By the mid-1880s, South Beach's amusement area consisted of a boardwalk, a carousel, a Noah's Ark ride, beer gardens, as well as games of chance and other suspicious game booths. However, the beach was still the most popular activity in the area, and picnicking was a common activity. As a result of reforms in 1890, these questionable game booths had been removed and bathing kiosks had been built in their place. Much of the area was destroyed by a fire in September 1896 that destroyed a third of the boardwalk, as well as numerous hotels and businesses, two hundred bathhouses, a carousel, and a photo gallery. Many of the hotels could not feasibly be rebuilt, as the leases expired in one and a half years. LaMarcus Adna Thompson built one of his Scenic Railway roller coasters in South Beach in 1899, though that only lasted four years. Another large fire swept the area in 1902.