Moon Hotel Uae
Joke Grinman
The cleanliness was second to none. Staff were very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. The spa facilities were lovely and were an added bonus , so relaxing at the end of a busy day sightseeing. Breakfast was exceptional, one of the best we have experienced, and we have stayed in many hotels around the world.
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The Half Moon Hotel, with it's great mosaic dome, opened for business on May 5th, 1927 on the Boardwalk at West 29th Street. It was managed by the American Hotels Corporation and financed by prominent members Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, including William Ward, Charles Feltman, Edward Tilyou, and William Mangels. The Half Moon was sited at the outer fringe of the amusement area on the theory that the Boardwalk between the hotel and Stillwell Avenue would fill in with other luxury establishments. Many prominent guests visited the hotel and it remained a popular venue for weddings and banquets.
The Great Depression killed the Chamber's dream of greatness and the hotel sat exiled at the West End until the beginning of WW II when it was transformed into a naval hospital. In 1941 the hotel gained notoriety when mob turncoat Abe Reles fell to his death from a sixth floor window while under police protection shortly before he was due to testify in court. No one knows for sure whether he was pushed or slipped during an escape attempt. After the war the Half Moon became Harbor Hospital and in 1953, the Hebrew Home for the Aged. The elegant building was demolished in 1996 before it could be landmarked.
Hi,
I really enjoyed your page about Coney Island. I was also born in Harbor Hospital..on Dec. 6, 1949. My father grew up in Coney Island, and my mother was from Brighton Beach. After I was born, I lived on Corbin Place in Manhattan Beach, and then in 1953 we moved to East 16 Street in Sheepshead Bay...where my family still lives.
Thanks again for some great info...I really enjoyed reading this.
I was born in Brooklyn in 1948. We lived on W. 33rd st. on Coney island. By the time I could remember, it was a Jewish old age home and my grandmother took me to visit her cousins living there. She regaled us with stories of the hotel's former glory.
I read your email about your ties to Half Moon Hotel and being born on Dec 6, 1949.
I also was born at HMH on Dec 25,1949 and, ironically I lived on 16th St, just down the road from St. Marks RCC. We left Brooklyn and 16th St in 1955 for the "country" on Long Island.
But, we grew up at FWIL Lundy's and Joe's Clam Bar and Tappens Restaurant on 19th and approximately Voorhies Ave.
Also, my grandmother worked at Brighton Beach Baths from 1927 until shortly before her passing in 1977, 50 years as a locker attendant.
This brought back some memories of another time in my life!
I remember the Half Moon Hotel when it was the Harbour Hospital. My Aunt Gertie used to work there and took us there often. I was born in November 5, 1944 at Peck Memorial Hospital also in Brooklyn and lived on the corner of Shore Parkway and East 15th Street on the Bay side of the Belt Parkway with my Grandma & Grandpa Veltri. I have very fond memories of Sheepshead Bay. I lived there until I was in my 40's and some of my family still lives there. It was great growing up at that time and that neighborhood.
In inheriting my Uncle estate who was wounded in WWII passed away in Dec 2008, found all his old letters and a photo of the U. S. Naval Special Hospital Sea Gate, which is in fact the same Half Moon Hotel. His mail was sent there from Jul 2, 1945 until his discharge at that location on 22 April 1947, therefore it served the Navy at least throughout that period. Another story of a landmark building!
I was told when the half moon Hotel was standing, the NYC Police Department was holding a witness there. But before he could get to court he fell out the window, Is this a true story. also do you know anything about murder Inc and George Narder. Thank you
It was a sad day when i saw the wreckers ball slamming in to the side of the building. What was not mentioned was that it was called the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center. It had been called that from as far back as I can remember in the 70's. They held off on the demolition until the new MJGC was completed and fully functioning. I do recall that there was a snag in the demo. When they were using the ball part of the upper structure was starting to fall before they were ready to work in that area and a huge steel beam was exposed and dangling. I remember the work had stopped till they were able to safely remove the beam without having any of the building collapse around it. To bad that building was not landmarked. Now there is a high Rise condo in it's place.
I no longer live in Coney Island but when I see pictures of what is happening to it I get pains as if I lost a friend. The first major motion picture i ever saw was King Kong Vs Godzilla at the RKO Tilyou. A few years later it was gone. All that was left was a vacant lot. Some 40 plus years later it is still that same vacant lot.
It was an incredibly beautiful building. I welled up with tears when I visited the old neighborhood, and saw the hideous neo deco monstrosity they raised in it's place. The Half Moon Hotel really should have had landmark status. It was one of Coney Island's last glowing treasures. As a child I loved looking in the glass showcase windows on the boardwalk side to see what new popsicle building fete the seniors in the Jewish Geriatriac Art Center had created. Also fondly remember it always towering behind us each week as we watched the fireworks eating lemon Italian ices. It always struck me as looking a bit like an extraordinary drip sand castle, fancy enough to make a fitting palace for the court of Neptune.
During WW2 my Dad was sent to the Coney Island VA hospital at the Half Moon Hotel, US Naval Special Hospital Sea Gate, after getting shrapnel in his shoulder during a shelling. While recuperating there, he built a beautiful wooden rocking horse for my older brothers. When it was a touch nearing completion, an officer's wife happened to be touring, saw the horse and he was "ordered" to hand it over so that she could give it to her children. Thirty years later, he was still piss and vinegar furious about the the injustice of the incident.
What a shame to have lost yet another wonderful and intensely quintessential symbol of Coney Island past like Astro Land. Why they could not have simply rehabed the inside of the building and saved the building's beautiful prewar exterior is beyond me.
The real story about Abe rellis here is that my Grandfather Detective George Estes went there to arrest Abe Rellis and instead threw him out the window and tied the bed sheets together to make it look like he was trying to escape. My father Jack Estes
I met my wife there at this hotel I'am sadden to say it's no longer there. I'am very surprise they torn it down to make it into a senior center. That building had a lot of history. It's kinda funny I live down the block from where Tony Curtis who made that movie there. In Las Vegas. I use to walk up the to the dome everyday when I work as a security guard. I love that building.
Hi, I was born at Harbor Hospital on May 2, 1950. How cool to see others posting here. We lived in Bensonhurst, but moved to Paterson, NJ in 1953. My Brooklyn grandmother took us to Steeplechase during the summer, I remember the inside amusement park, what a place to experience. Very sad the Half Moon/Harbor is gone, looks like it was a beautiful building. Betty
I was born at Harbour Hospital also on April 25, 1950. My maiden name is Roth. My family lived at 3202 Surf Avenue on the corner, accross from Coney Island Houses. I went to P.S.188, then to Mark Twain JHS. Went to PS299 for last year of JHS when it was brand new. I graduated from Abraham Lincoln HS June 1968. I now live in Brighton Beach/Sheepshead Bay Area. Walking distance to the Bay and the Ocean. I always think about all the good years growing up in Coney Island.
Great to see a person say they went to p.s. 188. I lived on 31 street across from park. mark twain. Jr .and lincoln high. loved growing up in coney is. a kid's dream. steeplechase and the cyclone. sorry it all changed so much.
I lived on W. 30 st, many of my friends and classmates lived in the Surf Ave Building next to the Half Moon Hotel. One of my classmates lived in the Hotel in the mid 40's, then it became the Maternity hospital. I remember sledding down the boardwalk ramp that was at the front steps of the Hotel in the winters. My Mother worked as a Nurse there when it became a Home for the aged. I was married in the synogouge there in Sept. 1960.
around 1968 my grandmother moved to an apartment building they built across the street from the half moon hotel. she had lived in coney island from the time she left Ellis island till she passed away. she and her sister bought a home there, got married, raised their kids (my dad). Dad grew up, went in the service and got married and as we were growing up, we went to coney island all the time to visit. oh the memories i have. the boardwalk, fireworks, shops, side shows, rides. steeplechase was my favorite. all the highly polish wood slides, and i particuarly love the ride that was like a big doughnut with a raised platform u sat on and had to either stay or return to as the ride was spinning. if u did, u would win a prize. then we went back and those particular rides were gone. when they tore it down we were already relocated to florida, which some of the rides made it to Pirate's World in Hollywood. we went back to coney island and was just sick at heart at how it had changed and not for the better. so sad.