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for larger version       Historical Views of the Rockaways
In the 1901 season, Tilyou's second Steeplechase Park was opened for business. The park had many of the same attractions as Coney Island, including the famous Steeplechase Gravity Horses, imported from Great Britain, as was the Coney Island horse ride. Seven years later, this picture postcard was mailed from Rockaway Beach to Borough Park in Brooklyn, but the photograph is 1901 vintage. Shown are the Tilyou boardwalk, bathhouses, second-floor dining room and terrace, the arched main entrance and open pavilions on the right. On the left is Tilyou's haunted house attraction. For the 1902 season, at the suggestion of Tilyou, Lamarcus Thompson moved his midway and scenic railway attraction to the new Steeplechase. It ran between Beach 97 and 98 Streets, from the boulevard to the beach. Thompson was a good friend of Tilyou and invented the roller coaster at Coney Island in 1884. At the space shown to the right of the photograph, Thompson later added a carousel, building, scenic railway, old mill water ride (including scenic buildings to pass through), bathhouses, another restaurant and games of chance booths. A small tent city was also inside the new park, along with what later became Ocean Parkway and the Beach 98 Street we know today. The following year, a miniature double-track railroad ran along the boardwalk railing. After Tilyou's death in 1914, the family sold the park and removed the popular Steeplechase ride. The new owner replaced it with a laundry, and the park faded from its glory days.
After Thompson died in 1926, his family sold the park to a group of Rockaway businessmen headed by lawyer A. Joseph Geist. In 1928, the group rebuilt and opened the park as Rockaway's Playland in 1928. Outlasting Coney Island for a score of years, Rockaway's Playland closed in 1985 and was demolished for housing, which was never built. In the nineties, it was filled with many new, smaller dwellings.
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