Starin's Glen Island

Starin's Glen Island was a summer resort in the community of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York, developed by former U.S. Congressman John H. Starin in the late 1800s. Starin's resort, referred to as "America's pleasure grounds"^[1] and "Disneyworld on the Sound",^[2] was the first theme park in the country.^[3] The park's original design exhibited the five cultures of the western world on individual islands linked together with piers and causeways.^[4] The extreme popularity of the park resulted in a building boom in New Rochelle in the first decade of the twentieth century.^[2]

The resort was located on Glen Island in New Rochelle's Lower Harbor just off of Long Island Sound. The island is situated between Davids', Neptune and Travers Islands in New Rochelle, and Hunter Island in nearby New York City. Although now one island, the site originally consisted of one large main island in close proximity to at least four smaller nearby islands and a number of rocky outcroppings and low lying flats and salt-marshes.

History

Land ownership

1910 Bromley map showing original islands

Until the late 1700s the area was inhabited to some extent by the Siwanoy Indians of Algonquin stock. The first owner of whom there is record was John or Johannes Berhuyt or Barhyt, who purchased the farm of Jacob Theroulde in 1701. In 1760 he presented the island to his son Andre Barhy who proceeded to sell it to his brother-in-law, George Cromwell, six years later. The active part taken by the Cromwell in events leading up to the Revolution in opposition to the Patriot cause brought him disaster, and his property was confiscated and, in 1784, was sold by the Commissioners of Forfeitures.^[5]

Later the island came into the ownership of one Samuel Wooley, and from him the island was long called "Wooley's Island". In 1803 Newbury Davenport purchased the island to protect the view from his manor on Davenport Neck, a peninsula of land 50 yd. across the open water from the site.^[5] It remained in the Davenport family until 1847 when Lewis Augustus DePau purchased the island for $3,050. Depau was the grandson of the Compte De Grasse, The Admiral of France, commanding the fleets operating with Rochambeau in 1781. De Pau was also Napoleon III's U.S. fiscal agent. At this time the island was named "Locust" after the lush groves of Locust trees found throughout the property. At the center of the island he built a grand mansion surrounded by well landscaped grounds and fish-ponds, and containing hot-houses, bathing facilities, billiard rooms and a bowling alley. De Pau used his home to entertain such luminaries as Presidents Chester A. Arthur, Ulysses S. Grant, James Garfield, Jenny Lind, Aaron Burr and Daniel Webster, who met and married his second wife in New Rochelle. De Pau sold the island and mansion to John Schmidt in 1862 before leaving for Prussia. Seventeen years later Schmidt died and his executors sold the island to entrepreneur John H. Starin for use as a country residence.^[6]

Starin's resort

Several years later Starin purchased four smaller surrounding islands - "Glenwood", "Island Wild", "Beach Lawn" and "New Venue" - which he used to create an extravagant summer resort and theme park which he named "Glen Island". Starin was the owner of a large transportation company which included nearly every tugboat in New York Harbor and a fleet of passenger steamboats, and used the steamboats to ferry visitors from New York City.^[7] In 1881 the Park opened to the general public, attracting thousands of people daily.^[7] For a small excursion fee, steamships carried countless New York families to this chic summer resort to enjoy its bathing pavilions, fine food and wines at the Grand Cafe, and the scenic beauty of Long Island Sound. The walkways along the harbor were lined with colorful flowers, classic bronze statues, and a natural spring that provided cool fresh water for thirsty visitors. Winding pathways led visitors through beautifully landscaped grounds where they could escape the summer heat under groves of shade trees. Included among its attractions were musical entertainment and performance bandstands, a 'Grand Cafe', aviary, greenhouses, stone castles, a Dutch mill and a Chinese pagoda.^[3]^[8]^[9]

A chain ferry transported visitors from a mainland dock on Neptune Island.^[10] There was also a nationally recognized Museum of Natural History which housed mummies from 332 B.C., Native American relics of the Stone Age and other rare antiquities, along with the first fire engine used in New York state, several meteors and a giant stuffed white whale.^[11] There were bathing beaches and pavilions which could accommodate eight hundred people, bridle paths, a miniature steam train and a zoo of exotic animals which included monkeys, lions, elephants and trained seals. The island's main attraction was a re-created German castle modeled after an ancient Rhine fortress. The arched entrance was broad enough to admit a coach into the courtyard leading to the Great Hall. In the Great Hall was the "Little Germany" beer garden where food and beer were served by waiters in Tyrolean dress.^[12]

Starin's Island, internationally acclaimed as "one of the most beautiful spots in America," and "the first summer resort in the United States, if not the world"... preceded Disneyland as the first "theme park" by many years.^[13] By 1882 attendance reached half a million and within six years it broke a million. In spite of the large number of visitors, Starin stressed the well-behaved nature of the crowds and the orderly character of the experience, governed by a 'middle-class code of conduct'. His desire was to offer an environment of order and civility which contrasted to the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of New York City.^[14] One of the effects of Glen Islands popularity in the beginning of the twentieth century was the building boom in New Rochelle, which had rapidly grown into a summer resort community.Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this extraordinary park was that all attractions, rides and amusements were free. This era lasted nearly 40 years.

The end of the island's heyday came in 1904 when the Starin steamship, General Slocum, burned in 'Hellgate' with a loss of 1,000 lives.^[15] Afterwards the management passed into other hands and, becoming unprofitable, the resort was finally closed. The extensive bathing houses were burned and later the mansion house of Lewis A. DePau, which had been Starin's summer home, met the same fate. The park remained virtually untouched or visited for the next twenty years until 1924 when the Westchester County Park Commission purchased it to add to its County Park System. Once under their ownership, extensive landfill was undertaken to permanently join all five islands together into one larger landmass. A large bascule bridge was also constructed so that the island would have a permanent link to the mainland and become more accessible to the public.^[16]

Glen Island Casino

The Glen Island Casino dining hall had risen on the foundation of the Grand Cafe, one of the few structures remaining from the "world's pleasure grounds". The building opened into a series of balconies overlooking the Long Island Sound which made it an attractive dining and entertaining location.^[17] At the time, the term "casino" was not associated with legalized gambling but instead described "a public social place for entertainment." However, the nightspot was soon living up to the contemporary definition of its name. By 1930, when prohibition was marking its tenth year in the United States, Glen Island Casino was acquiring the reputation as being a speakeasy, yet at the same time the Casino had also begun to book up-and coming musicians for weekend dances. One of the first was Oswald George Nelson, better known as "Ozzie", who set the pace packing the 60foot by 124-foot hall with throngs of swooning and swaying young people. Accompanied by girl singer Harriet Hilliard, the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra gained national attention when it played the Casino's 1932 season.^[18]

The next summer the most influential white band in the United States during the early 1930s, the Casa Loma Orchestra, drew in the crowds and ushered in the Big Band era for the Casino. The performances at the Glen Island Casino were being heard nationwide. Situated on the Sound, the Casino's enormous ballroom was acoustically ideal for the crystal-clear radio transmissions.^[19]

Many artists made their name and fame at the Casino, among them such notables as Glenn Miller,^[20] the Dorsey Brothers,^[21] Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Larry Clinton, Les Brown and Doris Day, Charlie Spivak, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Hal Mcintyre and Claude Thornhill.^[22]

References