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Aerial View: -- The Seagirt Avenue Shopping District -- circa September 5, 1951. Photo is taken facing due east. Cross street (left side) is Beach 26th Street -- the main artery is Seagirt Avenue. All of the original bungalows still stand -- Seagirt (Boulevard) is still in the planning stage. WaveCrest Gardens is currently in development at this time. On the north side of the street we see the "interrupted" row of business establishments as they initially appeared. Opposite side, on the south -- we can easily "pick out" the "tops" or roofs of the two large (grocery) commercial stores. Notice that Beach 25th Street does NOT extend beyond Seagirt Avenue. Beach 24th Street travels north where it passes Fernside and finally connects with Plainview Avenue. The large white building at the upper left corner is The Manor Hotel -- which will shortly lose almost all of its sweeping front lawn to the impending road project. Although it is not possible from this picture to determine specific references to any of the individual residences, bungalows, or any of the local (then operating) businesses, it can be appreciated that this was the small shopping area as it appeared before the upheaval caused by the massive roadbuilding project commenced. Photo Credit: Copyright 2011 by Ed Gloeggler, all rights reserved.
 

It never really had a name! Only now, some forty years after it no longer exists do we even attempt to provide it with some degree of identity; a logical label to signify the two-block strip of, for the most part, unattached business establishments which were situated on the north and south sides of Seagirt Avenue between Beach 25th and 27th Streets. A grouping of about fifteen different retail outlets, the small "center" had actually been established during the mid 1920s to serve seasonal occupants of many private homes, two or three mid-sized hotels and ninety or so wooden bungalows located in the immediate vicinity.

In operation strictly during the summer months of June, July and August it would be the construction of a large middle-income fourteen-building apartment complex to its immediate east which would breathe new life into the mini shopping district and prolong its existence for another twenty years. Had it not been for that massive housing project, certainly the grouping of little stores would have fallen by the wayside and disappeared altogether because by the mid 1950s all but a few of the stores were vacant - unrentable for the most part because the area was no longer enjoying the popularity it had experienced for three preceding decades in which Rockaway Beach had been generally accepted as a seasonal summer resort community.

By mid century the local roads had improved and most vacationing families had the use of at least one automobile - no longer dependant upon local merchants to satisfy their needs. The only time it was imperative to shop a local store was to pick up one or perhaps two items that were of immediate demand. Other goods and services could and would wait for a more opportune time when it would be possible to fulfill needs at a much lower price; to say nothing of a much better selection of products.

At the height of its resort popularity, busy streets throughout the peninsula had been lined with literally hundreds of business establishments. Both the north and south sides of Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Edgemere Avenue had become transformed into commercial Meccas and mom and pop shops ran in an almost non-ending succession between the many beach streets. Even before the years prior to and during WWII many of these stores had fallen into non-use and for some long time, empty store fronts could be found facing the major streets in Holland, Hammels, Arverne, and Edgemere. Some enterprising entrepreneurs (Weinstein's - comes to mind!) had established several "chain-type" stores in the Rockaway areas - providing beach wear, sun-tan lotion, sun glasses, water toys for children, postcards; eateries had also once been in joyous abundance. But by year 1950, most of these seasonal stores were empty, abandoned -- still identified by the ever-present but fading signs hanging above doorways and displayed in plate-glass windows, unfulfilled promises indicating the store's return for the following summer season.
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