Before the Flood: Broadway Postcard and the Casino And the Old Original Saltaire Dock

Originally  posted July 4, 2008

Above Excerpt from Saltaire Brochure from mid 1930's text courtesy Larry Lynch

Post card showing original dock, Casino and Yacht Club

click to enlarge

Jon Lyon chimes in about the white lines on Broadway:

"Someone brought up an interesting observation on the white line boardwalk borders What was the state of street lamps at this time? If low wattage electrical, or dare I say, gaslight, the borders may have served an additional sightline purpose (beyond assisting the expected sway-walkers of your common nighttime Saltarian).

-Jon Lyon

Hugh O'Brien responds:

" I did notice, without commenting upon, the apparent absence of street lamps, and certainly electric poles, in that shot. Clearly this was pre-electricity, which came in in 1937 (with typical Saltaire timing), and if Harry Sr. is right about the prospect and no St. Andrew’s, then this would have been no later than 1920...which I think pre-dates most public lighting, or at least widespread lighting. That might have made the white lines that much more imperative. If only we could enlarge the photo sufficiently and zoom in to see if we could pick up any Harding-for-President buttons on the denizens’ pantaloons.Think of all the old summertime jobs no longer available in Saltaire...gas lamp lighter...line painter...telegrapher...telegram delivery boy...ice man...Casino shuffler...dune leveler...hurricane debunker...fire gong warden...rum runner, obviously...

-- Hugh O'Brien

Meanwhile, Jeff Weinlandt seemed a little peeved that Hugh is talking about "telegraph delivery boy" as if it were a part of ancient history. Not so, sez Jeff:

Jeff W: "And to think I was once paid by the Saltaire Postmistress 15 cents for each telegram I used to deliver from the Post Office...I was about 12 years old...and 90% of the telegrams went to Frank White's house...I guess Hugh was too young to realize that telegrams were still common in the late 1950's..."

Jeff Weinlandt

THANKSGIVING SHOCKER! DISCOVERY UNDERNEATH THE SHIFTING SANDS AT FIRE ISLAND'S SALTAIRE WILL FORCE A REWRITING OF THANKSGIVING HISTORY AS WE KNOW IT !

 

 

SANDY SHOCKER:

SHIPWRECK UNCOVERD BY HURRICANE SANDY EROSION  CHRONICLES  AMERICKA'S FIRST  “THANKSGIVING” ON FIRE ISLAND, NY IN 1601

by Tom Quinn

National Wire- History/ Archaeology


Saltaire, New York, November 22, 2012


The shifting sands of Fire Island,   New York caused by subtropical storm  Sandy  have uncovered  wreckage of a Dutch registry ship from 1600. The discovery of the ship, including a watertight cash box containing a few coins,  a ship log and a community log, establish that there was a community of Dutch settlers on Fire Island that lasted for about two and one half years before mysteriously disappearing in 1603.

Perhaps most startling, the tiny Dutch community celebrated a "Thanksgiving" festival in 1601 and 1602 at the site of the present-day Saltaire on Fire Island. "This establishes that the first Thanksgiving in the New World was a celebrated on Fire Island 19 years before the Pilgrims set foot at Plymouth Rock." according to Professor John Crackinkle of Springfield College in Massachusetts, a leader in the study.




Startling Wreckage on the Oceanfront at Saltaire, Fire Island. Scientists note that the ship's log refers to this  location  as "Lynch's gut" indicating that there was apparently  a small ocean-to bay inlet or "cut"  near present-day Atlantic Walk in Saltaire.

The wreckage included   a large wooden sculpture that naval historians have identified as the ship’s figurehead. That led to Springfield College’s archiologists to dig deeper in the sand,  team to scour and the hull of the ship was recovered nearby.

The  discovery has not been reported publicly because of an ongoing criminal investigation in which Saltaire Village records have been impounded by a Suffolk County grand jury. Additionally, a court overseeing an ongoing civil lawsuit against the Village recently issued a "gag order" prohibiting any public statements by Village officials about the value of the discovered artifacts. The civil action seeks to attach what are claimed to be "Valuable Village assets" that could be sold to pay for judgments in a series of pending lawsuits against the Village.

By all appearances, the ship, registered in Amsterdam in 1600 as the "Beaverflower” did not wreck on Fire Island. It apparently lay abandoned at anchor on the oceanfront  for many years about 100  yards south of Saltaire, near a location referred to in the ship's  log as "Lynch's gut." Eventually, tidal forces dragged the ship into the gut itself, causing a blockage, causing sand to fill in the "gut" and covering the shipwreck for four and one half centuries until Sandy excavated it.

Records found in the ship’s log indicate that the small Dutch community, although based on the island itself, continued to use the Beaverflower as a repository for records, and possibly as a meeting place. Hence, the ship log served as a sort of community history book until the community mysteriously disappeared.

There are no diary entries after March, 1603 . Researchers theorize that the ship and community was abandoned, probably suddenly or violently, because the ship was left moored but unmanned about 100 feet north of Saltaire. Years, perhaps decades later, the ship eventually sank in the bay, and was forgotten to history.

The mystery surrounding disappearance of the colony without a trace is sure to create controversy among historians for years to come. Although the ship’s log makes no reference to any problems with Native Americans or other Europeans, there are several notes about “creatures” or “bush babies” dwelling in sand dunes that may have raided the settlement from time to time.

Historical treasures recovered included the ship’s log and other documents that had been stored in a water tight chest in the captain’s quarters. The figurehead, a five and one half foot long sculpture of a beaver, is being donated to Springfield College for installation at “Cracktinkle Hall.” Other items from the ship, described by historians as “priceless” will be sold to set up a scholarship fund for non athletes at Springfield College.

--story developong

Custom Reprint of 1915 Saltaire Map

Big Elizabeth by way of Derf by way of Jim letting you know the NYPL has this old map of 1915 Saltaire. Check it out.

Reprint of 1915 Saltaire Map available through NYPL

This hard to come by map of Saltaire, published by EB Hyde and Company, 1915 can be found in the NY Public Library.

The NYPL has placed the Map of Saltaire in its digital collection and you can download a copy of it or order reprints up to as large as 30 inches. You can even get it matted and framed by NYPL. Not cheap, but you can crop the image as you like before ordering it.

The original of this map is hard to come by. Saltairians may consider this as a nice piece for collecting or framing.

Check IT out here: HERE

You can compare with reprints from a private antiquarian map source HERE

Saltaire's Founders, 1911

1911 Photo of Capt. Paterson and the principals of the Fire Island Beach Development Corp.

Photo Courtesy Frank Mina

"SHOCK TROOPS OF DISASTER" THUMBS UP BY HUGH O'BRIEN FOR THIS WPA FILM ABOUT THE 1938 HURRICANE

JUSTIN ZIZES JR. SCOUTED OUT THIS FILM FOR US AND IT IS A GOOD ONE.

PRODUCED BY THE WPA THIS FILM CHRONICLES THE DESTRUCTION FROM THE HURRICANE OF 1938 AND THE ARMY OF WPA AND CIVILIAN CONSERVTION CORPS WORKERS THAT HELPED REPAIR THE DESTRUCTION.

THE FILM TALKS MOSTLY ABOUT NEW ENGLAND, IT DOES HAVE SOME ACTUAL PICTURES OF SALTAIRE.

CHECK OUT THE WRECKAGE IN THE SALTAIRE BAYFRONT AND THE ELADIO AT THE TWO MINUTE MARK IN THE FILM. THIS IS A GREAT FILM TO GET A SENSE OF THE SIZE OF THE DESTRUCTION, AND YOU REALIZE THAT SALTAIRE WAS JUST SMALL CHANGE IN THE FOOTPRINT LEFT BY THIS MONSTER STORM.

YOU CAN ALSO BE DRAWN INTO POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS. YOU KNOW, WPA, CCC THEN AND HECKUVA JOBS TODAY.

THANX FOR THE REFERENCE, JUSTIN.

HERE IS THE LINK: http://www.historylite.com/media/517/New_England_Hurricane_-_1938/


HUGH O'BRIEN THUMBS IT UP:

Leave it to Justin to dig this one up....

I’ve seen excerpts from this film, never the whole thing, in various documentaries over the years. Cool to finally see it all in context.

Did you guys catch the other Saltaire footage? At about 4:56 or so into the film there’s a brief shot of people leaving the Village Hall. Unmistakable. The camera pans down the ramp following some of the evacuees (it’s shot in daylight), with Ye Olde Casinoe in the background as well as the same house that stands today at the corner of Neptune and Bay. I didn’t know they had a screen door on the VH back then. Just the ticket to protect against rising flood waters. The VH footage is fol lowed by people being loaded onto a boat to be taken back to the mainland. I assume, but can’t definitely ascertain, that that’s our dock and our forebears. The film is hard to see on the computer (and its quality is a bit deteriorated), but it would be neat if Edie Watts or Ann Keegan could check it out and maybe identify some of the survivors.

Disappointing that there’s no footage of Madame Bazinet or Mrs. Haas being excavated by the WPA. (Okay, sorry.)

For film buffs (if any), the background music heard for about 50 seconds starting at 3:42 is lifted from the soundtrack from King Kong. (In KK it’s heard from the time Kong breaks out of the theater, onto the street, and begins climbing the building where he eventually finds Fay Wray in her boudoir.) Much of the other music sounds familiar, like Kong a lot of it probably written by Max Steiner, and taken from the RKO library. One of the sadder untold stories of the Great Hurricane is how WPA spotter planes had to shoot Kong off the water tower in order to save it so we could pull it down on Labor Day 1968. The work gangs buried the carcass in front of the maintenance yard, which explains why the height of the dunes in that area has gradually been falling over the past seven decades, even as the dune grass thrives.

Anyway, thanks JZJr, and also Harry Hopkins, and thanks to our mentor, Johare ny@aol.com, for continuing the valiant work of the blogspot. Or, as the narrator of the film pronounced it, “vail-ee-yent” (he says it at the VH shot).

Let’s get to work i.d.’ing those refugees. We ain’t got all night.

Hugh

Economy got you down? Are all of your Investments Tanking? Hang in There. We've seen Panic Before

click to enlarge

There is always a silver lining somewhere. Just think, in 1922 maybe you could have bought some of those choice lots on Ocean Promenade for a song at the auction. Scroll down to the third post below to see how much your 1922 bargain investment may have grown by 1927.

Don't Worry. Be Happy.

WHAT'S THIS?
ASK FRANK MINA

PHOTO COURTESY FRANK MINA)







The picture of Lightship 68, the "Fire Island" is courtesy Justin Zizes Jr.

UNKNOWN BUILDING

CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO COURTESY JUSTIN ZIZES JR

THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE OLD SURF HOTEL. WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO FIND OUT IS WHAT IS THE BIG BUILDING BETWEEN THE SURF HOTEL AND THE LIGHTHOUSE.

ANY IDEAS?

6-24-08:

THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER COMES FROM COSMO:"The building is the Albany House, part of the Surf Hotel complex."-----

Do You know the Way to Dominy's 1869?

Surf Hotel Ad from 1877 click to enlarge

Early Map shows two hotels in what is now Saltaire

Surf Hotel and Dominy House ads, 1869

click to enlarge images

click to enlarge

This must be the tower that the old lady climed up and scared the keeper.

We have a picture of the tower from the 1920's, but this is an 1898 postcard. The inscription does not mention the wooden tower, just the lighthouse: "the present light was erected in 1857-58. First painted black and white bands in 1891. An important light for transatlantic steamers bound for New York."

1914 Promotional Brochure

This is a great brochure, courtesy of Larry Lynch. It has images and floor plans of about 15 style houses (We would call them "Coffey" houses today), which you can have built.

It says:

Back in 1911 the first 23 Bungalows were built here.

37 new ones were built in 1912, 38 more in 1913 and for

1914 we hope to double that record: and judging by orders

in hand we believe we will.

Saltaire38.blogspot.com has the full brochure, but we don't know if there is enough interest to post all the pages. Let us know. Or if you have interest in a particular style home, perhaps the brochure has your style.

Let us know.

A. Williams asks: A WIlliams said...
I think it would be great if you could post the entire thing. I have a dog eared photocopy, and those I have shown it to are always interested.

JO'H replies: .give me an E mail directly I can send you scans of every page. johareny@aol.com

Auction Sale, 1928

Here is a bit of useless trivia: in this 1928 Auction Announcement, under "What Saltaire Boasts Of" it lists "Its excellent stores which supply groceries, vegetables," etc etc. The 1922 Aution announcement has the same general description of "What Saltaire Offers," but it refers to the stores as a "Cooperative Store." So some time between 1922 and 1928 the Grocery store was privatized.
Click pix to enlarge

Images courtesy of Frank Mina.



Hey, you want to buy land in Saltaire in 1928???? Quick, buy it now because Robert Moses is going to run a Boulevard down the middle of the island soon! Build now so that in ten years your home can be washed away in the storm of the century!

1914 PROMOTONAL BROCHURE

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE. IMAGE COURTESY OF LARRY LYNCH

More Bayfront from Justin, Frank, and others

Click to enlarge Courtesy Francis X. Mina

Click to Enlarge. Courtesy Justin Zizes Jr.

Click to enlarge. Courtesy JOH

The Civil War Touches Fire Island

The Civil War Comes to Fire Island on August 12, 1864

It was the first word about of one of the most brazen maritime undertakings by the Confederacy in northern waters-- and the word came to a shocked Union from a dispatch from the Surf Hotel on Fire Island to the New York Times on August 12, 1864.

A Confederate ship the Tallahassee, being used more like a pirate ship than a regular naval ship, had run a Union blockade at Wilmington North Carolina, cruised up the East coast and on August 11 started attacking merchant vessels heading for New York.

The Front Page of the New York Times on August 13, 1864 broke the "Highly Important" news from the Surf Hotel on Fire Island, (just west of present day Kismet) where a boatload of 16 refugees landed during the peak of the summer season at the resort for the rich and famous:

Surf Hotel, Fire Island



All News reports copyright The New York Times:

click to enlarge

CSS Tallahassee

In the following days the Tallahassee terrorized the seas around and about Long Island and New England, and within a week or so it was said to have captured and burned and sunk some forty merchant ships.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

After marauding off Long Island, the Tallahassee steamed to Halifax, got a supply of coal, and snuck out before pursuing Union Ships could intercept it. The British Government would not let the Tallahassee take on amunition, and only permitted it to load enough coal to enable it to sail directly to a safe sourthern destination. Federal ships were heading to Halifax to intercept the Tallahassee, but the southern ship slipped out of the harbor in the middle of the night.

The Union navy never captured the Tallahassee. It made it back safely to Wilmington.
A southern Newpaper, the Goldsboro Journal gloated in the success of the Tallahassee and Capt. Wood who became something of a folk hero for his exploits on the high seas, although after he returned to Wilmington, he apparently never went back to sea during the war.

From the Goldsboro Journal, Sept 29, 1864:

click to enlarge

Capt. John Taylor Wood always put passengers and crew of the ships he destroyed onto other ships headed for New York. That is how the first thirteen ended up on Fire Island. Wood was said to be courteous, and warned that they were sending a signal to "Uncle Abe." After the War he moved to Halifax, where he is buried.

SO THE TALLAHASSEE FIRST CAME TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD FROM A BUNCH OF REFUGEES LANDING ON FIRE ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER.

AND YOU HEARD IT FIRST ON SALTAIRE38.BLOGSPOT.COM

COSMO ASKS ABOUT THE DOMINY HOUSE

COSMO ASKS A GREAT QUESTION:
And a whole team of Saltaire Bloggers gives him a great response.


Cosmo wondered:
Saltaire didn't exist when the photo was taken, Does anybody recognize this photo? It wasn't exactly in Saltaire .



















JOH responds:

DERF WOULD KNOW THE NAME "DOMINY HOUSE" FROM EAST HAMPTON. THE DOMINY FAMILY "WAS KNOWN FOR GENERATIONS" OUT EAST AS CRAFTSMEN. A FAMOUS DOMINY HOUSE STOOD IN E.H. FOR A COUPLE HUNDRED YEARS.



FELIX DOMINY BUILT THE VERY FIRST HOTEL ON FIRE ISLAND, ALSO CALLED THE DOMINY HOUSE. IT IS MENTIONED IN A FI NATIONAL SEASHORE BROCHURE:

While in Kismet, look for the marker commemorating the site of the first hotel
on Fire Island: the Dominy House, built in 1844. Proprietor Felix Dominy was the
first keeper of the original 1826 Fire Island Lighthouse.

Liz Kelly adds: I'm pretty sure that marker is by the little bike rack outside the OUT, on the bay side, just before the path leading to the water west of the dock





JOH:

The marker looks like the base of the ancient brick chimney I remember where the tennis courts are now. Kids used to say that the chimney was the ruins of the bakery of an old hotel, and that there were always millions of ant colonies that were descendants of ants that lived off the crumbs of the bakery from a hundred years before. The chimney went down when they built the tennis courts.

Dominy House is not to be confused with the more famous Surf Hotel which was built in the 1850s, probably slightly to the west of Kismet.



Two modern day Bay Authorities if ever there were, Noel Feustel and Francis X. Mina, add color to the the Dominy House Story:


Capt. Frank tells us:


"My archive has quite a bit about Dominy, Surf Hotel and Kismet. The Dominy House is quite famous in local lore. Felix was the lighthouse keeper from 1835 to 1844. At some point he purchased a tract of land east of the lighthouse and, after his "tour of duty", built a small inn out of shipwreck lumber and opened in 1847. No formal record has been found of any ferry service to the place, but since the inlet was so much closer to the Kismet area then, it became a hangout for fishermen and duck hunters.


Noel tells more:


The Dominy -- was located in Kismet, the Surf Hotel was erected to the immediate west blocking the Dominy's views of the Lighthouse--some things never change--just think of all the present day decks to the sky in present day Saltaire.
There is a fairly new book that I received as a gift from (expletive deleted by Rosemary Woods) entitled "Fire Island's Surf Hotel" by Harry W. Havemeyer--full of historical insight about the bay. Chapter two deals with the Dominy House.




JOH: Poor Old Felix, the first Fire Island Lighthouse keeper on Fire Island, and first hotelier on Fire Island, must have really been upset when the Surf Hotel came along and stole his best ideas: Not only did the Surf Hotel steal his idea for a hotel on the island, they had the nerve to block his view of his lighthouse.


2-4-08 Post Script: Cosmo does more great research:

It turns out that COSMO is an author and authority on Dominy House. He also found a great source:

Munroe, Ralph Middleton and Gilpin, Vincent. The Commodore's Story. New York, NY: Ives Washburn, 1930.

At page 41:

Dominy’s occupation while he lived in this house is open to much conjecture and still more romance. Ostensibly he kept a summer beach resort for sportsmen, but well-founded tradition says that he was next in rank to a first class smuggler, and the stories of his wrecking activities and dubious dealings with owners and underwriters agents would make a book…. The old house, with its curious arrangements of cellars, garrets, etc. bore mute testimony to (Dominy’s) thrift; the outstanding barroom was made of an entire ship’s cabin , completely covered on the outside with the name- boards and carved work of wrecked vessels. Munroe, Ralph Middleton and Gilpin, Vincent. The Commodore's Story. New York, NY: Ives Washburn, 1930, at page 41.

This is where you miss a guy like Frank O. Braynard.
All day long we
have been piecing together drips and drabs of stories about the Dominy
House. If
Frank Braynard were with us today I am sure he could have given us
infinitely
more detail right off the top of his head.


Frank
Braynard, Dorothy
Braynard, RIP

But thanks for the collaborative effort of Cosmo, Liz Kelly, Frank Mina, and Noel for a great story.
This cooperation illustrates the importance and fun of this crazy blog.

--JOH



Only on Saltaire38.blogspot.com

ADDED ON MAY 1, 2008:

COSMO ASKS ABOUT THE DOMINY HOUSE

COSMO ASKS A GREAT QUESTION:
And a whole team of Saltaire Bloggers gives him a great response.


Cosmo wondered:
Saltaire didn't exist when the photo was taken., Does anybody recognize this photo? It wasn't exactly in Saltaire

JOH responds:

DERF WOULD KNOW THE NAME "DOMINY HOUSE" FROM EAST HAMPTON. THE DOMINY FAMILY "WAS KNOWN FOR GENERATIONS" OUT EAST AS CRAFTSMEN. A FAMOUS DOMINY HOUSE STOOD IN E.H. FOR A COUPLE HUNDRED YEARS.



APPARENTLY THEY ALSO BUILT THE VERY FIRST HOTEL ON FIRE ISLAND, ALSO CALLED THE DOMINY HOUSE. IT IS MENTIONED IN A FI NATIONAL SEASHORE BROCHURE:




While in Kismet, look for the marker commemorating the site of the first hotel on Fire Island: the Dominy House, built in 1844. Proprietor Felix Dominy was the first keeper of the original 1826 Fire Island Lighthouse.



Liz Kelly adds: I'm pretty sure that marker is by the little bike rack outside the OUT, on the bay side, just before the path leading to the water west of the dock


JOH:

The marker looks like the base of the brick chimney that I remember back where the tennis court are now. Kids used to say that the chimney was the ruins of the bakery of an old hotel, and that there were always millions of ant colonies that were descendants of ants that lived off the crumbs of the bakery from a hundred years before. The chimney went down when they built the tennis courts.

Dominy House is not to be comfused with the more famous Surf Hotel which was built in the 1850s, probably slightly to the west of Kismet.

We have a Civil War - related story about the Surf Hotel coming up in a week or two.

Two modern day Bay Authorities if ever there were, Noel Feustel and Francis X. Mina, add color to the the Dominy House Story:

Capt. Frank tells us:

"My archive has quite a bit about Dominy, Surf Hotel and Kismet. The Dominy House is quite famous in local lore. Felix was the lighthouse keeper from 1835 to 1844. At some point he purchased a tract of land east of the lighthouse and, after his "tour of duty", built a small inn out of shipwreck lumber and opened in 1847. No formal record has been found of any ferry service to the place, but since the inlet was so much closer to the Kismet area then, it became a hangout for fishermen and duck hunters.

Noel Tells more:

The Dominy -- was located in Kismet, the Surf Hotel was erected to the immediate west blocking the Dominy's views of the Lighthouse--some things never change--just think of all the present day decks to the sky in present day Saltaire.
There is a fairly new book that I received for as a gift from (expletive deleted by Rosemary Woods) entitled "Fire Island's Surf Hotel" by Harry W. Havemeyer--full of historical insight about the bay. Chapter two deals with the Dominy House.

JOH: Poor Old Felix, the first Fire Island Lighthouse keeper on Fire Island, and first hotelier on Fire Island, must have really been upset when the Surf Hotel came along and stole his best ideas: Not only does the Surf Hotel steal his idea for a hotel, the block his view of his lighthouse.

Post Script to this post: .
This is where you miss a guy like Frank O. Braynard.
All day long we have been piecing together drips and drabs of stories about the Dominy House. If Frank Braynard were with us today I am sure he could have given us infinitely more detail right off the top of his head.

Frank Braynard, Dorothy Braynard, RIP

But thanks for the collaborative effort of Cosmo, Liz Kelly, Frank Mina, and Noel for a great story. This cooperation illustrates the importance of this crazy blog.

--JOH

Only on Saltaire38.blogspot.com

OUR TOWN

Emily: Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?
Stage Manager: No. Saints and poets, maybe--they do some.
--THORNTON WILDER


ALWAYS CHECK "COMMENTS" AFTER EACH POSTING FOR EVERYONE ELSE'S THOUGHTS

OUR FOUNDER

SIR TITUS SALT

No kidding. This is the guy that founded Saltaire, the idealsitic town in England for which Saltaire, Fire Island is named.

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