City worker Roger Moore puts up one of the new Luna Park Historic District street topper signs on July 21. The signs were designed by Corey Zinn.

photo by Robert Saunders | Charleston Gazette-Mail

Luna Park is gone. The West Side amusement park was destroyed on May 4, 1923, when a worker’s blow torch ignited a fire in the pool house, which spread to the dance pavilion and throughout the park, according to a Charleston Daily Mail report published at the time. When damage estimates came in higher than insurance coverage, the park was never rebuilt.

Instead, the property was divided into 95 lots. The deeds to these lots included a restriction that they not be sold to people of color.

Caryn S. Gresham, Charleston Gazette-Mail