Popular Ohio amusement park closing after 125 years; community wants to buy part of the park

CINCINNATI — After more than 125 years of business, a popular Ohio amusement park has shut down, but that hasn’t stopped a group of community members from fighting to keep the historic Sunlite Pool around.

According to our media partner, WCPO-9 TV, the group has offered to buy the two acres of land containing Sunlite Pool from Music & Event Management Inc. (MEMI) at “fair market value.”

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The group is called Save Coney Islanders and it’s made up of community members who have been organizing rallies, distributing petitions, and doing whatever they can to preserve the history within Coney Island’s 125-year-old property.

In late 2023, Coney Island management announced the park would permanently close at the end of the year, according to a previous News Center 7 report.

MEMI, a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), purchased the property. It plans to build a $118M “first-of-its-kind” music venue.

>>RELATED: Popular Ohio amusement park permanently closing after 125 years; posts emotional ‘Thank you’

The group has announced a new proposal after its petition to save the pool topped out at just under 25,000 signatures.

They are offering to buy the two acres of land, which include Sunlite Pool, from CSO for “the fair market value” of $145,454, WCPO-9 reported.

“As the pool was never listed for sale on the open market, it seems only reasonable that CSO should consider this offer, or make a counteroffer. CSO, show your gratitude to the citizens of Cincinnati and sell Sunlite Pool to the SCI so that we can preserve our community pool for future generations,” the group said in a press release.

>>RELATED: Popular Ohio amusement park to permanently close this year

Following the group’s protest and petition in the months after Coney Island’s closure, CSO President and CEO Jonathan Martin released a statement on March 8.

“We understand why Coney Island’s closure was met with a range of emotions. Coney Island was a part of Cincinnati,” Martin said in a statement.

CSO said it didn’t close the amusement park and pool, instead, the previous owners decided to close them both before MEMI acquired the property, WCPO-9 reported.

The statement adds that the historic Moonlite Gardens were not in operation due to the Cincinnati Fire Department deeming it unsafe and denying it an occupancy permit in 2018. Amusement park rides were also removed from the park in 2019.

>>RELATED: ‘Just devastated;’ Community members react to closure of popular Ohio amusement park

The Save Coney Islanders have focused much of their attention on saving the historic Sunlite Pool.

In 1925, the pool opened and has remained the world’s largest recirculating pool.

According to WCPO-9, the Sunlite Pool was also a battleground for civil rights.

In the 1950s, civil rights pioneer Marian Spencer fought to integrate the pool. Her challenge to the amusement park began when her sons, Donald Jr. and Edward Alexander, heard an advertisement inviting local children to visit.

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