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<\/a><\/p>\nBorn in New York in 1896 to German immigrant parents, he attended P.S. 81 on Cypress Avenue<\/a> near the Brooklyn-Queens border. His father served as president of the Cigar Makers Union, and the family resided at 20-14 Stanhope Street in today\u2019s Ridgewood.<\/p>\n What little is known about Dreschmeyer comes mostly from a handful of newspaper articles. His name appeared in his father\u2019s 1935 obituary, and he served as executor of his $9000 estate.<\/p>\n While working as a timekeeper a year later, Dreschmeyer was identified as the driver who plowed into a man on a Glendale street corner, killing him. (He was acquitted of criminal negligence in 1938).<\/p>\n And in 1958, when he served as a manager at Krug\u2019s Baking Company in Jamaica, three robbers broke into his office, held him up, and made off with the $3000<\/a> collected by the day\u2019s delivery drivers.<\/p>\n A blog post from the Brooklyn Public Library<\/a> fills in some blanks about his personal life. Dreschmeyer never married, and after his parents passed away he remained on Stanhope Street possibly for the rest of his days, sharing his childhood home with his widowed sister.<\/p>\n On the surface, he seems to be an ordinary, unremarkable man. But in the mid-1960s, something compelled Dreschmeyer to pick up a camera\u2014likely a Hasselblad, per the Brooklyn Public Library\u2014and capture more than one hundred images of a fading Coney Island.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the dynamic Coney Island of the early 20th century. By the 1960s, population shifts put this legendary seaside escape in decline. <\/p>\n Dreschmeyer\u2019s photos show beachgoers strolling the boardwalk and swimming in the water. But this Coney is a less visited, almost dreary place with its golden days behind it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe closing of Steeplechase Amusement Park in 1965 was a symbolic moment that illustrated the fall into economic decline by both the amusement parks and the neighborhood,\u201d states the Brooklyn Public Library.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder urban renewal plans, middle class family homes were demolished by the city while high-rise, low-income public housing buildings were being constructed,\u201d continued the Library blog post. <\/p>\n \u201cConey Island of the 1960s and 1970s became known for its crime and poverty, partially due to the city\u2019s neglect.\u201d<\/p>\n You wouldn\u2019t necessarily realize this decline by viewing Dreschmeyer\u2019s photos. He focused on beachgoers in colorful swimsuits, and the Wonder Wheel and parachute under blue skies. <\/p>\n In some images, fireworks illuminate the night, amusement rides await customers, and a kaleidoscopic of colorful lights give the impression of motion and magic.<\/p>\n Dreschmeyer brought his camera with him to other parts of the city. He took photos of Brooklyn\u2019s Memorial Day parade, a trip on the Staten Island ferry, boats at Sheepshead Bay, and movingly, a memorial to John F. Kennedy at Grand Army Plaza<\/a>, unveiled in 1965.<\/p>\n None of Dreschmeyer\u2019s photos, available to view via the Brooklyn Public Library\u2019s Center for Brooklyn History website<\/a>, are closeups. People in his images are either part of crowds or caught unaware. There\u2019s no known self portraits, either.<\/p>\n This distance between himself and human subjects might be a clue to the kind of man he was\u2014perhaps introverted and uncomfortable approaching others.<\/p>\n Dreschmeyer passed away in 1983, and he took his reasons for chronicling Coney Island by camera to the grave. Yet it\u2019s hard not to wonder about him and what his motives were.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n