CHAPTER TWENTY: FOOD, FUN, AND FAR ROCKAWAY "Gee ma! But I have nothing to do!" Those were the eight words never said if you were child fortunate enough to have been living in the resort seaside town of Far Rockaway back in the summer of 1955. For as children our activities were limited only by the confines of our own imaginations. I lived in a massive fourteen-building apartment complex known as "Wavecrest Gardens" which happened to be located on Beach 20th Street at the Atlantic oceanfront and the place provided me with a wide concrete ramp connecting to my world of childhood experiences. I am not going to tell you that this ramp led to an unbelievable world of fantasy and ecstasy. What this ramp did lead to was a pretty nifty boardwalk where, walking a few blocks west, my friends and I would encounter the first of several concession stands which would provide hours of entertainment that wonderful summer, and for many summers to follow. Go to Archives to read the previously published chapters.
When I met Carl Icahn, the fabulously wealthy financier, his formal education – P.S. 104, Far Rockaway High School, Princeton University and two years of medical school at New York University – was behind him and his business career was just beginning. After introducing ourselves one Monday morning on the platform of the Wavecrest subway station, we sat together on the ride into the city where Carl, 25, worked at a brokerage firm and me at a trade magazine publishing company. He had an apartment on East 37th Street in Manhattan and had spent the weekend visiting his parents in Bayswater; meanwhile, at 23, I still lived with mine in the Wavecrest Gardens. An intense aversion to the sight of blood, he explained, had persuaded him to leave medical school and seek his fortune on Wall Street. We hit it off immediately and began a fast friendship that has endured for nearly 50 years. The first couple of them included double-dating, vacationing together and sharing and splitting the cost of his Manhattan apartment. Before leaving Carl for my first and only wife, it was clear to me that he was destined to make it big, although $10 billion was beyond the boundaries of my imagination, as even $10 million might have been in 1960 or 1961. At the time we met, his income was already approaching $40,000 a year; mine was slightly less, at $6,000. Go to Archives to read Ira's previously published columns.
Ursula Brennan graduated Far Rockaway High School in June of 1936. Recorded in the Dolphin Yearbook for that year was her ambition to attend Hunter College and her desire to become more winsome. I was not precisely certain of the meaning of winsome so I look up the definition. It means, sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging: a winsome smile. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you any more about Ursula Brennan. A google search for her came up empty. Perhaps someone who remembers Ursula will contact this website. However, she did leave behind a beautifully written and very haunting short story titled "Release" that was published in the Literary Dolphin of 1936 (graciously loaned to us by Harry Bernhard).
Click here to read Ursula's story. |
...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.
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".
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 |
Thanks to Harry Bernhard for providing us with this fabulous photo from the June, 1926 Dolphin Yearbook.
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