Hammels, Queens
Encyclopedia
Rockaway Beach, Queens
Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the South Shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west...
on the Rockaway Peninsula
Rockaway, Queens
The Rockaway Peninsula, informally The Rockaways, is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, all of which is located within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods...
in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
. It is located west of Arverne
Arverne, Queens
Arverne is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, on the Rockaway Peninsula. It was initially developed by Remington Vernam, whose signature "R. Vernam" inspired the name of the neighborhood. Arverne extends from Beach 56th Street to Beach 73rd Street, along its main thoroughfare...
and east of Seaside
Seaside, Queens
Seaside is a section of Rockaway Beach on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered on the east by Hammels and on the west by Rockaway Park. Formerly a resort community of small bungalows, Seaside is today dominated by expensive high rise apartments along its...
, and is centered on Beach 84th Street. Its main thoroughfare is Beach Channel Drive
Beach Channel Drive
Beach Channel Drive is the main thoroughfare in the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It extends from the Nassau County border at Inwood westward to the Marine Parkway Bridge at the end of Jacob Riis Park...
. The train passes through the neighborhood. The Hammel Houses, a public housing project built in 1954, is located in the neighborhood.
History
Hammels was named for a local landowner, Louis Hammel (1836-1904). It originated as a summer community based on a series of boardwalks that ran between the Bay and Ocean shores. This was followed by a hotel — the Eldert House — that was kept by Garret Eldert, and faced the bay on the east side of what today is Beach 85th Street. In August 1869, Louis Hammel leased the hotel. The New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway Railroad ran within a few feet of the hotel as a trestle was erected across the bay in 1880. The hotel gave an easement for construction of the "Hammels" stationHammels (LIRR station)
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.-History:...
, which was used as the name for the entire community.
A dock in front of the hotel on the Bay side, known as Fifth Landing, was a regular stop for boats of the Iron Steamboat Company
Iron steamboat company
The Iron Steamboat Company provided ferry service between Manhattan and Coney Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original fleet consisted of seven iron-hulled steamboats, each named after a constellation--the Cygnus, the Cepheus, the Cetus, the Pegasus, the Perseus, the Sirius,...
. As the Rockaway resorts declined, residency changed to permanent residents. In 1897, Hammels merged with Hollands and was incorporated as the Village of Rockaway Beach
Rockaway Beach, Queens
Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the South Shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west...
. The following year, Rockaway Beach became part of the City of Greater New York
City of Greater New York
The City of Greater New York was a term commonly used originally to refer to the expanded city created on January 1, 1898 by the incorporation into the city of Richmond County, Kings County, Queens County, and the eastern part of what is now called The Bronx...
when the five boroughs consolidated into a single city and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
was created.