Luna Park is gone. The West Side amusement park was destroyed on May 4, 1923, when a worker’s blow torch ignited a fire in the pool house, which spread to the dance pavilion and throughout the park, according to a Charleston Daily Mail report published at the time. When damage estimates came in higher than insurance coverage, the park was never rebuilt.
Instead, the property was divided into 95 lots. The deeds to these lots included a restriction that they not be sold to people of color.
In 2012, the neighborhood was designated the Luna Park Historic District, roughly bounded by Kanawha Boulevard West, Main Street, Glenwood Avenue and Delaware Avenue. It is one of Charleston’s seven historic districts, and is so recognized because homes there reflect the small house movement between the two world wars.
Read more at the Gazette-Mail: