Under the Roller Coaster story of the house under thunderbolt coaster

Here is a little story of a woman that lived in a house under the thunderbolt coaster on coney island. You have to have realplayer to listen.

Looks like they made a documentary about this woman also.

http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/under_the_roller_coaster/

Here is the website with a trailer.

http://www.slamdance.com/2006/festival/film_detail.asp?film_id=718

I never knew there was a real house there, I always thought it was from Woody Allen. Neat.

I believe the house was what was left of a hotel that sat beneath the structure (probably pre-dating the coaster). It still bothers me that the ride was removed, probably because nothing was done with the site since. Maybe I just miss going to Coney and always feeling bad for the coaster...

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Rob Ascough said:
probably because nothing was done with the site since.

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Coney Island is going under a major renovation. Thor equit. bought out most of the land aside from wonder wheel, cyclone and astroland.

Wild guess whats going in its place anyone......

a shopping complex, nightlife entertainment center, ripleys, circe de soeli (sp?), family entertainment center, and parachute pavilion w/ the return of operations to the parachute.

Yeah, but Thunderbolt was demolished long before there were plans to turn Coney into Vegas East.

The house was a hotel that pre-dated the coaster. I think the hotel was originally on the boardwalk when it was built. The boardwalk was later moved further away, isolating the hotel behind new development. Shady politics was always part of Coney Island. At least one tradition has endured.

Makes sense.

So the hotel became a house, right? Not the other way around? Just want to make sure I got that right.

Yeah, it was a hotel first, but not a big hotel. It was built in the late 19th century I believe when hotels looked more like a rooming house than the typical Super 8.

Edit: it was built in 1895 as the Kensington Hotel. Here are some modern day pictures:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Coney/coney.html *** Edited 5/18/2006 8:24:46 PM UTC by millrace***

Maybe I'm blind but I didn't see any pictures since the Thunderbolt was removed.

The Kensington Hotel... that's the name I that was on the tip of my tongue. I wonder if the building was downsized at some point? It looks like it was once a bit larger...