Speedway Roadside

Before fast food restaurants began to proliferate across the  countryside,  people, especially families, packed sandwiches, drinks, and snacks to eat when taking long trips by car. There were few comfortable place to stop to eat. People often drove to the roadside to park and either spread a blanket on the ground or find a tree stump or log to serve as a chair. The need for roadside parks with picnic tables  became apparent.

Reportedly the first roadside park was developed in Michigan. In 1920 a young county engineer, Alan Williams, observed a family trying to eat a picnic lunch on a big tree stump beside the road. He saw how uncomfortable it was for the family to have to stand to eat or sit on a rock or the ground.

When his road clearing crew was waiting around for a snowstorm to begin he had them start building picnic tables with benches out of scrap lumber. He had them painted green and when Spring came he had them placed along the road where there was enough room for a car to pull off and park. The idea caught on and soon small roadside parks started showing up in all states. ---restareahistory.org

The Keatleys own the land near Athens where the Speedway Roadside Park was located. The owners had an agreement with the State of West Virginia that the State would develop a park on the property. The agreement was for 10 years and stipulated the State would lease the property for $1 per year. It was also agreed that the State would do all maintenance, clean-up and supervision of the park.

One of the major draws to the Speedway Roadside Park for local families and travelers was the artesian well located on the property. Artesian wells are wells that have free flowing, spring water that comes from underground with enough pressure that pumps are not needed.

Travelers and locals alike stopped by the park to drink the cold, pure spring water from the well. They would also bring containers to take water home with them. This was long before bottled water was available everywhere.

The State put in a water fountain served by the Artesian well and built a cover over it. They added picnic tables and toilets. They built nice rock barbecue pits for cooking hamburgers, hotdogs or roasting marshmellows. They painted everything green to match the environment, even the trash containers were green and white striped.

The park became a favorite place to have a family picnic and enjoy being out-of-doors. Travelers found it a great respite during their long trips. It was a comfortable place to eat lunch before continuing on their journey.

Toward the end, the State was not doing a great job of supervising the park and people reportedly started taking advantage of the facilities, partying, drinking and taking drugs late into the night. They also used the park as a shortcut to other areas in the neighborhood.

When it came time to renegotiate the lease the landowner asked for some concessions that the State refused to consider. As a consequence, the landowner put up a fence, blocked access to the park, and closed it. Before the landowner died, he had a pipe put in that extended from the well to the road so people still had access to the water. That access is no longer available. The well is quite likely dry now. The cover over the well and the picnic tables and toilets have fallen in.

With the advent of fast food restaurants popping up along every road and highway, roadside parks have become rather obsolete. Speedway Roadside Park and many other small roadside parks have become overgrown, in disrepair, and no longer usable.