Free computer access is available at all the libraries. The Far Rockaway Community Library has:
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International Language Collections at the Far Rockaway Community Library include:
Special Interest/Noteworthy Collections at the Far Rockaway Community Library include:
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Child Care / Preschools | ||
Shannon Adote 2006 Seagirt Boulevard, Apartment 3G, 3rd Floor Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-6995 | Valerie Bacchus 316 Beach 19th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-6281 | Bowen’s Unique Headstart L.L.C. 449 Beach 21 Street, 1st Floor Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (866) 263-6734 |
Delreta Brown 15-19 Dunbar St., Ground Floor Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-3709 | Blanche Community Progress Day Care Ctr. 2 44-02 Beach Channel Drive Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-7881 |
Community Board | ||
Community Organizations & Services | ||
The Action Center for Education and Community Development, Inc. 1414 Wheatley Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 337-5040 | Madison Square Boys & Girls Club 426 Beach 40th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: 718) 471-5453 fax: (718) 471-9648 | |
Margert Community Corporation 325 Beach 37th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-3724 fax: (718) 471-5342 | Parent’s Action Program, Inc. 3226 Mott Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-2425 | People United for Local Leadership (PULL) 1441 Beach Channel Drive Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-4496 fax: (718) 471-2005 |
Rockaway Artist's Alliance 260 Beach 116th Street Rockaway Park NY , 11691 phone: (212) 474-0861 fax: (718) 474-4373 | Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation 1920 Mott Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-5300 fax: (718) 327-4990 |
Fire Department | ||
Engine 264 / Ladder 134 16-19 Central Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 |
Local Hospitals | ||
St. John's Episcopal Hospital South Shore 327 Beach 19th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 869-7000 | Peninsula Hospital Center 51-15 Beach Channel Drive Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 734-2000 |
Local Newspapers | ||
The Wave 88-08 Rockaway Beach Boulevard Rockaway Beach NY , 11691 phone: (718) 634-4000 fax: (718) 945-0913 |
Parks and Playgrounds | ||
Redfern Playground Beach 12th Street & Redfern Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 | Westbourne Playground / PS 104 Playground Mott Avenue & Bay 25th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 | Grassmere Playground Grassmere Terrace & Brookhaven Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 |
Beach 44th Street Playground between Beach 43rd-44th S Far Rockaway NY , 11691 |
Police Department | ||
Post Office | ||
Far Rockaway Post Office 1836 Mott Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (800) 275-8777 |
Private / Parochial Schools | ||
Bnos Bais Yaakov (PreK-8) 710 Hartman Lane Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 337-6000 | Christian Training & Recreation (PreK-K) 14-25 Beach Channel Drive Far Rockaway NY , 11671 phone: (718) 327-1284 | Church of God Christian Academy (K-12) 1332-1336 Central Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-9590 |
Rockaway Childcare Center (PreK-K) 14-66 Beach Channel Drive Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-1384 | St. Mary Star of Sea School (PreK-8) 595 Beach 19th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-2242 | Talmud Torah Siach Yitzchok (PreK-8) 1513 Central Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-6247 |
Torah Academy For Girls (K-12) 444 Beach 6th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-8444 | Torah Academy High School For Girls (9-12) 636 Lanett Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-1300 | Yeshiva Darchei Torah (PreK-12) 257 Beach 17th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 868-2300 |
Yeshiva School of Far Rockaway (9-12) 802 Hicksville Road Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-7600 |
Public Elementary Schools | ||
P.S.43 (K-8) 160 Beach 29th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-5860 | P.S. 104 The Bays Water (PreK-6) 26-01 Mott Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-1910 | P.S. 105 The Bay School (PreK-8) 420 Beach 51st Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 474-8615 |
P.S.197 The Ocean School (K-5) 8-25 Hicksville Road Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-1083 | P.S. 215 Lucretia Mott (K-5) 535 Briar Place Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-7928 | |
P.S. 253 (PreK-5) 1307 Central Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-0895 |
Public High Schools | ||
Frederick Douglass Academy VI High School (9-12) 8-21 Beach 25th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-2154 | Far Rockaway High School (9-12) 8-21 Beach 25th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-6001 | Peninsula Preparatory Academy Charter School (K-5) 10-45 Nameoke Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-7220 |
Public Intermediate / Junior High Schools | ||
I.S.53 Brian Piccolo (6-8) 10-45 Nameoke Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-6900 | P.S. / M.S. 43 (K-8) 160 Beach 29th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-5860 |
Senior Centers | ||
JCC of the Rockaway Peninsula 1525 Central Avenue Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 327-7755 | JASA Queens Care Management 131 Beach 19th Street Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-6677 |
Elected Officials | |
NYC Council Hon. Donovan Richards DRichards@council.nyc.gov | |
District Office Address 1931 Mott Avenue, Suite 410 Far Rockaway NY , 11691 phone: (718) 471-7014 fax: (718) 327-4794 | Legislative Office Address 250 Broadway, Suite 1731 New York NY, 10007 phone: (212) 788-7216 fax: (212) 227-1210 |
NYS Assembly Hon. Stacey Pheffer Amato AmatoS@nyassembly.gov | |
District Office 95-16 Rockaway Beach Boulevard Rockaway Beach NY, 11693 phone: (718) 945-9550 fax: (718) 945-9549 | Albany Office LOB, Room 827 Albany NY, 12248 phone: (518) 455-4292 fax: (518) 455-4723 |
NYS Senate Hon. James Sanders, Jr. Sanders@nysenate.gov | |
District Office Address 142-01 Rockaway Boulevard South Ozone Park NY , 11436 phone: (718) 523-3069 fax: (718) 523-3670 | Albany Office Room 508, Legislative Office Building Albany NY , 12247 phone: 518-455-3531 fax: 518-426-0529 |
US Congress Hon. Gregory W. Meeks | |
District Office 153-01 Jamaica Ave., Suite 204 Jamaica NY , 11432 phone: (718) 725-6000 fax: (718) 725-9868 | Legislative Office 2234 Rayburn House Office Building Washington DC, 20516 phone: (202) 225-3461 fax: (202) 226-4169 |
Boro President Hon. Melinda Katz Info@queensbp.org | |
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Mayor Hon. Bill de Blasio | |
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The Ramones sang about its world famous beach. The Vanderbilts, the Astors, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Washington Irving vacationed in resorts along its solitary shore. Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman grew up there—at 792 Cornaga Avenue. Far Rockaway, located at the eastern end of the Rockaway Peninsula and nestled against suburban Nassau County, is one of New York City's most overlooked scenic treasures with the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay washing the beaches on its opposite shores. Occupying nearly half of the narrow peninsula, Far Rockaway features miles of oceanfront boardwalk and includes the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, and Arverne.
Long before Feynman and the resorts, the area was originally inhabited by a small tribe of Canarsie Indians who named the peninsula Reckowacky, which meant "the place of our own people", also interpreted as "our place of laughing waters." It wasn't until the mid-1600s that the Rockaways first came under European control when the entire peninsula, along with most of Long Island, was sold by a local tribe to the Dutch. The British soon took over and, following several ownership disputes, Richard Cornell, an iron magnate from Flushing, bought the Rockaways and became the area's first European settler when he moved with his family to Far Rockaway on land that would later become part of Central Avenue.
Cornell's descendents held onto the Rockaways until 1833 when they sold most of their land to a group of wealthy entrepreneurs who used the oceanfront property to build the Marine Pavilion, Far Rockaway's first reputable hotel. The Pavilion quickly gained popularity among New York City's elite who fled the City amid a cholera outbreak for the warmth and relative isolation of the seaside resort. Longfellow, Irving, colonial artist John Trumbull, and pioneer journalist George P. Morris were just a few of the notables who stayed there. The Pavilion burned down in 1864 but—as many other hotels and resorts popped up along its shore—the Rockaways continued to be a celebrated vacation spot.
To accommodate the growing appeal of the Rockaways—a railroad trestle was built over Jamaica Bay in 1880 connecting the peninsula to the Queens mainland. As a result, the next 20 years saw the development of several local communities including Far Rockaway, which became an incorporated village in1888 and Arverne-by-the-Sea which achieved the same status in 1895. It would take another three years, however, for the Rockaway communities to officially become part of Greater New York City.
The time of the Rockaways being a resort community for the city's rich and famous ceased in the early-to-mid 20th century as improvements in transportation made the peninsula more accessible to the general public. The construction of the Cross Bay Bridge (1925), Marine Parkway Bridge (1937), and the introduction of New York City subway service via the A line on the refurbished railroad trestle in 1956 all contributed to the Rockaways' transformation to an upstart working class community.
Today, the Rockaways retain a distinctive coastal beach town meets blue-collar neighborhood flavor with rows of white and pink bungalows in the shadows of mid-rise condominiums. It's a place where barefoot kids with sunburned faces and fishing rods across their shoulders buy tackle around the corner from a McDonald's restaurant—where it's not uncommon to find capsized skiffs on front lawns along streets with maritime names like: Foam Place, Gull Court, Swan Road, and Seagirt Boulevard. And when on a cool, late summer day you can taste the refreshing, tonic, salty-sea air and the low-flying gulls seem bigger than the JFK-bound planes above them—you can appreciate why the Rockaways were once known as the American Riviera.
Sources:
Websites
Rockaway..."place of waters bright.” The Wave. http://www.rockawave.com/common/history/history.html
Far Rockaway, Queens. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Rockaway,_Queens
Rosenberg, Miriam. Dual Ceremony for Rockaway Nobel Laureate May 11. (2005). The Wave. http://www.rockawave.com/news/2005/0429/Community/155.html
Amon, Rhoda. The Rockaways: A Paradise for Everyman. Newsday. http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/spectown/hist0012.htm
Far, Far & (Rock)Away. Forgotten NY. http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/borderlinefarrock/farrock.html
Hazelton, Henry Isham. The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens Counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, New York1609-1924: The Rockaways. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nynassa2/rockaways.htm
Andrew Carnegie, the benevolent steel tycoon, once said: “no man can become rich without himself enriching others.” True to his word, St. Andrew—as he was called by Mark Twain—donated almost $60 million in his lifetime to help build over 2,500 libraries throughout the English-speaking world. Sixty-seven of these libraries were constructed in the City of New York alone—as it was Carnegie’s intent to establish a branch library system spanning all five boroughs. Being a Scottish immigrant from humble beginnings, it is not surprising that New York—the gateway for millions of new Americans in the early 20th century—was the recipient of his greatest largesse.
The first of the New York City Carnegie Libraries to open in the Borough of Queens was the Far Rockaway branch which was dedicated on August 18, 1904. Located prominently on the corner of a busy promenade and surrounded by a sprawling lawn—the simple yet handsome one-story brick building was raised on land deeded to the City for educational purposes by local philanthropist Benjamin Mott. The noble provision accorded by Mott may have proven far more fruitful than the generous Hempstead patriarch could have ever foreseen—and more enriching than even the wealthy industrialist could have imagined—as it is largely possible that the original Far Rockaway branch library held the great and singular distinction of cultivating the burgeoning academic talents of three Nobel Prize winners: Burton Richter, Richard Feynman, and Baruch Blumberg. Each of these scientific virtuosos graduated from nearby Far Rockaway High School between the years 1935 and 1948—making it very likely that at least one and perhaps all three members of this distinguished trio once studied in the library’s stately reading room beneath the painting of the tall, Melville-esque ship that adorned its far wall.
Tragically, the Rockaways lost a potential historical landmark when the building that housed the original Far Rockaway branch library was destroyed by fire in 1962. It wasn’t long, however, before local residents—and the future Nobel Laureates among them—had their library service restored as a replacement branch was quickly built and has stood on the same site since 1967.
Sources
Books
Lighting the Way: The Centennial History of the Queens Borough Public Library 1896-1996 by Kroessler,
The Architecture of Literacy: The Carnegie Libraries of New York City by Mary B. Dierickx
Websites
Deconstructing the Philanthropic Library: The Sociological Reasons Behind Andrew Carnegie's Millions to Libraries. http://www.michaellorenzen.com/carnegie.html
The Carnegie Libraries. http://www.nypl.org/press/carnegielibraries.cfm
The Wave.http://www.rockawave.com/news/2005/0415/Coumminity/186.html
ThinkExist Quotations. Andrew Carnegie quotes. http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/andrew_carnegie/
Queens Library for Teens, located 1 block away at 2002 Cornaga Ave., Far Rockaway. The Library will serve youth from middle school through age 19. It boasts 32 computers, homework helpers, magazines for in-library use, and a wide range of programs. Current hours are 2:30 - 6 Monday - Friday. Please contact Queens Library for Teens at 718-471-2573.