Oral History Archive

Filtering by Mermaid Avenue back to all
Charles Guariglia
Memories of working a bread route on Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue in the 1950's and '60s
Ronald Stewart
Community activist and resident of Coney Island for more than 50 years
David Louie
David Louie's family owned the popular Wah Mee Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue
Steven Feinstein
Reflections on running Wilensky Hardware, a 100-year-old family business on Mermaid Avenue
Ho Cheung Li
Mermaid Avenue pharmacist dispenses news and advice to new immigrants
Judith Densky
Memories of growing up in Coney Island and Sea Gate in the late 1940s and 1950s
Liz Unger
Memories of Coney Island in the 1950s and a family's candy factory on Mermaid Avenue
Rachel Rosenberg Simon
Rachel Simon recalls her family's Deli Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue
Fred Stern
Bus driver for 35 years on the B36 route and the shuttle bus inside Sea Gate
Orlando Mendez
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and being the third generation of his family to live here today
Stefon Bristol
Film director and screenwriter who grew up in Coney Island in the 1990s
Joyce Chopra
Groundbreaking filmmaker grew up in Sea Gate and on Mermaid Avenue
Carole Scheer
Her father, Anthony Cosmo Pomaro, owned Cosmo Topper's Beauty Parlor on Mermaid Avenue
Barbara Unterman Jones
Memories of being one of the first families to move into Gravesend Houses in 1954 and growing up there
Stanley Fox
Retired Coney Island arcade operator recalls his family's 30-plus years in the business
Alito Hernandez
From breakdancing on the streets of Coney Island with Fresh Kids to Peter Gennaro's Street Dreams
Andy Fuhrman
Memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses and on Mermaid Avenue in the 1950s and '60s
Gabriel Alegría
Jazz musician and bandleader of the Afro-Peruvian Sextet has lived in Coney Island for the past decade