USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 30
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 30
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Since early days trustees were elected to supervise these lands but after about a hundred years the act of 1807 was completely lost sight of and no one at Orient knew of or questioned the basis or background of the trustees. This was understandable because Long Beach which was wild and inaccessible neither required nor received much attention from the trustees. For years they assumed that they were some sort of a chartered corporation and the business they did transact in granting fishing and shellfishing permits, etc., was done in the name of the Long Beach Corporation. About 1925, one of the trustees who was also a local Justice of the Peace became interested in the background and title of Long Beach and after failing to find a charter or certificate of incorporation on file in Albany or elsewhere, he discovered the Act of 1807. A meeting was called at which it was decided in accordance with the Act that all the male taxpayers of the Village of Orient would have a vote on matters concerning the property.
The management of Long Beach affairs was thereafter conducted by the residents in the name of the Long Beach Association but after considerable local discussion of the inability of the qualified residents, having no machinery or facilities of government, to develop and manage the property as a public park or to make other appropriate use of it, it was decided that the State should be asked to take over the area for park purposes under the jurisdiction of the Long Island State Park Commission.
The first step taken was the calling of a special meeting of the resident taxpayers who voted to turn over the property to the State for park purposes. Pursuant to this vote a deed was delivered to the Long Island State Park Commission in the summer of 1929. Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the early title it was agreed that the State should also acquire the lands by appro- priation proceedings in order to insure obtaining good title. This was done and Long Beach was officially designated as Orient Beach State Park on October 7, 1929. Thereafter a park entrance road and causeway were constructed from the main highway in order to make the park area accessible. The high water, wind and waves caused by the hurricane of September, 1938, destroyed a large portion of the causeway and required closing the park until the damage was repaired and the road reopened on July 1, 1939. The hurricane of September, 1944, again washed out this road. Sufficient funds were made available to rebuild it in 1947 on a higher elevation.
A small bathhouse, parking field, picnic area and refreshment stand have been provided at Orient Beach. The westerly portion of
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the park has been reserved as a wild life sanctuary with a low grassy section frequented by thousands of terns. The remaining portion of the area, which is largely wooded with windblown and gnarled black-jack oaks and red cedars is one of the few osprey nesting places along the eastern coast. These eagle-like birds, the largest of the hawk family, build huge nests in the low trees and on the sands of Orient Beach State Park where they return to the same nests year after year.
JONES BEACH STATE PARK
Jones Beach State Park, the most famous of all State parks, derives its name from Major Thomas Jones who came to Long Island in 1692, became high Sheriff of Queens County, Ranger General of Nassau and owner of one of the largest tracts of land on the south shore. Major Jones had had a life of adventure before he married Freelove Townsend and settled down on the vast acreage around Massapequa given to his wife as a wedding gift from her father. He had been a loser in the Battle of the Boyne and the siege of Limerick but escaped to France where he obtained a ship and crew to prey on commerce as a privateer. This was considered a respectable inter- national practice but not by the British when it affected their shipping and they soon bottled his ship up in the West Indies where it had to be abandoned. After marrying Freelove they built, near Massa- pequa, the first brick house on Long Island and eventually acquired a total of 6000 acres. Their house stood until 1837. Apparently they thought they also owned at least a part of what is now Jones Beach because around 1700 he established a whaling station on the outer beach near the site of the present park. Jones died in 1713 and on his tombstone are the following lines, probably written by himself:
From Distant Lande, to This Wild Waste He Came This Seat He Chose, and Here He Fixed His Name. Long May His Sons, This Peace Full Spot Injoy And No Ill Fate his Offspring Here Annoy.
No one knows how long the Jones whaling plant operated but for over two hundred years the outer beach, known as Jones Beach, including sections called Hemlock Beach, High Hill Beach, Short Beach and Gilgo Beach, remained virtually uninhabited and unused except by a few fishermen, summer cottage owners and squatters. These lands on the outer beach in Nassau County consisted of a low and narrow coastal barrier of sand and marsh about five miles from the mainland, which were owned by the Town of Hempstead and the Town of Oyster Bay by virtue of Royal Patents. Their inaccessibility even by small boats retarded any extensive usage. Seventy years ago there was an inlet through which boats passed from bay to ocean where the East Bathhouse now stands. By 1926, natural proc-
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esses had brought about its closing. Today the gas station on the Wantagh Causeway is built near what was the south bank of a tidal creek. The Ocean Parkway east of the East Bathhouse is located directly over what was formerly a nine-foot-deep channel. Zach's Bay, which was named after Zachariah James of Seaford, was a maze of shoals and bars and required the excavation of six million cubic yards of sand in order to make it into the deep water boating and bathing bay of today. Birdsall Jackson of Wantagh, an author and authority on early Long Island, describes these conditions as follows :
In a sailboat with a fair wind, the trip to Jones Beach took about an hour, and with a head wind, three hours. If you were not familiar with the many shoals and crooked channels, you would not get there at all. An excursion to Jones Beach was always planned as a full day's outing and the day chosen so that the voyager went out with the ebb tide and came back with the flood. All night sojourns on the sand flats were not infrequent.
At a later period a few cottages were built at the High Hill section and weekend trips and vacation outings came into vogue with the motor boat era. But navigation was still hazardous and difficult. The late Judge Seaman, who had one of the first cottages there and made his trips across the bay with a motor boat, said that he spent more time out of his boat than in it and referred to his weekend journeys as his walks to the Beach.
This was the status of Jones Beach when in 1925 Commissioner Moses asked the Town of Hempstead for its interest in the outer beach together with a right of way across the bay for state park and parkway purposes. The Town Board of Hempstead agreed to submit the proposition to the voters but before election day of November, 1925, fantastic stories were prevalent throughout the Town about the tremendous value of the lands requested and about the Commis- sion's intentions to create a second Coney Island without local benefit. Because of the opposition that developed which was guided mainly by wealthy estate owners who were opposed to the Commission's plan for the Northern State Parkway, the proposition was defeated at the polls.
The referendum did, however, arouse interest in the beach lands and it became evident that instead of simply criticizing the state plan a definite plan of local development and use would have to be made. When faced with this responsibility local officials sought the State's aid. A special commission was created, known as the Hempstead Development Commission consisting of the three Long Island State Park Commissioners and three representatives of the Town. A plan was agreed to whereby the Town was to convey an area somewhat smaller than originally requested together with a right of way for a causeway across the bay from Wantagh on condition that the State commence construction of the causeway and park facilities within a specified time. A second proposition containing these provisions
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was submitted to the people and after an extensive program of edu- cation and speeches to explain the Commission's plans it was approved by vote of the people of the Town at the elections of November, 1926. G. Wilbur Doughty, Presiding Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead, who from the first had taken a farsighted view of the question, was largely responsible for the success of the proposition.
In December of 1926, the first engineering survey stake was driven in the sands of Jones Beach at the precise spot where the water tower now stands. Since that time over 40,000,000 cubic yards of sand have been pumped in the now developed area of Jones Beach State Park, on the causeways to the beach and along the 17 mile Ocean Parkway, and a total of approximately $15,000,000 has been expended on park improvements and in making the park accessible. All this took, step by step, persuasion, hard work and far sighted leadership on the part of Commissioner Moses and his fellow Com- missioners and was not accomplished without many difficulties. The Commission's plans seemed, to the average person and to most officials in Albany, to be so ambitious that failure was generally predicted and the possibility of the park's attracting a large attendance seemed very speculative. The initial appropriation of funds by the legislature for the East Bathhouse was only enough to build the foundations. Commissioner Moses stuck to his original plan and convinced Governor Smith of the need for high standards. Additional funds were made available but other difficulties developed. Labor strikes for a time stopped all work and the causeway contractor went broke. When he was unable to borrow enough funds to continue work, Mr. Moses persuaded his mother to advance $20,000 so that his promise to local officials of completing the causeway and opening it to traffic would be fulfilled.
During this time the Town of Oyster Bay conveyed additional lands including the High Hill Section of Jones Beach and the right of way for the Ocean Parkway easterly to the Nassau- Suffolk line. This was done by vote of the Town residents on November 8, 1927. Later the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County conveyed additional beach lands to extend the parkway to Oak Island Beach in exchange for certain lands under water owned by the State.
Most of the land conveyed by the Town of Oyster Bay and a portion of the lands conveyed by Hempstead were in an area where title was in dispute. This brought on what became known as the Sea- man Gore case which lasted for ten years and ended in the United States Supreme Court. The case involved the claim of title by the leirs of John Seaman who received a royal grant in 1666. The private interests in the case were opposed by the Towns of Oyster Bay and Hempstead and before the State got into the suit the town allowed judgments to be entered against them. Commissioner Moses had the case reopened. Subsequent investigations disclosed instruments of title theretofore unknown and the action was tried all over again. This resulted in a decision holding that the State had good title and that John Seaman had relinquished all claim to the beach land when he applied for and received confirming patents in 1686 from the Governor General of New York.
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Two other complicated lawsuits developed in connection with leases of areas within and adjacent to the Oyster Bay grant. One of these was the High Hill Beach area and the other involved the nearby area of 500 acres to the east which was leased and used by Solomon Guggenheim and a group of "sportsmen" for a shooting preserve. Both leaseholds were acquired by the Commission by eminent domain. In the High Hill area there were about 70 summer cottages occupied by sublessees. These were allowed to remain until the expiration of their leases and subsequently most of them moved their houses out of the park area to West Gilgo Beach. The base lessee, however, filed a claim against the State for a million dollars. The Court of
Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt Laying Cornerstone of the West Bathhouse, Jones Beach
Claims finally ended the case with an award of $20,000. The Guggen- heim case was more complicated because they were not fighting for damages but insisting on what they considered were their rights regardless of whether the shots they took at well-fed and almost tame ducks and geese hit their mark or a park visitor. They obtained an injunction to halt the park development. The courts on appeal decided in favor of the Commission and no claim was ever filed for the appropriation of a lease. Until 1935 the area which contained a fresh water pond was operated by the Commission as a game sanctuary. At that time the lease expired and because a proposition to cede it to the State had failed to pass, it has since been operated by the Town of Oyster Bay.
On August 4, 1929, Jones Beach State Park was opened to the public. On opening day with Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and former Governor Smith as principal speakers, a howling wind blew up causing a sandstorm that nearly disrupted the ceremonies. Ray- mond P. McNulty, Counsel for the Commission, has described the day in these words :
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Sand fill blew over everything and everybody. It drifted across the roads to such an extent that they became dangerous for driving, it filled eyes and ears and noses; got into the carburetors of cars and stalled them; chipped the paint of mudguards and license plates and generally played such havoc, that the critics who said "it couldn't be done" had a grand holiday.
The subsequent completion of lawn areas and the planting of millions of clumps of beach grass prevented further sandstorms. The success and popularity of Jones Beach soon became apparent. In 1930, the first full year of operation, a million and a half persons visited the park. On July 2, 1931, the West Bathhouse with swimming and diving pools was opened. The Wantagh Causeway soon became overcrowded and serious traffic delays occurred every Sunday. On November 3, 1931, the Town of Hempstead by a referendum voted to convey to the State all of Short Beach, being the area between the park and Jones Inlet, together with a right of way for an additional causeway from the mainland near Freeport to the park. No state funds were available for the construction of the second causeway, known as the Meadowbrook Parkway, and because of the need of promoting public works to relieve unemployment, it was decided to create an Authority with power to raise the necessary moneys by the issuance of bonds to be repaid out of tolls collected on the two causeways. A special act was passed by the legislature creating the Jones Beach State Parkway Authority consisting of the Long Island State Park Commissioners. The sum of $5,050,000 was borrowed by the Authority from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation on the basis of a self-liquidating loan to construct the new causeway with a loop to Long Beach; reconstruct the existing causeway and to enlarge parking fields. In order to pay interest, amortization and maintenance charges it was necessary to establish a twenty-five cent toll charge for a round trip on the old Wantagh Causeway as well as the new Meadowbrook. Although the parking charge at the park was reduced by the amount of the toll, the toll charge was opposed by a group of residents of Oyster Bay who started a series of lawsuits against the Commissioners. The toll charge was upheld by the courts and the new causeway was opened to traffic on October 27, 1934.
In 1937 over four million persons visited Jones Beach State Park. Swimming has always been the top attraction. Few places offer facilities for such fine surf bathing, still-water bay bathing and heated swimming, diving and wading pools. Thousands are also attracted by the other facilities for healthful recreation. There are handball courts, deck tennis and shuffleboard courts, roller skating rink, archery ranges, 18-hole pitch and putt golf course, softball diamonds, pedal boats, picnic areas, fishing dock and rowboats, out- door dancing and wheel chairs on the mile-long boardwalk. In addi- tion, special sports programs, calisthenics, concerts and other outdoor entertainments are presented. Jones Beach introduced outdoor operettas with "music over the water and under the stars"; it origi-
Airview, Looking West, Jones Beach
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nated and held the first surfboard water polo contests; it established the first adult play area with man-size scooters, tricycles, wagons, etc. for the exclusive use of grown-ups and it held the first world's championship water skiing tournament.
The park contains 2413 acres with six miles of ocean beach front- age and a half mile of bay frontage developed for still-water bathing. There are 14,980 lockers and dressing rooms in the two bathhouses, ten cafeteria and refreshment stands, two restaurants, three first aid rooms hospital-equipped and staffed by nurses, solariums for nude sun-bathing, diaper-changing rooms with booths and electric bottle warmers for mothers to care for their babies and kindergartens for the slightly older tots. The fresh water supply for showers and drinking comes from two wells each over 1000 feet deep and is stored in an architecturally attractive water tower holding 316,000 gallons and modeled on the Campanile of St. Mark's in Venice.
The concrete parking fields, of which there are seven, are 85 acres in total area and accommodate 15,000 cars at one time. During one week in the summer 64,000 hot dogs, 35,000 hamburgers and 150,000 servings of ice cream are sold at refreshment stands. At peak periods during the summer months there are 700 park employees at work within the park with an additional 500 persons employed in the restaurants and refreshment stands.
For a short time a few critics attacked the scale of prices estab- lished by the Commission to make the park as nearly self-supporting as possible. Actual studies of two million visitors has shown a per capita expenditure of nineteen cents spent for toll, parking and use of park facilities and twenty-one cents for foodstuffs. In answering these critics Commissioner Moses said in part :
We could, of course, have developed a plan which was less ambitious, with cheaper buildings and facilities of poor design and flimsy construction. By keeping down the number of employees and not insisting on the highest standards of order and cleanliness; by ignoring the need of future expan- sion, we could reduce our charges. We do not wish to be associated with this kind of an enterprise. Doubtless commis- sioners can be found to do this sort of thing. We do not believe it is what the metropolitan community wants. We promised the local people on Long Island who gave us their beach land that we would maintain certain standards and these are being maintained. When we first announced our program there was great skepticism expressed, especially by Nassau and Suffolk people, as to the kind of parks we would run, and there was a lot of unpleasant talk about litter and waste, and hordes of filthy people. We believe this fear has been dissipated, and that it has been shown that there are plenty of people who want the kind of parks we are trying to give them.
The park is not entirely self-supporting. The total revenues collected in normal times from the operation of the park, together
The Famous Water Tower at Jones Beach State Park, Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean
OCEAN FRONT OF WEST BATH HOUSE JONES BEACH STATE PARK
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OCEAN BEACH-LOOKING EAST JONES BEACH STATE PARK
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with the tolls collected on the causeways leading thereto, amount to approximately $850,000 a year. This sum about equals the cost of maintenance and operation of the park but part of this revenue is used for interest and amortization of bonds which were issued to provide funds for causeway construction.
With gasoline and tire rationing, a ban on pleasure driving and other wartime restrictions, the attendance at Jones Beach dropped from 3,950,000 in 1941 to 615,500 in 1943. Most of these came by bus and for the first time bicyclists were permitted on the causeways. As traffic increased the following year bicycling proved too hazardous and had to be stopped. The drop in attendance and the shortage of help during the war made it necessary to curtail many of the usual park activities. Both restaurants were closed and the East Bathhouse was opened only on weekends when usage warranted. All park facili- ties including the use of lockers, games, etc., were free to service men and women. A total of 61,500 service personnel used these facilities during the year 1944. The large Marine Dining Room in the West Bathhouse was attractively furnished and turned over to the U. S. O. as an official lounge. For many of the servicemen who visited the park while stationed on Long Island, the first sight of home upon return from the war in Europe was the familiar Jones Beach water tower which is nearly 200 feet high and can be seen from vessels coming into New York while many miles at sea.
In the years following the war many improvements will be made at Jones Beach. A new marine stadium of steel and concrete will be built on Zach's Bay to replace the wooden structure erected with work relief forces, which became unsafe and had to be torn down. A new overlook parking field will be located in the High Hill Beach area
near the East Bathhouse. The existing West Overlook will be enlarged and a refreshment stand and comfort station erected. The boardwalk will be extended. A new administration office, accessory shop and first-aid building will be constructed in the Central Mall area. The Short Beach boat basin will be completed. Bus stations and shelters will be erected, a complete new sewage disposal system will be installed and additional game areas and play facilities will be provided. When all postwar plans are carried out a total of over $3,000,000 will be spent on improvements at Jones Beach. It will then be ready to provide healthful outdoor recreation to even larger numbers than visited this park before the war. Plans are also being made to provide additional means of access to Jones Beach by way of a $6,000,000 bridge from the mainland near Brightwaters to Oak Beach at Captree Island where it will connect with the Ocean Park. way, 15 miles east of the park.
Major Thomas Jones could not have been more prophetic when 250 years ago he wrote in his epitaph "And Here He Fixed His Name" for Jones Beach State Park, already known from coast to coast and studied by planners from many foreign countries, has fixed the name of "Jones" to this area for all time. It was Robert Moses, however, and not Thomas Jones, who brought this about.
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BETHPAGE STATE PARK
Thomas Powell was an Englishman who didn't like "H's" and . couldn't pronounce them anyway.
In 1695 he purchased from the Indian proprietors a large tract of land in the eastern part of what is now Nassau County and imme- diately sought an appropriate name for it. The lands were located on the road from Jericho, lying just to the north, to a place called Jerusalem, Long Island, on the south. This fact recalled to him the story of Christ's entry into Jerusalem as related in the book of St. Matthew :
And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him, and when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples.
Thomas Powell knew that "Bethphage" meant "house of figs" but in a broader sense he reasoned that it could also mean "land of fruit or plenty". He thereupon decided to use the Biblical name of Bethphage to designate his new holdings situated as they were on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.
A word with two H's, however, was too much for Thomas Powell. He always referred to the area as "Bethpage", a name that has sur- vived on Long Island for nearly 250 years with very few people knowing of its origin. The first Quakers on Long Island used it as the name of their Friends Meeting House established near Thomas Powell's home and the deed from the Indians to Powell, which is recorded in the Queens County Clerk's office, has always been referred to by historians as the "Bethpage Purchase."
There is probably no other place or locality in the world that uses this unique name but it was not until after 1931 that it received any prominence or appeared on up-to-date maps of Long Island.
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