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Coney Island History
CONEY ISLAND



"Coney Island is the Tom-Tom of America. Every nation has, and needs, and loves, its Tom-Tom. It has its needs of orgiastic escape from respectability - that is, from the world of What-we-have-to-do into the world of What-we-would-like-to-do, from the world of duty that endureth forever into the world of joy that is permitted for a moment. Coney Island is the most human thing that God ever made, or permitted the devil to make." Richard LeGallienne, 1905.

  



Once the premier playground of the world. The place where the amusement park, the hot dog and the roller coaster were born. At its height, it was home to three amazing amusement parks: George C. Tilyou's Steeplechase Park, Luna Park and the short-lived Dreamland. Located on a relatively small strip of beachfront in Brooklyn, Coney Island captured the imagination of a nation teetering on the edge of the modern age. Much of what was presented at Coney Island as entertainment would become technology in the years ahead: electric lights, movies, futuristic rides and fantastic flights of fantasy.



Bathers at Coney Island's Iron Pier

Coney began attracting visitors around the time of the Civil War as people ventured there in the heat of summer or to avoid epidemics of diseases which passed through the city.  At first there were only a few ramshackle shacks serving beer and clams, but it wasn't long before businessmen began to see the possibilities for profit available to them along this stretch of oceanfront.   Soon, hotels, restaurants, beer gardens, music halls and carnival attractions sprang up in short order.  Sea bathing gained in popularity as people sought ways to escape the crowded, sultry city and bathhouse owners started vying for beachfront.   All the time, still more and greater amusements were created to thrill and astound the general public.   Steamboats and railroads began carrying loads of passengers to the seashore and the popularity of West Brighton exploded.  Here would be born the most famous of Coney Island's attractions - the pounding heart of the place.  There were delights beyond the comprehension of the public of the day.      The birth of the American amusement park was at hand.  The creation of the hot dog.   New fangled electric lights, so new that they had not yet become a simple utilitarian object, were used in overwhelming quantities to dazzle eyes unaccustomed to their brilliance.  The clanging of rides, the breathtaking plunge of the rollercoaster were intoxicating to men and women used to the quiet tenor and sedateness of Victorian life. The spectacle, the razzle dazzle, the sheer excitement of Coney Island would combine to create an amalgam so potent that it would captivate the imagination of the world. Even today, years after the decline and disappearance of nearly every vestige of the place, the very words "Coney Island" are synonymous with that rare and otherwise indescribable magic we so seldom experience today.

Stereoscope view of the Iron Pier, Coney Island

The Manhattan Beach Hotel, one of the three great hotels at Coney

Panorama showing a distant Brighton Beach hotel

Panoramic view of Coney Island 1910
Taken from the top of the Dreamland Chutes



Picnic in the sand at Coney Island

Giant Racer Coaster



Stauch's Hotel, Surf Avenue entrance
The vacant ruins of the once glorious Stauch's appeared,
time worn and sadly covered in graffiti,
in the film "The Warriors."   
It has since been demolished


Advertisement for Stauch's

Lifeguards at West Brighton Beach

Feltman's Restaurant
Feltman was the creator of the hot dog and Nathan Handwerker
(later the founder of Nathan's Famous) got his start working there
as a bun slicer.

The entrance to the Loop the Loop from Surf Avenue

and the ride itself

The Johnstown Flood exhibit
(my personal collection includes items belonging to
a couple who honeymooned at Coney in the early 1900's.
Included are photos and their Johnstown Flood exhibit
program.  These items will be scanned and added to
the site as time allows).


Coney Island Scenic Railway


Balmers Bathing Pavilion

Boardwalk at Night, 1920's
This photograph is particularly interesting because of the building at center.
This is Child's Restaurant.  Of everything in the photo, it is the only thing
still standing.  Currently empty, it is still covered in exquisite tile work
featuring Poseidon, mermaids and exotic fish.  Most people mistakenly think
it was a bathhouse, as did a jogger who tried to tell me that while I was there.
I will add photos which I took of this building in 1996 as soon as they can be scanned.
Recently the Child's building was featured in the film "Maid in Manhattan" where it was portrayed
as a community center under threat of demolition.