Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line. Its southern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean; it is one of the neighborhoods along Rockaway Beach.
Far Rockaway is located in Queens Community District 14 and its ZIP Codes are 11691 and 11693. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 101st Precinct.
History
Precolonial Period, European Contact, and Early Colonial Settlement
Before contact with Europeans, the Rockaway was inhabited by the Canarsie, a band of Munsee-speaking Lenape, whose name was associated with the geography of the location. The name “Rockaway” originates from the Munsee word Reckouwacky. The Lenape did not inhabit the area continuously, rather seasonally for the purposes of fishing, hunting, and shellfish harvesting. The Rockaways were one of the primary hubs for Wampum production due to the high concentration of Quahog and Whelk.
The inhabitants of the Rockaways were one of the first indigenous peoples to make contact with Europeans most notably when Henry Hudson docked at the Rockaway Inlet in 1609. Henry Hudson was sailing under a charter for the Dutch East India Company commanding the Half Moon (Halve Maen). Members of the Canarsie approached the Half Moon in wooden dugout canoes, they were described as "civil" wearing garments and ornaments. They initiated peaceful trade with the crew of the Half Moon exchanging greens, tobacco, currants, and fur pelts for knives, metal and beads. This state of relative peace ended following an ambush on John Colman and his five other crewmen on a sounding mission around the Jamaica Bay and Narrows. While navigating these channels, sounding them, Colman's boat was boarded by Lenape warriors with two canoes carrying 20-30 men. A skirmish broke out which resulted in Colman being shot in the neck with an arrow. Two other crewmen were also injured during this skirmish. Colman became the first documented fatality of a European in the New York Harbor shattering any trust that had been established between Hudson's crew & the Lenape people of the region.
Following decades of trade and conflict such as the Kieft's War, Natives were displaced gradually from the region through a series of land agreements. By 1639, the Dutch secured land usage claims from local Lenape sachems on behalf of the Dutch West India Company. In 1664, the English defeated the Dutch colony and took over their lands in present-day New York.See New AmsterdamHenry L. Schoolcraft, "The Capture of New Amsterdam", English Historical Review (1907). Vol. 22 #88, pp 674–693 In 1685, the band chief, Tackapoucha, and the English governor of the province Thomas Dongan through an official royal land grant agreed to sell the Rockaways to a Captain Palmer for 31 pounds sterling.*"Rockaway... 'place of waters bright'" , rockawave.com. Accessed March 16, 2015. "The Dean Georges Collection: Far Rockaway, Edgemer, Arverne" . Rockaway Memories. Accessed March 16, 2015. These land sales were understood by the Lenape as usufruct treaties, whereas European colonists enforced them as permanent, private ownership deals.
The Rockaway Peninsula was originally designated as part of the Town of Hempstead, then a part of Queens County. Palmer and the Town of Hempstead disputed over who owned Rockaway, so in 1687 he sold the land to Richard Cornell, an iron master from Flushing. The first settlement was established in 1690 where Cornell and his family created the first inhabited European homestead on what is now Central Avenue, near the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The 1,000+ acre property acted as his personal pasture & plantation, he held enslaves African-Americans, cattle & sheep which grazed the land and cultivated crops such as corn, wheat, and rye. The estate also contained subsidence gardens which were mostly orchards containing fresh fruits and small vegetable gardens. The large estate & the efficient division and hierarchy of labor allowed for Cornell's property to run self-sufficiently and. At his death, Cornell was buried in a small family cemetery, Cornell Cemetery. Before his death Cornell had used a substantial amount of the property as collateral for outstanding debts the family had with his will explicitly bounding and mortgaging land to the Children of John Washburn. William Cornell has received a massive portion of the land and meadows with the boundary being an "old fence" on the south side of a wheat field. William's entire property allotted to him ran east to the Hempstead town line and south directly to the Atlantic Ocean. The homestead was reserved for Richard Cornell's wife Elizabeth to sustain her into here old age. The rest of the estate was divided between Richard Jr, Thomas, and John primarily in the Five Towns area. The will also divided farming tools, cash, livestock, and enslaved Africans among his heirs.William S. Pelletreau, Abstracts of Wills on file in the Surrogate's office: city of New York, Vol. 1, 1665-1707 (New York: The New York Historical Society, 1893), 240, Will 5-6.45.
18th Century & Revolutionary War
Village Incorporation & Development
19th century In the late 19th century, the Rockaway Association wanted to build a hotel on the Rockaway Peninsula, as it was increasingly popular as a summer destination. The association, consisting of many wealthy members who had homes in the area, bought most of Cornell's old homestead property. They developed the Marine Pavilion on that site, which attracted such guests as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving, and the Vanderbilt family. The Rockaway Association also built the Rockaway Turnpike. The Marine Hotel burned to the ground in 1864, but more hotels and private residences were built in the area.
In the 19th century, people traveled to the Rockaways by horse-drawn carriages or on horseback. A ferry powered by steam sailed from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. By the 1880s, the Long Island Rail Road's Rockaway Beach Branch was built to serve Far Rockaway station. The steam railroad went to Long Island City and Flatbush Terminal (now Atlantic Terminal). When it opened in the 1880s, this connection stimulated population growth on the Rockaway Peninsula., p. 120. Benjamin Mott gave the LIRR of land for a railroad depot. Land values increased and businesses in the area grew, and by 1888, Far Rockaway was a relatively large village. It incorporated as a village on September 19 of that year.Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, Volume 8, p. 9. New Jersey Legislature, 1913. Accessed July 26, 2016.
Early 20th century
Post-WW2 Era
20th century to present
In 1898, the area was incorporated into the City of Greater New York and became part of Queens. The former Village Hall then served as a police precinct and magistrate's court until 1931. It was subsequently demolished to become a parking lot for FDNY Engine Companies 264 & 328 / Ladder Company 134.Kadinsky, Sergey Far Rockaway Village Forgotten NY October 8, 2023 The neighborhoods of Far Rockaway, Hammels, and Arverne in Queens tried to secede from the city several times. In 1915 and 1917, a bill approving secession passed in the legislature but was vetoed by the New York City mayor John Purroy Mitchel. The area saw economic decline in World War I and again during the Great Depression. New apartment complexes were built in the neighborhood following World War II, but the construction of public housing and medical institutions again caused the reputation of Far Rockaway to decline in the 1960s.
In September 2017, the New York City Council voted to rezone 23 blocks in the center of Far Rockaway, after the New York City Planning Commission approved the rezoning. The rezoning would allow as many as 3,100 residences to be built in the neighborhood, as well as community spaces and retail. Following the rezoning, city officials approved 670 affordable apartments within the area in 2018.
Demographics
Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Far Rockaway was 50,058, a change of 1,714 (3.4%) from the 48,344 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010 , Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 25.5% (12,778) White, 44.7% (22,400) African American, 0.3% (175) Native American, 1.9% (931) Asian, 0.1% (44) Pacific Islander, 1% (504) from other races, and 1.7% (860) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 24.7% (12,366) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010 , Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
Far Rockaway is a diverse neighborhood with many immigrants from Jamaica, Guyana, and Guatemala, as well as Russia and Ukraine. It also is home to a significant number of Orthodox Jews.
Points of interest Bungalows
The Far Rockaway Beach Bungalow Historic District recognizes an area with a distinct character. This and individual properties, such as the Russell Sage Memorial Church, Trinity Chapel, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
With its nearby beach, Far Rockaway attracted tourists and vacationers from the other boroughs. Bungalows were the homes of choice for many residents who lived in Far Rockaway. The railroad abandoned the Rockaway Beach Branch in 1950 because of the shift of many people to driving private cars. In addition, this destination had to compete with the many others that people were visiting by car and air travel, which created access to even more distant destinations and heightened competition for travel dollars.
As the neighborhood's heyday as a resort community declined in the 1950s, the city built substantial numbers of public housing developments to try to replace substandard housing after World War II. Bungalows and other residential housing were converted to year-round use for low-income residents. Some bungalows were used as public housing. The 1970s New York City budget crisis had a negative effect on the provision of social services, and problems of poverty, unemployment and drug use increased in this area.
In September 1984, residents founded the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association to "improve the quality of the Far Rockaway community through preservation, education, and cultural programs". The organization donated a collection of materials highlighting its history, correspondence, and activities to the Queens Library Archives in 2008.
Parks O'Donohue Park Bayswater Point State Park Michaelis-Bayswater Park Nameoke Park
Police and crime Far Rockaway is patrolled by the NYPD's 101st Precinct, located at 16-12 Mott Avenue. The 101st Precinct and the adjoining 100th Precinct, which serves the rest of the Rockaways, collectively ranked 10th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. However, the low-income and densely populated 101st Precinct has significantly more crime than the 100th Precinct, which is high-income and more insular.
The 101st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 74.6% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 6 murders, 26 rapes, 151 robberies, 301 felony assaults, 98 burglaries, 250 grand larcenies, and 31 grand larcenies auto in 2018.
Fire safety Far Rockaway is served by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)'s Engine Cos. 264 and 328/Ladder Co. 134, located at 16-15 Central Avenue.
Post office and ZIP Code