Coney Island

by Laura J. Hoffman

Coney Island is famous for so much more than just hot dogs and wild rides. At the turn of the 20th century, it was known as the "Playground of the World." In the beginning, this upscale resort area catered to the rich. Between 1897 and 1904, three lavish amusements parks opened in Coney Island. By 1920, the subway extended to Stillwell Avenue, which made Coney Island more accessible for everyone. The abundant history is remarkable, and its peaks and valleys closely resemble one of its most famous icons, the roller coaster. Coney Island hit its apex between 1910 and 1930. Afterwards, it suffered through the Great Depression, went into major decline after World War II, and hit bottom in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, there has been a profound revitalization effort to bring the area back to its glory days. Despite the major setback caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the spirit of Coney Island is alive and well.

Genres: History

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2014

Reviews

[Helen]

This was a terrific journey through Coney Island history by way of postcards, including information on the very beginning of postcards way back when. Postcards were sort of the social media of their day, and when they first took off, they were a true mass fad, with thousands posted from Coney Island (which had a large imposing-looking post office) daily. There were even photo postcards - photographs of beachgoers posing within humorous scenes that were then turned into postal cards. Somehow the photographer´s studios had figured out how to instantly produce personalized post even then! All these cards are somewhat eerie since many still bear handwriting on them - messages from long gone people to other long gone people, and the personalized cards are of course of ordinary people who are similarly now part of the mass of departed souls; who knows who they were and what were their individual stories? I am from Brooklyn and have naturally visited Coney Island many times, but in my era it had a bad reputation. So we would only usually go to enjoy the Nathan's hot dogs, but usually go to the beach at other beaches, not at Coney Island. It was sort of run-down or burnt-out and had a crime-ridden reputation. But I had heard a lot about how great it used to be, and a distant cousin of my dad´s actually had a concession there (his daughter still has the store) so we would sometimes stop by to say hello. But in general, it was a place to avoid, unfortunately. I had no idea how great the long-gone amusement parks were, although I had of course seen some photos of Luna Park and Steeplechase. Also I didn't know about the other fabulous rides and even another amusement park or two, as well as the many roller-coasters besides the Cyclone. Or how dangerous the roller-coasters were in the early days. This book certainly conveys a lot of information about the famous beach community, which was at first a tony resort complete with fancy hotels and restaurants. It lost its luster as the trains were extended to Coney Island and little by little the elites or rich moved further and further East on Long Island, until they got to the Hamptons, far, far away from the masses thronging Coney. This book conveys the sweep of the story of Coney Island - from its beginnings as a rather exclusive and unpopulated beach resort, to its peak as a proto Disney world, a theme park world of its day, with a never ending parade of rides and attractions. I certainly did find out a lot more from this book of reproductions of historic postcards about a famous Brooklyn
neighborhood, Coney Island. For example, there were once three racetracks in S. Brooklyn: The Coney Island Jockey Club which opened the Sheepshead Bay Race Track, the Brighton Beach Race Course and Gravesend Race Track.

Here are some quotes:

¨Postcards were the social media of the early 1900s, and there are few better places to spotlight this than Coney Island. On an average summer weekend in 1907, visitors to Coney island mailed more than a quarter-million postcards to family and friends.¨

¨Coney island started to become a vacation destination after the Civil War. Excursion railroads and the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad reached the area in the 1860s, and the Iron Steamboat Company arrived in 1881. The Dreamland pier served as s dock for steamboats until it was destroyed in a ... fire in 1911.¨

¨The Iron Steamboat Company provided ferry service between Manhattan and Coney Island.¨

¨Steamboat service from Manhattan to Coney Island began in May 1881 and continued until the close of the 1932 season.¨

¨In 1907, for 35 cents, visitors could arrive by steamship and spend the day at Dreamland before returning to a Manhattan terminal at the Battery, Twenty-third street, or Harlem.¨

¨Before the city built the Boardwalk in 1923 the beach was private, and the only way to gain access was to pay admission at a bathhouse. Some of the fancier bathhouses had restaurants and saltwater swimming pools.¨

[Jeff J.]

A somewhat spotty history of Coney Island, told through the use of vintage postcards. The focus was on the first half of the twentieth century - I wish there had been more on recent reconstruction and revitalization efforts.

[Donna]

An interesting collection of historical post cards from Coney Island. A lot of information was in the descriptions of the cards, and they were arranged in a logical manner. It is a nice supplement to other books on Coney Island and was a pleasure to look at and read.