COURTESY OF DAN KERLEE

Part of the roof of the Madison Park Pavilion shows bottom left in the historical photograph, and it was the pavilion’s tower that allowed this soaring view south into the gated amusement park of White City. The contemporary photograph was a low-elevation compromise taken from a Madison Park playground slide with the camera extended on a monopod.

FOR ALL ITS physical aplomb — especially the grand front gate shown here — White City at Madison Park was more fizzle than dazzle.

The amusement park began with a cartooned proposal. In a 1906 advertisement that features a detailed bird's-eye sketch of the place, Emile Lobe, the secretary for Borderland White City Co., announced, "Happy Days will follow the building of Seattle's Big Amusement Park, a local enterprise that is now building on the shores of Lake Washington, south of Madison Street."

Lobe, who was also known locally as a fine violinist, was fiddling here as well. His illustrated promotion listed a June 1 opening while it promoted "White City Bonds . . . Not a speculation, but a certain money-maker . . . the best investment offered thus far in 1906." But White City did not open any summer soon and is listed in city directories only for the years 1910 through 1912. In that short life, its most popular amusement was the miniature "Lake Shore Railway," which was frequently stuffed with adults as kids yearned for the next go-round.

Admission to White City through its grand gate cost 10 cents. The carnival also had a roller-coaster, a ferris wheel, scheduled performances and a few sideshow oddities. Some of these were brought over from the Pay Streak, the carnival part of that grander Seattle "White City," the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, after it closed. The A-Y-P was held on the campus of the University of Washington during the warmer months of 1909.

Paul Dorpat's and Genevieve McCoy's award-winning illustrated Washington state history, "Building Washington," is available for $50 from Tartu Publications, P.O. Box 85208, Seattle, WA 98145; 206-547-7678.