present-day Beach 110th Street to Beach 116th Street
Year(s) built
late 1870, early 1880
Destroyed
1889
Height
1184 feet (360.9m)
Dimensions
Other dimensions
250 feet (76.2m) wide
The Rockaway Beach Hotel, also known as the Hotel Imperial, was a large hotel built in Rockaway, Queens, New York City during the late 1870s and early 1880s by the Rockaway Improvement Company. The hotel, promoted as the "biggest hotel in the world", ran along the Rockaway beachfront from the present-day Beach 110th Street to Beach 116th Street, thus locating it in the contemporary Rockaway Park neighborhood rather than Rockaway Beach as the name implies.
The hotel, the product of an age of superlatives which also produced the Brooklyn Bridge, was 1184 feet (360.9m) long and 250 feet (76.2m) wide. Construction of the hotel was beset by labor difficulties and lack of capital; a railroad station opened in front of the hotel on August 26, 1880, but, except for one wing which was pressed into service for the summer of 1881, the hotel, although construction was completed, never actually opened for business. It was torn down for its lumber in 1889.
The name "Rockaway Beach Hotel" has been used for at least two smaller hotels since the original's demolition.
The Far Rockaway Branch is an electrified rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch begins at Valley Interlocking, just east of Valley Stream station. From Valley Stream, the line heads south and southwest through southwestern Nassau County, ending at Far Rockaway in Queens, thus reentering New York City. LIRR maps and schedules indicate that the Far Rockaway Branch service continues west along the Atlantic Branch to Jamaica. This two-track branch provides all day service in both directions to Grand Central Madison and Penn Station, both in Midtown Manhattan.
Valley Stream is a train station located on the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, in the Incorporated Village of Valley Stream, in Nassau County, New York.
The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City to Montauk. However, in LIRR maps and schedules for public use, the term Montauk Branch refers to the line east of Babylon; service from Jamaica to Babylon is covered by separate Babylon Branch schedules, while the line west of Jamaica is currently unused for passenger service. A select number of Montauk Branch trains operate via the Main Line during peak hours.
Island Park is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Long Beach Branch serving the residents of Island Park, Barnum Island, and Harbor Isle. The station can platform a 12-car train and is fully wheelchair accessible with ramps from street level. Parking facilities are also available. Southwest of the station the train crosses over Reynolds Channel via the Wreck Lead Bridge.
Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard are two parts of a major boulevard in the New York City borough of Queens. Woodhaven Boulevard runs roughly north–south in the central portion of Queens. South of Liberty Avenue, it is known as Cross Bay Boulevard, which is the main north–south road in Howard Beach. Cross Bay Boulevard is locally known as simply "Cross Bay", and Woodhaven Boulevard, "Woodhaven". The completion of the boulevard in 1923, together with the construction of the associated bridges over Jamaica Bay, created the first direct roadway connection to the burgeoning Atlantic Ocean beachfront communities of the Rockaway Peninsula from Brooklyn and most of Queens.
Hammels is an area within Rockaway Beach on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located west of Arverne and east of Seaside, and is centered on Beach 84th Street. Its main thoroughfare is Beach Channel Drive. The New York City Subway's A train travels through the neighborhood on the IND Rockaway Line. The Hammel Houses, a public housing project built in 1955, is located in the neighborhood.
William Wainwright was a real-estate developer who was largely responsible in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the transformation of Rockaway Beach, New York City, into a major resort and amusement area.
Rockaways' Playland was an amusement park that operated from 1902 to 1987 in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York City. Bounded by Beach 97th and Beach 98th Streets between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk, Rockaways' Playland was created in 1902 by roller coaster designer LaMarcus Adna Thompson. By 1903 a ferry dock was added not far from the park, making it more convenient to reach than some of the competing amusement parks. The park was sold in 1927 to Robert Katlin, who added amenities such as a gym and swimming pool, and the following year to A. Joseph Geist, who achieved greater success than the previous owners. Between 1928 and 1970, Rockaways' Playland was extremely successful, drawing 175 million visitors. It closed in 1987 due to a sharp increase in the price of insurance.
Rockaway Beach Boulevard, opened in 1886, was the first major east-west thoroughfare on the Rockaway Peninsula in the Borough of Queens in New York City. Much of its route parallels the Rockaway Freeway and the IND Rockaway Line above the Freeway. The boulevard first forks off at its eastern end from Beach Channel Drive at Beach 35th Street in Edgemere and merges once again with Beach Channel Drive by Jacob Riis Park shortly before the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge.
The Rockaway Freeway is a road in the New York City borough of Queens that was created from the old right-of-way of the Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Division in 1941–1942 as part of the project to eliminate grade crossings within New York City. The railroad line itself was elevated over the new automotive route and was incorporated into the New York City Subway system as the IND Rockaway Line in June 1956.
Curley's Atlas Hotel and Baths was a long-standing institution in Queens, New York City. The hotel was founded in 1876 by John J. Curley on the beachfront at present-day Beach 102nd Street, in the neighborhood now known as Rockaway Beach or "Irishtown". The hotel was moved to its larger longer-lasting site at Beach 116th Street in 1900.
The East Rockaway Inlet is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean which separates the Rockaway Peninsula from the barrier island which includes the Nassau County, New York communities of Atlantic Beach, Long Beach and Lido Beach. The inlet is on the south shore of Long Island. It provides for a channel 12 feet deep and 250 feet wide. A 3,000 foot jetty on the western side of the channel was authorized but never constructed, and was eventually deauthorized by Congress in 1977.
Springfield Junction was a junction between the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch and Atlantic Branch in Laurelton, Queens, New York City, United States. It was located at the place where those two branches now begin to parallel, just east of Laurelton station and half a mile east of Springfield Boulevard. No rail station was located at the junction itself, however Springfield Gardens station was located nearby.
The Long Beach station is an intermodal center and the terminus of the Long Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Park Place and Park Avenue in the City of Long Beach, New York, serving as the city's major transportation hub.
Glendale was a Long Island Rail Road station along the Lower Montauk Branch, located in Glendale, Queens at Edsall Avenue and 73rd Street, near Central Avenue, at the All Faiths Monuments factory for the All Faiths Cemetery. This station had two "platforms" which were just strips of pavement besides the tracks signed as the station, and two tracks.
Howard was a former Long Island Rail Road station on the Rockaway Beach Branch. Located on marshland along the coast of Jamaica Bay south of the "WD Tower" near Hawtree Creek, it had no fixed address, and was south of what is today 165th Avenue, evidently within the Gateway National Recreation Area's Hamilton Beach Park.
Hamilton Beach was a former Long Island Rail Road station on the Rockaway Beach Branch in Queens, New York City. It was located between two streets in Hamilton Beach, Queens, one of which no longer exists and is part of land owned by JFK Airport.
Hammels was a Long Island Rail Road station on the Rockaway Beach Branch in Hammels, Queens. It was located at what is today Beach 84th Street at the west leg of the Hammels Wye.
Queenswater was a train station along the Long Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It was located along Reynolds Channel and was used between 1898 and 1936 to serve numerous fishing clubs and hotels.
Kohlreiter Square is an 8.6-acre public green space located in the Arverne neighborhood on Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York. It located along the north side of Rockaway Freeway between Beach 67th and Beach 69th Streets. The park honors two generations of civic activists, Nathan A. Kohlreiter (1880–1961) and his son Fred Kohlreiter (1913–1990) who contributed to the political and social fabric of the neighborhood.
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