Coney Island Blog - Events

The Coney Island History Project's exhibition center opens for the 2022 season on Saturday, May 28th, of Memorial Day Weekend. Since the History Project's inception in 2004 with a portable recording booth on the Boardwalk and the inaugural season of our exhibition center in 2007, we have proudly offered "Free Admission for One and All!” The exhibition center is open free of charge on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (1:00PM-7:00PM) from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. We're located at 3059 West 12th Street, adjacent to the West 12th Street entrance to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk.

Visitors can view historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island's colorful past. You're invited to take free souvenir photos with "Cy," the mesmerizing Spook-A-Rama Cyclops, and Coney Island's only original Steeplechase horse from the legendary ride that gave Steeplechase Park its name. Our rarest treasure on display is Coney Island's oldest surviving artifact from the dawn of the "World's Playground." The 1823 Toll House sign in our collection dates back to the days when the toll for a horse and rider to "the Island" was 5 cents! Visitors can also share and preserve their Coney Island memories by recording an oral history for our multilingual archive, which has over 400 interviews available for online listening.

The Coney Island History Project's special exhibition for the 2022 season is "Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010," on view from May 28 through September 5, 2022. Barbara Rosenberg (1938-2016) was born and raised in New York City, where she lived her entire life. She was the consummate New Yorker, a social worker who dedicated her life to street photography here, and around the world. Barbara began taking photos as a kid and always had a camera with her. "I was drawn to photography after seeing the photographic images of the French photographers Doisneau, Brassaï, and Cartier-Bresson," she said, "New York City became my canvas, the streets and Coney Island especially, supplied me with an unending source of images."

The Coney Island History Project is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibit "Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010" on view from May 28 through September 5, 2022.

Barbara Rosenberg (1938-2016) was born and raised in New York City, where she lived her entire life. She was the consummate New Yorker, a social worker who dedicated her life to street photography here, and around the world. Barbara began taking photos as a kid and always had a camera with her. "I was drawn to photography after seeing the photographic images of the French photographers Doisneau, Brassaï, and Cartier-Bresson," she said, "New York City became my canvas, the streets and Coney Island especially, supplied me with an unending source of images." 

She used her camera to express her passion for culture, history, and the human condition. A 2011 article in American Photo Magazine described her approach as "unobtrusive, aesthetically artful, and quietly humorous." Working out of a darkroom in her apartment, she developed negatives, made prints, cut mats and made frames, ultimately spending more than a decade selling her work from a stall on Columbus Avenue. "I would sell to people who just fell in love with my work," she said of her years running a booth.

Barbara documented Coney Island for fifty years and when she died in 2016 she left her photographic work to the Coney Island History Project. We remember her with a selection of her work covering Steeplechase Park, the Polar Bear Club, and Boardwalk attractions from the 1970s. "I am always an observer," she said, "the small gesture, the quiet mostly unobserved moments became my subject matter." 

"Barbara Rosenberg: Coney Island Street Photography, 1964-2010" will be on view from May 28 through September 5, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 1:00PM- 7:00PM. The Coney Island History Project exhibition center is located at 3059 West 12th Street at the entrance to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk. For additional information, e-mail events@coneyislandhistory.org.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

You're invited to visit the Coney Island History Project's exhibition center on Coney's traditional opening day, Palm Sunday, April 10, and on Easter Sunday, April 17. We'll be open special hours--1:00PM-6:00PM. Admission is free of charge. View historic artifacts, photographs, maps, ephemera and films of Coney Island's colorful past as well as banners previewing our special exhibitions for the 2022 season.

Barbara Rosenberg’s Coney Island Photos (May 28 – September 5, 2022)
Street photographer Barbara Rosenberg documented Coney Island for 50 years. When Barbara died in 2016 she left her photographic work to the Coney Island History Project. We remember her with a selection of her work covering Steeplechase Park, the Polar Bear Club, and Boardwalk attractions from the 1970s. "I am always an observer,” she said, "the small gesture, the quiet mostly unobserved moments became my subject matter."

Remembering Astroland: 60th Anniversary (Mid-July – September 5, 2022)
Space-age-themed Astroland Park opened in the summer of 1962 on the site of Feltman’s Restaurant. After the closure of Steeplechase in 1964, Astroland became an anchor that helped keep Coney vibrant until its closure nearly half a century later. We celebrate this anniversary with a selection of historic images from our archive.

Our exhibition center season begins Saturday, May 28. We’ll be open 1:00PM-7:00PM, weekends and holidays, from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. This year marks the 18th anniversary of the Coney Island History Project and our 12th season at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park. Since our inception in 2004 with a portable booth on the Boardwalk for recording oral history interviews, we have proudly offered "Free Admission for One and All!" at our exhibits and special events. Our history banners will also be on display starting April 10 at Deno’s Wonder Wheel in the plaza below the Phoenix Roller Coaster.

On Palm Sunday, the Coney Island History Project will have an information booth on the Boardwalk in front of Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. Deno’s opening day festivities start at 10:00AM on the Boardwalk with the 37th Annual Blessing of the Rides ceremony with Pastor Toyin Facus of Coney Island's Salt and Sea Mission. Pastor Debbe Santiago originated the event with Denos and Lula Vourderis, who invited children from the Mission to enjoy free rides, a tradition that continues today. After the Blessing, the first 102 guests at the park will receive a free ride on the 102-year-old Deno's Wonder Wheel.

The Coney Island History Project launches Season Two of our oral history podcast Coney Island Stories on Tuesday, March 8th.

This season’s theme is “Growing Up in Coney Island” through the decades, from the 1930s to the 21st century. In Episode One, Coney Islanders who grew up in the ‘30s, including George Ancona, Charles Berkman, Edith Storch, and Ralph Perfetto, recall hardships as well as simple pleasures. During the Depression, families from other New York City neighborhoods flocked to Coney Island. The rent was cheaper and the beach was down the block.

The oral history narrators in Season Two describe growing up during the Depression and World War II, urban renewal (a narrator whose family was evicted calls it “urban removal”), the residential development of middle-income co-ops and public housing, and the decline of the amusement area and its eventual revival. Across the generations, their commonalities include the beach, the boardwalk, and jobs in the neighborhood, including the amusement area.

Season Two of the podcast series is sponsored in part by an Action Grant from Humanities New York with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. "We’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve received enabling us to record, preserve, and make available so many voices and narratives that tell the fascinating story of Coney Island,” said Charles Denson, executive director of the Coney Island History Project. "Coney Island has an incredibly complex history, and diverse first person accounts provide an irreplaceable resource for the future.”

The podcast is produced by Charles Denson, Ali Lemer and Tricia Vita from oral histories in the Coney Island History Project's archive, which has over 400 interviews.  Among the eleven episodes in Season One of Coney Island Stories are “Schools of Their Own,” “A Century of Bathhouses,” “Beach Days,” “Legendary Roller Coasters,” and “Mermaid Avenue.” Listen and subscribe via your favorite podcast app or at https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/podcast.