Letters from Our Readers:

A letter from Richard Herbst to Stevie S. Stevens Dated December 7, 2009:

  
 

Thanks for putting continuity to a scraggly chain of incidents, anecdotes and uncaptioned pictures that have floated through my mind for fifty years. Since I didn’t know who, exactly to blame for the desecration and transformation into utter neglect, I assumed Robert Wagner was responsible for Hammels and Redfern. Robert Moses had something of the architectural visionary clinging to his persona and yes, indeed, he left some parking lots that can be seen from space.

Nevertheless, a Category-5 hurricane would have been kinder than the slum gentrification that the City caused. It was destined to become a dumptster for social services by the time of the trestle fire in 1950.

My family took up residence in 1926 and left during the “White Flight” of 1959-60. We left behind three houses, a Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach business, and looked for less-burned pastures but never found quite what had existed from the 1920s.

Richard Herbst

 

Hello, Richard,

I read what you wrote and frankly, I could not agree with you more! However, the damage to the Rockaways began far before Mayor Wagner's terms -- and yes, Robert Moses was mainly (but not completely) to blame for the plight of the peninsula.

Back in the mid 1950s, I accompanied Miss Phyl Santora (the office manager of Wides Chrysler-Plymouth) to a showing of a new "electronic telephone switchboard" which had been installed upstairs in the offices of Herbst Bros. Oldsmoble -- the dealership located on Nameoke.

At that time, a group of visiting bookkeepers and others from a variety of local Far Rockaway car dealerships were "treated" to a 20-minute discussion and explanation of the merits of the new telephone system - a lecture supplied by the local telephone company. At that time, I do remember meeting one of the owners of the Oldsmobile agency - as well as the sales manager of that location. Sorry! I don't remember any of the specifics. Of course I had been aware before that time of the existence of the showroom at that location - unfortunately in a spot that always flooded after any large rainstorm. I don't seem to remember any new Oldsmobiles being at that location after the 1957 models so I assume that your relatives closed down sometime in that year. I DO know that in 1962 a Chrysler dealership opened at that spot - that is a year or so after Wides switched its brand over to Pontiac.

A year or so ago, I managed to spot your interesting presentation on the "other" website, the Part 1 -- showing the old cars of the 1950s. I had been looking forward to your second installment but unfortunately it never appeared. Like you, I am very much into cars -- especially vehicles produced after the war and before the year 1970. At one time, I had a very large collection of automobile memorabilia but in my zest to "downsize" several years ago, someone came up with an offer I found impossible to refuse so I sold my collection to the highest bidder. In that collection, I had several booklets and photographs showing the Nameoke dealership - both as Herbst Bros and as Carlen Motors. I also had appropriate stationery and "give-away" booklets showing the 1956 cars with the "Herbst Bros Oldmobile" rubber stamp on them. You just cannot save everything!

If you have not had the chance or do not know of its existence, there is a book in the "History" section of the www.rockawaymemories.com website that gives a detailed explanation of (what I feel) happened in the Rockaways over the past century. If you do happen to take a look at it, I would seriously appreciate your comments.

Thanks for taking the time to write to me. Have a wonderful holiday!

Stevie S. Stevens

email: steviesstevens@cs.com