Making Long Island: A History of Growth and the American Dream

INTRODUCTION

As a native Long Islander, I was especially excited to explore its amazing history by writing this book. I grew up in the Five Towns area of Nassau County on the South Shore in the 1960s and 1970s, making my childhood likely similar to that of millions of baby boomers being raised in the crabgrass frontier of suburban America. While on a clear day I could see the skyline of Manhattan, the eighteen miles that separated me from that smaller island seemed more like eighteen thousand. Visits to the city were magical affairs, and I dreamed of one day living there, never to return to the bland and bourgeois suburbs.

Almost half a century later and my dream of living in Manhattan having come true, I now see things differently. My younger days were in many ways idyllic, filled with friends, family and the craziness of the counterculture era. Trips to Atlantic Beach were always awesome adventures (we typically snuck through a fence and then jumped off the boardwalk so as not to pay the small fee), and the LIRR took us wherever we wanted to go. I rarely go back to Long Island, but when I do, I have fond memories of the area and even think it wouldn’t be so bad a place to live. Go figure.

A few million years before our house in Woodmere was built, a glacier swept through that part of Earth and formed what would become Long Island. The melt from the Ice Age left some lakes and a few hills, but it would be the shoreline that made the island truly special. Despite the cold winters, Native Americans found the island a good place to live for centuries, as did European settlers beginning in the seventeenth century. The Shinnecock occupied part of the eastern end of what would be called Long Island, although by the twentieth century, their land had been taken over.¹

A group of reportedly the last Shinnecock Indians on Long Island, 1884. It’s clear from their Victorian dress that they’ve adapted to Anglo customs, at least for this formal photo. "The last of the Shinnecock Indians L.I. N.Y. / B.M. Franklin, Flushing, N.Y."

In the twentieth century, Long Island became a playground for both the hoi polloi and the wealthy elite of New York City and then a network of suburban towns linked by highways and train tracks. Long Beach and Jones Beach have for more than a century been meccas for both urbanites and locals, and the Hamptons remain a paradise for those who can afford to be there. (The six months I spent in an East Hampton cottage were unforgettable). Some New Yorkers, in fact, think of Long Island only in terms of sun, sand and surf (and that the island exists only between Memorial Day and Labor Day), but there is, of course, much more to it.

More than anything else, perhaps, Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties of New York State) is most notable for its innovation in transportation. The Long Island (or Vanderbilt) Motor Parkway that ran east–west for forty-three miles in the center of the island was the world’s first limited-access concrete highway. The Northern State Parkway made that highway obsolete in the 1930s, and twenty years later, the Meadowbrook Parkway added a much-needed north–south route for the millions of new suburbanites (especially those in William Levitt’s Levittown).²

The Long Island Railroad (LIRR), which carries passengers across the island and to and from New York City, goes all the way back to 1834. It is the oldest continually operating railroad system in the United States and, it needs to be mentioned, the cause of many delays, cancellations and crashes over the decades. (Although it didn’t end in a fatality, the very first train-car collision in the United States took place in 1901 in Westbury.) Since then, thousands of such wrecks have occurred—and an equal number of unfortunate train-pedestrian meetups. After hitting rock bottom around 1970, however, the LIRR’s service improved considerably, and I happily ride it whenever I can.³

An 1887 painting of the Shinnecock Bay by Alfred Thompson Bricher. Given the beauty of the setting and the likelihood that many fish reside within, it can be understood why the Long Island tribe called it home for centuries. "Sunset, Shinnecock Bay/ATB monogram; by A.T. Bricher." New York Shinnecock Bay, 1887. Boston: L. Prang & Co.

An early twentieth century hand-tinted postcard of the Long Beach Hotel. The 1100-foot-long hotel with 700 rooms was quite the grand resort in its day. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, the New York Public Library. Long Beach Hotel (Long Island), Long Beach, N.Y. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

A 1924 cartoon of a Long Island beach scene. While the precise nature of the dialogue is difficult to comprehend, the exchange clearly involves romance, something that occurred with considerable frequency at the beach. Conacher, John C., artist; copyright claimant and publisher, Life Publishing Company. Did yah quor’le wit ’im?: Aw! coatin’ po’try ’bout th’ silly ol’ ocean!: is that any, ca. 1924.

As Long Island is the Cradle of Aviation, however, its history of air travel is perhaps most interesting. The mostly flat and treeless land of the island was ideal for airfields, and the fact that the population was sparse in the first decades of the twentieth century was another plus. Large parcels of land at low cost were available, making it almost inevitable that flyboys and flygirls would set up shop on Long Island. Mitchel Field near Garden City opened in 1917 and was expanded in 1929, having a very good run until shutting down in 1961.⁴

Although there is literally nothing left of the original Roosevelt Field to see, it too held a prominent place in the history of aviation. Roosevelt Field served an important role during World War I, and Charles Lindbergh famously took off for Paris from the field in Mineola in 1927. The field stopped operating in 1951, however, and Roosevelt Field Mall was built on the site a few years later. Roosevelt Raceway, which was first used for auto racing and later harness racing, also made use of some of the land of Roosevelt Field until it closed in 1988. The building of aircraft, too, is a proud part of Long Island’s history, with Republic Aviation and Grumman each responsible for some of the nation’s best World War II fighter planes.⁵

Alongside transportation, Long Island’s reputation as a retreat for the rich and famous is well deserved. On the Gold Coast of the North Shore, members of upper-class society could be found in and on great estates, summer houses, golf courses, horse and auto racing tracks, polo fields and hunting grounds, mixing with the likes of the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Guggenheims, Woolworths and Rockefellers. The Meadowbrook Hunt Club was the place to be for such swells, with more daring plutocrats playing polo, racing cars in the Vanderbilt Cup or flying biplanes as part of the Long Island Aviation Club. Of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby artfully captures the over-the-top wealth culture that existed on Long Island’s Gold Coast before the 1929 market crash.⁶

A 1938 poster promoting tourism to Sea Cliff, Long Island, to the millions of attendees of the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. "While visiting the Fair, commute by land or water to beautiful Sea Cliff, L.I. 250 feet above sea level: No mosquitos: Golf and bathing." New York: WPA Federal Art Project, Dis. 4, or 1939.

A train wreck in Bay Shore in 1909. A wide variety of mishaps has always been a feature of the Long Island Railroad experience. Anderson, M.J., photographer. "Railroad wreck on Long Island Railroad, Fifth Avenue, Bay Shore, L.I."

These trade cards issued by the Long Island Railroad in the late nineteenth century depict portraits of girls along with scenes of New York City, Shinnecock and Fire Island (summer) and Montauk and Great South Bay (winter). The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, the New York Public Library. Trade cards depicting portraits of girls and Long Island Rail Road schedules depicting New York City, Shinnecock and Fire Island in the summer, Montauk and Great South Bay in the winter. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

A crowd at Mitchel Field watching airplane races in 1920. Such races were all the rage among more daring and wealthier college students after World War I. Bain News Service, publisher. College Plane Races, 1920.

Yale copilots at the Mitchel Field races. Bain News Service, publisher. J.T. Tripp i.e. Trippe & G.W. Horne, 1920.

A World War I–era group of aviators at Roosevelt Field. Bain News Service, publisher. Aviators, Mineola. Between 1917 and 1918.

Three military personnel at Roosevelt Field around the time of World War I near the wing of a rather dubious-looking aircraft, at least by today’s standards. Bain News Service, publisher. Col. A. Miller, Lt. E.C. Kiel, Sgt. F.K. McKee, ca. 1915.

The British Airship R34 landing at Roosevelt Field in 1919. The hydrogen gas dirigible had just completed a transatlantic flight from Scotland to Long Island. Bain News Service, publisher. R-34, 1919.

MAKING LONG ISLAND: A History of Growth and the American Dream is a history of Nassau and Suffolk Counties between 1920 and 1980, filling a major niche in not just the history of the island but also that of New York State and the United States. During that sixty-year span in the twentieth century, the American dream emerged, flourished and then declined on Long Island and across the United States, which is one major story of this book. My goal here is to contribute to the already abundant literature dedicated to what I believe to be one of the most interesting and beautiful places on the planet, countering its popular image as a bland and soulless network of suburban sprawl where people talk funny. (Pronouncing Long Island Lawn Giland is a long-running joke among nonresidents.) Readers will learn there is much more to Long Island than Hampton shares, traffic jams and Joey Buttafuoco. Those interested in suburban and urban history, especially that related to New York City, should find the book to be of great value.

Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis a few weeks following the historic 1927 flight that began at Roosevelt Field. Lindbergh Spirit of St. Louis, 1927.

The site of Roosevelt Field in 1957, now occupied by a Macy’s department store and parking lot. Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer. "Long Island Lighting Co. Macy’s, Roosevelt Field."

Told chronologically and divided into six decades, Making Long Island sheds new light on the development of Long Island and its intimate relationship with New York City. Many New Yorkers went east through much of the twentieth century in pursuit of what James Truslow Adams called the American dream. While the term has meant many things— financial stability, making enough money to be able to retire (still often $1 million, despite inflation), working for oneself, having (at least) fifteen minutes of fame, the pursuit of happiness or, once in a while, the Statue of Liberty—I use it here to describe owning a home in the suburbs filled with all the consumer trappings.⁷ The narrative begins in the Roaring Twenties, when big Wall Street money looked eastward to generate even more wealth from a land boom rivaling that taking place in Florida. While the physical island had, of course, existed for millennia, the Long Island we know today began to be made as real estate entrepreneurs recognized the opportunity to be had. Government officials at the local, state and federal levels also invested in Long Island, building roads, bridges and parks to entice people to move there or just visit. Supply for housing matched demand, creating an increasingly linked string of communities that continued to push farther east. The story continues through the shaky Great Depression and the active World War II years, leading up to the emergence of the quintessential postwar American suburb, Levittown.

A fountain and the grandstand of Roosevelt Raceway in 1958. The venue being used for harness racing also took up part of the site of the airfield. Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer. Roosevelt Raceway, Westbury, Long Island. Fountains II.

A fox hunt at the Meadowbrook Club, circa 1905. Americans may have rejected the rule of European-style aristocracy, but the elite of the day remained attracted to some of their more sporting customs. Underwood & Underwood, publishers. Fox hounds of the Meadowbrook Club—first meet of the season—Long Island, New York.

Horseracing fans at the Meadowbrook Club House circa 1910. Bain News Service, publisher. Meadow Brooke i.e., Meadowbrook Club House, ca. 1910.

Levittown and its spinoff suburban communities served as the primary symbol of the American dream, I argue, as it was affordable homeownership for the (White) middle class that most compellingly expressed the nation’s core mythology, steeped in success, financial security, upward mobility and consumerism.⁸ Beginning in the 1960s, however, the dream began to dissolve, as the postwar economic engine ran out of steam and Long Island became as much urban as suburban. Making Long Island shows how the island evolved over the decades and largely detached itself from New York City to become a self-sustaining entity, making it a much different place than it had once been. Beyond serving as a stand-alone history of Long Island, the work examines the role of the island in the development of the New York City metropolitan area through a regional lens to contribute to the fields of both urban and suburban history.⁹ Robert Moses, not surprisingly, features prominently in the story.¹⁰

Mrs. W.R. Vanderbilt Jr. (right, in black hat) and other well-dressed folks at the 1914 International Polo Cup Competition at Meadowbrook. Bain News Service, publisher. At Polo game—Angelica Brown, Mrs. W.R. Vanderbilt, Jr., June 1914.

A polo match between American and English teams at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley in 1913. Bain News Service, publisher. Polo match between American and English teams.

The exciting finish of the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup motor race in Hicksville. The race was sponsored by W.K. Vanderbilt Jr., an enthusiast of the nascent sport. Spooner, F. Ed, photographer. Tracey finishing in the Vanderbilt cup race, for racing cars sponsored by W.K. Vanderbilt, Jr.

The scoreboard of the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup race. Frenchman Victor Hemery, a European Grand Prix champion, was the winner of that year’s race. Spooner, F. Ed, photographer. Scoreboard at the Vanderbilt cup race, for racing cars sponsored by W.K. Vanderbilt, Jr.

A page from a 1909 trade catalog featuring the Locomobile that had won the Vanderbilt Cup Race with its powerful 90 horsepower engine. General Research Division, the New York Public Library. The 90 h.p. Locomobile; Driven by George Robertson, winning the Vanderbilt Cup Race. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

While covering much ground, this book focuses on a handful of key themes or areas of inquiry. These are: real estate and land development, specifically home building and the emergence of a predominantly suburban landscape drawing heavily from an urban (New York City) population; the transportation and infrastructural network, particularly as related to commuters and tourism; the island’s natural ecosystem and threats from residential, recreational and industrial development; social aspects (i.e., issues of race, class, gender, nationality and criminal activity); economic growth and decline; and wealth culture on the East End. Discrimination against people of color was the norm in real estate circles throughout these years, making social and economic inequity a big part of the story. Long Island’s shameful history of racism has been well documented but becomes even clearer in these pages, which reveal a concerted effort made to deny African Americans their American dream.¹¹

Sources for Making Long Island are primarily period articles published in newspapers, especially the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Newsday and African American newspapers such as the New York Amsterdam News. I’m a firm believer that journalists write the first draft of history, and those covering the Long Island beat over the decades have provided an invaluable paper trail that forms the spine of the story. Relevant articles from magazines, journals and books relating to Long Island and New York City help to provide context and locate this one within the literature dedicated to the subject.

Welcome to Long Island.

Chapter 1

THE GARDEN SPOT OF THE WORLD