The Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, was a 225-foot-tall, 14-story hotel that opened in May 5, 1927, on the Riegelmann Boardwalk at West 29th Street. The Half Moon was built to help Coney Island compete with the beach resort Atlantic City, New Jersey. The hotel was designed by the architectural firm of George B. Post and Sons and built by the Cauldwell-Wingate Co.
It is best known as the location where Abe Reles, informant for the FBI who brought down numerous members of Murder, Inc., either jumped, fell or was pushed to his death on November 12, 1941, from room 623, where he was in protective custody of the New York City Police Department, a few hours before he was scheduled to testify against Albert Anastasia. Reles's death signified the reach that organized crime had into the police department รข€" he was guarded by six police detectives. There was little doubt that Reles was defenestrated.
The name "Half Moon" refers to the name of explorer Henry Hudson's ship, which anchored off Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn (the location of Coney Island), while searching for a short cut to Asia.
During World War 2, the hotel was operated by the U.S. Navy and became known as the "U. S. Naval Special Hospital Sea Gate, NY", a convalescent hospital.
In the late 1940s, The Half Moon Hotel became a maternity hospital called Harbor Hospital. In the 1970s, it became a senior citizens' home called the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center. They moved to another building and it was demolished in 1995.
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