Historical Background Of Bay Park
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BAY PARK
In point of years, East Rockaway is one of the oldest settlements on Long Island. In the days before railroads were available, East Rockaway was the point of contact for commerce for New York City and the surrounding territory. Farmers took their supplies to the head of the bay, where boats transported the cargoes to New York City. These same boats on their return trip, bringing the required articles, answered the needs of the farmers.
With the advent of the railroad, however, all this was changed. Other villages sprang up and contacts were broken. Part of the present charm of East Rockaway is its age. It has houses over two hundred years old. At the time of the Revolutionary War it is said that Jack Curtis, operated a stagecoach from East Rockaway. During the Civil War this same stage line, then operated by H. F. Johnson, rendered service in the transportation of soldiers. It also carried mail from Hubbard Smith’s Post Office and General Store, located on the Merrick Road near the Sandhole Church. This is the site of the old Finlayson’s Hotel that burned down a few years ago. The route of these coaches began at the Village Green at East Rockaway, the first stop being at the present Five Comers, at Merrick Road, Lynbrook. From there they turned over the Merrick Road to Pettit’s Tavern at Jamaica. From Pettit’s Tavern they transferred to Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn. The trip to Brooklyn and return in those days took two days.
Lorenzo D. Simons founded the First Congregational Church in 1867, in the little red schoolhouse standing on the ground that is now Memorial Park. Mt. Simons’ son, William A. Simons, was superintendent of the Sunday school for more than twenty-five years. Prior to the establishment of this church, the old Sandhill Church, which was later built on the Merrick Road, held its first meetings in this same little red schoolhouse in 1725. This schoolhouse was established prior to the Revolutionary War.
The present Memorial Park has historical interest. It is related that on the evening of the 26th day of August, 1776, part of Howe’s army, led by General Clinton, inhabited and entrenched themselves at this point. This trench ran across School Street and the present park and extended over as far as Columbia Avenue. This country was inhabited by the Rockaway Indians and they paddled their canoes along the main line of the coast to the beaches. Numerous evidences of the Indians are found in this territory. When the new building for the poor farm was built on Scheckel’s island (Barnum’s Island) several Indian skeletons were found. Arrowheads and other Indian relics were quite numerous. Their tomahawks have been found from time to time, years ago. Indian skeletons were found on one island. With the growth of agriculture and commerce, Long Island, the Indians gradually disappeared and old contacts were broken
In area today, Bay Park consists of about seventy acres. It contains about five hundred homes bounded on the north by East Rock, on the east by Hewlett Bay and owned by private interests, on the by Hewlett Bay, and on the west by Higbie Creek and Hewlett Point Park.
In the days before the bulkheads were built in Bay Park, the land was known as marshland, covered in part by tidewater, marsh grass and shrubbery known as white birch. We are told that there was fine fishing in Hewlett Bay at that time. Eels, flounders, bass and fish, and that wild ducks and wild pigeons congregated in large numbers the shores of Bay Park.
About thirty years ago, the land now known as Bay Park was bought by a land improvement company located in East Rockaway for development purposes. This company contracted with another company to construct bulkheads in Bay Park and the Grand Canal. It is said that the contract price for building the bulkheads and constructing the Grand Canal was $250,000.
The south bulkhead was built beginning at the southeasterly corner of the land now known as the town bathing beach and extending to the easterly side of the Grand Canal. Later on, a portion of the bulkhead was removed, about 200 feet, to provide a bathing beach that is now leased by the Bay Park Property Owners’ Association, Inc.
The west bulkhead was built beginning at the westerly side of the Grand Canal and extending to Higbie Creek. The Grand Canal, about 75 feet wide, was constructed for a distance of about 2600 feet to North Boulevard. Bulkheads were then built on the three sides of the canal, making it one of the most attractive places for bathing and boating along the South Shore of Long Island.
One of the first buildings erected in Bay Park was known as the Bay Park Country Club. It was constructed by the Realty Associates, Inc., about 1920-1922. With its large dining room, a large porch facing Hewlett Bay, and its attractive guest room, it became one of the leading factors in the development of Bay Park (1923-1930). The bathing beach was added to the attractions of the club and a wire fence, to maintain the club and beach as an attractive resort for summer residents in Bay Park, enclosed all.
In the early history of Bay Park (prior to 1926) old-fashioned green lampposts and oil lamps were located along East Boulevard. They provided the only lighting system in Bay Park (prior to 1926). The lamp-lighter and his can of kerosene oil was seen every night, wending his way along East Boulevard, filling the oil lamps and lighting them at nightfall. In 1926-1927, this old lighting system was discarded and a new lighting district was established throughout Bay Park, through the efficient work of Bay Park Property Owners’ Association, Inc., Daniel B. Busch, President.
With the progressive advent of the Bay Park Property Owners’ Association, fine improvements were planned and accomplished from year to year. Much of the charm of Bay Park is due to the progressive and persistent work of the Bay Park Property Owners’ Association, Inc., during the past seventy-five years. Such work has been published in the Bay Park Yearbooks from year to year. It is of historical interest to every one who has been active and loyal in regular efficient community work.
Editors’ Note: The preceding historical information was taken from two yearbooks of The Bay Park Property Owners’ Association, Inc. They were published in 1933 and 1944.