Tag: New York

Coney Island History Project c/o Deno’s Wonderful Wheel Park 3059 West 12th Street Brooklyn, NY 11224

Coney Island History Project

C/O Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park

3059 West 12th Street

Brooklyn, NY 11224

https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/

Open: Sunday-Saturday 1:00pm-7:00pm (summer months only-May 24th-September 1st)

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d4777489-r1014119112-Coney_Island_History_Project_Walking_Tour-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The front of The Coney Island Project

I came across this interesting museum/gallery when I was walking around Coney Island. The museum is a few small rooms located in one of the buildings in Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. The museum is not related to the Coney Island Museum on Surf Avenue.

The small gallery space has a wealth of information and some interesting artifacts on Coney Island’s history both past and present.

The main room had artifacts and pictures of Coney Island’s past amusement history. There were many photo’s of the old parks, especially Steeplechase Park before its closing in 1965. It shows its development, growth and changes after the 1907 fire that destroyed the park.

There was all sorts of artifacts from that time as well as the former Astroland that was replaced by the new Luna Park. If you know the history of Coney Island, this can fascinating to read.

The second room had the later history when the Island’s amusements fell into disrepair and the whole island seemed to fall apart. The pictures show a very run down Coney Island.

The outside pictures show Coney Island in its heyday when during the 1930’s and 40’s before and during WWII, the island being a place of relief for so many New Yorker’s especially the working class.

The inside of the gallery

The main gallery

The Steeplechase Exhibition

Coney Island in ruin in the 1970’s

The history of Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park

The display outside the museum

The mechanical display that sings and dances

The Miss Coney Island robot is a throwback to old technology and campy robotics that is fun to watch. For a quarter, you can take an interesting video with this robot.

The Deno’s Map of the park

The history of the park

The History of the Museum:

(From the Coney Island Historical Coalition website)

The Coney Island History Project’s 2025 exhibition center season begins Memorial Day Weekend with a combination of free indoor and outdoor exhibits. Visitors to the exhibition center are invited to take free souvenir photos with Coney Island’s only original Steeplechase horse, from the legendary ride that gave Steeplechase Park its name, and the iconic Cyclops head from Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park’s Spook-A-Rama, Coney Island’s oldest dark ride.

The real Midway

I took pictures after the Mermaid Parade and showed how busy the amusement section was that day. There is so much potential to update the amusements and modernize the area with new rides and concessions. There is so much that can be done here. I already see new luxury apartment buildings being built and the revamping of the main shopping drag.

The Boardwalk at the end of the evening.

The Coney Island Boardwalk at twilight

Indian River Life Saving Station Museum 25039 Coastal Highway Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Indian River Life Saving Museum

25039 Coastal Highway

Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

(302) 227-6991

https://www.destateparks.com/park/indian-river-life-saving-station/

https://visitsoutherndelaware.com/listing/indian-river-life-saving-station-museum

Open: Sunday 9:00am-3:00pm/ Monday-Saturday 9:00am-4:00pm (Schedule is flexible with the seasons)

Admission: $4.00

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34048-d208535-Reviews-Indian_River_Life_Saving_Station_Museum_at_Delaware_Seashore_State_Park-Rehoboth_Be.html

The front of the Indian River Life Saving Museum at 25039 Coastal Highway

History of the Indian River Life Saving Station:

(From the Delaware State Park website)

The original Indian River Life-Saving Station was built in 1876 for use by the United States Lifesaving Service, a government organization created to respond to the alarming number of shipwrecks along the coastlines of the United States and the precursor to today’s U. S. Coast Guard. The Life Saving Station today is a maritime museum that honors these courageous sailors and the rich history of their deeds. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, it is a must visit piece of Delaware history.

The front of the historical sign describing the park

The recent History of the Museum:

(From the Delaware State Park website)

The building was first located 400 feet closer to the shore, but a sand dune began to form around it almost as soon as it was finished. It was moved to its present location in 1877, and today has been meticulously restored to its 1905 appearance, complete with diamond-shaped trim. The museum is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The entrance of the museum

The Screening Room in the Visitors Center where you learn about the Life Saving Center

I started my tour of the Indian River Life Saving Museum at the Visitors Center with a quick video of the history of the building and the men who lived and worked here. The organization was the precursor to the modern Coast Guard. What I thought was interesting is that the way of rescuing people has not changed that much since the 1800’s. It has modernized with equipment and knowledge but the process is still similar to what it was then.

The Screening Room lined with historical pictures

The Screening Room lined with pictures of the history of the area

You can take two audio tours as you start to tour the station building just by calling into your phone, one of the exterior and one of the interior, room by room. Each room and many objects have a number assigned to them and you can listen to a description of the subject matter.

The Rescue Saving Station from the exterior. The building has a Queen Ann design.

The first room you enter is the kitchen area where all meals were prepared and the men ate their meals. These men could not leave the facility because of the hours and type of work required, supplies were brought in and stored in this area.

The old ice box where foods were stored

The pantry area where all the dry goods were stored

For recreation, the men read, entertained themselves with music and conversation. This room was used for recreation purposes and some down time for the staff.

The first floor downstairs room was used for entertainment and recreation during the downtimes

Old equipment and relics on display in the main room

Old equipment used at the station house

Methods of tying ropes and nautical rescues illustrated

Portrait of one of the old station masters

The main room held all the rescue equipment used to save both people and property. This included all the boats, ropes, pulleys and buckets for rescue.

The main rescue boat and paddles

The rescue boat used by the station to save people and cargo

Ropes and wenches to save and pull in damaged vessels

The bucket rescue method

The second floor contained the living quarters. Since the Team worked in shifts, pretty much no one left the building except for small breaks. The men slept in shifts with one man working night duty in four hour intervals to watch the shore for wrecks.

The living quarters for the station master

The small office in the room

The men slept on one room with the window facing the sea in a dorm like setting. The room was equipped with natural light and a view of the sea to watch over the coastline.

The bedroom of the men on duty

The bedroom

Separate room for private time

The locker storage area where each man’s personal items

The stairs leading to the portico for lookout duties

The grounds of the Rescue Saving complex and its location near the beach.

The tour was a lot of fun and gives you a glance of the heroism and isolated life of these men must have been back then. Today there are things like rotations and vacations, opinions that some of the men back then did not seem to have. Still these brave, well trained men kept the beaches and the oceans safe for many seafarers.

Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st Street New York, NY 10128

Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

2 East 91st Street

New York, NY 10128

(212) 849-8400

Home

Open: Sunday-Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm

Fee: Adults $18.00/People with Disabilities & Seniors $10.00/Children Under 18 Free/Students $9.00. Check the prices online as they change.

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d106188-Reviews-Cooper_Hewitt_Smithsonian_Design_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Second Floor Design floor

I recently visited the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum for the first time. I can’t believe that all those years visiting the Met just down the road I had never stopped in the museum to take a peak. I went into see the “Nature-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” exhibition that was showing on all three floors of the museum. It was an interesting look on how nature plays a role in design and there is a beauty in the unusual shapes and colors that nature provides us.

Third Floor studio

The first floor was composed of design found in nature. You will see blood samples that move and shiver, electric movements and the role of it in nature and how plants and animals can be shown in simplest terms. On the second floor, you will see the prints in clothing and in home décor and see how color and design enhance beauty in an every day environment. The third floor will show more home décor and design objects.

The First Floor Elements

What is unique about the museum is how the mansion was converted into display areas and the use of the interior was blended into fabric of the museum. Take time to look at the areas around the staircases to admire the ceiling and the walls. It must have been a very grand home in its day.

The stairs of the mansion

Purpose of the Museum:

The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum located in the Upper East side’s Museum Mile in Manhattan. It is the only museum in the United States devoted to historical and contemporary design. Its collections and exhibitions explore approximately 240 years of design aesthetic and creativity. In June 2014, the museum changed its name from Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and reopened to the public that December (Wiki).

History of the Museum: (Provided by Wiki)

The Cooper-Hewitt Museum was founded in 1896. It was originally named Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration and it fell under the wing of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1895, the granddaughters of Peter Cooper, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green, asked the Cooper Union for a space to create a Museum for the Arts of Decoration. The museum would take its inspiration from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. The museum would serve as a place for Cooper Union students and professional designers to study decorative arts collections. Cooper Union trustees provided the fourth floor of the Foundation Building. It opened in 1897. It was free and open three days a week (Wiki).

The museum and the art school started to distance themselves from on another in regards to programming. Other departments of the Cooper Union were making financial demands and the Cooper Union announced that they would close the museum. This led to the museum being closed on July 3, 1963. Public outcry was strong against the closing. A committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum was formed by Henry Francis Du Pont (Wiki).

The American Association of Museums developed a case study about the future of the museum. Negotiations then began between the Cooper Union and the Smithsonian Institution. On October 9, 1967, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and Daniel Maggin, the chair of the Board of Trustees signed an agreement turning over the collection and library of the museum to the Smithsonian. On May 14, 1968, the New York Supreme Court transferred to the Smithsonian and the museum was renamed the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design. The following year, 1969, it was renamed as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design. In October of that year, Lisa Taylor became the Director (Wiki).

The museum, which was the first Smithsonian museum outside of Washington DC, moved to its home at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in 1970. The Mansion was renovated and the museum opened to the public on October 7, 1976 with the exhibition “Man transFORMs”. A conservation laboratory was opened in July 1978. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation funded the lab and it focuses on textile and paper conversation. Lisa Taylor retired in 1987 and in 1988 Dianne H. Pilgrim took her place as Director. In 1994, the museum’s name was changed again to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Pilgrim retired from the museum in 2000. In 2000, Paul W. Thompson became Director. On June 17, 2014, the museum’s name was changed again to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. A new graphic identity, wordmark and new website was launched on this day. This identity was designed by Eddie Opara (Wiki).

The building is located in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion. The Georgian style mansion was built over the course of years 1899 to 1902 and has sixty rooms. The home served as not only the home for Andrew Carnegie, his wife and daughter but also as his office for his philanthropic work after his retirement. The mansion was designed by Babb, Cook & Willard. It was the first private residence in the United States to have a structural steel frame. It was the first home in New York to have an Otis elevator (Wiki).

Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10128

Jewish Museum

1109 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10128

(212) 423-3200

https://thejewishmuseum.org/

Open: Monday-Tuesday 11:00am-5:45pm/Wednesday Closed/Thursday 11:00am-8:00pm/Saturday & Sunday 10:00am-5:45pm

Fee: Adults $18.00/Seniors (over 65) $12.00/Students $8.00/Children under 18 Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d106187-Reviews-The_Jewish_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

I visited the Jewish Museum for the first time this week to see the Leonard Cohen exhibition which had gotten good review online ( I had never heard of him before). It was a combination of video and pictures. The videos were on concerts, interviews, poetry readings and documentaries on his life.

The Leonard Cohen exhibition

After seeing his videos on each floor, which was nice because there were bean bags all over the galleries, I visited the other galleries. There was an gallery dedicated to Jewish religious symbols, Contemporary Jewish Artists and items by Jewish craftsman.

The one gallery that I thought was quite amusing was the depictions of Jews on TV and how stereotypes play a role in comedy. It had everyone in the gallery laughing their heads off. It is good when you can laugh at yourself.

There is some interesting silver works from the Eighteen century on exhibition and the contemporary works were very lively. The museum is not that big so you can visit all the galleries in one afternoon. There is also a branch of Russ & Daughters in the basement level that is very popular with visitors.

The music gallery of the Leonard Cohen exhibition

History of the Jewish Museum:

The Collection that seeded the museum began with a gift of Jewish ceremonial art objects from Judge Mayer Sulzberger to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America on January 20, 1904, where it was housed in the seminary’s library. The collection was moved in 1931, with the Seminary to 122nd Street and Broadway. The Jewish Theological received over 400 Jewish ceremonial items and created. The Museum of Jewish Ceremonial Objects’, previously the Jacob Schiff Library. The collection was subsequently expanded by major donation from Hadji Ephrain Benquiat and Harry G. Friedman. In 1939, in light of WWII, Poland sent about 350 objects to New York City from homes and synagogues in order to preserve them.

Following Felix Warburg’s death in 1937, in January 1944 his widow Frieda donated the family mansion to the seminary as a permanent home for the museum and the site opened to the public as “The Jewish Museum” in May 1947. Frieda Warburg said at the opening that the museum would not be a somber memorial but rather a celebration of the Jewish faith and traditions. The first expansive of the museum was the addition of a sculpture garden in 1959 by Adam List. The building was expanded in 1963 and further by architect Kevin Roche in 1993.

In the 1960’s, the museum took a more active role in the general world of contemporary art with exhibitions such as Primary Structures, which helped to launch the Minimalist art movement. In the decades since, the museum has had a renewed focus on Jewish culture and Jewish artists. From 1990 through 1993, director Joan Rosenbaum led the project to renovate and expand the building and carry out the museum’s first major capital campaign of sixty million. The project designed by architect Kevin Roche, doubled the side of the museum, providing it with a seven story addition. In 1992, the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center teamed up to create the New York Jewish Film Festival, which presents narrative features, short films and documentaries.

Contemporary art galleries

Today, the museum also provides educational programs for adults and families organizing concerts, films, symposiums and lectures related to its exhibitions. In 2011, the museum named Claudia Gould as its new director.

The Warburg Mansion

Architecture:

Felix M. Warburg House was constructed in Francois I style in 1906-1908 for Felix and Frieda Warburg, designed by C.P.H. Gilbert. Francois I style was originally found in New York City in the late 19th century through the works of Richard Morris Hunt. Hunt was a renowned architect throughout the Northeast, particularly in New England and was one of the first American architects to study at the elite Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

The original house is built in limestone with mansard roofs, dripping moldings and gables. This architectural style was based on French revivalism and exuded wealth, a point which Felix Warburg wanted to make to his neighbors. It featured a green yard in front of the house, which was later converted into the museum’s entrance.

Disclaimer: This information was taken from the Wiki story on The Jewish Museum and I give the site full credit for it.)

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