Hello Ted,
Here’s a photograph of Dalton’s Bar, now the site of the O’Dwyer Gardens housing project.
Hello Ted,
Here’s a photograph of Dalton’s Bar, now the site of the O’Dwyer Gardens housing project.
Hello Vincent,
Your great-grandmother is sitting on a bench in the Concourse, the little park beachfront park once located at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Surf Avenue. The smaller building directly behind her is Lucy Venderveer's Hotel and the dome behind the hotel belongs to the Culver Terminal Building which I believe was built around 1905-1910. The trees in the background are in Seaside Park (now Asser Levy Park). The stone wall in background was part of the park that was demolished when Robert Moses moved the Boardwalk in 1940. Her beautiful hat and dress might date the photo to around 1910-1915?
Hi Cynthia,
I also remember the barrels from my childhood! When we moved to Coney Island in 1956 they were still there, a line of colorful, striped, floating wooden barrels attached to a rope that went back to the beach. I really enjoyed playing on them. The rope was buried far up the beach and then attached to an anchor in the ocean located about halfway the length of the rock jetties. Every bay in the West End had them! You could cling to the rope or wrap yourself around the barrel. They were a lot of fun and you could prove yourself by swimming out to the last one.
I can't remember when they stopped installing them, maybe around 1960? There was talk that they gave swimmers a false sense of security and that inexperienced swimmers would swim out too far to get to the third one. Safety ropes were part of the Coney Island beach for more than a century, but the barrels seemed to have appeared sometime in the 1950s. Most likely they were discontinued to save money or maybe because of vandalism. If anyone knows the reason, please let us know.
We have very few photos of the barrels but the ones below from the 1950s give an idea of what they were like. Notice the three swimmers clinging to the rope! A sign on the lifeguard chair refers to them as "life lines," and tells swimmers not to "bathe" past the last one. They seem so much smaller than what I remember as a child. I remember missing them when they disappeared.
Hello Ruth, Here is a 1950s photo of Palumbo's Fruit Store (Fruiterer's) on West 36th Street, long since demolished. . .
And here is a 1950s street view looking toward 36th Street with the apartment house you mentioned, and Palumbo's at center (small), and PS 188 at right.
Hello Elaine,
Thank you for contacting the Coney Island History Project! The building in the background was located at West 32nd Street and the Boardwalk. It was an extension of Lincoln Baths that was added when the Boardwalk was built in 1923. There were apartments on the second floor and a great restaurant at the Boardwalk level called Sam's Knishes. Next door was Larry and Vinny's Pizza restaurant. Lincoln Baths was demolished in 1981. Looks everyone in the photo was having fun!
Hello Jim,
Here are some images of the hotel's interior.
Hello Darlene,
Rose Court and most of the homes and bungalows on West 36th Street were demolished by the City in 1971 as part of urban renewal. There are now two-story row houses on the site.
Hello Gary A. Wexler,
Your grandmother's photo was taken in Coney Island at West 5th Street next to the el in an area once known as "The Gut". The view is looking west and that’s the Luna Park tower in the far background. The beach and Municipal Bathhouse are one block away.
Here is a photo of that location today. The building in the background of the early photo was demolished to build Trump Village high-rises in the early 1960s. The Trump parking lot currently occupies the site. The red and white high-rises in the far background are called Luna Park Houses and occupy the former site of Luna Park. Hope this helps.
Hello Leigh,
This is a photo of the Brighton Beach Hotel and the Brighton Beach Baths bathhouse (in the foreground at right). It was taken looking west from Brighton Beach and dates to between 1904 and 1910. It’s a beautiful photo!
Hello Rudolph,
Petersens Baths and Hotel was located on the beach side of the Feltman's Restaurant property at West 10th Street. Here are two photos. One dates to around 1910, the other was taken after the Boardwalk was built in the 1920s.