William Wainwright was a real-estate developer who was largely responsible in the late 19th and early 20th century for the transformation 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...

, New York

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...

 into a major resort and amusement area.

Wainwright began his association with Rockaway in 1875 by leasing the Sea Side House hotel from James Remsen

James Remsen

James S. "Uncle Jim" Remsen was a landowner and developer of Rockaway Beach, Queens as a major amusement district in the 19th century...

, who took him as a partner in 1876. He continued to manage and expand the hotel after Remsen's death in 1887. After Wainwright took another partner, the name "Wainwright & Smith" became ubiquitous on different amusement pavilions in Rockaway Beach.

Sources

• Vincent F. Seyfried
  Vincent F. Seyfried
  Vincent F. Seyfried is a highly prolific historian of Long Island. His magnum opus is the seven-volume The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, published over a period of over two decades. Seyfried is also known for histories of Queens neighborhoods as well as towns and villages further...
  
  , The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part Five, published by the author, Garden City, Long Island, 1966.
• Vincent F. Seyfried and William Asadorian, Old Rockaway, New York, in Early Photographs, Dover Publications, 2000.