The Last “White City”
That headline is not what you think it is.
I’m about 18 years late, but I recently picked up the award-winning, best-selling book The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s the tale of America’s “first serial killer” — H.H. Holmes — set to the backdrop of the creation of the World’s Columbian Exposition, a.k.a. the first White City. The fair, which was erected in Chicago in 1893, was dubbed The White City because of its stucco buildings and many lights.
The World’s Columbian Exposition kicked off a period of time when amusement parks and fairs were all the rage — ya know, before we spent 10 hours a day in social media land. In addition to white cities, luna parks such as Coney Island (1903) and electric parks, which were owned by electric companies and featured electric trolleys, began sprouting up all over the world.
Approximately 100 white cities, luna parks, and electric parks existed in America between the late 1800s and the 1940s, and almost all of them are now defunct. Of course the luna park Coney Island still stands today, but there is only one remaining white city in America, and that white city is a few miles from my house.
