Luna Park Houses

Memories of living in Luna Park Houses and going to Coney Island bathhouses in the 1960s
Karen Wilcox and her family were among the original tenants of Luna Park Houses, moving there from the East New York section of Brooklyn in 1962. "We were the first family to live in Apt 15M in Building 4," says Wilcox, who was 11 at the time. "Then...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in Luna Park Houses in the 1960s and again in the late 1970s
Eric Schwelke's maternal and paternal grandparents settled in Coney Island in the first decades of the 20th century and his mother Frieda Schwelke grew up on West 29th and West 32nd Street. Born in 1952, Schwelke's earliest memories of Coney Island...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s and moving to Luna Park Houses in 1962
Born in 1930 in Coney Island, Frieda Schwelke and her family lived on West 36th, West 29th, and West 32nd Streets.  In February 1962, she moved with her husband and son to Luna Park Houses when it first opened, and lived there through 1970. Schwelke...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in the newly opened Luna Park Houses in the 1960s
Randy Kasper and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses' Building 5, Apartment 19K. They lived in the newly opened high-rise housing complex from 1962, when she was five, until 1968.  She shares memories of windows facing the ocean and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Luna Park Houses in the 1960s and 1970s
Alison Cintorrino and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses. Born in 1962, she was brought to Luna Park from the hospital as a newborn and lived there for 25 years. Her 86-year-old mother still lives in Luna Park Houses today....
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in the newly opened Luna Park Houses in the 1960s
Carol Barry and her family were original tenants of Luna Park Houses. They moved to the newly opened high-rise housing complex in 1961 from a tenement on West 30th Street in Coney Island. She shares memories of living at Luna Park from age 15 until...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in Luna Park Houses in the 1960s and '70s
Arlene Oken Straus shares memories of living in Luna Park Houses as a teen in the 1960s and as a young wife and mother in the 1970s. Her family moved to the Mitchell Lama co-op from the Bronx and was among the original tenants in 1962. The complex...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Island resident and founder of the not-for-profit American Alliance for Protection of Animals
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Julia Kanin's transcript and translation below. Интервью проведено и записано на русском языке. Вы можете ознакомиться с траснскриптом и переводом Юлии Ханиной ниже. Coney Island resident...
Content type: Oral History Item
A Coney Island native's memories of running amusement games
Eliot Wofse grew up in Luna Park Houses across the street from the amusement area, which he calls his playground. His elder brothers worked as game agents and regularly sent him off to play, for free, at Steeplechase Park and Playland Arcade. At...
Content type: Oral History Item
Lived in Luna Park Housing in the 1960's
Michele moved to Coney Island in 1961 when Luna Park Houses were first built. She had an aunt who lived in Sea Gate and often rode her bike over to hang out there on her favorite beach. It was quiet there and very different from the boisterous Luna...
Content type: Oral History Item