Enchanted Forest

The company that owns Enchanted Forest on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City is apparently open to reviving the abandoned children's theme park.Rick Lepski, co-chairman of a grass-roots organization called Friends of the Enchanted Forest, said he was encouraged by his hourlong meeting a week ago with Pat Hughes, chief executive of Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust (MART), a Linthicum company that has owned the amusement park and the shopping center adjacent to it since June 1997."We seem to be all headed in the same direction," Lepski said yesterday.

A letter in a local weekly newspaper has ignited an energetic movement in Howard County to resurrect the Enchanted Forest amusement park on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City.Since Barbara Sieg's call for action was published in Ellicott City 21042/3 on Feb. 18, the weekly has received more than 150 e-mails, letters and phone calls from parents and children offering to help revive the amusement park, which closed in 1989 and briefly reopened in 1994 before closing again.Several community activists have formed the Friends of Enchanted Forest, which will hold its inaugural meeting at 7: 30 tomorrow night at Cafe Bagel in the Lynwood Square shopping center in Ellicott City.

About two dozen people -- at times nostalgic, angry and enthusiastic -- attended the first meeting of the Friends of the Enchanted Forest last night at Cafe Bagel in the Lynwood Square shopping center in Ellicott City.The group wants to find ways to revive the abandoned amusement park on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City.The meeting last night gave some who attended an opportunity to share memories of trips to the park as children or parents."It was like coming out to the country to come to a park made for us," recalled Lori Pearson, an Ellicott City resident whose parents drove her to Enchanted Forest from Washington about 30 years ago. "It was special."

On days when she takes care of her 4-year-old twin granddaughters, Ann Henry likes to visit the new 24-hour SuperFresh Supermarket at the junction of Baltimore National Pike and Ridge Road in Ellicott City.The twins, you see, like to race the mini shopping carts the store provides to keep youngsters happy while their mothers and fathers -- and grandmothers and grandfathers -- take care of business.It's a small touch, those little carts, but an important one. The SuperFresh is one of eight supermarkets -- soon to be nine -- in a 7-mile stretch of U.S. 40 that starts at Rolling Road in Catonsville and ends at the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center in Ellicott City.

Members of Friends of the Enchanted Forest unveiled last night their plan to revive the once-popular Ellicott City amusement park for children 10 and under.They say they want to keep the storybook theme of the original park -- the Alice-in-Wonderland jump down the rabbit hole, the Robinson Crusoe raft ride -- but update the park to include such modern-day attractions as bumper cars, swirling giant teacups and a miniature Ferris wheel."I'm tired of video games, tired of dropping quarters at Chuckie Cheese," said Rick Lepski, chairman of the Friends of the Enchanted Forest, a grass-roots group of citizens working to save the park.

About two dozen people -- at times nostalgic, angry and enthusiastic -- attended the first meeting of the Friends of the Enchanted Forest last night at Cafe Bagel in the Lynwood Square shopping center in Ellicott City.The group wants to find ways to revive the abandoned amusement park on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City.The meeting last night gave some who attended an opportunity to share memories of trips to the park as children or parents."It was like coming out to the country to come to a park made for us," recalled Lori Pearson, an Ellicott City resident whose parents drove her to Enchanted Forest from Washington about 30 years ago. "It was special."

The company that owns Enchanted Forest on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City is apparently open to reviving the abandoned children's theme park.Rick Lepski, co-chairman of a grass-roots organization called Friends of the Enchanted Forest, said he was encouraged by his hourlong meeting a week ago with Pat Hughes, chief executive of Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust (MART), a Linthicum company that has owned the amusement park and the shopping center adjacent to it since June 1997."We seem to be all headed in the same direction," Lepski said yesterday.

Throughout more than 20 years of protecting graveyards and seeking to revive a children's theme park in Howard County, Barbara Sieg has listened to her husband's good-natured ribbing that she has "a full-time job that didn't pay anything."Although Sieg hasn't held a paid position since 1967, she is "retiring" this year -- from the community activism field.Sieg, who also led a battle to ban shops selling pornography from the county, says she will resign this spring from the Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites Inc.She also declined to become co-chairman of Friends of the Enchanted Forest, a grass-roots organization determined to save an abandoned amusement park of the same name.

A letter in a local weekly newspaper has ignited an energetic movement in Howard County to resurrect the Enchanted Forest amusement park on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City.Since Barbara Sieg's call for action was published in Ellicott City 21042/3 on Feb. 18, the weekly has received more than 150 e-mails, letters and phone calls from parents and children offering to help revive the amusement park, which closed in 1989 and briefly reopened in 1994 before closing again.Several community activists have formed the Friends of Enchanted Forest, which will hold its inaugural meeting at 7: 30 tomorrow night at Cafe Bagel in the Lynwood Square shopping center in Ellicott City.

THE FLICKER OF HOPE that tantalizes parents wanting to bequeath some of their warmest childhood memories grows dimmer with each year that the Enchanted Forest Theme Park in Ellicott City remains closed. A stern "No Trespassing" sign hangs on the white castle that for decades introduced a fantasy wonderland to young children. Sadly, the park will not reopen any time soon, or probably ever.The park began in 1954 -- a year before Disneyland -- targeting children who consider 10-year-olds to be grown-ups.

Not all of the real estate from nursery rhymes and fairy tales is created equal. Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's bright-orange abode, where he keeps his Marie Antoinette look-alike wife, is so light that one person easily rolled it into place on a recent workday at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City. Even the Gingerbread House that Hansel and Gretel long ago discovered on a trek through the forest slid easily off a flatbed truck, with just a few pairs of hands and a two-by-four guiding it to its cozy resting spot amid the white pines.

I am suspicious of clowns. First of all, they don't say anything, ever. We're supposed to guess what they're trying to communicate - and yet their makeup frequently belies their true emotions. What's more, their costumes seem to be designed to obscure faces and genders. I don't think I have coulrophobia, which is the intense fear of clowns, because I can be in the presence of clowns. I am just more baffled by their appeal, and perhaps even a little bored by them. Great. Now a convention of clowns is going to descend upon me to prove they are neither baffling nor boring.

Entering Clark's Elioak Farm, one immediately notices that this is not your typical children's petting zoo. Instead, eye-popping colors and shapes that include a gigantic purple shoe, a huge orange pumpkin coach and a crooked house jump out at you. If the items seem vaguely familiar, you're right. They all came from the Enchanted Forest, a well-known storybook theme park in Ellicott City that closed in the late 1980s and later fell into disrepair. Over the past three years, Martha Clark has been restoring items from the former theme park and transporting them to her 540-acre Ellicott City farm and petting zoo for the next generation of children to climb on, explore and enjoy.

Clark's Elioak Farm will celebrate the Enchanted Forest's 51st birthday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 12 to 13. The farm has adopted many of the features of the now-defunct amusement park - giant fairy tale figures of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland and recently, the newly renovated Old Woman's Shoe and Three Bears' House. Farm animals to pet, hayrides and pony rides will be available, as will face-painting by Laura Renee Davis of Nouveau Face Painting, CJ's Country Catering pit beef and vintage Enchanted Forest photos.

It was not a prince, but farm owner Martha Clark who rescued Snow White from her imprisonment in a dark, cold trailer at the defunct Enchanted Forest amusement park in Ellicott City this winter. Thought to be lost, sold or stolen long ago, the fairy tale figure -- made of wire, newspaper and papier-mache -- was discovered along with Robin Hood, an armor-clad villain, three fairies and some dwarf-size beds in a trailer tucked behind a stand of bamboo on a remote corner of the property. The figures will be on display for the first time in 12 years when Clark's Elioak Farm opens for the season tomorrow.

For more than three decades people of all ages enjoyed the Enchanted Forest storybook theme park in Ellicott City. Since the park opened in 1955, legions of children frolicked in Cinderella's Castle, in the Gingerbread House and around Jack climbing the Beanstalk. After the park closed in 1986, Kim-Co Realty Co. purchased land surrounding the park, and the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center was built. Old King Cole standing atop the shopping center sign and the castle gate were the only remnants of the park the public can still see. Although the new owners didn't destroy the park, they closed it up and put "No Trespassing" signs on the fence.

Enchanted Forest Ellicott City's defunct Enchanted Forest theme park is the subject of a new exhibition at Antreasian Gallery. Wendy Wallach's hand-painted photographs depict the park from about 10 years ago, while Briana Bainbridge's photographs show it in a more recent setting. The exhibit, Enchanted Forest, opens Wednesday and runs through Dec. 10 at Antreasian Gallery, 1111 W. 36th St. There will be a reception 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Dec. 2. Call 410-235-4420 or visit antreasiangallery.

China Legend, in the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center, has long been a reliable takeout choice for my family. But with my sister visiting (and a review to write), the time had come to actually sit down for a meal in the dining room. "This is enchanting," said my sister, playing off the name of the shopping center as we walked in the front door and past a vestibule with a small, tinkling fountain. I told her that the shopping center, named for the now-defunct Enchanted Forest amusement park, was the thing that was supposed to be enchanting.

Martha Clark had just finished digging a hole outside the store at her Ellicott City petting farm when 10 people came trudging out of the nearby woods carrying a giant, rust-covered metal candy cane on their shoulders. The group made its way up the hill and carefully lowered the end of the cane into the hole. After several shovels full of dirt - along with a pause to scoop a wayward toad out of the way - another piece of the former Enchanted Forest amusement park had reached its new home.

The Ellicott City Business Association will hold "A Dogs Day in Ellicott City," with contests and pet adoptions, Aug. 20 on Main Street in Historic Ellicott City. Contests will include the first "Pet-Owner Dress-Alike Contest," in which owner and pet wear matching clothes, and "The Best Bandana Contest," in which contestants present homemade bandanas modeled by their pets. Animal Advocates will conduct pet placements at Pet Pals Inc., a pet-sitting service above the Yuppy Puppy Pet Boutique, which sells upscale apparel for dogs and cats.