The Astroland Rocket of Coney Island finally found a new home. Former Astroland co-owner, Carol Hill Albert donated the super-awesome Rocket to the NYC Economic Development Corp. on behalf of the Coney Island History Project. We still don’t know where it will actually live though.
Photo by Peter Kleeman, Space Age Museum
Oh wow. An icon of Coney Island and nostalgic symbol of enthusiasm for the Space Age, the 14,000 lb Astroland Rocket was moved today… To Where? We don’t know yet.
video courtesy of magicalthemeparks on YouTube
Charlie Denson from the Coney Island History Project gave a talk at the Municipal Arts Society last night. Spirits were low three days after the closing of Astroland but some folks are organizing a letter-writing campaign, among other things, to Save Coney Island and insure that redevelopment plans are kept to a human scale and include an amusement district.
The conversation at the Municipal Arts Center will continue next Wednesday, September 17 at 6:30pm when Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corporation and Carol Hall Albert, owner of Astroland and others will discuss Coney Island at the Crossroads. No one from Thor Equities, who now own most of Coney Island, is on the panel but I wonder if someone will show up?
photo by Mashyguy on Flickr
We’ll always have the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel though!
photos by Sady Sullivan
Today, I attended the 2008 Coney Island Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Coney Island History Project museum located under the ever-invigorating Cyclone roller coaster. Carol Albert accepted a plaque on behalf of Astroland Park and three post-mortem inductees were honored: Woody Guthrie, Granville T. Woods, and William Ward.
The Coney Island History Project has a great growing Oral History Archive and they invite visitors to the museum to leave 1 minute memory videos.
1-minute memory recorder
I ran into one of the Interpreting Brooklyn artists, playwright Michael Schwartz, and my friend Peter Kleeman, curator of the Space Age Museum.
Peter and Michael
And lucky for us, a wild coney made a rare appearance.
Sea Rabbit!
