Wonder Gallery CIHP Season Extended

WHAT'S NEW

Exhibit Season Extended Thru October 11

Summer is not over! We're happy to announce an extended season for the Wonder Gallery and the Coney Island History Project. Our free exhibits will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-7 PM through October 11th.

View this season's special exhibits curated by Charles Denson and Amanda Deutch in our Wonder Gallery, a collaboration with Parachute Literary Arts.

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Oral History

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Featured Oral History Interviews

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Greg Birbil

Greg Birbil's father, Paul, was a candy maker who owned the Paradise Ice Cream Parlor on Surf Avenue

Keith Suber

Community activist and reformed gang member

Rita Kaminsky

Coney Island during the Great Depression and World War II

Gabriel Valencia

Twenty-five years at Gregory & Paul's and Paul's Daughter on the Coney Island Boardwalk

Connie Scacciaferro

Memories of going to Coney Island Beach as a child in the 1930's and a teenager in the '40s

Ida Rosenblum Gambrell

Memories of Coney Island in the 1920s and '30s

Explore Our Collection

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Asleep on the beach
World of Wax Musee
Guess your Weight and Height
Steeplechase Park, Bowery Entrance
McCullough Carousel, West 15th Street
Skin the Wire
Steeplechase Park from the Boardwalk
Kaufman's Photo Studio

Hall of Fame

Inventors, performers, impresarios, and community leaders - these are among the many pioneers and visionaries whose creativity and ingenuity helped shape and define Coney Island over the past century. Each year, the Coney Island Hall of Fame pays tribute to a selected group of honorees. Their contributions are highlighted in an exhibit of colorful banners accompanied by illustrated text panels detailing their fascinating lives.

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Featured Video

Memories of Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue in the 1950s

New on our YouTube channel: Charles Denson's Mermaid Avenue in the 1950's brings together photos from the Coney Island History Project Collection and the voices of Michael "Looch" Goldstein and Stanley Fox. They grew up at opposite ends of Mermaid Avenue and recorded their memories of the...
posted Jun 25th, 2020
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Ask Mr. Coney Island
Dear Mr. Coney Island...
I've been doing a search to find images, pictures and films/video and audio showing the incredible Classic Three Rotating Ring Carousel that I remembered, as a young boy, that was housed in the huge indoor Steeplechase Park. As a young boy in the 1950's I had been amazed at the mechanical complexity of such an amazing machine with its 'Three Counter Rotating Ride Rings', Beautifully Hand Carved and Lovingly Painted Motion and Still Horses, and the Powerful music that came from the Huge Mechanical Full Orchestra and Organ/Calliope. I was born and raised in Brooklyn and Coney Island was a regular venue for our family entertainment. I'm hoping you'll be the one to help restore this childhood amazement to me! Regards, namaste
- David

Hello David,

That would be the El Dorado Carousel, now located at Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo. This magnificent machine was carved by Hugo Hasse of Leipzig Germany in 1902. In 1910 it was moved to Coney Island and installed in a building Surf Avenue at West Fifth Street. The carousel survived the 1911 Dreamland Fire, blistered but intact. George Tilyou brought the El Dorado to...
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