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June 19, 2009

The Last of the Bungalows

How far Far Rockaway has fallen. (The Rockaways are technically in Queens but we're making a rare geographic exception in this case.) In the 1920s, the seaside community was a popular summer spot for the New York elite. Now, as these recent photos from the intrepid photographer Nathan Kensinger show, the beachside bungalows that define the Rockaways in the public's mind are largely abandoned, though some are occupied by squatters and others are being used for illicit activities like dog-fighting. Sad, indeed. Check out the Kensinger website for more interior and exterior photos.
Far Rockaway: Abandoned Bungalows [Kensinger]

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This is terrific. What a bummer.

Posted by: Zach at June 19, 2009 11:33 AM

Ick.

Posted by: mopar at June 19, 2009 11:40 AM

wow - what a shame!
I am not sure the tidbit about the Rockaways being set up for the NY elite is entirely accurate, I thought it was set up for working class folks. I remember Breezy point as a kid being exclusively Irish

Posted by: gemini10 at June 19, 2009 11:42 AM

u have any info on where dog fighting is going on exactly? i will personally go over there and kick all their asses.

i wish these bungalows could be restored and rented/sold for cheap. it always boggles my mind that there could be ghetto on a beachfront area.

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 19, 2009 11:50 AM

This is very sad but Far Rockaway has been a tough neighborhood since the projects have been put in. A while back there was some revitalization but it didn't last.

There is a stretch of Bungalows up on 109th Street in Rockaway that are still in mint condition. Even a few that are lived in year round. There is a nice community there but they don't go for sale often.

Belle Harbor is a beautiful beachfront neighborhood where more and more people are buying houses as summertime properties. It allows people to escape Brooklyn without the traffic of the Hamptons, Jersey Shore, etc. However those houses come with hefty price tags.

Thanks for including this although it is technically Queens...I would like most people on the Brooklyn side of the Rockaway's Peninsula consider themselves Brooklynites...

Posted by: KBklyn50 at June 19, 2009 12:07 PM

Groucho Marx owned several of these as an investment in the 1930's. The Poor Man's Riviera, it was once called.

Posted by: buttermilk channel at June 19, 2009 12:07 PM

I wrote a story about these bungalows in 2003 for Preservation--a whole bunch were torn down to put that big building up behind them, even though it was illegal (because the path to the beach was supposed to be protected). They were so lovely, and could really be fantastic beach getaways if they were treated properly. It's a certifiable shame.

Posted by: lisa at June 19, 2009 12:10 PM

is that story online anywhere lisa, id love to read it.?

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 19, 2009 12:15 PM

What a shame. What happened in East Rockaway is a prime example of misplaced priorities and poor judgement calls among an urban planning elite with limited forsite. Of course, good old Robert Moses played a role in the demise of the bungalows, too. The decision to put in large scale, high rise housing in East Rockaway ultimately killed the community. There are locations sprinkled around the city where bungalows still exist and have not fallen into neglect like this. But the Rockaways probably had the largest concentration of them. It's unfortunate. Someone with the right skill and promotion skills could have possibly seen the charm in these bungalows decades ago, renovated them and marketed them as an alternative for city residents to expensive summer weekend places in the Hamptons and the Jersey shore. Just try to imagine upper West Siders getting on the A train on summer weekends to head to their rentals at the shore. Hey, one can dream. Go ahead and laugh. No one ever imagined the High Line would one day be a beautiful park.

Posted by: BrooklynSteve at June 19, 2009 12:22 PM

There used to be huge multistory cedar shake houses in Far Rockaway, but they're long gone. Those were the houses that were built for the "elite", if you want to use that term. The thing is, I know of some that were knocked down as the area declined, but nothing was built to replace them...

Posted by: 1842 at June 19, 2009 12:27 PM

The end of the A line at Beach 116 in Rockaway beach is a perfectly nice place for a day trip, so not sure why people on the UWS can't go for there as you alude to, maybe sans weekend house. People shouldn't get the impression that the whole peninsula is a mess like those pictures above..

Posted by: oe at June 19, 2009 12:30 PM

I wasn't saying that they can't go to the Rockaways. But having an affordable weekend getaway place accessible via the subway would have been a great way to sell people on the idea, especially Manhattanites without cars.

Posted by: BrooklynSteve at June 19, 2009 12:56 PM

I don't think Manhattanites without cars are looking for weekend homes on the subway line... anyway, why does it need to cater to them? Plently of people from all over the city enjoy going to Rockaway beach, Jacob Riis Park, etc

Posted by: oe at June 19, 2009 1:06 PM

FYI, we owned two of these bungalows, in the 80's and 90's. We tried to make a go of renovating them and using them as a city retreat by the ocean. The beach and the boardwalk are quite nice there. We ended up renting them out, and finally selling them.

Posted by: walester at June 19, 2009 1:14 PM

The neighborhood from Beach 117th to the edge of Riis Park is quite lovely. Not all the houses are in great condition but many are.

For shreds of former beach places gone bad, take a look in the Hammel area around Beach 90th St. There are also quite a few little buildings in rear yards that look like they were built as rooms at the beach. Many of them seem to now be inhabited year round.

The area around Beach 29th or so is quite weird, too. I went to look at the church hall there in the early 2000's and due to serious flooding in the streets had to walk way out of my way through garbage filled open fields to reach the place. The church hall, really a gymnasium, had a sinking slab condition. The change in elevation from the edges of the room to the center was better than 4'. It looked like a great place to practice skateboarding, but instead of sports there were seniors from the community eating lunch at canting tables.

In the past few years there have been some nice and some not so nice condos built. There were some with cutaway upper corners mounted with pergolas that looked especially nice. It will be interesting to see how some of these new buildings fare over time in the salt air and rougher winters.

Posted by: bessie2 at June 19, 2009 1:16 PM

I hope this doc gets finished soon. There was a screening a while back at The Museum of the City of New York. Families who still live in bungalows there showed up and spoke. As mentioned above, there are some clusters of these building that are kept up.

http://www.thirteen.org/archive/historyanddocumentary/the-bungalows-of-rockaway/1537/

Posted by: Carol Gardens at June 19, 2009 1:22 PM

My family and so many of our friends rented bungalows on Beach 24th - Beach 26th streets for many consecutive summers. I spent my summers there as a boy in the late 50's and early 60's. Many fond memories of great times living simple lives on the beach. There were men who would walk the beach carrying two brown paper shopping bags - one for potato knishes, and the other for kasha knishes.

There is no going back to those times, of course. But, the bungalows could still be heaven for middle class families if they had been preserved.

My grandfather had a similar bungalow on Midland Beach in Staten Island in the 20's and 30's and my father spent his boyhood there.

What a stupid waste of unique places to build priceless memories.

Posted by: LM at June 19, 2009 1:32 PM

Growing up in ENYin the 1970s and 1980s, we frequented Riis Park. One of the city's best-kept secrets. My first experiences as a driver include zooming along the Belt Parkway in the family car taking a bunch of my friends out to the beach at Riis, which at that time had a nude section.

Posted by: East New York at June 19, 2009 1:47 PM

I lived in Far Rockaway once and certain parts are truly a sad reminder of the city's neglect. The clustering of Public Housing, the lack of retail and entertainment options for its mostly car less residents - and that horrible A -train. That is changing somewhat, especially in the Averne section. I used to jog by these bungalows, they would be prime beach front property anywhere else in the world. Rockaway Park is much better but it's no way close to the glory days when Playland was there.

Posted by: Crownlfc at June 19, 2009 2:25 PM

My mothers family is from Belle Harbor and the rockaways. SOme of the bungalows are being used as surf shacks with the openings of the surfing beach at 92nd St.

Yes, the Rockaways east of 116th are a textbook perfect example of how not to do urban planning. It's amazing to me that the area around a perfectly nice beach in the country's largest city is such an eyesore.

The A Train is certainly a huge part of the problem. It can be faster to catch a bus to Avenue X at Bklyn College if you want to get to manhattan. Not sure how you get around that-- the city isn't going to build a new causeway for a high speed line, that's for sure.

Posted by: Bolder at June 19, 2009 2:37 PM

As part of the old Urban Renewal plan, HPD has designated developers to build affordable housing on vacant land that probably once held bungalows. I just finished a group of 1 and 2-family homes priced $310,310-$426,163 near to the Beach 36th St A-train stop. (Go to http://www.hudsoninc.com/homes4sale/oceanview/index.htm for more details.)

There are definitely people who want to live out there year-round as well as seasonally. Personally, I think a resurgence of summer bungalows would be great. Probably be more a labor of love than a money maker though.

FYI, no high speed rail planned, but there are plans for a ferry (around Beach 85th) to lower Manhattan that would take 45 minutes.

-Alison from Third + Bond blog

Posted by: Alison at June 19, 2009 3:06 PM

There is a Far Rockaway stop on the LIRR - I'm not sure how long that would take, as it curves back through Nassau County before heading to Penn Station - but it has to be quicker than taking the A. it is expensive though.

Posted by: dirty_hipster at June 19, 2009 5:26 PM

No comment from the What, telling us that this is how all of NYC will look in six months?

He's grown complacent.

Posted by: havelc at June 19, 2009 5:48 PM

In case readers don't realize, these bungalows are literally half a block from a gorgeous, empty, ocean beach.

Posted by: mgm at June 20, 2009 12:16 AM

a couple of months ago i took an afternoon trip down to rockaway to tour the new averne by the sea condo development. i was downright impressed with the grounds and properties. but the surrounding area is still so dilapidated and depressing. honestly, it reminded me of the Caribbeanm where you see exclusive beach resorts plopped down in the middle of poverty.

Posted by: bowl of dicks at June 20, 2009 8:19 AM

Actually, the LIRR used to go through the Rockaways. It was discontinued in the 60's I believe. There is a LIRR stop on Nameoke Ave that is way under used, it gets you to penn station in less than 45 mins as opposed to the 1 - 1.2 hours on the A train but it's on a deserted, industrial street close to the housing projects.

Posted by: Crownlfc at June 21, 2009 4:54 PM

« Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million Open House Picks: Six Months Later »

June 19, 2009

The Last of the Bungalows

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