Family Fun Park Still Hangs On

WOODINVILLE

Take a few steps across Gold Creek Park and descend 40 years in time, when the only dome around here capped a sports arena the late William Tyrrell built on a farm along 140th Place Northeast.

Tyrrell's 35-foot Space Needle lit the night sky here, just as the 605-foot version did in Seattle. His stern-wheeler, the Lollipop, carried children down the Peppermint River.

Tyrrell, who had amassed a fortune with his Seattle pet-food business by the 1940s and '50s, ostensibly created an amusement park on this 70-acre site bisected by trickling Gold Creek.

This millionaire dreamer, who loved children and architecture, left behind a history of Northwest popular culture in miniature relief.

"I have talked to thousands and thousands of people who said they spent childhood days here," said the estate's current owner, William Dahl.

The Dahl family runs the Gold Creek Tennis and Sports Club on the property, which it purchased and began renovating in 1976. Another section of Tyrrell's Gold Creek Park, east of the sports club, is now a county park of the same name.

Some of Tyrell's attractions suffer from poor upkeep. The old grist mill is in ruins. The miniature Space Needle, though still standing, doesn't light up anymore, and its elevator no longer works.

Chuck Lee was park manager in the early 1960s and took part in many of Tyrrell's construction projects on the site. "I don't like to drive by," Lee lamented. "It just doesn't look like it did when I left it."

Dahl said maintaining the entire property the way Tyrrell did would require an enormous expense. Nevertheless, Dahl's daughter-in-law, Lynda Dahl, said she doesn't want people to forget the estate's former lives.

Seattle World's Fair construction workers bunked here in the early 1960s, she said. The mini-Needle, like its Seattle namesake, celebrates its 35th birthday this year, too.

When the Dahls took over, the farm was known as a Northwest version of Woodstock. The investors who ran the estate in the late 1960s, after Tyrrell sold it, held rollicking rock concerts at the sports arena. Neighbors, favoring peace and quiet, never quite appreciated Led Zeppelin or Linda Ronstadt, or their bell-bottomed fans.

"I had to promise (neighbors) not to have concerts, and I have kept that promise to this day," William Dahl said.

Other things have changed. The dome, originally built to house an ice-skating rink in the 1950s, now hosts pickup basketball and volleyball games. Today, Tyrrell's dance hall is an aerobics room.

The grist mill, complete with an 18th-century wheat-grinding stone that Tyrrell bought in Virginia, hides under a shroud of untrimmed trees and bushes.

The Old West fort he built has been taken down. The canal that carried the Lollipop is a thing of the past. But a nearby horse park and trout farm that Tyrrell created are still in operation, under different management.

Tyrrell went to great lengths, physically and creatively, to achieve his dream of an amusement park. The arena dome was built with wooden one-by-twos stacked in concentric circles, an innovation for the time.

The dance hall came with wooden floorboards supported by a soft, rubbery base to give the sensation of floating on air.

He built a swimming pool with a retractable roof, but it doesn't retract anymore.

The Dahls use several of the original facilities, including the pool, and host a number of family-oriented activities at their club, in part as a tribute to Tyrrell's vision of an idyllic family gathering place, Lynda Dahl said.

"It reflects today what it always did," she said. "It's always been about families." Roadside Attractions is an occasional feature of The Seattle Times Eastside edition. If you spot something on the Eastside you'd like to know more about, contact us via the addresses at the top of this page. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Getting there

The Gold Creek Tennis and Sports Club, at 15327 140th Place N.E. in the Hollywood Hill neighborhood, is a private club, but its driving range is open to the public.

Heading south on 140th Place Northeast, the miniature Space Needle can be seen from the road just past the club's entrance. Visitors must check with the front office before venturing onto the site.