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Canarsie had its own amusement park called Golden City. I graduated from P.S. 114. Is it stll there?


------ Lived at 108 Conklin Ave. There wasn't a high school in Canarsie when I lived there. Canarsie was like living in the country. But I did go to PS 114. When I was very young there were still remnants of Golden City and the Trolley cars still ran to the shore between the houses....

Is there anybody out there as old as me? I graduated from PS 115 in 1942, just a month or so after Pearl Harbor. In looking through the names I saw a few I know and a number of others with the same surname as people I knew. Does anybody remember Miss McKenna, Mrs. Dolan, Mr. Finkel, Mrs. Johnson all from PS 115? How about Fortmyers, or Forties as we called it then? Golden City amusement park? I was back in "the old country" about 5 years ago and was shocked by how much it has changed.....



In the early part of this century an amusement park was erected along the shorefront of Jamaica Bay at Canarsie shore which was called Golden City Park. When you entered this park its paths were made of ground-up oyster and clam shells, which were very nice to walk on even on a rainy day. On the right side of the entrance was a Giant Roller Coaster Ride and alongside of that the Penny Arcade, owned by a fellow named Chas. Palish. On the other side was a ride called Tunnel of Love which burned down in the first fire around the early teens and was replaced with a Merry-Go-Round ride which was managed by Chas. Bebensee for a while and later by Fred Miller.

As you walked into the park on the left, the first to get your eye was the Whip Ride and to the left of it the office where the various girls who cashiered had to bring in their receipts of the day.

In the office, with its surrounding shrubs and trees right near the dock where the fishing boats tied up, Chas. Bunche had his three mile sail around the bay boats there. Also, the Whin Ride and in the center the Airplane Ride, which sailed around just like a real plane ride in those days.

The Fun House and the Boat Ride took you through the dark tunnels where all sorts of spooks and devils almost scared you out of your wits. In back of the Airplane Ride was the hot dog stand owned by Murary, who had delicious franks to eat.

Murphy's Carousel, one of the staples of Canarsie's Golden City Park.



Scattered through the park were many games such as trying to Ring the hoople over the Dancing Dolls and also the game called Kill the Kats where you would get a prize if you got the hoople over the dolls or knocked the cats over with the baseballs you would buy at three for a nickel.

As the years went by, other attractions came in, such as Al Camin and his Wall of Death Ride where they rode their mo-torcycles on a flat wall and that thing shook when they went around and around!

They also built a Fight Arena on the right side of the park where many great amateur and professional boys of the day came to appear in the ring. Canarsie's own Buck O'Brien brought many of the boys he trained down there for the amateur nights and in the pro nights we saw Canarsie's own Casper (Geppy) La Rosa. Vincent Pimpinella from Bay Ridge and Harold Green from Brownsville and many more great fighters from there. The park was torn down in 1939 to make room for the Belt Pkway and was supposed to be relocated over where the Seaview shopping center is now, but the Civic Assn's protested that they didn't want it anymore. In its late years it was drawing a bad element to good old Canarsie and so they had park Commissioner Moses get behind it and they had an injunction issued.



CREDITS: Somebody E-mailed me the above and made mention of.....Canarsie Historical Society/Brian Merlis. I believe I am using 'excerts' above for this non-profit,non-commercial,educational site.


Canarsie


So called from the French word, canard, meaning duck, the symbol of the Indian tribe that lived on the edge of Jamaica Bay, where ducks were plentiful. The area was originally a part of the town of Flatlands, where fishing and farming prevailed. In the 1870s the influx of immigrants that came to the area turned their attentions to mining the oyster beds and fishing the fertile waters of Jamaica Bay. Canarsie soon became a fashionable seaside resort and amusement area, drawing throngs to its vaudeville theaters and speakeasies. But, by the 1930s, the effects of the Depression, added to the pollution of Jamaica Bay, forced many to move on. Soon after, the amusement area burned to the ground. In 1939 the entire area was razed to make way for the Belt Parkway, a major highway. The end of World War II brought new immigrants to the area, many occupying one and two family homes. Rowhouses and duplexes rose, establishing a more urban area.


CREDIT: BrooklynRealEstate.Com - BrooklynPix.Com


Nunley's Carousel, Garden City, NY,

Murphy-Stein & Goldstein, 1910-12, 3 row, Park, 30 j, 11 s, 1 m, (1LIO), 2 ch; NO, b/o Wurl 153; Carousel is in storage and is scheduled to operate at the Cradle of Aviation Museum; History: Canarsie; Brooklyn, NY, 1912 to 1939; Nunley's Amusement Park, Baldwin, NY, 1939 to 1996; Storage, Garden City, NY, 1996 to present.