HARVEYS LAKE, Pa. — As demolition crews tore down the last remaining wall of what used to be the bathhouse at Hanson's Amusement Park, Bruce Hanson made sure to take pictures.
"Being that I have documentation of Hanson's back to the 1920s, I just wanted to continue into the final chapter," he explained.
Bruce was the third generation of Hanson's to operate the park. The bathhouse was built by Bruce's grandfather in the 1930s and was home to locker rooms and a roller-skating rink. The park closed in the 1980s due to skyrocketing insurance costs.
The demolition of this building began Wednesday in the snow, which coincidentally was the birthday of Bruce's grandfather.
"It's bittersweet. I operated out of there. I worked out of there. I had my captain's license at Harveys Lake, used to take people for boat rides. I had the only gas pump and Harveys Lake in the 1980s. I had the public beach here, and it meant a lot to me. It really did," Hanson said.
Harveys Lake is mostly private now, and with the demolition of the Hanson's bathhouse goes a reminder at the lake of when it was a much more public place.
"If you're looking at the old days back at Harveys Lake, and when I say the old days, I'd probably be talking the '40s up through the '80s, there was so much entertainment, things to do at Harveys Lake. There were so many places to go," explained Hanson.
Much of that fun and entertainment is now on display at Bruce's grandmother's house, that sits on land where the park used to be and overlooks the lake. He hopes to one day open a museum devoted to the park, but now he considers it a 'shrine' to good days gone by.
"I have a lot of old photos, things from Skee balls, the cards from the bingo, the old penny pitch stand," said Hanson. "The old counters from the rides. I have two of the counters that my grandfather used to have to keep track to check on his employees to make sure that they were honest. And just a lot of different memorabilia from Hanson's."
If you'd like to get a glimpse of what the park was like in its heyday at the lake, there is a documentary about Hanson's that came out last year.