By Richard Sattanni\u00a0 10\/29\/18<\/p>\n
Join me now as we literally take a trip back in time and share some history of Seaside Park.\u00a0 Yes, our own Seaside Park offers more than swimming, fishing, and boating.<\/p>\n
The very first part of our trip begins at the entrance way as we enter Park Avenue\u2019s entrance.\u00a0 The Perry Memorial Arch greets us as it stands majestically awaiting our passage.\u00a0 This arch was dedicated to William H. Perry at a cost of seventy five thousand dollars in the year 1918.\u00a0 This is only our first stop along the way as we enter the 325 acre park some of which once belonged to P. T. Barnum. The park was one of several properties belonging to Mr. Barnum.<\/p>\n
At just about the center of the park sits a statue of the most famous showman P.T. Barnum. The huge bronze statue depicts him very cleverly; it seems he’s just eternally viewing the massive sound from his seated position.<\/p>\n
As we move further, we come across another statue.\u00a0 This is one of the great sewing machine inventor, Elias Howe.\u00a0 This statue overshadows another view of the ocean.\u00a0 Not far from Mr. Howe\u2019s statue stands yet another one which is that of Christopher Columbus.\u00a0 Again, this big statue seems to be standing attentively as though it too were viewing the mighty ocean.\u00a0 These statues mentioned are a must see for anyone, especially a history buff.<\/p>\n
Later on as our trip progresses we will come upon that of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.\u00a0 This was erected in memory of and honor of those who died in the Civil War.\u00a0 The statue was erected August 29th<\/sup>, 1866, but dedicated August 17th<\/sup>, in 1876.\u00a0 Again, Seaside shares part of its history with us as we view this beautiful monument.<\/p>\n As we leave the park our last stop is at Main Street and Park Place.\u00a0 This is where the Bergh Statue stands.\u00a0 This was constructed in 1897.\u00a0 This was built in the house of Henry Bergh, an advocate for the prevention of cruelty to animals and a horse adorns the structure in remembrance.<\/p>\n Just adjacent to the Bergh Statue during the fifties and into some of the later years were a few restaurants.\u00a0 The street along that area was lined with the Buglight Restaurant, the Seawall, and, of course, Homas\u2019.\u00a0 The younger generation always filled the parking lots with their hot rods while they enjoyed the burgers, sodas, shakes, hotdogs, etc.\u00a0 I remember this well as a teenager.\u00a0 This area was always our last stop after cruising through Seaside Park with our radios playing loudly with the music known then as Rock and Roll.<\/p>\n There is so much history at Seaside Park.\u00a0 What was once Barnum\u2019s backyard has indeed brought wonderful memories back for me and I hope for you, as well. Whether you are a history buff or not it’s a self-guided tour.\u00a0 So take a drive, a stroll perhaps, or even a bus and enjoy some of Bridgeport\u2019s past.\u00a0 I am sure you will be glad you did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Richard Sattanni\u00a0 10\/29\/18 Join me now as we literally take a trip back in time and share some history of Seaside Park.\u00a0 Yes, our own Seaside Park offers more than swimming, fishing, and boating. The very first part of our trip begins at the entrance way as we enter Park Avenue\u2019s entrance.\u00a0 The Perry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":13181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14015,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13180\/revisions\/14015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}