Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the
Rockaway peninsula in the
New York Cityborough of
Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line. Its southern boundary is the
Atlantic Ocean; it is one of the neighborhoods along
Rockaway Beach.
The indigenous inhabitants of the Rockaways were the
Canarsie Indians, a band of
Mohegan, whose name was associated with the geography. By 1639, the Mohegan tribe sold most of the Rockaways to the
Dutch West India Company. In 1664, the English defeated the Dutch colony and took over their lands in present-day New York.[note 1][3] In 1685, the band chief, Tackapoucha, and the English governor of the province agreed to sell the Rockaways to a Captain Palmer for 31 pounds sterling.[4]
The Rockaway Peninsula was originally designated as part of the
Town of Hempstead, then a part of
Queens County. Palmer and the Town of Hempstead disputed over who owned Rockaway, so in 1687 he sold the land to
Richard Cornell, an iron master from
Flushing. Cornell and his family lived on a
homestead on what is now Central Avenue, near the shore of the
Atlantic Ocean. At his death, Cornell was buried in a small family cemetery,
Cornell Cemetery.[4]
19th century
In the late 19th century, the Rockaway Association wanted to build a hotel on the Rockaway Peninsula, as it was increasingly popular as a summer destination. The association, consisting of many wealthy members who had homes in the area, bought most of Cornell's old homestead property. They developed the
Marine Pavilion on that site, which attracted such guests as
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Washington Irving, and the
Vanderbilt family. The Rockaway Association also built the
Rockaway Turnpike. The Marine Hotel burned to the ground in 1864, but more hotels and private residences were built in the area.[4]
In the 19th century, people traveled to the Rockaways by horse-drawn carriages or on horseback. A
ferry powered by steam sailed from
Lower Manhattan to
Brooklyn. By the 1880s, the
Long Island Rail Road's
Rockaway Beach Branch was built to serve
Far Rockaway station.[4] The steam railroad went to
Long Island City and Flatbush Terminal (now
Atlantic Terminal). When it opened in the 1880s, this connection stimulated population growth on the Rockaway Peninsula.[5] Benjamin Mott gave the LIRR 7 acres (2.8 ha) of land for a railroad depot. Land values increased and businesses in the area grew, and by 1888, Far Rockaway was a relatively large village.[4] It incorporated as a village on September 19 of that year.[6]
20th century to present
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In 1898, the area was incorporated into the
City of Greater New York and became part of Queens. The neighborhoods of Far Rockaway,
Hammels, and
Arverne in Queens tried to secede from the city several times. In 1915 and 1917, a bill approving secession passed in the legislature but was vetoed by the New York City mayor
John Purroy Mitchel.[7] The area saw economic decline in World War I and again during the
Great Depression. New apartment complexes were built in the neighborhood following World War II, but the construction of public housing and medical institutions again caused the reputation of Far Rockaway to decline in the 1960s.[8]
In September 2017, the
New York City Council voted to rezone 23 blocks in the center of Far Rockaway,[9][10] after the
New York City Planning Commission approved the rezoning.[11] The rezoning would allow as many as 3,100 residences to be built in the neighborhood, as well as community spaces and retail.[10] Following the rezoning, city officials approved 670 affordable apartments within the area in 2018.[12]
Demographics
Based on data from the
2010 United States Census, the population of Far Rockaway was 50,058, a change of 1,714 (3.4%) from the 48,344 counted in
2000. Covering an area of 1,251 acres (506 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 40 inhabitants per acre (26,000/sq mi; 9,900/km2).[13]
With its nearby beach, Far Rockaway attracted tourists and vacationers from the other boroughs. Bungalows were the homes of choice for many residents who lived in Far Rockaway. The railroad abandoned the
Rockaway Beach Branch in 1950 because of the shift of many people to driving private cars. In addition, this destination had to compete with the many others that people were visiting by car and air travel, which created access to even more distant destinations and heightened competition for travel dollars.
As the neighborhood's heyday as a resort community declined in the 1950s, the city built substantial numbers of public housing developments to try to replace substandard housing after World War II. Bungalows and other residential housing were converted to year-round use for low-income residents. Some bungalows were used as public housing.[18][19] The 1970s New York City budget crisis had a negative effect on the provision of social services, and problems of poverty, unemployment and drug use increased in this area.[20]
In September 1984, residents founded the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association to "improve the quality of the Far Rockaway community through preservation, education, and cultural programs".[21] The organization donated a collection of materials highlighting its history, correspondence, and activities to the Queens Library Archives in 2008.
Far Rockaway is patrolled by the
NYPD's 101st Precinct, located at 16-12 Mott Avenue.[22] The 101st Precinct and the adjoining 100th Precinct, which serves the rest of the Rockaways, collectively ranked 10th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. However, the low-income and densely populated 101st Precinct has significantly more crime than the 100th Precinct, which is high-income and more insular.[23]
The 101st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 74.6% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 6 murders, 26 rapes, 151 robberies, 301 felony assaults, 98 burglaries, 250 grand larcenies, and 31 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[24]
Fire safety
Far Rockaway is served by the
New York City Fire Department (FDNY)'s Engine Cos. 264 and 328/Ladder Co. 134, located at 16-15 Central Avenue.[25][26]
The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the
New York City Department of Education. Far Rockaway residents are zoned to several different elementary schools:
Far Rockaway residents are zoned to M.S. 53 Brian Piccolo.[37]
All New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply to high schools.
Far Rockaway High School was located in Far Rockaway,[30] but was shut down in 2011 as a stand-alone institution. During the administration of Mayor
Michael Bloomberg in 2011, many large, underperforming, older traditional high schools were closed in the city. The 1929 building was renovated to operate as the Far Rockaway Educational Campus, home to a number of smaller, specialized academies that share the building. They can provide more individualized attention to their students. The former
Beach Channel High School was similarly closed in 2014 and repurposed to house several smaller, specialized academies; it is in
Rockaway Park, near Far Rockaway, and draws some of its students from Far Rockaway.
Library
Queens Public Library operates the Far Rockaway branch at a temporary location at 1003 Beach 20th Street.[38] The library was formerly located at Central Avenue. In 2013, New York magazine reported that the city planned to construct a public library in the neighborhood, to be designed by the internationally known architectural firm
Snøhetta.[39] Construction started in November 2018.[40]
Jewish institutions
During the early and mid-20th century, many Jewish immigrants and their working-class descendants settled in Far Rockaway, sometimes first as summer visitors. They founded numerous synagogues and private schools, including those devoted to all-boys or all-girls institutions for educating Orthodox children. Following World War II, as residential housing was developed in Nassau and later Suffolk counties, many Jewish families left the Rockaways for newer housing. According to The New York Times, Far Rockaway had "flourished in the 1940s but withered...1960s" until "a few Jewish families...started the
Hebrew Free Loan Society for new home buyers."[41]
The
Far Rockaway terminal station for the
Long Island Rail Road's
Far Rockaway Branch.[55] The branch had been part of a loop with service along the existing route, continuing through the Rockaway Peninsula and crossing on a trestle across
Jamaica Bay through Queens, where it reconnected with other branches. Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the Queens portion of the route. The city acquired this to develop the IND Rockaway Line.[57]
Mary Gordon (born 1949), writer of novels, memoirs, and literary criticism, and professor at
Barnard College; born in Far Rockaway and lived there for several years[76]
Margo Guryan (1937–2021), singer-songwriter, musician and lyricist who is remembered for her 1968 album "
Take A Picture"[77]
Bernard Madoff (1938–2021), former American stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier who was convicted of fraud; went to Far Rockaway High School, where he met his wife,
Ruth Alpern[85]
Steve Madden (born 1958), shoe designer and former CEO of Steve Madden Ltd; born in Far Rockaway[86]
Cliff Mass (born 1952/53), atmospheric sciences professor and weather and climate blogger; born in Far Rockaway[87]
Alice Nielsen (1872–1943), Broadway performer and operatic soprano; owned a house in Far Rockaway in the 1920s[88]
^
ab"NYC Planning | Community Profiles". communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov. New York City Department of City Planning.
Archived from the original on June 22, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
^"Beach Bungalow Historic District"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National Park Service. 2013.
Archived(PDF) from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^"P.S. 253". New York City Department of Education.
Archived from the original on November 25, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
^"M.S. 053 Brian Piccolo". New York City Department of Education. December 2, 2019.
Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
^"Nisson Alpert, 58, a Scholar At Rabbi Elchanan Seminary", The New York Times, May 29, 1986. Accessed March 7, 2024. "Prof. Nisson Alpert, a noted rabbinical scholar at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, died of cancer Monday at his daughter's home in Queens. He was 58 years old and lived in Far Rockaway, Queens."
^Costello, Brian.
"Jets land Far Rockaway native in sixth round", New York Post, April 28, 2018. Accessed October 9, 2018. "Gang Green picked defensive lineman Folorunso “Foley” Fatukasi in the sixth round, the 180th-overall pick. Fatukasi grew up in Far Rockaway and played at Beach Channel High School."
^Markus, Don.
"Gaithers 29 spark FDU win"Archived November 27, 2020, at the
Wayback Machine, The Record, December 22, 1983. Accessed November 19, 2020. "Marcus Gaither recently became Fairleigh Dickinson's all-time leading scorer, but the achievement was overshadowed by the confusion the 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard was going through.... A shift to point guard, because of an injury to teammate Freddie Collins, made things even more unsettling for the senior from Far Rockaway, N.Y."
^Ginsburg, Elisabeth.
"A Well-Traveled Ecologist", The New York Times, November 10, 2002. Accessed March 7, 2024. "As an urban ecologist, Steven N. Handel has traveled from a former landfill near Thoreau's Walden Pond to West Virginia strip mines, but he always returns to the Garden State.... Mr. Handel, who grew up in Far Rockaway, was a 'nature-loving kid,' he says."
^Oral history interview with Barbara Novak,,
Smithsonian Archives of American Art, October 8-17, 2013. Accessed May 26, 2022. "And then I found out that I could have lessons, art lessons, in one of the big old houses. I remember there was a big white house on [Beach] Ninth Street in Far Rockaway, where I was growing up."
^Tomasson, Robert E.
"Phil Ochs a Suicide at 35; Singer of Peace Movement"Archived February 7, 2024, at the
Wayback Machine, The New York Times, April 10, 1976. Accessed March 19, 2021. "Mr. Ochs was born in El Paso. His father, a doctor, moved the family to upstate New York when Phil was a few years old. When he was a teen‐ager, the family moved to Far Rockaway."
^Goff, Steven.
"George Mason basketball: Ryan Pearson is scarred but not slowed by childhood accident", The Washington Post, February 4, 2011. Accessed February 12, 2023. "'It's a challenge for him every day,' George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga said. 'Whatever obstacles he has had to overcome, he has done it. He has found a way.' The obstacles formed in Far Rockaway, N.Y., a rough area of Queens pinched between John F. Kennedy International Airport, Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean."
^Musleah, Rahel.
"Star in the Making Doesn't Live Like One"Archived October 31, 2020, at the
Wayback Machine, The New York Times, September 12, 1999. Accessed March 19, 2021. "Born in Jamaica, Queens, and reared in the Edgemere Projects in Far Rockaway, Ms. Price grew up in a strict Pentecostal home."
^Crease, Robert P.; and Mann, Charles C.
"In Search Of The Z Particle"Archived March 22, 2021, at the
Wayback Machine, The New York Times, October 26, 1986. Accessed March 19, 2021. "Burton Richter was born in Brooklyn 55 years ago, but grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens."
^Brenson, Michael.
"An Idiosyncratic Expert Redraws Rembrandt"Archived May 5, 2022, at the
Wayback Machine, The New York Times, February 28, 1987. Accessed May 5, 2022. "Gary Schwartz was born in Brooklyn in 1940. His mother was Hungarian; his father, who worked in and eventually took over his father's sweater factory, was of Polish origin. The family moved to Far Rockaway when he was 12."
^Jackson, Brian Keith (October 24, 2007).
"Ice, Ice Babies". NYMag.com.
Archived from the original on January 6, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2015. I grew up in Far Rockaway, and you'd always see shoes on the line.
^"Smullyan biography". University of St Andrews School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences.
Archived from the original on October 17, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2015. Raymond Smullyan, known as Ray, was brought up in Far Rockaway in New York City.
^"Herbert Sturhahn". National Football Foundation.
Archived from the original on February 7, 2024. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
^"Conrad Thibault Dies; An Ex-Radio Vocalist", The New York Times, August 4, 1987. Accessed March 7, 2024. "Conrad Thibault, a popular baritone from the heyday of radio, died Saturday at St. John's Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens. He was 83 years old and lived in Far Rockaway."