Sheepshead Man Wants Help In Historical Search


by on Aug 26th, 2010

Luke Stangarone cleaning the Feltman window // Source: Tricia Vita, AmuzingTheZillion.com

Sheepshead Bay resident Luke Stangarone is on a mission to uncover the history of a magnificently preserved stained glass window. He’s enlisted the help of Amusing the Zillion blogger Tricia Vita, who then turned to us. And since we’re pretty useless, we decided to turn to you…

So here’s the deal: Stangarone’s wife’s relatives were old-school Coney carnies, and they managed to rescue two stained glass windows from the tremendous Feltman’s complex before it was torn down. The windows sat in a muddy Park Slope basement for decades until Stangarone decided to clean them up, and is donating one to the Coney Island Museum. But the problem is, they’re not sure where in Feltman’s the windows come from, and it was quite an expansive complex:

Charles Feltman is famous as the inventor of the hot dog, but his entertainment complex on Surf Avenue was multi-faceted and covered a full city block. According to the Coney Island History Project, which has a 120-year-old chair from Feltman’s Maple Garden on display, the Feltman empire included nine restaurants, two bars, a ballroom, an outdoor movie theater, a hotel, a beer garden, a bathhouse, a pavilion, a Tyrolean village, a carousel, a roller coaster called the ZIZ and the maple garden! Since Feltman’s closed in 1954 and was demolished to make way for Astroland Park in 1962, you’d have be over 60 to remember going there.

Well, any of you history buffs, or old coots (or both), know where these lovely windows come from?

View more photos at Amusing the Zillion.

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  • Athena

    Why not contact the librarians/archivists at the Brooklyn Historical Society at http://www.brooklynhistory.org/default/index.html

    If they don’t know, they may be able to put you in touch with someone who does. You could also try to ask “Mr. Coney Island” at the Coney Island History Project.

  • Shana
  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    I can’t say for sure, but I assume that Tricia has gone through the conventional channels for information.

    This is a hard one.

  • Lou

    The window comes from the men’s bathroom. I remember it clearly as I am 89 years old. Too bad I forget other things like what I ate for breakfast today.

  • Schmuck

    I think you are right. I remember standing on the sink and pissing out that window

  • Georgia

    This is a tough one I think we must check into the hystory back for Coney Island. I really think a historian would have the answer. The historical Society. Lets see who can check this one out. I think we should go all on this hunt.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    The specific location will be hard. My guess would be the main dining room. Photographs might help, and the Brooklyn Historical Society should have some. But did the Feldman family hold on to papers and other documentation after the restaurant closed in 1954? If so, were those papers donated to a university library or historical society? Descendants might have some information, as well as photographic clues.

    There is a show on PBS called History Detectives which makes this sort of thing look easy. They have a bigger budget than we do.

  • Georgia

    I notified the Brooklyn Historical Society lets see what happens. But that could take 1 week or so. The PBS History Detectives sounds like a better idea.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    It fits the criteria in every aspect except size. It’s a little large and fragile, so if they want to do physical analysis they’ll have to take special precautions.

    The owner would have to make the request of them. I am almost sure that Mr. Stangarone is following our discussion here. If not then perhaps Tricia Vita can talk to him about this.

  • http://amusingthezillion.com/ Tricia

    Thanks very much for posting this Ned. And thanks to everyone for the leads and suggestions. It is indeed as Lisanne says, a hard one. The fact that there were so many different buildings at Feltman’s makes it a lot of fun to speculate! I agree it’s a great story for History Detectives. They did a segment a few years ago about zinc lions paws that turned out to be from Steeplechase Park.

    I also posted a query on the Coney Island USA message board, where one poster suggested doing research at the Brooklyn room at BPL or the Local History room at NYPL’s Shwartzman bldg after failing to find any info in his own archive. Since the owner of the windows (there’s 2) is donating them to the Coney Island Museum, it might be a great project for one of their interns, who could be part of the History Detectives segment. It’s about time PBS came back to Coney Island!

  • http://amusingthezillion.com/ Tricia

    Next time I stop by Coney Island USA, I will ask if they’ve turned up any new info

  • Patience

    http://www.cardcow.com/294130/scene-luna-park-coney-island-new-york/

    Maybe from this scene in Luna Park… The castle on the right has two rectangular windows where they would have fit in nicely.

  • Patience

    Note the windows in the lower left corner of this picture: 
    http://www.cardcow.com/218767/circle-swing-luna-park-coney-island-new-york/
    They are the same style and it looks like it is the same building.