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About Rockaway Beach
Product Description Chronicling the story of New York's beloved Rockaway Beach community and the efforts to recapture the magical success from an earlier era. The American frontier did not just consist of a prairie--it also included marshes and windswept sand dunes. When the earliest settlers arrived at Rockaway Beach on steamships in the mid-1800s, it was a narrow strip of land packed with ponds and covered with dunes. Within 30 years, the community had grown into a wildly popular resort served by a thriving rail line. Amusement parks, hotels, taverns, and dance halls abounded, as did bungalow courts and open-air tent colonies. In the 1960s, the area was disrupted by urban development efforts and transportation infrastructure had declined. Today, Rockaway Beach is being rediscovered by a new generation of visitors and entrepreneurs as longtime residents work simultaneously to reinvigorate it. Review "Much has been written about Rockaway's rise and fall as summer resort and its recent rebirth as a hipster haven. But local resident Vivian Carter thought there was another important story to tell of the people who settled in the peninsula and made it their home year-round. "I wanted to write something different," said Carter, a writer, teacher and lawyer who moved from Manhattan to Rockaway almost 20 years ago. "Before there was a bureaucratic behemoth they built churches, schools and sports leagues." Carter recently published the book "Images of America: Rockaway Beach," which includes scores of vintage photos as well as rich historical tidbits she found digging through boxes of old papers and scanning rolls of microfilm. "These people were amazing activists," Carter said. "They got their own street lights up, their own telephones going." Carter, who first became active in the community and local schools when her two teen-aged children were younger, sees parallels between the struggles of Rockaway's pioneers and its current residents, who she said are still fighting to get their share of services and attention from city government. "We go out to these meetings to talk about how we can get improved train service," she said. "It's exactly what they were doing." Carter came across a treasure trove of information at the First Congregational Church, where she is a member. "They had all these documents and records," she said. "I found a receipt from 1899 for advertising in The Wave newspaper. It gave such a window into what things cost and how people valued things." The Wave, which still publishes once a week, opened up its archives to Carter. She writes a regular column for the popular local newspaper. "I think what is going to surprise people is the role women played in developing the institutions like the church and the hospitals," said Howard Schwach, managing editor of The Wave. "You have these really strong women who had a big part at a time when women weren't valued the way they should have been." Carter will be presenting an author talk, slide show and book signing on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Seaside Library on 115th St. For more information on the book go to rockviv.com. " New York Daily News, Lisa L. Colangelo About the Author Vivian Rattay Carter is a columnist for Rockaway's The Wave newspaper and publishes a local events website, Oy Vey Rockaway. A lawyer and civic activist, she has served on the board of directors of the Rockaway Civic Association and as a lay leader of the First Congregational Church, whose earliest members included many of the pioneers of Rockaway Beach.
