Jolly Cholly Funland

Jolly Cholly’s Funland in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, once had traffic backed up for miles, but today, it is a vanished site.

What would become one of the area’s most popular amusement parks started when Charles M. Nasif and his wife, Helen, opened a dairy bar at 171 East Washington Street in 1954. Nasif, who had been a ride concessionaire at Rocky Point Park in nearby Warwick, Rhode Island, was impacted when that park was destroyed by a hurricane in 1938.

The site in Attleboro stood on swampland that was, no doubt, cheap when the Nasifs built their dairy bar. Beginning with soft-serve ice cream and soft drinks, the couple soon expanded the menu to include hamburgers, and the business was renamed Jolly Cholly Dairy Bar Beef Burgers. Later that year, he opened a second building in which pizza and other Italian delights were served, and at some point, fried clams and beer were added.

In the following years, the Nasifs expanded their site until it included 12 acres, and in 1958, miniature golf was added. The Jolly Cholly Funland was built across the parking lot from his restaurants a year later. The amusement park included a carousel, a Ferris wheel, a Kiddie Whip, children’s boats, and a roadway ride. In 1960 a roller coaster was set up, and in 1965, a train ride was added. Other adult rides were also added, including the Himalaya and a dizzying Rodeo carousel-type ride that appealed to teens.

During these years, Jolly Cholly’s, with its large parking lot, attracted many teenagers who congregated on weekends. Waitresses on roller skates took orders and brought trays of pizza, burgers, french fries, and drinks on trays attached to car windows. Nasif eventually signed Rhode Island radio and TV personality Salty Brine into the mix, having Salty make many park appearances and putting a plywood cutout of his likeness on the pizza building roof.