By Philip Newman
At low tide the waters of Jamaica Bay still reveal a glimpse of an artifact from more than a century ago in the southwestern Queens community of Howard Beach. What can be seen at low water are the support pilings of a 2,000-foot pier once surmounted by a luxury resort hotel built by the Minnesota-born entrepreneur, William J. Howard, for whom the community is named.
Howard transformed what was first known as Ramblersville from creeks and fishermen’s shacks on stilts that began springing up along Hawtree Creek in the aftermath of the Civil War into a resort, then a residential area. Howard first raised goats for the manufacture of kid gloves, then began carrying out dredging, landfill of marshy areas and other improvements. The resulting area of waterways somewhat resembled Venice.
Howard’s hotel (”Electric Lights and modern Conveniences — A Fisherman’s Paradise. The Coolest Place in Greater New York. Rates $12 to $15 per week. Rooms $1.50 to $2 per day,” said the ads) burned down in October 1907. It was a year of financial misfortune for Howard. The hotel fire broke out a few months after Howard sustained major losses in the stock market crash of March 13, 1907.
Fire also destroyed the Long Island Rail Road trestle over Jamaica Bay in 1955 and the LIRR never restored service to Howard Beach. Subway service was inaugurated on June 28, 1956 providing rail transit not only to residents of Howard Beach but for passengers en route to and from John F. Kennedy International airport.
Howard, who was born in St. Paul, Minn. in 1857, and went to California in the 1870s to seek his fortune, finally achieved success in New York. He died on Aug. 5, 1919.
From these 19th century beginnings evolved the Howard Beach of today, a pleasant and compact residential community 25 blocks wide and nine blocks long bordered by the Belt Parkway on the north, Spring Creek Park on the west, JFK airport on the east and Jamaica Bay on the South.
Cross Bay Boulevard, Howard Beach’s principal commercial street, is replete with diners, clam bars, malls and other retail outlets.
Many Howard Beach residents point out the seaside country-in-the-city atmosphere of their community as the reason they live there.
“I have been here more than 30 years,” said local Democratic leader Frank Gulluscio. “We have it all, sea breezes, serenity and the advantages of being in the country but still in the city. With the expressway system, we have rapid access to other parts of the city.”
Acknowledgments: “Old Queens, N.Y. in Early Photographs,” by Vincent Seyfried and William Asadorian. Howard Beach official Website site. Historian Richard Ranft. “The Encyclopedia of New York,” contribution by Vincent Seyfried.
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Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
