Half Moon Hotel, date unknown.

The Half Moon Hotel opened on May 5, 1927, just in time for the Coney Island summer season. Designed by the firm of George B. Post and Sons, the 16-story, 400 room hotel rose on the Riegelmann Boardwalk at West 29th Street. The hotel was named for Henry Hudson's iconic ship, which (supposedly) landed near this location. For Coney Island developers and park owners this classy hotel was mean to overcome the more tawdry reputation and push Coney Island into being a more respectable area, on par with Atlantic City.

Despite early success, by the 1930s, amid the Depression, the hotel was failing. In 1941 mob murder-for-hire, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, was being kept at the hotel under heavy armed guard after agreeing to testify against the mobster, Albert “The Lord High Executioner” Anastasia. Though under the protection of five detectives, Reles was found dead on the roof of one of the towers, having jumped, fallen, or been pushed out of a window.

During the Second World War, the hotel functioned as a naval hospital before returning briefly as a residence. Sold in 1949 it became a maternity facility called Harbor Hospital, then the Hebrew Home and Hospital for the Aged. After four decades as an old age home, the owners tore it down in 1996 to replace it with a modern facility.