Coney Island Amusement Park history

Then, traveling acts like Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show swept in, and Harry Houdini gave his first Coney Island performance in 1891.

When he visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he observed the Ferris Wheel, which was introduced at that World’s Fair, and decided to build his own in Coney Island.

In 1894, George Tilyou erected Coney’s first Ferris Wheel at the Bowery, near the Iron Tower.

Yet, even as early as 1895, as more amusement parks and residential complexes sprang up, things had begun changing.

In 1897, he consolidated his rides into one place by the Ferris Wheel and opened Steeplechase Park.

Partners Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy built the Trip to the Moon for Steeplechase in 1901 and two years later, Trip to the Moon was the centerpiece of their newly opened Luna Park.

The next attraction to capture the public’s imagination was Luna Park, which opened in 1903.

The next year, in 1904, Dreamland was opened by former State Senator William Reynolds to record crowds and the theme was “bigger and better”.

On a single day in 1906, the post office at Coney Island postmarked over 200,000 post cards.

Its main tower was 375 feet tall, which became a pillar of flame visible from Manhattan during a fire in 1911 that destroyed everything in Dreamland.

With subway fare at a nickel, Coney Island became known as the “Nickel Empire.” The Wonder Wheel, still spinning in colored lights today, opened on Memorial Day in 1920.

By 1923, when the 84-foot boardwalk opened, Coney Island had become the weekend escape for the working class in New York’s sweltering tenements.

The Cyclone opened in 1927 and you can still ride the Cyclone today, with its 90-foot drop-off.

The Parachute Jump was actually originally built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

Fun fact: the Parachute Jump can be seen getting destroyed in the blockbuster film Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was moved to where it is today, then became part of Steeplechase Park in 1941.

Starting in 1946, the so-called “master builder” Robert Moses began acquiring real estate in Coney Island.

Coney’s 1954 branch of the Brooklyn Public Library was the first library built on stilts over the Atlantic Ocean.

He lost them both in 1955, however, after the federal government blacklisted him, for profiteering and fraud.

Moses also exiled the New York Aquarium from Battery Park to Coney Island in 1957, where it was built over the former location of Dreamland.

AstroLand was built and opened in 1962, on the former site of Luna Park.

Steeplechase Park remained open until 1964, making it the longest existing amusement park on Coney Island.

On September 1st, 1966, in a fit of spite, Trump threw a party, replete with bikini-clad models, and invited guests to smash the stained-glass façade of the Pavilion with bricks, shattering the iconic funny-face logo.

In 1968, park management entered into talks with Taft Broadcasting for the purpose of developing a new park on higher ground.

Taft responded by buying Coney Island outright in 1969, and construction began the following year on a new site located in Deerfield Township of Warren County 25 miles (40 km) north of Cincinnati along Interstate 71.

Coney Island closed its amusements on September 6, 1971, as most of its rides were moved to the newly completed Kings Island theme park.

After Kings Island opened in 1972, Taft Broadcasting intended to sell Coney Island's land for redevelopment.

Less than two years after closing, Coney Island reopened permanently in 1973.

Since then, AstroLand Park invested millions of dollars to regularly update the Cyclone. It was completely renovated and reopened to the crowds on July 1, 1975.

Fun fact, the only time the Wonder Wheel stopped without permission was during the 1977 New York City Blackout on July 13, 1977.

John Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century, (New York: Hill & Wang, 1978), 63

Among them was Dick D. Zigun, who founded Coney Island USA in 1980—it continues to operate out of the former Childs Restaurant building on Surf Avenue.

Zigun also founded the famous Mermaid Parade in 1983.

The park donated 15 acres (61,000 m) of land for the construction of Riverbend Music Center which opened in 1984.

In 1991, Coney Island was purchased by Cincinnati businessman Ronald Walker.

While the high rises were never built due to zoning changes, the land was revitalized by the Brooklyn Cyclones’ baseball stadium, which opened in 2001.

Charles Densen, Coney Island Lost and Found (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2002), 26

On November 28, 2006, the Albert family, operator of AstroLand, sold AstroLand for $30 million to Thor Equities, which planned to redesign the area so that it could accommodate a $1.5 billion year-round resort.

By July 6, the AstroTower was demolished and the remaining metal was sent to a nearby junkyard for scrap. It was the only part of AstroLand that survived after 2008.

Two large companies, Zamperla and Thor Equities, now own significant parts of Coney Island, and Zamperla opened a new amusement park in 2010, resurrecting the name, if not the freewheeling weirdness, of Luna Park.

In 2011, Luna Park took over operation of the Cyclone.

The co-founder of AstroLand, Jerry Albert, died on March 15, 2012, after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

The AstroTower was an iconic part of the Coney Island skyline for 56 years, until July 2, 2013, when the AstroTower was seen swaying in the wind.

“America’s Playground: The Development of Coney Island,” http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/coney-island.html (Accessed November 11, 2016)

The Coney Island Boardwalk, also known as the Riegelmann Boardwalk, is the second longest boardwalk in the world, stretching over 2.5 miles in length, and was made a historical landmark on May 16, 2018, its 95th anniversary.