Coney Island Blog - News

U.S. Volunteer Life Saving Corps lifeguards at their headquarters on the beach at West Fifth Street, Coney Island, c.1919.

The current lifeguard shortage in New York City brings to mind the history of lifeguards at Coney Island and the essential role that they play in public safety.

When ocean bathing gained popularity at the end of the 19th century, waves of New Yorkers began heading for Coney Island to seek relief from sweltering tenements. Few of them knew how to swim. The beach at that time was private property and there were no city lifeguards to protect swimmers.

Safety was provided by bathhouse owners who hired private lifeguards that for the most part were untrained and ineffective. There were no standards. Bathhouses hired men who worked cheap and “looked the part.” Former boxers, longshoremen, and weightlifters fit the bill. These unqualified guardians used primitive methods for resuscitation, such as “barrel-rolling,” (rolling a drowning victim over a barrel on its side to remove water from the lungs), a technique that caused more harm than good. Many private guards were drinkers and poor swimmers.

The United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps soon came to the rescue. Founded in 1872, the service established rescue stations all along New York City’s rivers and shorelines. Coney Island’s Volunteer Service life saving station was headquartered in a sturdily built wood-frame boathouse located on the beach at West Fifth  Street. 

At first the volunteers were met with hostility by the bathhouse lifeguards who saw them as competition and a threat to their jobs. They were finally accepted as swelling beach crowds made it obvious that private guards could no longer monitor the safety of hundreds of thousands of swimmers.

Many of the volunteers were WW I Navy veterans: competent, battle tested, and trained to rescue panicky drowning victims, shipwreck survivors, and even horses. They were also champion long-distance swimmers who participated in local contests. Thousands of Coney Island rescues were carefully documented by hand in logs, with the names, dates, and locations of all incidents. 

Ruth Hroncich’s grandfather, Ernest Gross, was a volunteer with the Service from 1919 to 1921, before the Coney Island beach became public. Ruth recently donated her grandparent’s photos to the Coney Island History Project. Ernest Gross lived on Neptune Avenue and met his wife, Ruth Atkinson in 1920 at Weber’s Baths in the West End. They were married in 1925. These family photos document the last days of the Volunteers before the Boardwalk was built and City lifeguards took over safety operations. 
– Charles Denson

Ernest and Ruth Gross, the couple third from left, at Weber's Baths, 1920.

Navy veteran Ernest Gross is third from left in this picture.  The lifeguards would take the surf boat out every day and practice launching through the waves. 

Volunteer lifeguard surf boat in action at Coney Island.

Volunteer lifeguards on the Coney Island Beach, 1920. Ernest Gross is second from right. (Dog at center was not a lifeguard.) The Municipal Bathhouse can be seen behind them. Lifeguards at the Coney Island boathouse.
A page from the 1909 Volunteer log details rescues at locations ranging from Dreamland to West 32nd Street.

 

 

 

 

posted Jul 23rd, 2023 in By Charles Denson and tagged with lifeguards, New York City, history,...

Charles Denson made this video, Jimmy Prince Way, to honor Jimmy’s street naming. This interview with Jimmy Prince (1932-2021) was recorded at his home in 2016, seven years after he retired from Major Market. "Mr. Major" remained as busy as ever in the community after the store closed, and also volunteered at the Coney Island History Project exhibit center on weekends.

The corner of Mermaid Avenue and West 15th Street was co-named Jimmy Prince Way on July 8, 2023. Hosted by Coney Island Council Member Ari Kagan, the ceremony was attended by the Prince family and numerous community leaders and friends. Coney Island History Project board members Adele Cohen, Bonnie Kong, and Dan Pisark are pictured below with Charles Denson's photograph of Jimmy, "The Prince of Mermaid Avenue," in the doorway of his store.

Jimmy Prince Way

"Jimmy Prince was the kindest man in the world and the brightest light in Coney Island, a man who personified compassion, love and respect. There was no one else like him. He was born in 1932, the same year that Major Market opened on Mermaid Avenue and he began working at the market in June 1949 at the age of 18. Eventually he owned the store, and kept it open seven days a week, twelve hours a day until 2009. Jimmy became 'Mr. Major,' and his store became the heart of Coney Island, a refuge during hard times, where people came to find warmth and solace and nourishment. He was always positive and believed that Coney Island would survive." -- Charles Denson, "Remembering Jimmy Prince," May 25, 2021.

Photo credits: Council Member Ari Kagan, Bonnie Kong

Jimmy Prince Way

posted Jul 17th, 2023 in News and tagged with Jimmy Prince, Major Market, Mr. Major,...

Oral History Archive Coney Island History Project

More than 450 oral histories are available for listening in the Coney Island History Project’s multilingual online archive. Among the additions in May are the following interviews recorded for us by Daniel Gomez and Tricia Vita.

Ronald Kannatt, who is affectionately known as "The Prince of Coney Island," has been singing and dancing at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's Karaoke on the Boardwalk for the past 20 years. He shares stories of his Coney Island karaoke "family," the most popular songs over the years, off-season Coney Island, and memories of the Jumbo Jet coaster and Lincoln High School.

Angela Kravtchenko, an architect who is a Coney Island resident and a community activist, describes how she and her family chose to live in Coney Island after emigrating from Ukraine in the 1990s and and how she became active in her community. She is a co-founder of the Friends of Asser Levy Park and a new member of Community Board 13.

JR Lopez shares memories of growing up in the 1990s in Coney's West End in the "Coconuts Building." He recalls playing football on the beach and basketball with block-specific teams, amusement rides such as the Enterprise and the Polar Express that are now history, and a summer job selling cold drinks on the beach as a teen.

Diana Wiener remembers growing up in Sea Gate and Coney Island in the 1940s and '50s, where she first learned to swim as a "water baby" on Beach 2 AKA "The Lagoon." Wiener remembers World War II blackouts, lookout towers for U-boats, artillery turrets, Quonset huts for Army personnel, and the celebration the day the Germans surrendered.

Please listen, share, and if you or someone you know would like to record a story remotely via phone or Zoom, sign up here. We record interviews in English, Russian, Chinese, and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places.
 

Salvation by the Sea Coney Island History Project

Join us on Saturday, June 3rd, during exhibition center hours to celebrate the publication of Salvation by the Sea: Immigrants, Coney Island, and The Fresh Air Cure by Charles Denson.

"This catalog explores a forgotten era of Coney Island's history by examining the role that the beachfront played in saving lives and providing a livelihood for the waves of immigrants who came to America between the 1870s and the 1920s," writes Charles Denson in the book, which is based on a 2019 exhibition at the Coney Island History Project.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, four charities built sprawling seaside facilities at Coney Island supported by donations from the wealthiest of "Gilded Age" New Yorkers. The beachfront "homes" and hospitals provided immigrant mothers and their sick children with a respite from teeming, disease-filled tenements. The amusements and charities were able to coexist for nearly half a century. After the Boardwalk was built in 1923, the era of Seaside Homes came to an end.

On June 3rd, the Coney Island History Project exhibition center is open from 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM. Admission is free of charge. We're located at 3059 West 12th Street at the entrance to Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk.

Immigrant Heritage Walking Tour of Coney Island

Join us on Sunday, May 21st, to learn about the contributions of immigrants to the history and development of "The Playground of the World" on our Immigrant Heritage Walking Tour of Coney Island. The Coney Island History Project is once again offering this free tour which was "sold out" and waitlisted in April during Immigrant Heritage Week 2023.

Among the stops on the tour and the stories of struggle, success and achievement are Nathan's Famous, founded in 1916 by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker; Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, where the landmark 1920 Wonder Wheel was purchased by Greek immigrant Denos D. Vourderis as a wedding ring for his wife Lula; and the B&B Carousell, created in 1919 by German and Russian immigrants and now Coney's last hand-carved wooden carousel. The tour will also highlight businesses operated by immigrants who have recorded their stories for the Coney Island History Project's Oral History Archive.

Coordinated by the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, Immigrant Heritage Week (IHW) is an annual citywide program of events celebrating the history, traditions and contributions of New York City's diverse immigrant communities. IHW 2023 was held April 17-23 in recognition of April 17, 1907, the date when more immigrants entered the U.S. through Ellis Island than any other date in history.

The May 21st tour starts at 1:00 PM. Please reserve free tickets in advance on our Eventbrite page. Ticket reservations are limited to 2 per person as capacity is limited. Meet at the Coney Island History Project, 3059 West 12th St (at 12th Street entrance to Wonder Wheel), Brooklyn NY 11224.

The tour takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. Walking tours are held rain or shine. We reserve the right to cancel tours in the event of potentially dangerous weather.

This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York City Councilman Ari Kagan.

posted May 10th, 2023 in News and tagged with Coney Island History Project, Coney Island, Walking Tour,...

Coney Island History Project Oral History Archive
Nearly 450 oral histories are available for listening in the Coney Island History Project’s multilingual online archive. Among the additions in March and April are the following interviews recorded for us by Mary Conlon, Daniel Gomez, Julia Kanin, and Tricia Vita.

Erum Hanif talks about her work as a Community Board #13 Member and CEO of Apna Brooklyn Community Center, a not-for-profit that serves immigrants in Southern Brooklyn. She pays tribute to her mother, who was a pioneer in expanding education for girls and women in Pakistan. "I strongly believe that whatever I am today capable of doing in my life, personal and professional, is because of her spirit," says Hanif.

Sofya Lobova was born in Kyiv in 1935 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Lobova recalls her memories of World War II and her community activism in Coney Island, where she is a longtime resident of NYCHA's Haber Houses. This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian and includes transcripts in Russian and English.

Sam Person shares family memories of Nat Faber's Fascination arcade, which operated on Surf Avenue from 1926 through the 1970s. Person worked in Coney Island as a manager at his father-in-law's Faber’s Fascination in 1953 and 1954 when he was in college. Fascination is a group game often described as combining the luck of bingo with the skill of Skee-Ball.

Sonia Solano reflects on raising a family in Coney Island and working in local schools in the 1990s and 2000s. She also describes the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. "Coney Island means everything to me," says Solano. "I've been here thirty years."

Liz Unger shares memories of 1950's Coney Island and working in Lillian Candy Company, her family's candy factory on Mermaid Avenue. "I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for Coney Island, cause all my memories are there."

Stuart Waldman remembers summer jobs as a teen in Coney Island in the 1950s, including operating rides at Ward's Kiddie Park and working "The Dancing Dolls" game on Surf Avenue. At 19, he says he got his hack license and "aged out" of working in Coney Island.

Karen Wilcox recalls living in Luna Park Houses and going to Coney Island bathhouses with her grandmother in the 1960s. In 1962, Wilcox and her family were among the original tenants of Luna Park Houses, the apartment complex built on the site of the original Luna Park.

Please listen, share, and if you or someone you know would like to record a story remotely via phone or Zoom, sign up here. We record interviews in English, Russian, Chinese, and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places.

posted Apr 17th, 2023 in News and tagged with oral history, Archive, Coney Island History Project,...

Coney Island History Project International Womens Day

On International Womens Day we celebrate the women whose diverse voices are part of the Coney Island History Project's multilingual Oral History Archive. Share and preserve your Coney Island memories by recording an interview via phone or Zoom. We are recording interviews, both in English and other languages, with people who grew up, live or work in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods in Southern Brooklyn, or have a special connection to these places. Sign up here.

Coney Island History Show and Tell

You're invited to join us for “Coney Island History Show & Tell,” an interactive reminiscence event presented by the Coney Island History Project via Zoom on Thursday, March 16. Do you have historical or personal objects or stories related to Coney Island that you would like to share? Sign up to “show and tell” your story by emailing events@coneyislandhistory.org

This month's theme is Vanished Attractions. Among the attractions we’ll revisit are Steeplechase Park and Astroland, fun houses and dark rides, Fascination parlors, bungalow colonies, and the mechanical Laughing Lady. What made these vanished attractions so beloved, and why did they vanish? Can they be found outside of Coney Island? We’ll explore these and other questions.

Tickets for "Coney Island History Show & Tell" are free of charge. Advance registration is required and capacity is limited. Registrants will be sent the Zoom link two days before the event.

👉 Register via Eventbrite for Thursday, March 16 at 7:00PM - 8:00PM.

This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York City Councilman Ari Kagan.

Granville T Woods

Coney Island has always had a reputation as a place where people could make their dreams come true, where people outside the mainstream could prove themselves. For Granville T. Woods (1856-1910), it became the place where he demonstrated two of his famous inventions: an electric railway and an electric roller coaster called the Figure Eight. In celebration of Black History Month, listen to David Head tell the story of Black inventor Granville T. Woods (1856-1910) in our oral history archive. Head, the former chairman of TWU Local 100's Black History Committee, wrote a book about Woods and championed a Coney Island street naming in 2008. Granville T. Woods Way is at the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues. In the same year, the Coney Island History Project inducted Woods into the Coney Island Hall of Fame.

 

posted Feb 23rd, 2023 in News and tagged with Granville T. Woods, inventor, Black History Month,...

Oral History Coney Island History Project

More than 440 oral histories are available for listening in the Coney Island History Project’s online archive. Please listen, share, and if you or someone you know would like to record a story remotely via phone or Zoom, sign up here. We record interviews in English, Russian, Chinese, and other languages with people who have lived or worked in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods or have a special connection to these places. Among the additions to our archive in January and February are the following interviews recorded for us by Daniel Gomez, Sage Howard, Xiao Yu Li, Lauren Vespoli, and Tricia Vita.

As a teenager in the 2000s, Alicia Angello lived in Marlboro Houses in Gravesend, which was walking distance to Coney Island. She shares memories of coming here with her friends every Friday night and sometimes every day in the summer. The Polar Express, the Eldorado Bumper Cars, and the Breakdance ride at Astroland were their favorite hangouts to listen to the music and to ride.

"The" Jerry Farley is a record producer and audio engineer who has produced shows in Coney Island at Peggy O'Neill's and now at Coney Island Brewery, where he stages a monthly punk/metal night and other live events. Farley shares memories of Don Fury's Cyclone Studios on Surf Avenue and The Temple, a live music venue for all ages in the basement of a Bensonhurst synagogue.

From the late 1940s to the mid-60s, Jerry Omanoff lived in Coney Island, where his first job was shining shoes on the Boardwalk at age ten. Omanoff shares memories of living in a bungalow, all the blocks being like little towns, and going to the movies at the Surf Theater.

Carol Polcovar is a writer and playwright who grew up on West 30th Street in Coney Island in the 1940s and ‘50s.  "The personalities and the environment of Coney Island was really like no other place," says Polcovar, who reads "Fireworks Night," an excerpt from her memoir in progress.

Samantha Robles, a tattoo artist who is known as "Cake," shares childhood memories of growing up in Coney Island's West End and describes her artistic influences. Three generations of Robles' extended family have lived in Coney's "Coconuts Building" since it was built. Both sides of her family moved to Coney Island from Puerto Rico and continue to live here today.

Ansen Tang is Executive Director of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn (UCAOB) with branches located in Bensonhurt, Dyker Heights, and Sheepshead Bay. His family emigrated from Hong Kong when he was eleven. Tang shares stories of growing up in Bensonhurst, UCAOB's Lion Dance Team and the organization's efforts during the pandemic.