House of David (commune)

==Parks==
The House of David operated a world-famous zoo and [[amusement park]] in [[Benton Harbor, Michigan]].<ref>{{citation | chapter-url = http://www.houseofdavidmuseum.org/parktour/traindepotsouth.htm | publisher = House of David museum | title = Park tour | chapter = Train depot South  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070321224937/http://www.houseofdavidmuseum.org/parktour/traindepotsouth.htm | archive-date = 2007-03-21 }}.</ref> It also established "The Springs of Eden Park" which became a popular Michigan vacation spot in the 1930s. A revamped version<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.edenspringsparkandcampground.com/ | title = Eden Springs Park}}.</ref> opened in late 2011,<ref>{{cite news |first=Ralph |last=Heibutzki |format=fee required |title=Train Rides and Many Memories |url=http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/10/30/local_news/7069941.txt |work=[[The Herald-Palladium]] |date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-11-29 }}</ref> making it – as of 2015 – one of only a few known American amusement parks to have been successfully reopened.<ref>{{cite news |first=William F. III |last=Ast |format=fee required |title=Amusement Park Revival a Rare Thing  |url=http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/amusement-park-revival-a-rare-thing/article_aa02742e-0fa0-55f9-bf1f-a6d74d632bb4.html |work=[[The Herald-Palladium]] |date=2012-10-14 |access-date=2012-10-26 }}</ref>

[[File:Miniature Railroad, House of David Park, Benton Harbor, Michigan.jpg|thumb|Miniature Railroad at House of David Park]]
One of the main attractions at The Springs of Eden Park was the coal powered miniature locomotives, purchased in 1908. Members of the commune originally observed similar locomotives at the [[1904 Worlds Fair]] in St. Louis.<ref>{{cite web|title=Miniature Trains|url=http://www.israelitehouseofdavid.com/html/miniature_trains.html|website=Israelite House of David website|access-date=29 May 2015}}</ref> The trains were used to carry people to the amusement park from the main entrance to the commune on Britain Avenue.<ref name=TherHeraldGetnewlife>{{cite web|last1=Ast|first1=William F.|title=House of David train getting new life|url=http://www.israelitehouseofdavid.com/html/HP_story.html|website=The Herald-Palladium|publisher=Israelite House of David|access-date=29 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530094633/http://www.israelitehouseofdavid.com/html/HP_story.html|archive-date=30 May 2015}}</ref> Additional amusement at the park included miniature racing cars, restaurant, penny arcade, pony rides, and dances and shows at the amphitheater.<ref name=TherHeraldGetnewlife/> [[Ring Lardner]] described the place in his 1916 short story "The Water Cure", in which some people from the Chicago area are spending the week-end at the beach:

{{Quote| We wandered round till dinner-time, and then dropped into a little restaurant where they give you a whole meal for thirty-five cents and make a profit of thirty-five cents. When we'd staggered out under the weight o' this repast, a street-car was standin' there that said it would take us to the House o' David.

"Come on!" I says, and led the Missus aboard.

"Where to?" she ast me.

"I don't know," I says; "but it sounds like a road house."

It was even better'n that. You couldn't get nothin' to drink, but they was plenty to see and hear—band concerts, male and female; movin' pitchers; a zoo; a bowlin' alley; and more funny-lookin' people than I ever seen in an amusement park before.

It ain't a regular amusement park, but fifty-fifty between that and a kind of religious sex that calls themself the Holy Roller Skaters or somethin'. All the men that was old enough to keep a beard had one; and for a minute I thought we'd bumped into the summer home o' the people that took part in Ada [the opera 'Aida'].

They wouldn't nobody of ever mistook the women for Follies chorus girls. They looked like they was havin' a prize contest to see which could dress the homeliest; and if I'd been one o' the judges I'd of split the first prize as many ways as they was women.}}

The park closed in the 1970s and the land lay fallow. In 2000, one of the trains was purchased by the [[List of ridable miniature railways|Northwest Ohio Railroad Preservation Group]], refurbished and in use at a railway museum in [[Findlay, Ohio]].<ref name=TherHeraldGetnewlife/>