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.^[1] Arverne extends from Beach 56th Street to Beach 79th Street, along its main thoroughfare Beach Channel Drive, alternatively known as Rev. Joseph H. May Drive. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.^[2]

History

Vernam's original plan was to name the neighborhood Arverne-by-the-Sea, and one grandiose plan, influenced by his wife, Florence, included a canal running through the neighborhood, reminiscent of the Amstel canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When this plan fell through, the canal right-of-way was converted into a thoroughfare, Amstel Boulevard, which, except for a stub west of Beach 71st Street, was later incorporated into Beach Channel Drive.

While Arverne became well known as a beachfront community with inexpensive summer bungalows, and hotels of varying levels of expense and luxury as well as amusements and boardwalk concessions, it also attracted a year-round residential community. On January 3, 1914, a violent storm devastated the neighborhood as well as other neighborhoods on the peninsula, and completely swept the Arverne Pier Theater, which was capable of seating 1,200 people, away to sea.^[3] On June 15, 1922, a large part of Arverne was leveled by a disastrous fire which left about 10,000 people homeless, although the neighborhood was quick to rebuild.^[4]

During the 1950s and 1960s, the advent of commercial jet air travel encouraged people to travel to distant destinations during the summer, rather than to utilize local beaches and resorts. As a result, many of Arverne's summer bungalows became vacant. New York City's urban renewal projects of the 1960s leveled to the ground most of the summer resorts and some of the residences, many of which had been abandoned. The process eventually transformed most of Arverne, from Rockaway Beach Boulevard southward to the beachfront, into vacant land used as a dumping ground.^[5] This area was slated for a large redevelopment that never came; the area's redevelopment was cancelled after economic downturn in the 1990s. The proposed area of redevelopment was the former site of Rockaways' Playland. According to a 2003 New York Times article:

For nearly four decades, grand plans were offered for the 52-block stretch from Beach 32nd to 84th Streets, between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the boardwalk. [There was to be] a phalanx of mid- and high-rise condominium and rental apartment buildings, [as well as] more than $1 billion... enclosed amusement area on the Arverne site, to be called Destination Technodome, with rides, movie theaters, an indoor ski slope and a hotel.^[6]

In the early 2000s, Mayor Michael Bloomberg started to revitalize Arverne with new housing and parks.^[7] This built upon a movement started in 1999, when forty houses were built in the portion of the 308 acres (125 ha) "Arverne Urban Renewal Area" between Beach 59th and 61st Streets.^[6] Arverne and other parts of the Rockaways increasingly got attention and press as the redevelopment of the beachfront continued.^[8] By 2012, Arverne by the Sea, a new housing development, was largely developed with some parts under new construction.^[9] The area now has new retail establishments, such as Stop and Shop Grocery Store, Chase bank branch, restaurants, and Subway sandwiches. Phase I was completed in 2011; Phase II was begun in 2006.^[10] In 2012, Arverne suffered substantial damage as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

The piece of the Arverne-by-the-Sea development in Arverne is mostly complete. However, the section of the development west of Beach 59th Street, in nearby Edgemere, named "Arverne East", is still under construction. As of 2003, this 97 acres (39 ha) "Edgemere Urban Renewal Area" will have 400 houses built within it.^[5] Of these, 47 acres (19 ha) are houses, 35 acres (14 ha) is a nature preserve, and 15 acres (6.1 ha) is a segment of preserved dunes on the beach.^[10]

Education

The New York City Department of Education operates Arverne's public schools.

The Queens Borough Public Library operates the Arverne Branch.

Housing

• NYCHA
  • Ocean Bay Houses (Oceanside), formerly Arverne Houses,
  • Ocean Bay Houses (Bayside), formerly Edgemere Houses,
  • Carleton Manor
• Mitchell-Lama
  • Nordeck Apartments (co-operative)
• DHCR
  • Arverne View

Transportation

• Beach 67th Street/Beach 60th Street New York City Subway stations (A trains)^[11]
• Q22, Q52, QM17 MTA Bus routes^[12]

Parks

• Kohlreiter Square

References

• Freelibrary.com article on Arverne development
• 1984 New York Times article on Arverne development

External links

• New York City government website

Coordinates: 40°35′30″N 73°47′02″W / 40.591568°N 73.784008°W / 40.591568; -73.784008

Neighborhoods in the New York City Borough of Queens Addisleigh Park Arverne Astoria Bayside Bayswater Beechhurst Belle Harbor Bellerose Boulevard Gardens Breezy Point Briarwood Broad Channel Broadway-Flushing Cambria Heights Chinatown College Point Corona Douglaston East Elmhurst Edgemere Elmhurst Far Rockaway Floral Park Flushing Forest Hills Fresh Meadows Fresh Pond Glendale Glen Oaks Hammels Hollis Howard Beach Jackson Heights Jamaica Jamaica Estates Jamaica Hills Kew Gardens Kew Gardens Hills Koreatown Laurelton LeFrak City Little Neck Locust Manor Long Island City Maspeth Middle Village Neponsit North Shore Towers Ozone Park Pomonok Queensboro Hill Queensbridge Queens Village Rego Park Richmond Hill Ridgewood Rochdale Village Rockaway Rockaway Beach Rockaway Park Rosedale Roxbury St. Albans Seaside South Jamaica Springfield Gardens Sunnyside The Hole Whitestone Willets Point Woodhaven Woodside Wyckoff Heights Community Boards: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14