Little Coney Island

Did you know that W. 110th Street (Cathedral Parkway) was once dubbed “Little Coney Island” for its number of dance parlors, casinos, and pleasure gardens? These were bars and dance venues that catered to a working class, often immigrant population, who would gather to drink, dance, gamble and enjoy vaudeville acts, similar to what could be
found in Coney Island (minus the beach and boardwalk).

After neighbors and social reformers complained, and then a fire broke out at one of the theatres in 1900, the police began to crack down. By 1901, a law was passed that forbade any dance halls serving alcohol within half a mile of a church and the Riverside and Morningside Heights Association brought pressure on the pleasure palaces. Little Coney Island was effectively shut down. The opening of the 110th Street subway in 1904 and the construction of large family apartment buildings led to more neighborhood changes and the history of Little Coney Island was largely forgotten.