Rocky Point Fun Facts and Memories
Did you know six monkeys escaped from the park in the thirties?
MEMORIES
George LaCross and his nephew Dan riding the Spider in June 1994. You can barely see Dan on the left. The Skydiver is in the background. Photo courtesy of George LaCross
“My favorite memory of Rocky Point is seeing it for the first time in summer 1962. At that time, Kiddieland was near the front entrance, on the future site of the Flume. The park staff was transforming the Fun House into the two-floor Castle of Terror (later the House of Horrors). One of the workers offered me a sneak peek inside the first floor where I saw the iconic giant bat figure attached to an overhead electric motor, which gave it the illusion of flying.” Favorite ride: The Jungleland/Jungle Terrors dark ride that operated from 1963 to 1969. —George LaCross, The Villages, Florida, formerly of East Providence
Photo courtesy of Theresa Amalfetano-Bucci
“My mom would take me and my siblings to the Rocky Point pool, where we enjoyed endless days of sun and swimming. On the way home, we would stop at my father’s ice cream store to have dinner with him. This specific day (in 1966) was shared with our cousins who were visiting from Connecticut. Priceless memories!” Favorite ride: The House of Horrors. —Theresa Amalfetano-Bucci, Warwick
FUN FACTS
The Rocky Point Monkeys
Six rhesus monkeys, which escaped from Rocky Point in 1937, lived in the woods on Warwick Neck, where the Geddes family fed them bread, fruit — bananas, of course — and built a large box filled with straw for the monkeys to survive the rough New England winters. (The monkeys also commandeered an old doghouse on the Geddes property.) During the Hurricane of 1938, a large tree fell over the moat near the park’s monkey house, allowing even more simians to escape. They were seen in Warwick Neck and Spring Green Farm for at least another year before vanishing.
Babe Ruth’s ‘Home Run’
Even though the state’s Blue Laws were firmly in place at the time, Rocky Point played host to many professional baseball games on Sundays in the early 1900s. The most famous one took place on Sept. 27, 1914, when Babe Ruth — pitching for the Providence Grays — hit a home run that sailed over right field and into Narragansett Bay. (Unfortunately for Ruth, it only counted as a triple due to the ground rules at the time.)
Leo the Lion
Photo courtesy of the Warwick Historical Society
Throughout the early twentieth century, many a child was photographed sitting on Leo, a cast-iron regal lion statue that held court at Rocky Point. Alas, poor Leo met his end one day in 1944, when vandals smashed the statue to bits, cut off his head and heaved it into the bay.
Presidential Phone Call
The first presidential phone call was made from Rocky Point on June 29, 1877, when Alexander Graham Bell phoned President Rutherford B. Hayes from the City Hotel in Providence. (Hayes was attending a clambake and addressing Civil War veterans at the park.) During the call, Hayes’ face was “wreathed” in smiles, and “wonder shone in his eyes,” according to The Providence Journal. His first words? “Please, speak a little more slowly.”
