Popular amusement park on New Jersey’s coast to close after nearly 100 years

Gillian’s Wonderland, a popular boardwalk amusement park in Ocean City, New Jersey, has announced its closure after 94 years of operation.

Jay Gillian, owner and operator of the park, said in a statement posted on Facebook that he plans to close the park to retire.

“After 47 incredible years of working on the Ocean City Boardwalk, I have no choice but to retire and close,” he wrote. “It was my life, my legacy and my family. It’s sad to let go.”

Gillian added that he was no longer able to maintain the theme park’s financial liquidity.

“I have tried my best to keep Wonderland alive for as long as possible, despite the difficult challenges it has faced each year. But it is no longer a viable business,” he wrote.

The attraction and the 6th Street Pizza and Grill restaurant will remain open over Indian Summer Weekend (October 12-13) so ticket holders will have the opportunity to use them.

The park made headlines in 2021 when it defaulted on $8 million in loans and went into foreclosure.

“It’s devastating,” Rachel Pileggi of Valley Forge told the Philadelphia Inquirer while at the park with her family. “Now I can’t really show my kids what I grew up with.”

“It’s sad that it can’t continue,” Stacey Harp of Huntingdon Valley also told the news agency. “They don’t have anything that’s fun anymore, the places, the things that we went to as children.”