SurfSide Park traces its origins to Mound's Surfside Park and Beach, platted in 1881 as two parcels on Cooks Bay. Little is known of its early history until 1935, when the northerly parcel was purchased for $350. The southerly parcel consisted of five lots, four bought for a total of $2001 in 1940 and the remaining lot purchased for $1000 in 1962. To the east stood the Chapman House Hotel, homesteaded in 1881 on the site of today's Chapman Place Condominiums. The park land was part of the original plat extending around the north shore of Cooks Bay to Island Park, and in the 1880's, when land was cheap and settlers few, Arthur, Seymour, and Sumner Chapman advertised a free lakeshore lot to anyone who would build a permanent home and live there year-round. After the Chapman House Hotel closed following the 1920's, Mrs. Hattie Chapman Taylor rebuilt its boathouse into The GlenIsle Casino, with bowling, billiards, food and beverage on the first floor and roller skating with music on the second. Although the GlenIsle name faded, Casino remained in use until the early 1960's, when Bob and Joan Smeasteadt bought the property and renamed it The Surfside. As the Surfside grew in popularity from 1963 through 1984 as an entertainment destination drawing people from Mound to Minneapolis, the adjoining park also became widely known as Surfside despite a series of official names, including Village Park, Village Park on Cooks Bay, Mound Bay Park on Cooks Bay, and Mound Park on Cooks Bay. It was officially known as Mound Bay Park from 1963 through October 2011, when the name was changed through local efforts led by historian Tom Rockvam to the one most commonly used: Surfside Park and Beach.