"Todd Heisler/The New York Times
The Shore Hotel
on Surf Avenue in Coney Island.
The Shore Theater in
Coney Island, a neo-Renaissance Revival
contemporary of the Cyclone
and the Wonder Wheel, is now a landmark.
The Landmarks Preservation
Commission approved the designation for the
Shore and three other
buildings on Tuesday afternoon.
The Shore, originally known as the
Coney Island Theater, was built between 1924
and 1925. Beginning in
the mid-1960s, the theater began housing
musical revues and burlesque.
A few years later, following a brief experimentation
with adult film, it catered to a
(presumably) different demographic:
bingo players. Today,
at seven stories high, the vacant building is one
of the tallest in the area.
Other buildings that were given landmark
status include an Art Deco
skyscraper at 500 Fifth Avenue designed by
the architects of the Empire
State Building and completed in 1931; the Rogers
Peet building at 258
Broadway, an eight-story neo-Renaissance
building built in 1900 near
City Hall; and Alderbrook House, a country home
built in 1859 in the
Riverdale section of the Bronx, then a holiday spot
for wealthy families."
