Before Co-Op City, there was Freedomland

Freedomland U.S.A. is a failed theme park upon which the Bronx neighborhood of Co-op City would be developed. It was open from 1960 to 1964, and Co-op City would open for its first residents (including my grandmother) in 1970. Interestingly, Freedomland isn't really part of mainstream NYC collective memory, perhaps for good reason. Many of the park's attractions were rooted in stereotypes about Native Americans, or it commercialized disasters such as the Great Chicago Fire. These were marketed as aspects of nostalgia and memory, important events that shaped “American history” – the epitome of a colonial project which ultimately FAILED.