CI History Project: Luna Park Revisited Exhibit Opens 5/29

coney island history proj

Luna Park Revisited”: New Exhibition Opens May 29th at the Coney Island History Project

Join us on Memorial Day Weekend at the Coney Island History Project for the opening of our 2010 season and our featured exhibit “Luna Park Revisited.” The History Project’s FREE public exhibition center under the Cyclone Roller Coaster will be open from 1-6 pm on Saturday, May 29 through Monday, May 31, and subsequent weekends through Labor Day.

According to History Project Director Charles Denson, “The original Luna Park was a visual delight, a ‘grotesquely delightful’ storybook fantasyland filled with hundreds of towers, domes, spires, and minarets, all decorated with thousands of electric lights. It was known as the ‘Electric Eden,’ a city ’sketched in flame.’ Our exhibit details the park’s history, from opening day in 1903 to the dramatic fire that destroyed it forty years later.” Rare archival photos, family snapshots, souvenir postcards and fun ephemera from Luna Park will be on display. A touch screen monitor will provide access to dozens more images.

The Coney Island History Project is eagerly anticipating the grand opening of our new next-door neighbor, Zamperla’s Luna Park. History Project Director Charles Denson documented the beginning of the park’s construction and is creating an exhibit of the site’s 140-year transformation from sand dunes to Sea Beach Railroad land grant, to Feltmans Restaurant, to Astroland, and finally to the resurrected Luna Park. “The arrival of ride manufacturer Zamperla continues the tradition of Coney Island as a laboratory and testing ground for new amusements,” Denson said. “Less than a block away, on West 8th Street, were the amusement factories and workshops of William Mangels, Marcus Illions, the Pinto Brothers, L.A. Thompson, and numerous other foundries, blacksmiths, electricians, and machinists.

Although Zamperla will not be manufacturing rides in Coney Island, their presence means that Coney will have the best and newest attractions and will also be a showroom for new technology. It will be the best of both worlds, —Coney’s classic landmark Cyclone Roller Coaster right next to a modern resurrected Luna Park.”

The Coney Island History Project’s exhibition center is located under the Cyclone Roller Coaster at 824 Surf Avenue just east of West 10th Street. We’re open weekends from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day. Hours are 1 to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays. Also open on Memorial Day and Labor Day,
FREE ADMISSION for One and ALL!
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