In the series ... "I REMEMBER THE ROCKAWAYS"... Stevie S. Stevens writes about
"Legends of the Rockaways"

Most children are fascinated with wild tales and folklore - and at the tender age of seven, I was no exception.

Shortly after being relocated into Far Rockaway during the spring of 1950, I became acquainted with three long-standing legends of the peninsula. I was in second grade when I was informed that the original "Dracula" motion picture (1931 - starring Bela Lugosi) had been filmed in Bayswater - using an old rundown castle-type residence as the vampire's home. This tale was unfolded to me one afternoon over lunch as a newly-found friend and I ate our sandwiches out of tin " Tom Corbett - Space Cadet" lunch boxes - my thermos set was blue while his was red. The setting was a make-shift cafeteria, actually a converted quonset hut planted in the backyard of P.S.106 in Edgemere. "Oh! It's the truth!" He swore before a wide-eyed me. Of course, over all my many years of research, I have never discovered any documentation to support my young friend's theory. Although it might well be possible that some cottage in the area had been employed for background scene shots, it is rather doubtful that actor Bela had ever made any trek into Far Rockaway. I feel certain all of his performances were filmed on an indoor sound stage. The only "castle" I have ever come across in the area was a private residence (Solomon's Castle Los) which burned entirely to the ground in 1921 - well before the movie was made.

Then there is the story of the world's largest hotel - built on the peninsula back before the turn of the century. A neighbor told me about this bit of history and this tale did prove to be factual. However, to a small child, the term "world's largest" was a bit misleading. Having only recently arrived in New York State and visited Manhattan only once, my conception of "large" was vertical - in my mind I imagined a tall edifice such as the famed Empire State Building, a mammoth steel and glass structure reaching upwards toward the sky. It never crossed this child's mind that by "large" the storyteller was describing a horizontal spread of many city blocks. It turned out to be true that back in the year 1879, construction had begun on what was to be the largest hotel in the entire world. The "Rockaway Beach Hotel" also known as "The Imperial Hotel" was in the process of being built on the beachfront between Beach 110th and 116th Streets - 1,184 feet in length and 250 feet in width. However, due to continuing financial and constant operating problems, only a small part of the wooden four-story hotel was ever opened to the public. Falling into neglect and general disrepair, the derelict building was dismantled for its building materials prior to the year 1890.

By late spring of 1950, the weather was mild enough and the sky light enough for my father to take early evening strolls westward on the boardwalk and I accompanied him on a few of these walks. It was during one of these walks when my dad first told me about the many tent colonies which had sprung up on the beach front during the turn of the century.

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When I heard the term "tents" naturally I thought of "teepees" - a reasonable conclusion considering what I had learned in school about the first Indian settlers on the Rockaway peninsula. I mentally pictured hundreds of teepees set out in rows with a large "bon-fire" at the center and hundreds of Indians in a variety of appropriate garb dancing around ala the many cowboy and Indian movies I had previously seen. I will not mention the humorous thoughts I pondered of those Indians donning bathing trunks and going in swimming. After all, didn't they set up tents in these locations so they could take advantage of the beach? Obviously my parents were very patient with me because only a few days later, I found myself at the local library being "schooled" on an important part of Rockaway history.

It seems that as more and more individuals wanted to spend leisure time at the sea, there developed a need for reasonably-priced summer living quarters so "to accommodate vacationers on a limited budget, entrepreneurs established tent cities on or near the beach. The first appeared in 1901 near Beach 108th Street, and others soon followed."

Only recently through a generous contribution of materials and photographs donated by Dorothy Auer-Sullivan and her husband Edward, have we now the opportunity to present heretofore unseen documentation of a few of those early tent colonies - including valuable original statements attesting to then-current rental rates and "rules of conduct" which were enforced back at the turn of the century. Dorothy's grandfather William E. Auer established his first tent colony on Beach 106th Street in the year 1902 but that was a short-lived venture. After losing his lease on the property, Auer relocated to Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 98th Street - the very parcel which would eventually become Thompson's Park and then finally evolve into the Rockaway's Playland we remember so fondly. The year 1905 was so profitable that the following year William Auer opened an additional tent colony at the north side of the boardwalk - between Beach 96th and 97th Streets. By 1911, Auer had purchased much of the land upon which his tent colonies were located. With continual expansion and improvement, Auer eventually would open a major Kiddie Park at the boardwalk and Beach 97th Street - spreading northward towards a three-story hotel he built in 1915, he created his own midway in direct competition with the larger Playland and by the year 1930, he was a major contender both on and off the Seaside Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Unfortunately, by the year 1936 the City of New York had "other" ideas and shortly after the season of 1938, more than 200 feet behind the boardwalk was condemned for the building of a new roadway and miles of homes, hotels, store fronts, concessions, and amusement parks were demolished as part of a "Rockaway Improvement" plan. Auer died in 1979 at the ripe old age of 94 - and it is reported that even up to his demise, the man was still employing his skills by managing concession stands, two hotels, and a large parking lot. William E. Auer, truly an important contributor to the building of and history of the Rockaways was survived by a son (Anthony - now deceased) and a grand daughter Dorothy and son-in-law Edward Sullivan of Belle Harbor.

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