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 shipping magnate and 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.

The site is currently occupied by the county's Glen Island Park, which includes remnants of some of the historic structures.[5]

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 Cromwell in events leading up to the Revolution in opposition to the Patriot cause brought him disaster, and his property was confiscated. In 1784, it was sold by the Commissioners of Forfeitures.[6]

Later the island came into the ownership of 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 yards across the open water from the site.[6] 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 of the era as the singer Jenny Lind and U.S. political leader and statesman Daniel Webster, who met and married his second wife in New Rochelle. DePau 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.[7]

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. He used the steamboats to ferry visitors from New York City.[8] In 1881 the Park opened to the general public, attracting thousands of people daily.[8] For a small excursion fee, steamships carried countless New York families to this 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. Winding pathways led visitors through 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 camera obscura, a 'Grand Cafe', aviary, greenhouses, stone castles, a Dutch mill and a Chinese pagoda.[3][9][10]

A chain ferry transported visitors from a mainland dock on Neptune Island.[11] 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.[12] 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" (Klein Deutschland) beer garden where food and beer were served by waiters in Tyrolean dress.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15] One of the effects of Glen Island's 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 the park was that all attractions, rides and amusements were free. This era lasted nearly 40 years.

The beginning of 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.[16] Starin died in 1909. 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 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.[17]

Glen Island Casino

The Glen Island Casino dining hall rose on the foundation of the Grand Cafe, one of the few structures remaining from Starin's park. The building opened into a series of balconies overlooking the Long Island Sound which made it an attractive dining and entertaining location.[18] 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 60-foot by 124-foot hall with throngs of young dancers. Accompanied by his wife, Harriet Hilliard, the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra gained national attention when it played the Casino's 1932 season.[19]

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.[20]

Many artists made their name at the Casino, among them such notables as Glenn Miller,[21] the Dorsey Brothers,[22] Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Larry Clinton, Les Brown and Doris Day, Charlie Spivak, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Hal Mcintyre and Claude Thornhill.[23]

After the Big Band Era's end, the Glen Island Casino was eventually converted to a restaurant and catering hall, which operates as part of the present-day county park—open to county residents only—on the site.[24]

References

  1. ↑ Starin's Glen Island. Long Island Sound. A Day Summer Resort. ... 1881 ... Most Attractive Day Summer Resort in America. [New York]: Donaldson Brothers, Five Points, N.Y., 1881.
  2. 1 2 Westchester: The American suburb, Jackson, K. T., & Panetta, R. G. (2006). New York, NY: Fordham University Press.
  3. 1 2 New Rochelle History: 1861-1879 timeline, City of New Rochelle website
  4. ↑ Amusement Parks of New York, page. 24
  5. ↑ http://parks.westchestergov.com/glen-island-park
  6. 1 2 Historical landmarks of New Rochelle, Seacord, M. H., & Hadaway, W. S; (1938), New Rochelle, N.Y.: New Rochelle Trust.
  7. ↑ New Rochelle waterfront: --a legacy. (1987). New Rochelle, N.Y.: City of New Rochelle.
  8. 1 2 National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
  9. ↑ Starin's Glen Island: Enhanced Attractions of a Famous Resort, NY Times 1897
  10. ↑ Illustrated Catalogue of the Famous Glen Island Museum: Collected by... J. H. Starin, of Antiquities, Natural History... Early American Objects of Art and Decoration;Elliot A. Haaseman;New York, 1921
  11. ↑ History of Westchester County, Scharf, Vol I. pp870 - 873
  12. ↑ Natural History Museums of the United States and Canada
  13. ↑ Author= Thomas Collyer, Laura M. Starin and Sylvan Dell, Title= Starin's Glen Island Long Island Sound. A Day Summer Resort. ... Most Attractive Day Summer Resort in America, year=1881, publisher=Donaldson Brothers, Five Points, N.Y.
  14. ↑ Historical Landmarks of New Rochelle, Morgan H. Seacord, pp.22-24
  15. ↑ Westchester: The American Suburb, Roger Panetta, p.28
  16. ↑ Images of America: New Rochelle
  17. ↑ Westchester County (N.Y.). Glen Island Park, Feasibility Study. [Master Plan Study.] Summarized Report. 1975.
  18. ↑ Airwaves: A Collection of Radio Editorials from the Golden Apple; William O'Shaughnessy, Fordham University Press, 1999; ISBN 9780823219049
  19. ↑ Simon says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era, 1935 - 1955; George Thomas Simon, Galahad Books, 1971; ISBN 9780883650011
  20. ↑ On the air: the encyclopedia of old-time radio
  21. ↑ Jukebox Saturday night: more memories of the big band era and beyond
  22. ↑ Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way; Peter J. Levinson, De Capo Press, 2006; ISBN 9780306815027
  23. ↑ Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture; Lewis A. Erenberg, University of Chicago Press, 1999; ISBN 9780226215174
  24. ↑ http://parks.westchestergov.com/glen-island-park

See also

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