Isle of Palms Magazine Winter-Spring 2017-18

9 www.IsleOfPalmsMagazine.com | www.ILoveIOP.com | www.IOPmag.com to his island paradise. And that is where but the first comparison to New York’s Coney Island was born. That Brooklyn beach community had established regular service by horse- drawn trolleys in the early 19th century and by 1875 was transporting more than 2 million people a year. The huge influx of visitors to Coney Island spawned hotels, restaurants and an amusement park featuring such attractions as a carousel and the first roller coaster, the Switchback Railway. The success of Coney Island and that venue’s similarity to Isle of Palms were clearly not lost on Dr. Lawrence. IOP quickly gained a luxury hotel and restaurant, and amusements began to appear along the beachfront. According to newspaper reports of the era, early “horseless carriage” races were common on the miles of pristine sand and were so successful that the island’s sobriquet could just as easily have become “the Daytona of South Carolina.” Those organized races soon faded in popularity as more and more sun and surf lovers sought out the island for day trips and longer excursions aboard the convenient trolley service. In 1912, another Sottile, James, further enhanced Isle of Palms’ growing reputation as the Coney Island of the South by creating an amusement park featuring a spacious pavilion with private dining rooms, a huge dance floor and a rooftop, open air observation deck. Sottile added a steeplechase ride, a merry-go-round and a gigantic Ferris wheel said to have been visible from downtown Charleston on a clear day. That very Ferris wheel had begun its life at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892 and had found another home – where else? – at Coney Island before being moved to Isle of Palms. Visitors from as far away as Atlanta flocked to this new resort, picnicking, dining, dancing, riding the growing number of attractions and donning their modest if often uncomfortable “bathing costumes” for a dip in the [ Feature ]