Hoffman’s Playland and its 62-year legacy was honored for its longtime commitment to the community last week.
The Colonie Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 30th anniversary by presenting David and Ruth Hoffman with the Chamber’s first Spirit of the Community Award at its annual dinner on Thursday, Jan. 29. Chamber president Tom Nolte presented the Hoffmans with a plaque and let the community thank them through a short documentary.
“We are very humbled,” said Ruth Hoffman. “We have been humbled through the entire process of the closing of the park and the reaction of the community, and we just continue to be humbled. We just wanted to retire.”
Hoffman’s Playland passed from father to son before its close in September 2014. News of the Hoffmans retirement came in June 2013. After a long time of trying to find a buyer for the park itself, the Hoffmans had decided to sell the rides to separate buyers across the country, sparking cries of distress nationwide.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy told The Spotlight back in October that his office had been getting calls from people from California to Washington about childhood experiences at the park.
Nolte reminisced on his own memories with his children, saying the park was used as incentive to get his kids to do their homework, or a disciplinary method if they misbehaved.
“I’m quoting here. ‘If you do well on your report card or if you clean your room, or don’t fight with your brother, we’ll go to Hoffman’s.’ And of course, ‘Stop it back there, or we’ll turn this car right around and not go to Hoffman’s,’” Nolte said.
In October of last year, Huck Finn’s Warehouse and More announced it would be buying the Playland in its entirety and moving it to its Albany-based location. While Huck Finn’s Playland would cost $1.8 million to open, with $650,000 provided through grants, the outpouring of support for Hoffman’s eventually ensured it would stay within the local community.
David and Ruth Hoffman ran the park for 40 years before deciding to retire. David Hoffman said this came as something of a surprise, since he hadn’t wanted to run the park when he graduated from college.
“In 1974, I graduated from Siena College without a job prospect or direction…. I did not think of running the family amusement business. It just didn’t appeal to me during my high school and college years. Most of my free time was spent at the Playland, and quite frankly I’d had enough of it,” Hoffman said.
His first job, like thousands of young people in the last 62 years, was at Hoffman’s Playland. There, he met his wife, just like some of their employees met their spouses working summers manning the amusement park rides. In between his first summer at his family’s park and meeting his wife, the Playland had become his only job and lifelong career.
Hoffman said that their mission statement was to “provide safe, clean, affordable entertainment for the community.”
“Treat our employees as family. Treat our guests as family and expect the very best of ourselves and everyone we met,” said Hoffman to the Chamber. “Somehow, it worked out. The Playland was truly a special place.”
The 10-minute long documentary showed dozens of parents enjoying the park with their kids. One grandmother said that her grandchildren, who live out of state, always ask to go to Hoffman’s when they visited. Like Nolte, many parents spoke about fond memories with their children at the park, or even memories of riding the train as children themselves.
All agreed, though, that memories of the decades-long community staple would not soon be forgotten.
“It’s amazing that the community and people in our area thought so much of our business over all these years. We had no idea. We went to work and we did the best that we could. We always tried to offer the best and retain the value that we could for the community and never realized the immense impact we had on the community,” said Hoffman.
