Mahoning County Career and Technical Center students to restore Kooky Castle at Idora Park

A group of Mahoning County Career and Technical Center students are restoring a part of the old Idora Park amusement park. The Kooky Castle was a haunted attraction back when the park was operating; guests would sit in different cars and ride them through the castle. As it has started to degrade, this group of students have decided to do what they can to improve it. 

MCCTC student Jonathon Oles was quoted by WKBN27 about his appraisal of the project the first time he saw it: “To be honest, it looked like it was just left in a field to rot for several years.”

It appears as though some of the damage to the Kooky Castle comes from when people used the side of it for target practice. The holes made by that damage need to be fixed before the true renovations can begin. 

So far Oles and the other students have fixed part of the structure on the back which should help stabilize it. They have also been mixing fiberglass resin and using it to start the patching process on the holes. 

Joe Sandler, a collision and repair instructor, spoke more about the process, saying, “Once we start to put the fiberglass on, it should be pretty easy to take back off and reshape off with the rest of the shapes.”

Mahoning County Career and Technical Center students have worked on six other similar projects on Idora Park structures and memorabilia from when the park was operational. Idora Park was open from 1899 until 1984. 

The building now known as the Kooky Castle contained cars from the Golden Nugget in the 1960s and was changed to be more frightening in 1972 when its name was changed to the Kooky Castle. The students have also repaired the Hooterville Highway Car that was originally used to carry children around a track at the park. Last year they also worked on repairing a large model elephant. Each project has utilized different skills. 

“Every one of them was a lot of fun but they all have their different little tweaks and quirks about them,” said Sandler.

The project poses a challenge because of its size. The piece of the Kooky Castle being worked on is three feet wide and 14 feet tall and weighs over 100 pounds. Before the project of preserving local history is finished there is more painting, sanding, and grinding ahead.

Oles had a positive, if realistic vision of the end goal, saying, “I wouldn’t say it’s gonna be perfect. I would say it’s gonna be like, Oh yeah, you can definitely pass this off as it’s good enough, it’s good enough for a museum.”

Sandler illustrated the importance of projects like this for the students, saying, “Our students are beginners, and they’re learning so their skill level was low. But that’s what our goal is, to practice on something like this. So when they get no real world, they’re ready to go.”

More information about Mahoning County Career and Technical Center can be found at the school’s website.