Strolling down the paved pathway at Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda, Bay Area residents could hardly imagine the location’s colorful and intriguing history.

Once dubbed the “Coney Island of the West,” Neptune Beach was home to the merchant marines and is better known for the invention of the Popsicle.

Neptune Beach, a historical amusement park which opened in 1917, was built upon the present day Crab Cove. The park featured several attractions, including a wooden roller coaster, a carousel and Ferris wheel, among many others.

The roller coaster named the Scenic Railway had two tracks with a green dragon and red devil side. The two tracks stretched along what is now known as Mckay St. in Alameda.
For a small fee of 10 cents, park attendees could enjoy the many attractions the amusement park had to offer.

Several Bay Area residents admitted they were unfamiliar with Crab Cove’s unique history and how the location has evolved over time.

“We get a lot of people who didn’t know this place exists stopping by,” said Shirley Knight, an interpretive student aide at the Crab Cove visitor center. “They are even more shocked to find out it used to be an old amusement park.”

“We walk by the building almost every day and had no idea of the area’s history,” said Alameda resident Dan Miller. “It is really interesting and I wish it was still an amusement park.”

Neptune Bay is now gone, and left in its wake are long forgotten traces of the park’s existence.

The closure of the attraction was partly due to the Great Depression, as well as the completion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 1939 and the closure of the Alameda Ferry.

Fun seekers simply passed the location by on their way to the city. The land laid abandoned for several years, turning into nothing more than a ghost town until it gained new life as the home base for the U.S. Maritime Service Officer Training School and home of the Merchant Marines.

The location was transformed from an amusement park into a training facility complete with an infirmary and all.

The infirmary, which still stands today, has since been remodeled and renewed as the Crab Cove visitor center, which holds exhibits about natural history as well as the history of Alameda.

Crab Cove is also home to a memorial dedicated to service men and women who trained at the facility and died during World War II.

The old infirmary-turned visitor center sits alongside the previously known Neptune Beach wooden roller coaster.

Although the history has been lost over the years, some have still managed to preserve bits of Crab Cove’s past.

The glory days of Neptune Beach can still viewed at the Alameda History Museum and in the Crab Cove visitor center. A rare video of the roller coaster and other attractions can be seen, as well as old photos from the era.

“It would have been lovely to see in its heyday,” said Karen Jensen, an Alameda resident.