visitors still coming to the marine park, the 1980's saw an increase in visitors. Eventually the park became to costly to maintain for the real estate investment group who owned it at the time, and the facility sunk into disrepair. Finally through a convoluted deal involving junk bonds, the property was sold. The new owners wanted to build time share condominiums, but the plan never materialized.

In 1999, Hurricanes Floyd and Irene caused the park to close completely for two months. Then in 2003, all of the parks buildings on the west side of Highway A1A were demolished, leaving only the original structure on the Atlantic Ocean side. In 2004, demolition began on the remaining structures.

The new owner of Marineland, Atlanta businessman, Jim Jacoby, decided to totally destroy this historic marine park as the pictures I took in 2005 show. Everyone knows what makes Europe a great vacation destination worldwide. Their historic buildings. In the U.S. they tear down most of theirs. With the original Marineland of more than 50 years gone, millions of people only have memories left. In a lot of ways, the old Marineland was better than the mega-theme parks we see today. Marineland of Florida has experienced what most drive-in movie theatres have seen since the 1980's. Destroyed .

This picture was the entrance to the original park circular 400,000 gallon tank, where you had port holes all around to watch the marine life. And you can see the giant boom that would swing out over the middle of the tank as visitors watched the dolphins leap high into the air and grab the fish from the man in the bucket. It was spectacular.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the original Marineland. I hope you agree that this picture came out pretty good. The flamingos were just inside the front street entrance to your left. I always stopped here first before going inside the park. This was always a real treat to see. I just recently found this photo which I think was taken in the 90's.

Another photo I found of the flamingos at Marineland. Here they are not as pink as in the other photo. I believe this one was taken in the 90's. I loved stopping here and watching the birds before heading into the park.

The penguins inside the original Marineland. They were usually hiding inside the artificial rock formation, but sometimes visitors would get lucky like I did to see them, and take a photo. Probably mid to late 1980's photo.

Gone is the original dolphin stadium. Everybody loved watching the dolphins jump and do flips. Gone is the large rectangular main tank that greeted you as you entered the park with lower viewing portals of the dolphins and marine life. Gone is the sea lion show. Gone are the penguins walking on the rocks and swimming in the water in a see through tank. Gone are the flamingos at the side of the entrance. Gone is the original gift shop that greeted you with ice cold AC as you went in, with a huge array of t-shirts, hats, etc. Gone is the beachside restaurant where you could dine by huge windows overlooking the ocean with waves constantly breaking in the Atlantic ocean. Gone is the Oceanside motel where you could stay after a fun filled day at Marineland. All gone. Forever.

The new Marineland doesn't have the charm or flavor of old Florida anymore, and that's a shame. With the "what's old" is new again wave still going strong, someone has missed the boat and could have made it so much better. The consensus on the web is this attraction is not even close to the original. That is truly a shame. Historical sites should always try to be saved. Europe does it. And that equals lots of money.

One of the concrete dolphins just inside the front area from the original park. This used to be a great place to visit.

Entrance at the Old Marineland. I haven't been here since they were tearing down, so I don't know if this is still here and intact. I remember every time I came here I always had my picture taken. I still have pictures from the 70's and 80's of myself and the family in from of this landmark. It was always a thrill.

This is the sign that greeted you as you arrived on Highway A1A coming from the south at the original park. Wow. The memories I have when seeing this sign on my trips. Even as an adult it was exciting to know I was close to being at the original Marineland.

Another view of the front entrance at the old Marineland. If you look closely, the date on the roof says 1937. The Rock formation has 1938. All my research shows the date Marineland opened was 1938. Kind of interesting, huh? Every time I came here a photo was taken at this spot. Very nice.

I don't think you will see this photo on any other Marineland blog. This was a statue that was on the west side of the original Marineland. This was the god in Greek mythology called Poseidon, and the Roman/Latin name was Neptune. Of course this is probably gone too. That part of the park was added later, and had a 3-D movie theatre, and an electric eel demonstration. When the eel hit the metal rod in the tank, a meter showed how many volts it put out, plus make loud noises through big speakers. Really cool.

This was the restaurant at the original Marineland, located right beside the park on the south side. Oceanfront. I ate breakfast here many times. If you got there early, you could sit next to the giant windows that overlooked the beach. And the lounge had a bar that was a ship. According to my research, Ernest Hemingway visited this restaurant in the early days and drank at the Moby Dick lounge inside. Pretty cool. A very nice place to enjoy. I actually went inside here for the last time, in the mid 90's. The place was closed and looked like it needed remodeling. I should have grabbed some souvenirs, but that would have been wrong. There were also some people working inside. The last time I visited Marineland was in 2006. I don't know if this place is still standing. More than likely not.

This is me in 1982. This was a great place for photo's. They don't have anything like this at the new Marineland (I hated the short shorts from the 1980's).

If anybody has photo's they would like to share and see on the blog, I would be happy to post them here, and share any stories you may have. My email is in my profile of course. Also another great blog on Marineland is at Roadside America. Also a great place to see photo's of the demolition of Marineland is here. These will bring tears to your eyes if you ever visited the original park. Plus see a lot of great historic photo's of Marineland here. A really great source on Marineland history. You will enjoy. If you would like to read short recollections of past visitors to Marineland of Florida they are here. You will definitely enjoy these.

The grounds outside the Marineland park in 2006. Just a beautiful place with a lot of history.

The historic plaque showing Marineland was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Very nice.

THE DOLORES MOTEL IN PALM COAST

About 5 miles south of Marineland on Highway A1A was the Dolores Motel before it was torn down. These pictures were taken around 2005. A very nice lady, Ida Sue Stuckey-Guidry in North Florida emailed me after seeing John Poe make a post on his Facebook. The email is below.

Dear Charles,

I came across mention of your blog on one of my Facebook pages in a comment posted by John Poe. You mentioned in your blog that you were searching for more information on Dolores Motel.

Stan and Anne Novak originally built the motel and restaurant. Stan, with the help of local labor (including my father and his brothers) quarried, cut and laid every coquina rock in those buildings. Stan and Anne named their establishment after their daughter Dolores. Dolores married Jerald Schatz, son of Robert and Ruth Schatz of Flagler Beach, and eventually she took over the operation of the motel and restaurant from her parents, although they and Dolores’ grandmother were still there everyday. Their homes were on the Intracoastal Waterway behind the motel.

Jerald Schatz is my mom’s eldest brother and I had worked in the restaurant and cleaned rooms in the motel from my earliest childhood. So did my mother, my grandmother, and my sisters.

Stan Novak passed away many years ago but ‘Nana passed just this year. Uncle Jerald also passed a few years ago from a massive heart attack. Aunt Delores is still with us and lives in the same house on the southwest corner of the property with her daughter and granddaughter.

Any questions you might have about the restaurant and motel, just ask.

Sincerely,
Ida Sue Stuckey-Guidry

P.S. I am surprised that the Matanzas Inlet Restaurant located three bridges north of Marineland has not made ‘landmark’ status. That place has been there forever too.

A very big thank you to Ida. I really appreciate the great info. I will be calling her soon for even more details. And a very big thank you also to John Poe. Without his interest in my blog, I probably wouldn't have gotten more info on the Delores Motel in Palm Coast Florida.

Marinelaneland Of Florida 2010

Thanks for looking at my little blog. I appreciate it. Check back soon, I have some more photo's from the 1980's I found of the dolphin shows and will try to get up soon. I hope you will tell your friends about this. Take care.

The Original Marineland Of Florida

The Original Marineland Was A Great Place To Visit