This most unusual and quaint amusement park was founded in 1899 and thousands of people near and far flocked to Glen Echo from the areas of Maryland and Washington, D. C. It was just a chance happening for me that I visited the enormous fair-type facility when a teenager, so I was so overwhelmed with the flair and originality, so unlike the place at Chilhowee Park in Knoxville, that I only remember going there, but not having fun. My sister who lived in different towns around the D.C.area took her children there on occasion, as she did to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. So, these lovely photos bring back a 'lost' memory of doing someing unusual in my drab life of growing up without a mother. It closed in 1968, as things of that quality tend to do and deemed a failure; thank goodness, it was not torn down.In 1977, it was reopened by the National Park Service as a training center for the arts and education Chataquacha-type of hands-on participation, avant guarde for the yuppies. We have such a area now in Knoxville called the Emporium, still learning how to manipulate the various areas of art, music, and dance in a small area. Thanks to President Nixon's foresight in building some modern 'Victorian style' houses as a world housing exhibit, the painters, jewelery designers, potters, sculpture professors, even the executive director of the U.S. Botanic Garden who has created the ultimate garden there beside her residence complete with Buddha and Japanese fountains.It is an experimental project along the lines of Chatauqua, New York, where intellectuals take a yearly pilgrimage to hear lectures on various subjects and watch professional performances. Lilliam Harwell always enjoyed going there, even though she could not pronounce the name of the place.Glen Echo, with the Ballroom, 84-yr-old carousel, the Crystal Pool, and the 1891 Glen Echo Park granit towers, has returned to its roots as a place where people come to dance, dream, and have fun. It is a photographer's delight and a marvelous thing to see and re-live the times you went there in the past.