Children's Fairyland opened on Sept. 2, 1950, on the shore of Lake Merritt, and admission cost 9 to 14 cents. Visitors entered through the Old Woman's shoe. Seventy-five years later, the 10-acre park still has that storybook feel, and it remains one of the best-loved places in the Bay Area for kids under 8.

The Disney connection

The park began with an Oakland nurseryman, Arthur Navlet. On a 1947 trip he saw nursery-rhyme buildings at a Detroit children's zoo and wanted larger ones in Oakland that kids could climb into. The Lake Merritt Breakfast Club backed the idea, and parks director William Penn Mott Jr. helped raise $50,000 from residents. Artist William Russell Everritt designed the original 17 sets. After being told his first models were too staid, he made buildings with no straight sides and wild colors.

Walt Disney toured Fairyland in 1950 while scouting ideas for the park that became Disneyland. He later hired Fairyland's first director, Dorothy Manes, as Disneyland's youth director, a job she held until 1972. Artist Ruth Asawa contributed work to the park, and Frank Oz, later famous with the Muppets, was an apprentice puppeteer there as a teenager. Its Open Storybook Puppet Theater is described as the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States.

Don't skip the Magic Key

More than 20 Talking Storybook Boxes are spread around the park. Put a Magic Key in a box and turn it, and you'll hear a story in English or Spanish. Keys are sold in the gift shop or online, and their colors change, so kids collect them.

Hours and tickets

  • Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting.
  • Prices: $18 for children ages 1 to 17, $20 for adults and $17 for seniors 65 and up. Military members and veterans get $3 off each ticket.
  • Oakland Fridays: Residents with an Oakland ID pay $5 per child and $10 per adult for walk-up admission on Fridays.
  • Fairyland for All: Holders of EBT, CalFresh, BIC or WIC cards pay $5 per person, for up to eight people per household.

Good to know

Adults can't enter without a child, and children must come with an adult. Pets aren't allowed, though trained service animals are. City parking on Bellevue Avenue costs $3 for two hours or $10 for a full weekday, and $5 on weekends and holidays. For a quieter visit, Fairyland suggests its least crowded days. It also lends noise-reducing headphones and a sensory "Tactile Tote" at the front desk.