Honorable Marie Louise Kehoe Park (Riverdale Park) & Carousel

The first stop is Kehoe Park (formerly known as Riverdale Park) which is across the street from Waterford’s Restaurant. 

From your parking space, walk to the paved path near the river and follow walk toward the sign for Kehoe Park.

To the right of the path near Kehoe Park sign is where the carousel stood alongside the Vine Rock Canoe House.

Riverdale-Kehoe Park and Carousel 

Riverdale Park was acquired by the MDC (Metropolitan District Commission) in 1931 and now is in DCR’s domain. In 2009 it was renamed in honor of Marie-Louise Chow who served on the Dedham Board of Selectmen for 40 years and was a Representative to the Massachusetts General Court from 1983–1995. 

Marie Louise Kehoe Park offers 6 acres for recreation. It includes basketball courts, tennis courts, and a playground. 

Coming into the park where the Marie Louise Kehoe sign is located, was the site of the Flying Horses Carousel. It had 56 hand carved wooden horses that were carved by same designer of those at Nantasket and Revere Beaches) and a steam engine calliope played all the popular songs of the day. The carousel was in the park from 1917-1927, offering rides for 5 cents each.

(Taken from 2/6/1998 edition of Dedham Times quoting the late David Noyd from a talk at the Riverdale School written by the late Hana Janjigian Heald. Article called, “ Riverdale Friends Create Memories”)

“The kids especially liked hearing about the two-story wooden schoolhouse on Needham Street that predated their brick one. Noyd said the last class held there was about 1922. It stayed there for years, and was a community center, until it burned down. 

 A lot of life in those days centered around the Charles River.

Canoeing was a way of life for kids, Noyd said. “ We paddled, fished, and swam in the Charles because it wasn’t polluted then.

“There were canoe clubs and large boathouses. Canoe racing was popular. Dedham even had a racer in the Olympics, named George Byers who owned an oil company later in life.” 

“And there was an amusement area called Charles River Park, opposite Gagliard’s (now Waterford’s),” Noyd said. “One of its most popular features was the merry-go round and I’ve done a painting of it and its wooden horses.”

It was sort of a family resort area, said Noyd, used by people for day trips on weekends. They would rent a canoe, swim, and ride the carousel . There was also the dance Pavilion called “Moseley’s across the street. 

 “And when moving pictures came in, they were shown on the closed sides of the carousel on Saturday night,” he said. But there were people who felt the amusement park was sinful and closed it down,” Noyd said. “The merry-go-round was dismantled. 

They took the carved wooden horses and stored them at Paragon Park, but (unfortunately) they weren’t considered works of art then and were given away.”

Noyd lamented, “We ran an ad in the Cohasset newspapers to see if we could find them or knew were they might be. If I could see one, I think I would have recognized it. They were all individual works of art.” Noyd and his friends all enjoyed their experience at the Riverdale School and said,” the kids were wide-eyed, and asked lots of intelligent questions. We think they enjoyed hearing about our ‘good old days’ in Riverdale.”