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| The Rockaways Homepage |
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| Bungalows | |
| Synagogues | |
| Jewish Life | |
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| Photos | |
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The Rockaway
bungalows were built in waves
beginning in 1905. The
low rents allowed regular working
class New Yorkers – butchers,
clerks, house painters – to have a
modest vacation place near the
beach.
By the late 1930’s there were
more than 7,000 humble bungalows in
the Rockaways. Fewer
than 100 survive today on three
blocks bound by Beach 24th Street,
Seagirt Avenue, Beach 26th Street
and the oceanfront boardwalk. These
cottages originally had only basic
amenities: 2-3 bedrooms, indoor
toilets, cold water, and outdoor
showers.  |
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In the past, many New
York families, whose breadwinners worked
as butchers, domestics, bus drivers,
seamstresses, longshoremen, and
peddlers, rented the same bungalow
summer after summer, returning to the
tight-knit seasonal communities that
developed among generations of
vacationers. Most residents were Jewish and Irish immigrant families who spent their days outdoors, at the beach, in the bungalow courts, and on their front porches. Far Rockaway, Edgemere, and Arverne, were frequented by Jewish families.
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With the
decline of the area’s resort
community after World War II,
the bungalows fell into
disrepair. The city moved
welfare recipients into them in
the off-season, even though few
were winterized. In 2013, the district of surviving bungalows was placed on the State Register of Historic Places. The placement of the district on the State Register automatically nominates it to be on the National Register of Historic Places. The Far Rockaway Beach Bungalow Historic District was added to the National Register in July 2013. |
Rockaway's Summers
The
Boardwalk |
Rockaway Playland |
Kiddie Park |
Beach & Playland
ca. 1930 |
Thanks to the Leiman Library for use of the postcards shown.