Historical Views of the Rockaways A Further History Of Broad Channel From The Rockaway Museum by Emil Lucev, Curator Dedicated To The Memory Of Leon S. Locke An antique Kodak moment from 1900. This photo shows the old Enterprise Hotel and Fishing Station, which was located at the northeast corner of the railroad station. It was connected to the trestle by a narrow boardwalk. It was originally listed in Trow’s Long Island Directory in 1899. By 1907, it was noted that there were about 300 structures in and around the Broad Channel area of Jamaica Bay. Leases were supposedly issued to all concerned by the Commissioner of Docks/New York City Department of Docks. None were found recorded in the volumes of records at the Borough of Queens City Register (where they should be!). Just the though of having to go to a city agency for information made me shudder. Fortunately, I found a partial list of those leasing in Broad Channel at the Annual Showing of Material by the Broad Channel Historical Society. The list is as follows: F.J. Sperling, F. Hammer & Co., J.S. Williamson, Henry C.L. Wenk, William P. Wagner, Charles A. Wagner, Otto J. Sporck, Dennis O’Neil, Mary Seiler, Fred S. Hasloecher and Theodore Sperling. Most on this 1908 list are located in the same land block given, and most of this group were on the list of leases by the Co-Operative Society of New Jersey. The rest of the 1908 list is incomplete, but is as follows: Al Shaw, Ben Shaw, Rip Rorer Fishing Club, Owl Fishing club, Gaiety Yacht Club, Sea Gull Fishing Club, Crescent Quartette Club, Entre Vous Fishing Club, Mrs. Nellie Carpenter, Enterprise Fishing Club, Edward Schleuter, Cheerful Liars Club, Pastime Fishing Club, Slinti Rod and Gun Club, William Sandstrom, No Name Club, Dorscht Yacht Club, Marion Fishing Club and the Unity Fishing Club. Four of the clubs mentioned were located in the same land block as the 13 pioneers were (by Shad Creek). As a matter of note, I spoke with Mr. Al Pierce of Shad Creek many years ago, and he told me of an old timer that lived on the marshes of the bay somewhere to the west of Broad Channel. He referred to the man as old Dock Wilson, who was a veteran of the Boer War (South Africa-1899-1902) with a peg leg. Wilson used to row in for victuals and a little socializing. He was probably a squatter on the marshes of Jamaica Bay. Has anybody any other information on this person? Before raw sewage polluted Jamaica Bay, oystermen earned a good living raising and harvesting their individual oyster beds, which they carefully marked and guarded as best they could – from poachers. The oyster beds were leased from the Town of Jamaica, fee unknown. Shellfishing in Jamaica Bay came to an end in the early 1900’s. As development on and near the shore exploded, sewers from the residential sites deposited their contents directly into the bay proper. Shellfish were the first to be affected by pollution. How the oyster beds were doled out is very interesting in itself. The old Broad Channel Railroad Drawbridge (long gone) built by the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad in 1880, was located at the south end of the waterway or bay channel as Broad Channel, from which the bay community of Broad Channel got it’s name when the station was built in the 1882. The drawbridge was offshore just south of the Broad Channel Station. Imagine the center of this bridge as the center of a compass: zero degrees to the north, ninety degrees to the east, one hundred and eighty degrees to the south, two hundred seventy degrees to the west and three hundred sixty degrees again to the north. Here is an example of a leased oyster bed to one Hiram Pearsall in 1897. The bed was located in Broad Channel waterway, about three quarters of a mile to the northeast of the Broad Channel Draw, as it was called. The lease to Pearsall was for fifteen years. “Begin at a point in the northeast corner, being N 37° 30’E – 3987’ from the center of the Broad Channel Draw. Thence running south 30°17’ W for 553’, thence running N 19°03’ W for 153.5’, thence running N 34°29’ E for 463.5’, thence S 69°38’ to the beginning.” The lease to Pierre Noel for Broad Channel in 1915 was found in the record, and from this lease came the infamous Broad Channel Corporation. Noel got it all, with the exception of the LIRR Right Of Way, and the two separate leases by the City to Otto Sporck and Gustave Lindstrom. This sounds strange, as all other had to sign up with Noel’s Broad Channel Corporation. The only other record found was a list of lessees of the Broad Channel Corporation between 1922 and 1945, which numbers about 103. They are as follows: Minnie Tuman, William Murphy, Marcel Peyson, Daniel Sweeny, Lasarow and Kraus, Beatrice Benidict, Reinhold Lanser, Jennette Lanser, William Murray, Grace Murphy, Tasty Shop, Inc. – Morris Karder, Max Kahlert, Anna Peters, Bohack Co., Harbor Realty – Henry Stimpson, Tasty Shop – Fannie Abrams, Eugene Marman, Martin Marman, Jacob and Vera Lasarow, Louis Klein, David Tarnapol, Eagle Gas/Oil Sales, John Fitzgerald, Frank Muluihil, Barth Libori, Concetta Libori, Harry Wilkins, Frank and Ellen House, Ella Caldwell, Louis Blerkovit, Salvatore Stallone, Mayme Basile, Simon Lasarow, William Peterson, Sam Levin, Louise Vandewal, Axel Carlsen, Standard Oil Co., Sara Turner, Marcus Gordon, Seibrock Corp., Henry Merkel, Gustave Brockelman, Joseph Muller, Harry Reidel, Margaret Harvey, Mary Schoen, Clark Bartlett, Irving Lasarow, Moses Marks, Henry Rideau, Helen Rideau, Harry Wilkins, Frank Hauser, Ellen Hauser, F. Koltzan, Bella Weiss, Meyer Weiss, Ernest Brown, Cornelia Brown, Gladys Staff, Marion Levitch, Staff’s Service Station, Mary McLaughlin, Hugh McLaughlin, Louis Granirer, Joseph Lomax, Carrie Lomax, James Bates, William Rudolf, Mildred Rudolf, Helena Cullen, Max Vogel, Edrose Restaurant, Henry Edelstein, Edward Tuman, Minnie Tuman, Emma Porter, William Sweeney, George Sweeney, Walter Sweeney, Daniel R. Sweeney, Joseph Sweeney, Daniel F. Sweeney, Henry Merkel, Morbets Amusements/John F. Trommer Brewery, Inc., George Fioto, Shell Union Oil Co., Broad Channel Baths, Fred Staff, Richard Staff, Jennie Fralinger, Pauline Smith, Henry Reidel and Agnes Brennan. So folks, I am afraid to say that we have only scratched the surface of Broad Channel history, and have just blown the dust off the other two bay colonies – The Raunt and Goose Creek. The former was just to the north of Broad Channel (now the lake of the bird sanctuary) and Goose Creek was just to the north of The Raunt. Just as Broad Channel, they were born after the railroad over the bay was built. The Eldert lease was issued a short time after the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad had opened its line over Jamaica Bay, which crossed this particular marsh section. The railroad’s right of way crossing Jamaica Bay was 150 feet wide. A two-track trestle on wood pilings was constructed on this right of way and each group of pile supports, called a bent, was assigned a number for identification and location by the railroad. There were 1719 bents from Howard Beach to Rockaway Beach, and the first Broad Channel Station was built between bents 135 and 450. The bent numbers ran south to north with number one at Rockaway Beach. Joan Kay of Brooklyn is a dealer, and also editor of the club’s newsletter. Eldert had realized the potential of Goose Pond Marsh as a destination for the many fisherman practicing their sport in Jamaica Bay and in 1881 he issued a 10-year lease to Frederick A. Parsons, for the northeast corner of Goose Pond Marsh beside the railroad trestle. Parson’s lease stipulated that he build a first class hotel and fishing station on his piece of marsh, with a wooden walkway to the trestle station. In the following year (1882), the railroad leased the southeast side of the trestle on Goose Pond Marsh to Charles A. Denton, with the same type of deal as stipulated in the Eldert lease to Parsons. But Denton was to build a railroad station, platform, waiting room, and supply a ticket agent for the station (at his expense) as well as having to build a first class hotel and fishing station. The lease issued by the railroad ran for five years. Also in 1882, Eldert leased the southwest corner of Goose Pond Marsh to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Carpenter. The Carpenters built a 15 room hotel with a bar, pool table, piano and a float with seven boats for rent. Their establishment was connected to the station by wooden walkways. Several years later, Garrett V.W. Eldert rented the entire west side of the trestle from the railroad (421’ x 50’) and constructed a platform for the entire length. Also built was a new hotel and fishing station to accommodate the ever increasing number of fishermen coming to Broad Channel. It is not known at this time if Eldert constructed a wooden walk (Sixth Road) westward toward Shad Creek, or if he constructed any buildings along this walk. A crude map of Broad Channel drawn in 1886 showed only four main structures beside the trestle section crossing Goose Pond Marsh. At the northwest corner was Eldert’s Hotel and Fishing Station, at the northeast corner was Parson’s Hotel and Fishing Station, at the southwest corner was Carpenter’s Hotel and Fishing Station and at the southeast corner was the Denton Hotel and Fishing Station and the Broad Channel Station. The New York Times published a one-liner in 1886 stating that a boat race was held at Miller’s Fishing Station in Broad Channel. It is possible that any one of the four entrepreneurs on the Channel did rent out their facilities for others to run, simply for profit. Nothing was found in the record about Mr. Miller or any of the names that I have come across during my research. Many leases were not recorded in the days of old, or they are buried somewhere in old courthouse files, or have been lost to flood or fire, or simply thrown away as garbage. Garry Eldert, as he was commonly known, died in 1890, just before his leases were about to expire. The record shows that in 1892, Parson’s lease from Eldert was re-leased to William J. Dorman for ten years – by the town of Jamaica. Dorman operated the old Parson’s Place as the Atlantic Hotel and Fishing Station. It is not known if Eldert’s family continued the lease from the railroad for the west side of the trestle and the facilities built there by Eldert. Nothing was found in the record. The Carpenters carried on at their place near Shad Creek Flats and nothing in the record tells of how they accomplished this. (An 1899 Wave ad had the complex for rent with 24 boats for hire.) The station area passed from Denton to the Fuller and Buhl brothers to Foetler to Edward Schleuter, whom many still remember in Broad Channel today. The premier event of 1892 was the leasing of the west side of Goose Pond Marsh to a William B. Dooley, who was a town of Jamaica trustee from the common lands in Jamaica Bay. With an ironclad lease, Dooley was the supreme being at Shad Creek, Barnes Creek and Goose Pond Marsh. He could build, allow building, lease and do so as he desired. Was it he who built the walk with buildings alongside Shad Creek, and the building at Shad Creek?