Bartending School in Arverne, NY

Vernam’s original plan was to name the neighborhood Arverne-by-the-Sea. 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.

Located on the Rockaway Boardwalk, Arverne became well known as a beachfront community with inexpensive summer bungalows, hotels of varying expense and luxury, and amusements and boardwalk concessions. It also attracted year-round residents. On January 3, 1914, a storm devastated the peninsula’s neighborhoods and swept the 1,200-seat Arverne Pier Theater out to sea. On June 15, 1922, a fire leveled a large part of Arverne, leaving about 10,000 people homeless, although the neighborhood was quick to rebuild. In 1928, a project to build 5,000 bungalows in Arverne was announced.

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 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 most of the summer resorts and some of the residences, many of which had been abandoned.