Financed by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, the Florida attraction opened on June 23, 1938. Originally designed as a motion picture studio for the purpose of filming sea life, an estimated crowd of 10,000 people attended the opening. Located eighteen miles south of historic St. Augustine, Florida, it went through several ownership changes from the mid-1980s. The name exists but the attraction is totally different as it is more of a “discovery” experience where swimming with the dolphins is the feature. Once the original attraction featured a restaurant, motel, service station, gift shop, and more.

Late 1930s/early 1940s view of the attraction with gift shop to the left and gift shop in the foreground

Aerial view mid-1960s

Bus Depot for north-south bound Greyhound and Trailways buses

Curator Forrest Wood and early sonar location experiment in tank near the laboratory

Very early images

Early amenities. Notice the beach with coquina rock formations

Company newsletter noting how and who discovered porpoises could be trained

Late 1950s view of entrance area

Personal photo of Mitch Lightsey feeding in what was the educated porpoise stadium

View of the stadium show mid 1950s

One of hundreds, if not thousands, publicity photos released over at least six decades

Games

View all games

Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing!

Follow Bored Panda on Google News!

Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda!