Riverview Park was an amusement park in Chicago, Illinois, United States which operated from 1904 to 1967. It was located on of land in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago's North Center community area.
Riverview Park was established in 1904 by William Schmidt, on the grounds of his private skeet shooting range. The Schmidt family owned and operated the park for its entire lifetime.
Bill Haywood, leader of Industrial Workers of the World, once spoke at the park to a crowd of almost 80,000 people.
Enduring racially motivated myths described the park's "seedy" atmosphere in the 1950s and 1960s as it became more integrated between races. Contemporaneous articles in black publications such as The Chicago Defender described black patrons being subject to latent and overt racism. The most overt was a longstanding dunk tank attraction officially named "African Dip" and later shortened to "Dip", but often referred to by patrons as "Dunk the Nigger". In the 1950s, the NAACP and Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko successfully lobbied to shut it down.
According to Victoria Wolcott, author of the 2012 book Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters:
Riverview Park closed in 1967. A Chicago Tribune article from late 1967 blamed violence for the park's closure, though Wolcott said there was little evidence to support this. White flight contributed to Riverview Park's financial decline. The Schmidt family sold the park's land to developers at a cost of over $6.8 million ($ in ).
The grounds eventually became home to the Riverview Plaza shopping center, the Chicago Police Area 3 Detective Division, DePaul College Prep, dental equipment manufacturer Hu-Friedy Manufacturing, and Richard Clark Park of the Chicago Park District. Many items from Riverview Park, as well as paintings of the park, were displayed at the Riverview Tavern from 2005 to 2018. The park's carousel, the only ride from the park to be relocated elsewhere, continues to operate at Six Flags Over Georgia today.
A line in The Beach Boys' song "Amusement Parks U.S.A." from their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) referenced the park by name and mentioned its Pair-O-Chutes ride.
Bally Manufacturing and WNS Industries' headquarters and primary manufacturing facilities were just west of Riverview Park. Fireball, Bally Manufacturing's 1972 pinball machine, was named after Riverview Park's Fireball roller coaster. Their Aladdin's Castle amusement arcade division was named to honor the Aladdin's Castle funhouse. The Aladdin's Castle pinball machine was similarly inspired.
WMS Industries' 1985 pinball game Comet was named after another coaster at the park, and Screamo (1959) featured various rides from the park. WMS Industries' 1990 amusement park-themed pinball machine FunHouse was also inspired by Riverview Park. The Riverview Carousel is depicted on the machine's backglass.