A favorite souvenir from a day in a theme park may often be a hat-- sometimes practical to help protect from the sun and heat, and sometimes silly which will never be worn again.
	When Great Adventure opened in 1974, one of the original areas of the park was the Happy Feeling petting zoo. As part of the Happy Feeling area a unique octagonal building was constructed with large glass windows. This structure was the Snake House, and was a display for an array of snakes which guests could watch behind the big windows. Happy Feeling only lasted through the end of the park's second season in 1975, and when it closed the Snake House closed with it. The building sat vacant for a year until the 1977 season saw the construction of a new pathway in front of the former Snake House and it received a new purpose.
	For the 1977 The Mad Hatter became Great Adventure's premier hat shop, selling an array of souvenir headwear. The former snake enclosure became the stand's storage room, and the former overhanging roof was enclosed and a counter was created where the hats were displayed and sold. The building's name came from Alice in Wonderland, which was in the "public domain" and free to use, though the sign featured a distinctly Disney version of the Mad Hatter character. With the purchase of Six Flags by Time Warner in the 1990's an effort was made to theme sections of the park that had lacked thematic elements in the past, and with that retheme came a renaming of the stand to Bavarian Hat Works to match the newly themed Old Country section of the park.
	The Bavarian Hat Works closed at the end of the 1997 season and sat unused for four seasons, finally reopening as a Henna Tattoo stand in 2003. For the 2008 season the entire Old Country section of the park was closed and blocked off and the stand sat vacant for several more years.
	Though the front of the stand had been expanded and updated, the back of the stand which was not seen by guests remained unchanged since the structure was built in 1974 as the Snake House. One of the large glass windows was still in place, along with the original can light fixtures. The small access door for keepers to get to the snakes inside was still there though the snakes were long gone.
	The pathway remained closed and unused until the Holiday In The Park event saw it reopen to host some holiday displays. Finally in the 2017-2018 off season the building was demolished along with the remains of the Old Country area of the park.
Original Spotlight:  May 22, 2013; Updated:  July 28, 2023.  GAH Reference#:  SHOP-1977-004