Also known as Rainbow Park, Suburban Park was a thirty-five-acre amusement park owned and operated by the Farmington Street Railway Company, which charged fifteen cents for the one hour and fifteen-minute ride from Hartford. Extending well into today’s Farmington Woods, it hosted not only amusements but also festivals, lectures, dances, and other special events. Wooden stairs at this entrance led uphill to the dance pavilion, and other buildings included a pagoda, photography gallery, ice cream parlor, and trolley offices. The grounds featured acres of manicured lawns, canals, a dam, and miles of shaded paths lit by Japanese lanterns hung in the trees. Visitors played ball games, studied trees and birds, played tennis, and enjoyed swings and hammocks. Many organizations used the park, including the Courant’s Fresh Air Fund, Good Will Boys, Open Hearts Shelter, Sunday school picnics, Sisters of Mercy, and Friday Eve Club, and local factories held company outings there. The park closed in 1905 after the trolley company reduced the schedule and increased the fare. Afterward, the land and buildings changed hands many times, and during World War Two it served as one of the town’s two airplane observation posts. In 1999, after residents stopped a plan to mine the property for sand and gravel and build fifty houses, a developer sold the land to the town, and it became a town-owned open space for passive recreation where the public can enjoy history and natural beauty.