Memorial Day Weekend, New Oral Histories, Lost New York, History Banners in Coney Island

Memorial Day Weekend: Exhibition Center Opens for the 2024 Season

Celebrating our 20th year in 2024, the Coney Island History Project opens for the season on Saturday, May 25th, 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 from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. Our hours are 1:00 PM-7:00 PM. We’re located at 3059 West 12th Street, next 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!

New Oral Histories: Mary Engel, Benny Harrison, Alexander Vindman, and More

Among the recent additions to the Coney Island History Project’s Oral History Archive are the following interviews recorded for us by Charles Denson, Daniel Gomez, Lauren Vespoli, and Tricia Vita.

Mary Engel is an award-winning filmmaker who runs the Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive. She is the daughter of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, who co-wrote and directed Little Fugitive, which was filmed in Coney Island and released in 1953. The independent film was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. Engel talks about her childhood memories, her parents’ lives and work, and her work as a documentarian and manager of their archive and the founder of the American Photography Archives Group.

Norman Finkel, 94, grew up in Brooklyn and shares memories of visiting Coney Island with his family in the 1930s. He vividly remembers building sand castles, getting lost on the beach, and being brought by a policeman to the lost children’s shelter, where he was found by his mother just as the shelter was about to close.

For the past decade, our friend and neighbor Benny Harrison‘s stands on West 12th Street have entertained thousands with a storefront of quirky games and attractions including his dancing girl, Miss Coney Island, and an animated diorama of Coney Island. “When I’m gone you can tell my story,” he told Charles Denson, who recorded his oral history over several years. Benny tells stories about working at his father’s candy factory, how he built one of his games, his sweet shops in Feltmans and Astroland, and the origins of the dancing girl. Benny passed away on March 11, 2024. You can read Charles Denson’s tribute here.

Alexander Vindman was born in 1975 in Soviet Ukraine and emigrated at age four with his family to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. He shares memories of growing up and going to school and his father’s efforts to help him and his twin brother assimilate to life in America. Vindman is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel who was the Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council until 2020. His memoir Here, Right Matters: An American Story (2023) was a New York Times bestseller.

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.

Coney Island in “Lost New York” Exhibition at New-York Historical Society

Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson was recently invited to participate in a fascinating new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society titled Lost New York. The exhibition “explores the landmarks, vistas, pastimes, environments, monuments, communities, and modes of transportation that once defined this city.” Preserving pieces of a vanishing past is the theme, and on display are a treasure trove of artifacts and artworks from the museum’s vast collection. Denson was invited to write a panel relating to the lost natural environment of Coney Island as illustrated by 19th century paintings and photographs. “My panel explains that sometimes what was lost in the past can be restored if there’s public awareness and advocacy.”

According to Denson, “Chief Curator Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto has a unique vision regarding the complexities of New York City history and has paired each object in the exhibit with stories by contemporary New Yorkers.” There are more than 100 objects in the show that define New York’s past, but also show the importance of landmark preservation. Lost New York is on display until September 29, 2024. More Photos –>

Last Word: History Banners at Deno’s Wonder Wheel

The Coney Island History Project’s free outdoor banner exhibits have returned to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park for the 2024 season. The history banners are on view through the end of October during park hours.

The Wonder Wheel and the Immigrant Dream tells the remarkable story of the Wonder Wheel and the family that operates Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. The colorful history banners are located on the Wheel’s walkway adjacent to the History Project, as well as below Deno’s Phoenix Roller Coaster.

Admission to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park is free. The Wonder Wheel opens at 12:00 PM on weekends and holidays in the spring and fall, and daily from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. Hours of operation are subject to change depending on weather conditions.