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Less than forty years ago there existed hardly
anywhere along the Atlantic coast a more desolate or
forbidding stretch of territory than the succession
of lagoons, half submerged salt marshes and meadow
lands that comprised the south side of Long Island
from Jamaica Bay to the town of Southampton. The
bays were popular only with the fishermen and
gunners at certain seasons of the year, and the salt
thatch was sold to the farmers of the middle and
north side of the island, who fed it with their
English hay to their stock or used it for bedding.
The outer beaches separating Great South Bay from
the Atlantic Ocean were favorite resorts of the
local residents of the main land who erected
shanties thereon which some of them occupied at
various times during the summer season. The bay was
the main support of all the south side residents,
the chief occupation of the male inhabitants being
oyster cultivation, fishing and shooting wild fowl.
Soon after the completion of the south side
railroad, about thirty years ago, the attention of
city people was drawn tot he natural advantages of
all this country, swept as it was by cooling sea
breezes during the hottest days of summer and easily
accessible to the beaches upon which the surf of the
Atlantic rolled in all its grandeur. The low price
at which large tracts of land within fifty miles of
New York could be bought induced many wealthy men,
such as W.K. Vanderbilt, Pierre Lorillard, W.W.
Astor, Christopher R. Robert, Frederick G. Bourne,
W. Bayard Cutting, A.A. Frazer, Nicoll Ludlow,
Woodruff Sutton, the late John H. Harbeck, S.T.
Peters, J. Howard Gibb, H.B. Hollins, D.S. Conover,
ex-Mayor Schieren, A.S. Swan, A.M. Hoyt, W.M. Van
Anden, Alfred and C. Dubois Wagstaff, Austin Corgin,
the Olympic Club, the South Side Sportsmen's Club,
Henry O. Havemeyer and many other wealthy people to
come out and build summer homes in the towns of
Babylon and Islip and many bought large estates
here. The largest of these estates comprise from
five hundred to six thousand acres each. The natural
effect of such an influx of the wealthiest people of
the cities o this section was in a few years to
increase enormously the price of all the land of the
town and especially of the shore fronts available
for the purpose of residence and boating and
bathing. Even the half submerged meadows and marshes
found a market, as they were susceptible of being
made available.
One of neglected tracts fronting on Great South Bay
at the mouth of Orowoc Creek and comprising between
two and three hundred acres, half submerged at every
tide, was purchased some years ago by Henry O.
Havemeyer, the president of the American Sugar
Refining Company. The new owner a little over a year
and a half age entered into a contract with Henry A.
Vivian to fill in a low submerged tract of sandy
meadow of about seventy-eight acres, located at the
foot of Main street and comprising a corner bounded
on the south by Great South Bay and on the west by
Orowoc Creek, to a height of several feet above the
level of highest tide. The gravel and sand were
taken by Mr. Vivian's immense steam dredge from the
bottom of Orowoc Creek and near to the west bank of
the improved property and thrown nearly half a mile
inland by the huge force pumps. In this way a deep
waterway was created navigable for yachts and other
vessels of the largest size close tot he front of
the entire property on the creek.
This work cost about $1,000 an acre for each acre of
land so improved, but as upland in this neighborhood
is valued at $5,000 an acre, this filling in is a
pretty good investment. Through this entire tract in
a north and south direction a canal 2,200 feet long
and 100 feet wide has been dug and it is this tract
that Mr. Havemeyer purposes to improve at once and
convert into an attractive residence for himself and
others like him who can enjoy a beautiful home by
the sea. In the middle of the tract an elliptical
plot of eighteen acres, which is bisected by the
canal along the line of its longitudinal axis, is
being laid out and prepared for choice building
sites. This plot comprises about twenty-five acres
of land and will afford twelve handsome villa sites
of one and a half acres each, six on each side of
the canal, and a semi-circular plot of several acres
comprising a segment of the ellipse at the north end
of the tract will be reserved as a park. A broad
driveway, a continu8ation of Ocean avenue, lined
with noble shade trees, will extend from the north
entrance, bisecting the park and terminating at the
head of the canal. Large shade trees will be set out
in other portions of the park, which will be also
beautified with shrubbery flower beds, lawns and
serpentine walks. The grounds will be so graded that
the northerly entrance tot he elliptical tract will
be at an elevation of fifteen feet, gradually
sloping down to the head of the canal. The broad
boulevard will divide at the entrance, branching to
the right and left, and it will entirely encircle
the elliptical tract and afford a rear entrance to
each building site in the plot and from the south
end of the tract will extend down to the bay. Each
site will have a frontage of several hundred feet on
the canal.
The canal will be spanned by an ornamental bridge at
its southern end. Each villa site will comprise one
and a half acres of ground, and where adjoining
plots have separate owners it is arranged to have
the stables built on the line, so that they may
adjoin and if possible the kitchens will be built
the one opposite the other and removed as far as
possible from the living apartments. When all the
sites are occupied there will be a space of 400 feet
between the houses and the houses will be located at
different distances back from the canal, the
arrangement supplying a handsome vista through which
those residents located at the upper end of the
water way as well as those at the lower end can
obtain an unobstructed view of the waters of the bay
beyond. This will surpass in beauty any description
words can give. The houses will be located on
artificially elevated building sites and the grounds
in front of the houses will be terraced down to the
banks of the canal. These terraces will be covered
with rich earth in which will be arranged beautiful
flower beds and grass lawns. Row boats will come up
the canal under the bridge and be tied up to the
banks in front of the owners' residences. The owners
can step directly aboard and row to their sailing
and steam yachts, which will be anchored outside in
the waters of Great South Bay.
Eight outside plots have been arranged for in the
plans. These plots, comprising from two to six acres
each, will front directly on the bay and on Orowoc
Creek. A rear entrance to each plot will be afforded
by the broad avenue that circumscribes the
elliptical plot about the canal. One of the largest
of these plots, located on the point at the
intersection of Orowoc Creek and Great South Bay,
has been reserved by Mr. Havemeyer for his own use,
and upon it he will erect a handsome residence in
Venetian design, and it is expected that all the
other villas will conform to a similar style of
architecture. In harmony with the level landscape,
the buildings will be broad and low, two stories in
height, with a uniform sky line, unbroken by
turrets, pinnacles or cupolas. The enclosed porticos
will take the place of the usual summer house
veranda, as being much less exposed to the burning
rays of the sun, although a roofless piazza will
surround a portion of the house, on a level with the
ground floor. A court, surrounded by a low wall or
hedge, will extend from the front of each house down
to a bank of the canal.
It is intended to lay out another tract similar to
the above to the east of that tract, as soon as the
improvements on the tract now being treated are
fully under way. The arrangements for selling the
plots and the character and the erection of the
buildings are in the hands of Richard M. Montgomery
& Co., 61 Pine street, New York. |
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