Pontchartrain Beach ran 55 years in New Orleans — attendance buried it

Harry J. Batt Sr. opened Pontchartrain Beach on 30 June 1928 at Bayou St. John, and when the new seawall was built the park moved to the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue; in 1939 the Batt family signed a lease with the Orleans Levee District for the amusement park there. On 21 acres of made beach it grew into the city's amusement park: the Zephyr wooden coaster, an Olympic-size pool, a waterfront stage for live shows, and a midway of rides.

Harry Batt Jr. and John Batt ran the park after their father, through decades when it was a fixture of New Orleans summers. But by the early 1980s attendance had been falling for years, the lake water had grown too poor for swimming, the beachfront was eroding, and hurricanes kept the costs of a waterfront park climbing.

On 5 September 1983 Pontchartrain Beach admitted the public for the last time; the park was sold on 23 September 1983, with one brief reopening for a charity event. In 1991 the University of New Orleans bought part of the property for its Research & Technology Park, which now occupies the site alongside the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.