On warm summer days, many New Yorkers could be found enjoying the rides and attractions at local Coney Island amusement parks including Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park. William H. Reynolds opened Dreamland in 1904 pairing rides and attractions with elegant architecture and bizarre side shows. Visitors could view curiosities such as premature babies in incubators, a one armed lion tamer named Captain Bonavita or the Lilliputian Village with three hundred dwarf inhabitants. Park owners abandoned Dreamland in 1911 after a fire that began in the water flume of a ride prophetically called Hell Gate destroyed the park.
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