USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 27
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 27
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FIRE ISLAND STATE PARK
Despite the fact that Fire Island State Park is older by nearly twenty years than any other state park on Long Island, its historical background is probably the least known. The lack of general knowl- edge about Fire Island State Park is due to its comparative inaccessi- bility and not because its history has been quiet or uneventful.
Many times since October 9, 1693, when this area was granted to William Smith by Governor Fletcher as representative of the English Crown, it has prominently figured in the news. The numer- ous shipwrecks on its shores during these early days kept it almost constantly before the public. It was the frequency of these wrecks that led to the acquisition of the westerly tip of Fire Island as a lighthouse site by the United States Government in 1825 and the construction thereon of a lighthouse which was rebuilt shortly there- after into the present familiar landmark which has withstood all storms and is still in operation.
The lighthouse apparently cut down the number of serious wrecks at this location until the summer of 1850 when the tragic wreck of the bark Elizabeth occurred during a severe storm. This shipwreck has been extensively publicized because among its victims was Mar- garet Fuller, famous literary editor of the New York Tribune and prominent advocate of women's rights.
Another landmark in the park until recent years was the Western Union telegraph station with a nine-story-high watchtower from which incoming ships were sighted and the news telegraphed into New York City. In this way New York would know some eighteen hours before
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Northern State Parkway Showing the Provisions Taken for the Protection of Pedestrians Who Here Have Ten Miles of Good Hiking in Pleasant Surroundings
A Bit of Northern State Parkway, Near Westbury, Home of International Polo
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the arrival of a vessel what ship was due and when. This service, which became outmoded by radio, was abandoned around December, 1920.
In 1855 David S. S. Sammis obtained title to about 120 acres immediately east of the lighthouse property. Here he constructed the famous Surf Hotel, a large three-story frame building with covered walks connecting nearby guest cottages. A few years later Sammis constructed a dock at the foot of Fire Island Avenue in Babylon from which he operated the sidewheeler steamship Ripple in regular ferry service to his hotel. Later the dock was served by horse-drawn street
A Drawing of the Northern State Parkway, Wantagh Extension
cars from the Babylon railroad station. The hotel prospered even through the Civil War years and was visited by many prominent persons during the 60s and 70s and most of the 80s. One large annex adjacent to the main hotel was called "Albany Cottage" and became famous because of its patronage by noted political leaders and legis- lators. Early accounts show that surf bathing and ocean air were considered important benefits to health and although the hotel was not strictly a health resort the financial success of the enterprise was apparently due to the emphasis placed on its fine surf bathing and "the ozonic tonic of the ocean" for those "in need of an ocean voyage but unable to follow the dictates of their physician".
The Surf Hotel withstood the storms and gales of Fire Island for more than three decades when in 1892 the Port of New York became jittery over a cholera scare. Strict watch was kept on all immigrants and passengers from foreign countries. On August 30, 1892, the S. S. Moravia from Hamburg arrived in New York Harbor laden with passengers and because of the scare was forced to remain
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in quarantine. Several other ships were likewise held up and due to congestion in the harbor the health authorities sought to obtain an isolated spot to hold passengers of these boats who, although not infected with cholera, might have been exposed to it.
In order to meet this need the Boards of Health of both the city and state demanded the immediate purchase of the Surf Hotel on Fire Island as the most logical location for a quarantine station. The state legislature was not in session and there was no money available. James P. Wendell, who was Deputy Comptroller of the State at that time, suggested that if some philanthropic person advanced the pur- chase price the next legislature might reimburse him. No such person was found so Governor Roswell P. Flower ordered the purchase of the property and gave his personal check in the sum of $50,000 as a part payment on the purchase price of $210,000 for the hotel including about 120 acres of land, dock and incidental buildings at Fire Island and the dock at the foot of Fire Island Avenue at the terminus of the Babylon trolley line.
When the people of the Towns of Babylon and Iship heard of the purchase they became alarmed. Mass meetings were held and a few days later three fishing sloops were manned by more than a hundred indignant citizens armed with shotguns. They set sail for Fire Island bent on burning down the hotel. Arriving at the beach, cooler heads suggested that they first make sure that the big frame building was not occupied. Unfortunately for the would-be fire fiends, it was. A caretaker and his family were living there and refused to be roused.
The following day the still irate citizens obtained an injunction from Supreme Court Justice Barnard against the use of the beach for cholera quarantine purposes and armed with the writ they took possession of the hotel dock to prevent any landings. The S. S. Cephyus came through the inlet and attempted to dock. Hawsers were continually cast off and whenever a line was made fast, they pro- ceeded to chop it free from the dock. The captain of the Cephyus resorted to a steam hose from the ship's boiler. The mob retreated but the Cephyus did not dock.
News of these activities was flashed to New York by the Fire Island telegraph station and there soon arrived in Babylon several companies of the New York National Guard. Hearing that troops were being ferried across the bay, the mob which had held the Surf Hotel dispersed. Within a few hours the Cephyus passengers were landed and put up in the hotel. None of them had cholera. The troops left Fire Island on October 5th but for the duration of the quarantine two deputy sheriffs were stationed at the Babylon dock to prevent the landing of anyone from the station.
The official purchase of the hotel properties was made by the State of New York on March 9, 1893, after the enacting of Chapter 3 of the Laws of 1893 which provided for the reimbursement of $50,000 to Governor Flower and the payment of the balance of $160,000 to Mr. Sammis.
By the summer of 1893 the cholera scare had completely subsided and the following spring the state legislature by Chapter 357 of the Laws of 1894 authorized the Department of Health to lease the Fire
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Island holdings for hotel purposes. The old Surf Hotel was there- after operated under lease from the state for several years until major repairs and the falling off of business made it unprofitable.
On May 22, 1908, Governor Charles Evans Hughes signed a bill which had passed the state legislature authorizing the use of the Fire Island reservation as a state park and pursuant to this act he appointed Edward C. Blum, Samuel L. Parrish, Henry W. Sackett, John C. Robbins and John H. Vail as Commissioners of the Fire Island State Park Commission.
Southwest corner of Main Street and Fire Island Avenue in 1892
Showing the arrival of National Guard and Federal troops in Babylon to quell the uprising against the Fire Island quarantine station. Trolley tracks can be seen in the unpaved street in the foreground.
Thus it was that the ill wind of a plague-threatened city brought about the establishment of the first state park on Long Island and the only ocean-front park in the entire state until the opening of Hither Hills and Jones Beach State Parks about twenty years later.
The first action taken by the Fire Island State Park Commission was to conduct an auction sale of miscellaneous buildings on the property, most of which were in a dilapidated condition. During severe storms of 1907 the hotel dining hall had been swept off its foundation and other buildings damaged. From the sale of these unsafe buildings the sum of $2304.66 was realized which, together with an appropriation of $5000, comprised the total funds available for park improvements and operation. With these funds the Commis- sion provided temporary boardwalks and three shelters but were unable to provide any facilities for bathing during the year 1908.
The Commission was untiring in its efforts to obtain adequate appropriations to develop and operate the park. Edward C. Blum, later President of the City Art Commission, was particularly enthusi- astic and active in behalf of the park. By the time this country
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entered World War I a small bathhouse on the bay side had been constructed and a comfort station, boardwalks, shelters, dock, water supply system and a few other incidental improvements provided.
In 1918 a disastrous fire swept through the park destroying large sections of the boardwalks, the comfort station and shelters. Because of lack of funds only temporary repairs were made. In its 1923 annual report the Fire Island State Park Commission reported that "during the past summer, owing to inadequate appropriations, the boardwalks became dangerous" and that "owing to deterioration, through lack of sufficient and timely repairs, it is not possible to properly conduct this park". The Commission further reported that only because of a transfer to it of $2000 by the Conservation Department had it been possible to keep the park open during the season of 1923. The task of keeping the park open to the public was considered a small accomplishment in view of plans advocated by the Commission which included the construction of a large restaurant and two bathhouses and involved the further development of the area at a cost estimated at that time to be over $348,000.
When the state legislature created the Long Island State Park Commission in the spring of 1924 as part of a comprehensive state- wide park and parkway program as recommended by Governor Smith, it succeeded the Fire Island State Park Commission as to jurisdic- tion over Fire Island State Park and was authorized and directed to acquire, improve and operate additional state parks and parkways on Long Island.
One of the first official acts of Commissioner Moses, as President of the newly formed Commission, was to seek a grant from the federal government of some 600 acres of land that had formed by accretion to the west of the federal lighthouse reservation. In 1825 the light- house site had been acquired on the westerly tip of Fire Island and the lighthouse structure constructed only a short distance east of the point, but during the succeeding hundred years over four miles of new beachlands were built up to what is now known as Point Democrat. Lighthouse service officials agreed with Commissioner Moses that these extra 600 acres of accreted lands were not needed for lighthouse purposes and necessary legislation was introduced in Congress to authorize the granting of the land to the state for park purposes. The bill was supported by Congressman Robert L. Bacon, endorsed by President Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, passed by Congress and signed on June 7, 1924.
Work was immediately started on park improvements. In 1926 a new bathhouse was erected with a capacity of three hundred and fifty, additional shelters were built and many improvements in sani- tation and water supply were developed.
In cooperation with Commissioner Moses, the New York City Rotary Club in 1926 erected a crippled boys' camp. The camp, known as Camp Cheerful, consisted of nine cabins, an administration build- ing, storehouse, infirmary, mess hall, helpers' quarters, water supply and sanitary facilities and equipment.
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Fire Island State Park continued to be visited by an average of 20,000 persons each year until September 21, 1938. On that date the now famous 1938 hurricane hit Fire Island with particular force and fury at the developed section of the park just east of the light- house. The accompanying wall of water and high gales completely destroyed all park buildings, boardwalks, docks and water supply. Fortunately, because of several days of rain the park was deserted except for the park superintendent, Mr. Henry Herrnkind, and his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Herrnkind survived the storm by cutting a hole through the roof of their bat- tered and half submerged cottage. Escaping to the roof, they endured the storm, hang- ing on the best they could. When the storm subsided they saw nothing but wreck- age. Camp Cheerful, which had been closed for the sea- son, had completely disap- peared. The sturdy Western Union building which had stood for over fifty years was also gone but several hundred feet away from the building's foundation could be seen pieces of two stories of the old watchtower.
Plans were immediately (Etching by George R. Avery) made for the reconstruction Historic Fire Island Light is located in Long Island's oldest State Park of park facilities but it was found that the old location just east of the lighthouse had been stripped of all its protective sand dunes and would require a huge amount of fill to bring it up to a proper elevation. A new and much more desirable site for these facilities was selected on a high stretch of beach about two and a half miles west of the light- house and within the area ceded by the federal government in 1924.
Here was constructed during the following year a modern bath- house with refreshment and food bar, shelters, play apparatus, super- intendent's and State Police headquarters, equipment shop, concrete walks, water supply and sanitary facilities. On the inlet side of the park a large semicircular boat basin was dredged and bulkheaded with steel sheet piling making a sheltered harbor for boats and ferries. These facilities were opened to the public on June 29, 1940.
While the construction of these new facilities progressed a plan was presented by Commissioner Moses to Suffolk County for the rehabilitation and restoration of the entire length of Fire Island beach which had been devastated by the hurricane. The plan pro- vided for the pumping in of a protective hydraulic fill and the con- struction thereon of a concrete roadway. Part of this proposed plan also included the construction of a bridge across Fire Island Inlet
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connecting Fire Island with the Jones Beach Ocean Parkway. The inlet bridge was later dropped from the plans because of the extra cost and finally the entire plan of beach restoration as advocated by Commissioner Moses was abandoned by the County Board of Supervisors.
Regular passenger ferry service is maintained from Babylon to Fire Island State Park although the dock, which was acquired by the
View of Fire Island State Park
From the new boat basin showing bathhouse and other park facilities which replace those destroyed in the 1938 hurricane.
State in 1892 and from which the ferry leaves Babylon, was given to the Village of Babylon in 1940, and is now being reconstructed and enlarged.
Fire Island State Park has also been prominent in the news because of shipwrecks on its shores in recent years. The steamship Student Prince II bound for Nova Scotia was driven onto a bar almost directly in front of the new bathhouse on the night of March 18, 1941. The captain and crew of eight were all rescued by men from the nearby Coast Guard Station but the ship rapidly broke up and was a total loss. Also, on January 7, 1946, the 7000 ton supply ship Rebecca Boone bringing 21 soldiers from Europe ran aground in a dense fog just outside the park bathing area. The ship was pulled off by tugs the next day without damage.
In the early summer of 1941 a stone jetty 4800 feet long was completed at Point Democrat at the extreme westerly end of the park. This jetty was constructed by the federal government in cooperation with the Long Island State Park Commission and the County of
Birdseye View of Fire Island State Park
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Suffolk in order to arrest the westward accretion of Fire Island and to make possible the stabilization of Fire Island Inlet. It will also serve as protection to the new park improvements located to the east. Another improvement inaugurated in 1941 was the connection of Fire Island State Park with the mainland by telephone. A public tele- phone in the bathhouse lobby is now available for the first time in the park's long history for the use of park visitors and boat owners who are out for a cruise or fishing trip of a day or more and wish to get in touch with their homes or offices.
Although Fire Island State Park is still accessible only by water, plans have been made to supplement the present Babylon ferry service with a short boat trip from the easterly terminus of the Jones Beach Ocean Parkway at Captree State Park. The boat basin has already been dredged at this location. It is planned to have the dock, access road and parking field completed at an early date.
MONTAUK POINT AND HITHER HILLS STATE PARKS
The first new state park to be established by the present Com- mission after its creation in 1924 was a large area now known as Hither Hills State Park, located on the Montauk peninsula not so many miles from one of the proposed parks that had been envisioned by the Park Commission of 1902. Hither Hills consists of 1755 acres of high cliffs and a wide expanse of sand dunes with frontage on both the Atlantic Ocean and Napeague Bay. This park was to be con- nected by a parkway with Montauk Point State Park, a smaller area of 158 acres around the government lighthouse. Hither Hills was near the scene in 1924 of a grandiose plan of Carl G. Fisher for a Miami Beach of the north and because the owners had dreams of having millionaires for neighbors and a Florida boom at Montauk, the Commission's plans for acquiring the area ran into unexpected difficulties. Early negotiations with the owners progressed satisfac- torily until the announcement of the Fisher purchase of most all the remaining lands at the Point and his scheme for huge hotels, casinos, yacht clubs, office buildings, golf courses, polo fields, etc., all served by ocean. liners and high speed de luxe trains to New York City. Carl Fisher made his fortune as founder of the Presto-O-Lite Company and became famous as the builder of the Indianapolis Speedway and developer of Miami Beach. His plans for Montauk were not taken lightly. The owners dropped negotiations with the Commission and signed an option with Mr. Fisher who immediately notified the Com- mission that he would only sell a small, unwanted portion of the. proposed park property at a ridiculously high price. The Commission then appropriated the property on August 11, 1924, before the Fisher option was exercised. A series of law suits followed which were not ended until a Court of Appeals decision ten years later which came at about the same time as the announcement of the sale of the Fisher development, seven-story office building and all, for unpaid taxes.
A few years prior to the announced tax sale (which was later adjusted so as to save part of the original development) Mr. Fisher attempted to sell all his remaining holdings to the state. In a letter
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dated September 29, 1931, he wrote "I am willing to take a net caslı loss to myself of $1,000,000 on these properties if your Park Board can use them." Before Carl Fisher's real estate bubble burst the Com- mission obtained a dedication of the connecting parkway right of way over the picturesque rolling hills from Hither Hills State Park to Montauk Point which now affords a scenic drive of unique landscape with views of Napeague Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Hither Hills State Park has been developed with a bath- house, picnic facilities and large camping area on the ocean front. Much of the area is wooded and some of the sand dunes along the
Montauk Light
ocean front reach a height of eighty feet. At Montauk Point State Park, 132 miles from New York City, a large parking field, refresh- ment stand and picnic area have been provided adjacent to the famous government lighthouse which was erected in 1795. During World War II the quaint fishing village of Montauk, located about half-way between Hither Hills State Park and Montauk Point, was taken over almost entirely by the armed forces. At Camp Hero on the Point huge coast defense guns were concealed in the irregular terrain. One of the largest naval stations for testing torpedoes was located on Fort Pond Bay and Carl Fisher's elaborate Montauk Manor Hotel was used to house its personnel. Montauk also played host to the armed forces in 1898 when Col. Theodore Roosevelt brought his victorious but fever-ridden Rough Riders there to recuperate on their return from the Spanish-American War.
For nearly a hundred years Montauk has been the center of the eastern Long Island fishing industry and although the area was closed to all sport fishermen during the war many of the 300,000 people who visited Hither Hills and Montauk Point State Parks before the war came to try their luck at surf casting from the shores of these two parks.
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WILDWOOD AND SUNKEN MEADOW STATE PARKS
Neither of the two state parks on the north shore of Long Island has any particular historical background. Wildwood State Park, located at Wading River in the Town of Riverhead, consists of 395 acres of beautiful woodlands on the high cliffs overlooking Long Island Sound. The area was acquired for park purposes in 1925 partly by purchase and partly by gift from the heirs of Roland G. Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell planned the area as a woodland country estate. On the top of the cliff he erected a huge brick and stone mansion with several auxiliary buildings needed to operate the estate. The mansion was designed by Stanford White who, before he was murdered by Harry Thaw, became world famous as an architect for millionaires. Mr. Mitchell also hired Olmsted Brothers who laid out Cen- tral Park and many others throughout the country, to plan the landscaping for the estate. After spending over $100,000 on his country home he died in June, 1906, before the building was fully com- pleted. It remained uncom- pleted and never occupied for Camping at Wildwood the next twenty years and became known as "Mitchell's Folly". Arthur M. Mitchell of Babylon offered his interest in his late brother's estate as a gift and the remaining outstanding interest was acquired for $82,000. The Mitchell heirs suggested the name "Wildwood" for the new park.
Today Wildwood State Park is one of the most attractive natural parks on Long Island. It has fine woodland campsites, picnic areas and excellent bathing beach on the Sound. Roland Mitchell's mansion could not be used for any suitable public park purposes and was torn down by Work Relief forces in 1934.
Sunken Meadow State Park, about 30 miles west of Wildwood, was assembled from several smaller parcels but most of its present area of 520 acres was acquired from the late George B. B. Lamb and his wife, Antoinette Storrs Lamb. A small section of the beach con- sisting of about 400 feet of frontage on Long Island Sound was con- veyed to the State by the Town of Smithtown in 1928. The park takes its name from the low meadowland which separates the narrow sandy beach from the uplands. A winding stream known as Sunken Meadow Creek flows through the meadows and for a number of years the only access to the bathing beach was by means of a quarter-mile- long boardwalk built on stilts across the meadows and creek. Much of the meadow has now been filled in for parking and a modern bridge and roadway for automobiles has replaced the walk. On the beach
L. I .- II-17
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which is one of the safest and most attractive on Long Island Sound, has been constructed a large brick bathhouse and cafeteria building. The upland, wooded section of the park overlooking the Sound pro- vides some unusually attractive picnic areas fully equipped with fire- places, tables, comfort stations and refreshment stands.
The main entrance to the park is now located on Route 25-A between the Villages of Kings Park and Fort Salonga. To the west of the park entrance was located the hilltop fort used by the British in the Revolutionary War. The fort was overpowered by colonial
Airview of Sunken Meadow
patriots from Connecticut who captured the officers and men and carried away its guns. A parkway spur from the Northern State Parkway to the park is being planned for future construction.
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