The Wonderland Park at Lake Street and 31st Ave. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was in operation from 1905-1912. One of its main attractions, the Infantorium, was a hospital-like facility filled with incubators containing premature babies. Parents were not charged and any child referred by a physician was eligible for treatment. The Infantorium is still standing and has been converted to an apartment building on the southeast corner of the intersection at 31st Avenue and 31st Street. |
Wonderland Park is Well OpenedGreat Crowds Throng New Amusement ResortTen Thousand Persons Present on Opening Day and Yesterday the Number Was Tripled – Features Rapidly Getting Into Working OrderThe Minneapolis Journal, May 29, 1905, Page 7 |
Wonderland park has had an auspicious opening. Saturday the park was visited by 10,000 persons and Sunday's afternoon and evening attendance was triple that number. The scenic railroad, the miniature railroad, the old mill and the chutes are all in running order now. There were delays and hitches, as might be expected, in the starting of these devices, but every hour has added to the smoothness with which the different attractions are operated. By tonight it is expected that the carroussel, the house of nonsense and the crystal maze will be added to the features of the park. The wiring is about completed also for the electric tower, which with fifty more arc lights will be added to the illumination of the grounds.
Already there are two little patients reposing in the infant incubators and the exhibit was thrown open yesterday. Today several others, it is expected, will be added.
Dr. S. Schenkein, in charge of the incubators, who has been associated with Dr. M. A. Couney ever since the first exhibit made in Berlin in 1896, says: "We never have difficulty in getting all the babies that we can care for. We make no charge for the treatment, and any doctor, nurse or experienced mother, who will investigate, will be perfectly assured of the soundness of the theory of the incubator system for the saving of the lives of prematurely born children and of the intelligent care babies in our charge receive.
"The principle of the incubator is thousands of years old, viz., proper and even temperature. It can be traced back 800 years at least to the practice of the peasants of Silesia in placing weakly babies in bags of feathers, or in England ,of placing such infants in ovens kept at a certain heat. Our invention is to provide a temperature regulated by a thermostat the works automatically. Sanitary precautions, good nursing, and nature's food do the rest, so that we have been able to show by our records that 85 per cent of the children entrusted to our care live that would otherwise have died."
Tomorrow Wonderland will open its gates to Memorial Day crowds at 11 a.m. keeping open continuously to 11 p.m. There will be a special program of fireworks in the evening.