Brooklyn, New York, USA

Closed 2002

The Disappointed Tourist: Fairyland Kiddie Park Ellen Harvey, 2021. Oil and acrylic on Gessoboard, 18 x 24″ (46 x 61 cm). Photograph: Etienne Frossard.

Fairyland Kiddie Park, also known as “Buddy’s,” for the restaurant in front, was a small amusement park and arcade that opened in 1952 and was located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Utica Avenue. It was managed by Irving Miller and Leo Davis until its closure in 2002. The site is now occupied by a PetCo, the pet food chain. The painting is based on a photograph published in bklyner.com that was originally found on Facebook. No photographer is credited.

Fairyland was a pocket of joy in the forever industrializing city, rides seem to grow through cracks like flowers; and now the space is just glass reflecting its former shell. Dominus S.