B&B Carousell

1615 Boardwalk West | also 1904 Surf Avenue | Coney Island | built 2000

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1906

    William Mangels builds the carousel and Marcus Illions carves its horses

    The Coney Island manufacturer William F. Mangels built the machine between 1906 and 1909, and the carver Marcus Illions made its wooden horses. It began life in New Jersey, probably at Asbury Park, not at Coney Island. Of the fifty horses on it today, only the lead horse, a Lincoln Centennial horse first installed on a different carousel in 1908, is still an original Illions carving.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1927

    Charles Carmel carves new chariots and replacement horses for the carousel at Lake Hopatcong

    The carousel moved to Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, in 1927. Around then Charles Carmel carved its two chariots and replacements for most of Illions's horses, so most of the herd on the ride today is Carmel's work rather than Illions's.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1932

    William Bishoff and Herman Brienstein buy the carousel, giving it the B&B name

    William Bishoff and Herman Brienstein bought the carousel in 1932, and their initials gave it the name B&B. The Carousell spelling comes from the catalogs of its maker, Mangels. The pair moved the ride back to Coney Island by 1934 or 1935 and set it up at 1043 Surf Avenue near West 12th Street.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1973

    James McCullough and Mike Saltzstein buy the carousel as Coney Island's amusements fade

    James McCullough and Mike Saltzstein bought the B&B Carousell in 1973, as Coney Island's allure was waning. When Saltzstein died in 2001 it was the only amusement left on the island's north side of Surf Avenue. The developer Joe Sitt had bought the land under it shortly before, and he evicted McCullough once the lease ran out.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2008

    Restorer Todd Goings begins restoring the carousel's horses in Ohio after a donor gave it to the city

    After the eviction, a private donor bought the carousel in 2005 and gave it to New York City, which stored it at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. In 2008 the restorer Todd W. Goings began work on the horses in Marion, Ohio, matching more than 80 colors and adding new horsehair tails. The city's Economic Development Corporation paid $1.7 million for the job.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2013

    The carousel reopens at Luna Park's Steeplechase Plaza

    The city announced in 2011 that the carousel would be reinstalled at Steeplechase Plaza within Luna Park, near the former Steeplechase Park site, and it reopened there in 2013 inside a new cylindrical pavilion. In 2016 the National Register of Historic Places listed it. It is Coney Island's last operating carousel.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 12 buildings with stories in Coney Island