MONDAY, JULY 27TH MORE THAN A FERRY STOP……LONG ISLAND CITY
Monday, July 27th, 2020
Our 115th Edition
MORE TREATS FROM THE PAST
LET’S TAKE THE FERRY FROM
LONG ISLAND CITY
TO MANHATTAN
IN 1910
(AND STOP FOR SOME SHOPPING AND BAR BRAWLS WHILE
WAITING FOR THE FERRY)
Wandering Thru Long Island City……………….
After walking past all the dining spots I was at the end of Vernon Blvd. I saw the LONG ISLAND CITY Long Island Railroad Station. Is it still used? It seemed to be a mid-day parking lot for trains.
It was time to contact LIRR historian Andrew Sparberg:
Long Island City Station is still in use. Current timetables are shown below. 4 AM peak trains arrive, and 4 PM peak trains depart. No trains in or out during midday, evenings, or weekends. Tracks are used for train storage between the rush hours. Trains shown on the timetables that end or begin at Hunterspoint Ave. without a LI City time shown are stored in the yard between rush hours, so this location is still active and important.
A LITTLE MORE HISTORY
This station was built on June 26, 1854, and rebuilt seven times during the 19th Century. On December 18, 1902, both the two-story station building and office building owned by the LIRR burned down.
The rebuilt, and fire-proof, station opened on April 26, 1903. Electric service to the station began on June 16, 1910. Before the East River Tunnels were built, this station served as the terminus for Manhattan-bound passengers from Long Island, who took ferries to the East Side of Manhattan, specifically to the East 34th Street Ferry Landing in Murray Hill, and the James Slip Ferry Port in what is today part of the Two Bridges section of Lower Manhattan.
The passenger ferry service was abandoned on March 3, 1925. A track spur split from the Montauk Branch east of the Long Island City station, running along the south border of the station before curving north to the North Shore Freight Branch running between 48th and 49th Avenues, where there were connections to car floats at what is today the Gantry Plaza State Park.
These car floats carried freight trains to and from Manhattan and New Jersey until the mid-20th century. Today, ferry service is operated by NYC Ferry. The station house was torn down again in 1939 for construction of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, but continued to operate as an active station throughout the tunnel’s construction and opening. (Wikipedia)
Page from “300 Years of Long Island City History 1630-1930” Vincent Seyfried
This 1904 map was put out by Wanamaker’s Department Store. I will feature enlargements of the island and ferry routes in a future issue.
” I found this essay in typescript in my parents’ basement several years ago. Thinking it an interesting personal account of the western Queens section known as Long Island City I scanned and posted it on the Internet, soliciting information about its author R. Leslie Smith. I don’t know if the December 1959 date on the typescript is the date Smith wrote the essay or simply the date someone retyped it. That he refers to Woolsey, Remsen and other street names that were changed during the late 1920s, could date it to that era. In 2001, I received a e-mail from a Queens researcher who informed me that Smith was a prominent lawyer in Woodside in the early part of the century. There is a little information about him in Catherine Gregory’s book “Woodside A Historical Perspective,” “Woodside on the move.” Smith’s widow (Jennie Olivia JONES) sold their family home after his death in 1960, and it was my e-mail correspondent who purchased the house from her. A few biographical highlights, based on Smith’s 1918 draft registration and items in the New York Times, most importantly his obituary (Aug. 29, 1960. p. 25): His full name was Robert Leslie Smith, born Oct 7, 1880. This would date the earliest memories in this piece to the 1890s. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1901 and while in private law practice, served as a civic and business leader in Woodside throughout his life. He was the founder and president of Woodside National Bank and chairman of the Woodside Community Baptist Church. Smith has included some street name changes in parenthesis. I’ve made similar annotations, but in square brackets to differentiate my own from the original. I’ve also added scans of a few related postcards. Otherwise, the essay is as I found it. -‘
LOOKING AT OLD LONG ISLAND CITY ACROSS THE LINE By R. Leslie Smith
Traveling down Jackson Avenue and continuing on Borden Avenue to the 34th Street [Manhattan] ferry , there were several buildings of some historical interest. Right opposite the ferry was the Queens County Bank, the only bank at that time between Flushing and the East River. This bank used to open at eight o’clock in the morning in order to enable depositors coming in on trains to the Long Island Depot to make bank deposits and then catch the ferryboat for New York.
There were two lines of ferryboats running from the ferry slip at the foot of Borden Avenue, one to 34th Street, New York, and the other called the Long Ferry to James Slip, which was located to the north of Fulton Street, New York. Many people taking this ferry would walk over to the Wall Street district, which was pleasant until you had to pass the Fulton Fish Market and inhale the various fish odors emanating therefrom.
There was another steamboat line which ran a double-deck passenger boat from the Borden Avenue slip to the foot of Wall Street. This was called the “Bankers Line” and the fare was considerably more than on the ferries.
At the 34th Street ferry slip the Long Island Railroad built a shed and which Patrick J. Gleason, several times Mayor of Long Island City and the last Mayor before consolidation, claimed that several posts supporting the shed encroached on street property. He personally went on the promises with an axe and chopped down the posts. From then on he was called “Battle Axe Gleason”, a name he became so proud of that he used to wear a diamond stickpin in the shape of a battle axe.
Prior to the building of the elevated railroad structures on Second and Third Avenues [formerly Debevoise and Lathrop Aves., now 31st and 32nd Streets], there were two steamboats on the East River running from lower New York to Harlem, one known as the “Sylvan Dell” and the other the “Sylvan Stream”. The large bell on one of these boats was later acquired by the Woodside Hook & Ladder Company and, on its dissolution, became the property of St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church.
The steamboats used to stop at the foot of Broadway, Long Island City and residents living up as far as Steinway Avenue would walk to the East River and board the boats for downtown New York, Coming back to the foot of Borden Avenue, at the intersection of Front Street [now 2nd Street], was located Miller’s Hotel, which was a rendezvous for Queens politicians. The Queens County Republican Committee used to meet there and after the burning of the Queens County Court House the Queens County Bar Association held meetings there for a time.
History has it that one of the Presidents of the United States used to stop there on his way for a weekend visit to one of his cabinet secretaries who lived out on the island. Many businessmen bound for Long Island trains would stop at the hotel for liquid refreshment. Borden Avenue, from the ferry up to Jackson Avenue, was the early business section of Hunterspoint. Some of the early lawyers had offices there, including Alvin T. Payne, father of Alvin T. Payne, Jr., and Benjamin Payne.
The shopping center of Hunterspoint- in the early days was on Vernon Avenue, between Borden Avenue and 3d Street [now 51st Ave.], where starting northward from the corner was Schwalenberg’s Hotel, Brodie’s Hardware & Plumbing Supply Store, with Fox’s Photographic Gallery upstairs, then Schweikart’s Mens Furnishing Store and New’s Grocery Store on the next corner, Coming up Jackson Avenue, George W. Clay, real estate broker, built the first office building with an elevator; and north of the corner of Borden Avenue on the-other side of Jackson Avenue was Dillon’s Department Store, which later became the Borough Hall and Tax Office.
VERNON AVENUE
LONG ISLAND RAILROAD TERMINAL
DISEMBARK FOR FERRY TO MANHATTAN
GANTRY FOR FREIGHT CARS LOADING
BANANA CARRIER
1940
COLOR WOODCUT ON PAPER
PATRICK J. GLEASON
ANOTHER COLORFUL CHARACTER IN HISTORY
Political life Gleason held “truly remarkable sway over Long Island City’s affairs” for years when his power was in its prime “by his keen personal hold on the majority of the people he ruled. By nature and by political preference he was a Democrat, but he was voted for simply as ‘Paddy,’ he was obeyed as ‘Paddy,’ and the people whom he had once autocratically governed, and a respectable portion of whom had been hostile to him, remembered him as ‘Paddy’ to the day of his death.”[
The growth of industry in Long Island City in the 1890s was accompanied by a growth of graft, and Gleason acted in Long Island City as Boss Tweed had decades earlier in Manhattan. As mayor, he owned trolley lines under city contract, leased personal property to the school district, and he formed the “Citizens Water Supply Co.” and attempted to sell water to Long Island City from his wells.
When the railroad installed a fence to block traffic on the ferry, he personally chopped it down, earning the nickname “Battle-Axe.” Gleason’s personality was legendary. Gleason’s volatile temper got him arrested, and his relationship with the board of aldermen was tempestuous.
The newspapers, which loathed him, refused to publish his photograph. When The New York Times printed an article detailing how Gleason had used to office of mayor to enrich himself, Gleason bought almost every newspaper printed to reduce the impact. In 1890, Gleason drunkenly approached Associated Press reporter George B. Crowley in a hotel lobby and repeatedly insulted him, calling him a loafer and a thief Crowley ignored Gleason at first and then replied that Crowley was not as much a loaf as Gleason. With that, Gleason punched Crowley in the face and kicked him repeatedly in the face.
Bystanders took the bloodied Crowley into the hotel’s restaurant. Crowley returned to the lobby to look for his eyeglasses, which had fallen off during the assault. Gleason grabbed him and threw him against a cigar stand, breaking the glass. Because Gleason was the mayor, police declined to arrest Gleason without a warrant from a judge. Gleason was eventually arrested and indicted for assault in the third degree.
Gleason was convicted and sentenced to five days imprisonment in the county jail, with a fine of $250. The following year, Gleason dislocated the shoulder of a man at a meeting of the Board of Health. Gleason was arrested and charged with assault in the second degree.
PS1, which was built during Gleason’s tenure. The school later called P.S. 1, the largest high school on Long Island when built, was Gleason’s legacy to the community’s children. When Gleason died bankrupt and discredited a few years out of office, hundreds lined the route to his interment in Calvary Cemetery. Gleasonville, a former neighborhood in Woodside, Queens, north of Northern Boulevard, was named after him.
FOOD-ETORIAL
This afternoon it was time to leave the island, I was off by ferry to Long Island City. Vernon Blvd. which used to have 3 or 4 dining spots is now full of tempting choices for out-of-door dining. In contrast to our scene ( or lack there of) many of the establishments have gone thru great expense and effort to have attractive dining spots. BLEND had contractors still completing a wood paneled area. On that block and the next few I noticed Bareburger with about 20 tables, Cafe Henri, Woodbines, LIC Slice, Centro Pizza, and the long standing Tournesol, all ready to welcome customers. I am not a restaurant critic but will be heading east to dine since we can only eat on Roosevelt Island.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky
for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All materials in this publication are copyrighted (c)
IMAGES FROM “OLD QUEENS, N.Y. IN EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
300 YEARS OF LONG ISLAND CITY HISTORY 1630-1930
VINCENT SEYFRIED AND WILLIAM ASADORIAN (C)
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