“Don’t be a gloomster…be a Steeplechaser!” Steeplechase Park is one of the most famous (and most influential) amusement parks in the industry’s history. The owner, George C. Tilyou, was P.T. Barnum, Rockefeller and Teddy Roosevelt all rolled into one. The documentary Coney Island by Ric Burns and Richard Snow called Tilyou the, “first impresario [...]
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The Pavilion of Fun was the centerpiece of Steeplechase Park. One of the entrances was the Barrel of Fun, which is shown here in the lower-right hand corner. This picture shows the second Pavilion of Fun, which was rebuilt after a fire burned the original in 1907. It was [...]
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Like most places at Coney, the beach was important to Steeplechase. You can see the park’s logo “The Funny Place” on the placards along the boardwalk. The Steeplechase Pier was a docking location for steamships from New York. The postcard on the left [...]
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Steeplechase Park was the heart of Coney, watching the island through good and bad times from the late 1800′s to the mid-Sixties. These pages will look at some postcards of the park, most from its heyday. Above is the entrance to the park from Surf Avenue. [...]
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