They should bring back the ‘zoo’.

George — I too remember the old jet fighter. When I was really young, about 5 or 6, there was a 1928 RFD pumper truck on the grounds. I was fascinated by that big red firetruck. I believe it was finally removed because unscrupulous types had stripped all the brass fixtures from it. And it probably wasn’t too safe to play on either, but man, was it fun!

btw– don’t know if you’ve been over to the Pullen Park amusement area recently, but every bit of Dick Bell’s design is gone, pavements, retaining walls, the observstion deck, the bridge over the little train tracks– everything is gone. Even the 1920s era carousel house has been demolished. (The mery-go-round itself is being refurbished and will return when the park reopens.)

As a native of Raleigh, I’ve been going to Pullen Park for many years but I can’t recall ever seeing a skating rink (for ice skates? roller skates?)and have only a dim memory of a zoo. Maybe I’m thinking of another park, but seems like the Pullen Zoo consisted mainly of some tropical birds and monkeys. I can’t even remember where this zoo was located. Most of my time at Pullen Park then and more recently was spent riding the wonderful merry-go-round and the train. I liked the boats too but once you reached a certain size, getting into those boats was out of the question. I recall going to city-sponsored Easter Egg hunts at Pullen, usually on Saturday before Easter with Monday being a rain date. When I was at State in early ’70’s, Pullen was a favorite site in the spring for those afflicted with spring fever. During spring semester, 1971, two basketball players cut a sociology class we were in and were later arrested for smoking weed at Pullen Park.

Who/what firm is redesigning Pullen Park? Seems like it had been revamped not that long ago (OK, time flies) and I thought it looked pretty good.

I’m not sure when the skating rink disappeared, but my mother, who was born in 1934, had many fond memories of walking from Caraleigh to the park with her brother to skate. Back when pre-rock music used to be on the radio, she would often say upon hearing certain songs, “Ooh! I remember skating to that at Pullen Park.”

I remember the airplane and fire-truck.

When I was little, I thought people were calling it “Pool and Park,”
kinda like WKIX’s “channel lady five” or Bob
Debardelaben’s “windshield factor.”

The skating rink was adjacent to the pool area. Viewing from the carosel it was to the right of the pool. The train passed through the zoo area. Then the zoo area became the picnic areas[hilltop]. The train was for a while on the short oval trek afterwards… then once again went through the “hill” area. I operated several of the rides carosel and train-ride for a short stint of time during the summer. At that time [66-67+/-] when it was the short track. the train design at that time was the more modern looking locomotive streamline, the latter went back “retro”. Along with the “jet” and the “firetruck” there were also [grab your children;o)] monkey bars, and a rather mundane “boatride”[generally for the smaller kids]. The “lake” to the right of the pool… viewing from carosel area was little more than a marsh pit… severely overgrown. Was rare to see even a duck out there, the water was stagnant. The “action” areas of the park during that time were the pool and the small gazeebo structure housing the “jukebox” and small “dancefloor”… between carosel and pool. Often people would go “over the hill” to watch NCSU football practice.

i wonder if anyone has a photo of the old jet. i climbed all over that thing in the day. i thought i recalled it as being a delta wing but turns out it was an f86 sabre (korean era). i remember being at the pool through my formative years of 11,12,13,etc., the years being ’68’69’70 and remember 3 songs in particular playing at the gazebo, “love the one you’re with”,”closer to home”, and “if you let me make love to you” by ronnie dyson. also our class field trips from knightdale went there and we would swing so high on the swings and then bail out at top dead center. guess what. we’re still alive. or at least some of us.

Wanda, yes they are and the ones in Jaycee Park.