Michael Borruto shared his memories of riding Spook-A-Rama and the Wonder Wheel as a 10-year-old. On an August 2016 visit to Coney Island with his wife and friends, he wanted to revisit and ride Spook-A-Rama. "I didn't even know it was still there...
Content type: Oral History Item
Santos Torres has lived in Coney Island since 1973, tends the Santos White Community Garden, and plays music on the Boardwalk during the summer. Located on Mermaid Avenue, the garden was founded in 1995 and is part of the City's GreenThumb network...
Content type: Oral History Item
Commendatore Aldo Mancusi, the founder of the Enrico Caruso Museum of America, brings his Hofbauer street organ from the museum to our annual Coney Island History Day celebrations. Born in 1929, Mancusi shares his memories of coming to Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Scott Krivitsky grew up in Brighton Beach and is a teacher and community advocate at P.S. 188 in Coney Island. He talks about the Brooklyn Marine STEM Alliance of over 30 schools to give students a "real life education" in science, technology,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Filippo Dispenza is a science teacher at John Dewey High School in the Gravesend neighborhood of Southern Brooklyn. He teaches and advises Dewey's award-winning Robotics Team, which recently placed 7th out of 75 teams in a competition. Dispenza...
Content type: Oral History Item
Husband and wife Albert Apuzzi and Dori Ten are one-wall handball champions who have long played at Coney Island's famed Seaside Courts, known as the mecca of handball. Apuzzi tells how he started playing handball in kindergarten when the game was...
Content type: Oral History Item
Ted Enoch works with the Catalyst Program of the Partnerships for Parks in Coney Island, supporting community efforts in the waterfront parks along Coney Island Creek. He talks about the decade-long history of educators and community members...
Content type: Oral History Item
In summer 2014, Australia-based illustrator and artist Sarah Beetson created her own three month long artist residency in Coney Island, which she calls her "favorite place of inspiration." Beetson recounts short visits here -- the first was in 2002...
Content type: Oral History Item
Viktor Vassiliev is the co-owner with Gennadiy Verebeychik of New York Bread on Neptune Avenue in Coney Island. Founded 17 years ago, the bakery produces and sells 30 different kinds of European and Russian-style bread and ships its products to 35...
Content type: Oral History Item
This interview was conducted and recorded in Spanish. Read Leslee Dean's transcript and translation below.
Jorge "Chico" Gallegos is a native of Ecuador who lives in Coney Island and has been working at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park since 1986. Having...
Content type: Oral History Item