Rockaways Playland

Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York, USA

Closed 1987

**The Disappointed Tourist: Rockaway’s Playland,** Ellen Harvey, 2021. Oil and acrylic on Gessoboard, 18 x 24″ (46 x 61 cm). Photograph: Etienne Frossard.

Playland in Rockaway! Everyone who knew it misses it and I live not more than a block from where it stood with a clear view of the site. Eva D.

Rockaways’ Playland was an amusement park that operated from 1902 to 1987 in Rockaway Beach in Queens. It closed as a result of rising insurance premiums. The painting is inspired by an uncredited black and white photograph. I’m not sure why I got the closing date wrong in the painting.