Freedomland U.S.A. opened on Father’s Day, June 19, 1960, in the Bronx, and singer Pat Boone and his family cut the ribbon, according to New York Almanack.
The park was the idea of Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood, known as C.V. Wood, who led the planning team for Disneyland in the mid-1950s, Atlas Obscura reported. Fans called Freedomland the ‘Disneyland of the East.’ It sat on 205 acres, but the attractions took up just 85 of them, New York Almanack said.
Building it cost $65 million, about $630 million today, according to The Bronx Times. About 1.5 million people visited in the first season, short of the 5 million the owners expected, Atlas Obscura said.
Debt from construction and an off-season closure from October to May kept the park in the red, Atlas Obscura reported. The outlet said competition from the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens was cited as the last straw.
Freedomland filed a petition under Chapter 11 on September 15, 1964, according to a federal court opinion. The company was adjudicated bankrupt on August 30, 1965, after its arrangement with creditors failed.
The land is now Co-op City, where more than 40,000 people live, per the Bronx Library Center. Author Michael Virgintino believes developers used the park to test whether the marshy ground could support apartments, Atlas Obscura said.
The same year Freedomland went under, Claude Bell’s 150-foot Cabazon dinosaur began rising to sell burgers.
This story was originally published by Parade on Oct 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.