Fire Island Pines, New York
Encyclopedia
Fire Island Pines is a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven
, Suffolk County
, New York
, United States
. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island
on the southern side of Long Island
.
Fire Island Pines, along with neighboring Cherry Grove
, comprise the gay
community on Fire Island.
The Pines, which has the most expensive real estate on Fire Island, has approximately 700 houses on its square mile of location. It has two-thirds of the swimming pools on Fire Island. Its summer seasonal population is between 2,500 and 3,000 and in 2004 12 people listed it as their full time residence.
Transportation is via foot on the boardwalk
s. If a person wishes to carry groceries, the traditional way to do so is to pull toy wagons (commonly the popular Radio Flyer
).
s and holly
foundered off its coast in the late 19th century.
The Pines was originally the site of a Coast Guard station built in 1876 and known as Lone Hill Saving Station. The area was purchased by the Home Guardian Company in 1924. As no development occurred the area became a popular nude beach
. Squatters erected temporary buildings.
The basic Smadbeck layout of the Pines remains to this day, including the Botel which was designed to be a simple, no-frills, dormitory style accommodation for those who docked their yachts docked in the harbor.
Among the earliest property owners were Pola Negri
, Xavier Cugat
, Mary Martin
. A 15-year-old Jane Fonda
taught dance classes.
The Botel and associated yacht club buildings burned on May 31, 1959.
Former male model John B. Whyte
encouraged its reputation as a gay destination after buying the rebuilt Botel Pines and Dunes Yacht Club in the 1960s (Cherry Grove was already a gay destination when Whyte developed the Pines). The Botel is now the Hotel Ciel and still the central landmark and only hotel in the Pines. Whyte bought the property after a May 31, 1959 fire destroyed the entire complex.
The conversion to a gay destination proved divisive among the initial owners. A large sign near the dock headlined, "Welcome to Fire Island Pines A Family Community." It also proclaimed "We believe in a community that is clean both morally and physically."
Whyte bent rules to accommodate the gay crowd. "We had a hully-gully line right here in the restaurant. I would put a girl at each end -- men weren't allowed to dance with men back then -- and everyone would have a good time."
Visitors in the 1960s included Hedy Lamarr
, Betty Grable
and Zachary Scott
.
Whyte, who owned 80 percent of the commercial property in the Pines, instituted the community’s central social activity schedule of “Low Tea” (drinks—particularly the "Blue Whale" cocktail
of Curaçao liqueur
and vodka
that turned patrons' tongues blue—at the Blue Whale from 5 PM to 8 PM) followed by “High Tea (drinks at the Pavilion from 8 to 10 PM) followed by an evening of dancing at the Pavilion (all of which were Whyte establishments).
All of the commercial buildings are located in the "harbor" area which is where the ferry from Sayville docks. The harbor also includes docks for yachts. Regularly scheduled seaplanes during the season from New York City once disembarked their passengers at the Harbor but that service ended around 2000.
bought the Pavilion giving them control of 80 percent of the commercial structures in the business district for a reported $17 million. On November 14, 2011 the Pavilion was destroyed by fire that also destroyed the adjacent LaFountaine building, which contained the Sip n’ Twirl disco, a pizza parlor, a clothing shop and two real estate offices. That building was built in 1980 and was owned by Nicole LaFountaine.
While all of Fire Island may have an official year-round population of 310, the summer population swells to much higher levels especially on weekends. In the Pines, the large houses are filled with summer shares and a 4 bedroom house can easily contain 8 people at a time. The population is primarily gay men 20–50 years old. It is affectionately referred to as "Chelsea with sand." (Chelsea
is one of Manhattan's gay neighborhoods.)
Two of the Pines's most famous events are the Pines Party, an all-night dance party held each July on the beach, and the Invasion of the Pines
, a drag-queen parade held each year on July 4, commemorating the time when Whyte refused service to a drag queen. After promenading through the Pines, the drag queens from Cherry Grove proclaim victory and return to Cherry Grove.
The forest between it and Cherry Grove has been nicknamed the "Meat Rack" because of sexual liaisons occurring at all hours in it, with the Village People
in the anthem entitled "Fire Island" warning "Don't go in the bushes, someone might grab ya". The Meat Rack is even celebrated each year with a "Mr. Meat Rack" contest at the Ice Palace.
After its reputation was ruined by AIDS
-related fatalities among its regulars in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gay Men's Health Crisis
began hosting the Morning Party fundraiser on the beach. The party evolved into a major circuit party
and was GMHC's biggest fundraising event. However the party itself developed a reputation for being connected with unsafe sex and recreational drug use
.
GMHC pulled the plug after the 1998 fundraiser after one man died of an overdose of the drug gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid
(GHB) the evening before the party and 21 revelers were arrested for drug possession.
Despite the loss of the high profile sponsor the party continued under the name of the Pines Party which is held on the last weekend of July. Proceeds go to lower profile organizations of the Stonewall Community Foundation (which uses the money to help those with HIV) and the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association Charitable Foundation (which uses the funds to make improvements to the common areas).
Drug use connected with the parties has remained high with the resident doctor Ed Schulhafer sending out a memo to residents following another GHB fatality in 2007 stating: "This tragic incident follows an unprecedented number of GHB overdoses at the Pines Party, July 29."
The Pines is the setting for "Party in the FIP" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ezfk7s1NyY), a YouTube video parody of the music video for Miley Cyrus' song "Party in the USA".
, a journalist turned hotelier; Matt Blesso, a real estate investor; and Seth Weissman, an investment banker, plan to renovate the properties for the 2010 season.
The other major group of businesses in the Pines include Sip n Twirl, Pines Pizza & Ice Cream, and Pines Bistro & Martini Bar. Sip & Twirl is a very popular gay disco and has DJ's and dancing every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night during the peak season.
Brookhaven, New York
The Town of Brookhaven is one of the ten towns into which Suffolk County, New York, United States, has been divided. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is located in central Suffolk County and is the only town in the county that stretches from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long...
, Suffolk County
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island
Barrier island
Barrier islands, a coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that parallel the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen...
on the southern side of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.
Fire Island Pines, along with neighboring Cherry Grove
Cherry Grove, New York
Cherry Grove is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island separated from the southern side of Long Island by the Great South Bay...
, comprise the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
community on Fire Island.
The Pines, which has the most expensive real estate on Fire Island, has approximately 700 houses on its square mile of location. It has two-thirds of the swimming pools on Fire Island. Its summer seasonal population is between 2,500 and 3,000 and in 2004 12 people listed it as their full time residence.
Transportation is via foot on the boardwalk
Boardwalk
A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....
s. If a person wishes to carry groceries, the traditional way to do so is to pull toy wagons (commonly the popular Radio Flyer
Radio Flyer (company)
Radio Flyer is an American toy company best known for their popular red toy wagon. Radio Flyer also produces scooters, tricycles, bicycles, horses, and ride-ons. The company was founded in 1917 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.-History:...
).
History
Fire Island Pines derives its name from the scrub pine trees in the area, which, according to legend, started growing after a ship with Christmas treeChristmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
s and holly
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
foundered off its coast in the late 19th century.
The Pines was originally the site of a Coast Guard station built in 1876 and known as Lone Hill Saving Station. The area was purchased by the Home Guardian Company in 1924. As no development occurred the area became a popular nude beach
Nude beach
A nude beach is a beach where users are legally at liberty to be nude. Sometimes the terms clothing-optional beach or free beach are used. Nude bathing is one of the most common forms of nudity in public. As beaches are usually on public lands, any member of the public is entitled to use the...
. Squatters erected temporary buildings.
The Smadbecks
Plans for development first began in 1952 when Warren and Arthur Smadbeck, doing business as the Home Guardian Company, announced plans to sell 122 lots in the new subdivision while building a private harbor for yachts, a large landing dock, and a private park facing the harbor. The Smadbecks, who sold more than 700,000 lots around the country, had purchased the property from the Sammis family, which had owned it since buying most of Fire Island in 1855 when they built the Surf Hotel near the Fire Island Light, in what is now the community of Kismet.The basic Smadbeck layout of the Pines remains to this day, including the Botel which was designed to be a simple, no-frills, dormitory style accommodation for those who docked their yachts docked in the harbor.
Among the earliest property owners were Pola Negri
Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
, Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
, Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
. A 15-year-old Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
taught dance classes.
The Botel and associated yacht club buildings burned on May 31, 1959.
John B. Whyte
John B. Whyte
John Burlingame Whyte was a real-estate investor who developed Fire Island Pines, New York.-Biography:Whyte was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and attended Washington University in St...
encouraged its reputation as a gay destination after buying the rebuilt Botel Pines and Dunes Yacht Club in the 1960s (Cherry Grove was already a gay destination when Whyte developed the Pines). The Botel is now the Hotel Ciel and still the central landmark and only hotel in the Pines. Whyte bought the property after a May 31, 1959 fire destroyed the entire complex.
The conversion to a gay destination proved divisive among the initial owners. A large sign near the dock headlined, "Welcome to Fire Island Pines A Family Community." It also proclaimed "We believe in a community that is clean both morally and physically."
Whyte bent rules to accommodate the gay crowd. "We had a hully-gully line right here in the restaurant. I would put a girl at each end -- men weren't allowed to dance with men back then -- and everyone would have a good time."
Visitors in the 1960s included Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
, Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
and Zachary Scott
Zachary Scott
Zachary Scott was an American actor, most notable for his roles as villains and "mystery men".-Life and career:...
.
Whyte, who owned 80 percent of the commercial property in the Pines, instituted the community’s central social activity schedule of “Low Tea” (drinks—particularly the "Blue Whale" cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
of Curaçao liqueur
Curaçao liqueur
Curaçao is a liqueur flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao. A non-native plant similar to an orange, the laraha developed from the sweet Valencia orange transplanted by Spanish explorers. The nutrient-poor soil and arid climate of Curaçao proved...
and vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
that turned patrons' tongues blue—at the Blue Whale from 5 PM to 8 PM) followed by “High Tea (drinks at the Pavilion from 8 to 10 PM) followed by an evening of dancing at the Pavilion (all of which were Whyte establishments).
All of the commercial buildings are located in the "harbor" area which is where the ferry from Sayville docks. The harbor also includes docks for yachts. Regularly scheduled seaplanes during the season from New York City once disembarked their passengers at the Harbor but that service ended around 2000.
Andrew Kirtzman
The central dance club was the Sandpiper which in 1979 became the Pavilion. Whyte sold the complex in 2004 shortly before his death to Anthony Roncalli and Eric von Kuersteiner who tore down the Pavilion at the end of the 2006 season and rebuilt it as the New Pavilion in time for the 2007 season. In 2010 a team of investors led by Andrew KirtzmanAndrew Kirtzman
Andrew Kirtzman was a political reporter and anchor for six years at WCBS-TV in New York City until April 2008. He is the author of Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff about Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme....
bought the Pavilion giving them control of 80 percent of the commercial structures in the business district for a reported $17 million. On November 14, 2011 the Pavilion was destroyed by fire that also destroyed the adjacent LaFountaine building, which contained the Sip n’ Twirl disco, a pizza parlor, a clothing shop and two real estate offices. That building was built in 1980 and was owned by Nicole LaFountaine.
The Pines Scene
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
is one of Manhattan's gay neighborhoods.)
Two of the Pines's most famous events are the Pines Party, an all-night dance party held each July on the beach, and the Invasion of the Pines
Invasion of the Pines
During the summer of 1976, a restaurant in Fire Island Pines, New York, denied entry to a visitor in drag named Terry Warren. Fire Island Pines is a beach community on Fire Island east of New York City with a gay majority population that was at the time more affluent and conservative than the...
, a drag-queen parade held each year on July 4, commemorating the time when Whyte refused service to a drag queen. After promenading through the Pines, the drag queens from Cherry Grove proclaim victory and return to Cherry Grove.
The forest between it and Cherry Grove has been nicknamed the "Meat Rack" because of sexual liaisons occurring at all hours in it, with the Village People
Village People
Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
in the anthem entitled "Fire Island" warning "Don't go in the bushes, someone might grab ya". The Meat Rack is even celebrated each year with a "Mr. Meat Rack" contest at the Ice Palace.
After its reputation was ruined by AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related fatalities among its regulars in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gay Men's Health Crisis
Gay Men's Health Crisis
The Gay Men's Health Crisis is a New York City-based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization that has led the United States in the fight against AIDS.-1980s:...
began hosting the Morning Party fundraiser on the beach. The party evolved into a major circuit party
Circuit party
A circuit party is a large dance event, extending through a night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event...
and was GMHC's biggest fundraising event. However the party itself developed a reputation for being connected with unsafe sex and recreational drug use
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
.
GMHC pulled the plug after the 1998 fundraiser after one man died of an overdose of the drug gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid
Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid
γ-Hydroxybutyric acid , also known as 4-hydroxybutanoic acid and sodium oxybate when used for medicinal purposes, is a naturally occurring substance found in the central nervous system, wine, beef, small citrus fruits, and almost all animals in small amounts. It is also categorized as an illegal...
(GHB) the evening before the party and 21 revelers were arrested for drug possession.
Despite the loss of the high profile sponsor the party continued under the name of the Pines Party which is held on the last weekend of July. Proceeds go to lower profile organizations of the Stonewall Community Foundation (which uses the money to help those with HIV) and the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association Charitable Foundation (which uses the funds to make improvements to the common areas).
Drug use connected with the parties has remained high with the resident doctor Ed Schulhafer sending out a memo to residents following another GHB fatality in 2007 stating: "This tragic incident follows an unprecedented number of GHB overdoses at the Pines Party, July 29."
The Pines is the setting for "Party in the FIP" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ezfk7s1NyY), a YouTube video parody of the music video for Miley Cyrus' song "Party in the USA".
People associated with Fire Island Pines
- Calvin Klein, Former Resident
- David GeffenDavid GeffenDavid Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...
, Former Resident - Robin ByrdRobin ByrdRobin Byrd is an American former porn actress and the host of The Robin Byrd Show, which has appeared on Leased access cable television in New York City for close to thirty years.-Background:...
, Resident - Michael LucasMichael Lucas (director)Michael Lucas is an American-Russian-Israeli gay pornographic actor, director, activist, writer and the founder/CEO of Lucas Entertainment, New York's largest gay-adult-film company...
, Resident; director who has shot several films on the island - Tommy TuneTommy TuneThomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...
Pines Businesses
In 2010 about three quarters of the businesses in the resort were sold to a group of investors. Eric von Kuersteiner and Anthony Roncalli, the former owners, sold the businesses for about $20 million. The new owners, Andrew KirtzmanAndrew Kirtzman
Andrew Kirtzman was a political reporter and anchor for six years at WCBS-TV in New York City until April 2008. He is the author of Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff about Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme....
, a journalist turned hotelier; Matt Blesso, a real estate investor; and Seth Weissman, an investment banker, plan to renovate the properties for the 2010 season.
The other major group of businesses in the Pines include Sip n Twirl, Pines Pizza & Ice Cream, and Pines Bistro & Martini Bar. Sip & Twirl is a very popular gay disco and has DJ's and dancing every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night during the peak season.
External links
- Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines News and Travel Guide
- Fire Island Men: Gay Men of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines
- Fire Island Q News - Fire Island Pines & Cherry Grove Monthly Gay Webzine
- Fire Island News and Online Travel Guide
- Grove Pines Connect - 24/7 Gay Social Networking Haven
- Fire Island iPhone App (free) Ferry schedules for all Fire Island, including Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines.