A Picture of Coney Island Past
Last week, while visiting friends in Cincinnati, Ohio, I learned a surprising truth. Coney Island in Brooklyn isn’t the only Coney Island. Cincinnati’s Ohio Grove park was established in 1880 and referred to as the “Coney Island of the West” before eventually changing its name to Coney Island. To get to my destination, I walked through the lush, green grounds of the park, which are nothing like our Brooklyn counterpart. As the friend I was with told me with relative certainty that Cincinnati’s Coney Island was older than New York’s, I realized just how little history I knew.
If you’re interested in exploring some of the history of America’s playground, here are some links:
The whole story of the history of Coney Island
About the most famous “freaks” of the Coney Island sideshows of the past
History of Dreamland Lilliputia, the original sideshow spectacle of Coney Island, which you’ll recognize from the book
And for your viewing pleasure, some photos I’ve found around the internet:
See you next week with field trip registration information!
Yours in fiction,
Caroline
ncG1vNJzZminopi1or7DrKurnZWpv6atw6KloKufmLamwNhnqq6ao6mupLeNnKamZ6Bkrm68yJyrrqqVYrynecKopZ6xXZ7Ara3NnWSpmaOp