Fajitaville added a Ferris wheel just outside its North Beach restaurant in Corpus Christi. Staff Photo
Warm weather may be all that’s keeping the new Ferris wheel on North Beach in Corpus Christi from swinging into action. Erected in December with a projected start up of New Year’s Day, Lynn Frazier’s whimsical dream of bringing back North Beach’s glory days turned into a bureaucratic nightmare, grounding the wheel before it could even begin. Until, this week, when the city’s planning commission granted the first of two wishes needed to welcome the first riders aboard.
Fajitaville owner Lynn Frazier, who bought the Ferris wheel in red and yellow colors to match his bright, cheerful North Beach restaurant, was originally told by city staff a permit to operate would be no problem. He then learned — after the attraction was in place — he would need city council approval since he planned to leave it up long term.
The wheels of red tape turn much slower than those on the newest North Beach attraction, Frazier learned. Even with the planning commission approval, he still must wait for the city council. The good news is that he can obtain temporary promotional permits for 16 days at a time (as many as four times) until that happens.
Since he already has the needed state inspection, all he needs now is warm weather, Frazier said.
The Ferris wheel is a throwback to the days when North Beach was an amusement park that included a carousel, roller coaster, saltwater pool, water slide and fishing piers along with its eye catching Ferris wheel. As many as 4,000 people visited North Beach on any given weekend in the mid 1930s through the 1940s. Some 20,000 could be expected on a holiday weekend.
North Beach became a cul-de-sac by-passed by traffic zooming across the Harbor Bridge, which opened in 1959. Once known as the Playground of the South, it began to decline until attractions like the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay were added.
Frazier’s dream is to “one step at a time” rebuild some of that glory. Next step could possibly be a carousel, he said.
A little Ferris Wheel history
Named after its inventor, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., the original Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Also knonw as the Chicago Wheel, the first such attraction was 264 feet tall and carried 36 cars. At the fair, it carried 38,00 visitors a day.
A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ferris made his name as an expert in structural steel. He founded G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test railroad tracks and bridges.
