VANISHING CONEY ISLAND

During my most recent visit to NYC in May, I went to Coney Island and with a 2GB memory stick in the camera, I kept taking photos of whatever I thought was interesting. I am glad I did and thanks to the recent posts about Coney Island in Jemeriah Moss's blog, Vanishing New York - http://www.vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/ - I learned more about Coney Island and its historical importance to New York and American culture. Let's make it clear that I am not promoting Mr. Moss' blog or that he needed me to help with his well-known blog and already long list of followers. I enjoy reading Vanishing New York and it is one of my daily reading after, of course, Qaptain Qwerty. VNY gives me a sense of being in NYC and as Mr. Moss wrote, "A New Yorker is someone who longs for New York", and I am always longing for New York, my American hometown.

I hope Mr. Moss would not object that I "borrow" writing from his blog to provide "descriptions" to the photos I took. I took the above photo of the Shore Theatre but did not know until I read in VNY that "The Shore Theater, formerly known as the Loews Coney Island, is being considered for landmark status as the City revs up the bulldozers for Coney. “The architectural quality is every bit as wonderful as Broadway theaters that have received landmarking,” said Dick Zigun to Brooklyn Paper this week. “The city let us know they’re sympathetic to our request.”
Read Mr. Moss' VNY for more interesting stories about the museum (photo above). A post about Coney Island would not be complete without a photo about Nathan's Famous! (below photo)

Mr. Moss wrote about the building, Herman Popper Building, photo above- - - "It was built by brewer Herman Popper and his brother sometime between 1890 and 1906, first as a distillery and then as a tavern, says Forgotten NY. According to historian John Manbeck, via the Brooklyn Eagle, Popper opened the tavern on Surf Avenue "to better serve the Irish bars that sprang up on Coney Island’s Bowery, joining the German restaurants. Victorians crowded the streets, lubricated by a 'growler' or 'bucket of suds.' Irish waiters, who doubled as tenors, served a brew with a 'Coney Island head' on the beer—more suds than liquid—to unsuspecting rubes.'"

I am glad I took the photo below showing the street sign "Surf Avenue". It sure came in handy for this post.