| I
REMEMBER THE ROCKAWAYS |
 |
The
Arcade Building, Central Avenue, Far Rockaway, New York,
1937 Photo Credit: The Wave |
|
|
by
Stevie S. Stevens |
...The
construction of the "Arcade Building" was an interesting
concept. It certainly introduced a festive feeling and flair
and for almost an entire decade (the 1930s) it provided a certain
carnival atmosphere to the otherwise rather dull shopping district.
About the same time the Arcade Building was erected, the B.
F. Keith Vaudeville Company bulk a theater directly across the
street -- on a parcel of land which had shortly before served
as a side street. The theater would eventually become known
as the R. K. O. Columbia.
Read Entire
Article
From Ed Gloeggler to Stevie
Stevens, dated August 28, 2010:
Hello Stevie,
Loved that piece about the Arcade Building.
And that's a nice photo. I've never seen one that good. Your
memories of the place were quite similar to mine. We'd play
pool on one of the pool tables in the bowling alley that took
quarters. Then we'd slide down the terrazzo steps that led to
the bowling alley from Beach 20th Street. I think we even bowled
a few times.
Kitty Carson's Dance Studio was up there too,
though I'm not much the dancer, and was never in it. I do recall
reading that Mrs. Carson was quite a celebrity in her day, which
was many, many years before my time there in the '60's.
You mentioned White Street, which we know as
Beach 21st Street, that ran behind the Arcade, and the other
buildings on Central Avenue. Of course in that area, Central
Avenue was actually Beach 20th Street, but we called it Central
Avenue. Woolworth's and W. T. Grants both had back doors leading
to Beach 21st Street, and many of the upstairs businesses had
small parking lots or entrances that fronted Beach 21st Street.
I recall one vegetable place that was on the second floor and
had a chute leading to a lot there. On our Sunday explorations,
we'd slide down the metal chute.
Between Beach 21st and Beach 22 Street was
a narrow right of way that, as you mentioned, carried a Long
Island Rail Road spur many years prior. Being that I'm somewhat
of an old-time railroader, I'd like to fill you in on its story.
Railroaders called that track the Grove Track,
and they did for good reason. For the early part of the 20th
Century it was merely a spur or siding that served a lumber
yard on Cornega Avenue, where the track ended. The other end
crossed Mott Avenue and linked up with the railroad's Far Rockaway
Yard. But why "Grove Track"?
The LIRR was not the first railroad to reach
Rockaway. It's former rival, the South Side Railroad, constructed
a station at Mott Avenue on July 29, 1869. The Long Island Rail
Road followed suit, building its branch across the Woodmere
meadows from Rosedale. As mentioned in your Arcade Building
article, the Long Island, which folled the South Side's lead
and built to Rockaway in 1872 was blocked from the seashore
by court actions from wealthy residents. It was was forced to
terminate it's branch just north of Brookhaven Avenue between
what is now Beach 21st and Beach 22nd Streets. Benjamin C. Lockwood
operated a picnic grove there and the station building was constructed
in 1872 named "Lockwood's Grove".
Read
Entire Letter
From Harold Berkowitz
to Rockaway Memories, dated August 28, 2010:
Dear Marty,
What a task you have taken on!!! I really enjoy
reading all of the "Memories " that you have put on
your website. It brings back so many memories of my growing
up in Far Rockaway.
Just to add to some of what you have... There
used to be about 5 private beach clubs along Seagirt Avenue.
East of the Ostend Hotel there was a place
called Seabreeze Beach. Then west of the Hotel was the Shore
Club, Ostend Beach, Roche's Beach and where Wavecrest Gardens
is, there was the Colony Club. In those days Roche's was what
we called "restricted". Some years after Roche died,
in the late thirties Mr. Tessler and his family bought the place
and continued it as Roche's Beach. Then the amusements, adjacent
to the beach as you entered the Boardwalk appeared.
Across the street from Roche's were these 4
beautiful mansions. When I was a kid Al Smith summered in one.
Grover Whalen, who was N.Y. Parks commisioner lived in another.
When they were sold off they became the Rochelle Englander's
Hotel. When I left Far Rock in 1950 I believe they were still
there. On Beach 19th street north of Seagirt was an orphan asylum
that eventually became HI-LI.
The Columbia Theatre, or the Strand is where
I spent Saturday afternoons. Fifteen cents for a double feature
and about 3 serials. The lady in the box office at the Columbia
was Mae, and she knew everyone in town.
My father had food stores in the village. I
remember one next to Neveloff's, then next to Cushman's and
finally on Mott Avenue next to Schwartz's barbershop. In about
1938 he moved his business out of Far Rock. What a bustling
and busy village it was in those days.. I remember the Arcade
and Grant's five and ten. We also had Woolworth's and another
five and dime where for the first timeI saw a Sit Down Strike
( it also had Grant's in it's name).
When my mother passed away during 1983 we had
her phone disconnected and the telephone company told us that
her number was the 525th number that had been issued in Far
Rock (0525).
Well enough from me. Keep up the good work
Harold J. Berkowitz, DDS