With the new Park Boulevard opening in late 2016, I thought this would be a good time to look at the last time Park Boulevard was relocated, in 1972.
In 1971, R. Duell & Associates proposed closing parts of West Derry Road and Park Boulevard to create a new grand entrance to Hersheypark. Part of Park Boulevard would be converted into a tram turn-around and cul-de-sac, while another part of Park Boulevard would be redesigned with a new curve north of the bridge across Spring Creek connecting it with West Derry Road.
This project was designated “Off Site Road & Tram Turn” and was estimated to cost $87,000. $42,000 for the Park Boulevard curve, $45,000 for the Tram Turn-Around. This was then expanded to be part of an even larger project, which included a tram shelter, landscaping and a fountain. These parts of the larger project were estimated to cost $215,000.
The Park Boulevard relocation project was approved by the Board of Supervisors of Derry Township on May 8, 1972. This project required the main building for the old Hershey Park Pool – the bath house – to be torn down. The first phase of the project, building the new road, began quickly after approval and only took about two months to complete. On July 28, 1972, the new Park Boulevard was opened and the old intersection of Park Boulevard and West Derry Road was closed.
The photo comment erroneously called West Derry Road, “East Derry Road.” This was published in the Lebanon Daily News, August 11, 1972, on page 8.
Park Boulevard between the old intersection and Airport Road (today, Hersheypark Drive) was shifted further west; Park Boulevard now met at an intersection with Pennsylvania Route 39 and Hershey Road.
On June 11, 1973, the Board of Supervisors approved changing the name of the segment of West Derry Road between the old intersection (which by the time this occurred was now the then-new entrance of Hersheypark) and the segment of Park Boulevard connecting to PA Route 39 to Park Boulevard. This split West Derry Road into two segments – from Park Avenue east of the park to a spot near Hersheypark Arena and from Park Boulevard west to Hockersville Road.
Eventually, all of West Derry Road would be replaced by the expansion of Hersheypark beginning in 1980, and the opening of the Giant Center in 2002.
On this map I made in Google Maps below, you can see the area surrounding Hersheypark today. I have created several layers to show the way the roads were. The first layer is West Derry Road, the second is Park Boulevard, and the third is Miscellaneous.
You can turn any of the layers on and off by clicking on the button on the top left next to the title of the map which is “West Derry Road and Park Boulevard prior to July 28, 1972.” This will open up the panel showing you the layers. You can click on the checkmark to toggle the layer on and off.
You can click on any of the icon markers on the map to read a description. In a few cases, an image is included to show a map of the spot in the past.
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I was looking on historicaerials.com at 1992 and 1999 imagery of the parking lot, and it appears to show two separate sets of toll booths for the parking lot branching off of the old entrance road in like a cactus shape. I can’t figure out how these functioned; was one set for the stadium and one for the park or Chocolate World, or were they both for the park and just for separate areas of the parking lot? It seemed like a bizarre configuration, and it makes sense that they built the new configuration in 2002 as the park got more and more traffic.
The driveway into the parking lot effectively split the parking lot in half, but it wasn’t until the toll booths were added that it mattered. Both lots were utilized for the park, though the Stadium lot was set aside on concert nights for the Stadium. Chocolate World always had its own parking lot. The new configuration was an absolute necessity once the park started building Midway America.