According to Dr. Walter S. Boardman's The Story of Oceanside, our town triangle, at the intersection of Davison Avenue, Lincoln Avenue and Long Beach Road, became the center of town between 1900 and 1925, when a trolley line was operated from Jamaica, Queens, through Lynbrook, along Woods Avenue to Oceanside, then by way of Brower Avenue to Baldwin, Atlantic Avenue to Freeport and, finally, to Hempstead.  Originally called "Christian Hook" for almost 200 years, to advance its position in the oyster industry, it came to be known as "Oceanville" in the second half of the 19th century and in 1890, by the name of "Ocean Side." However, beginning as early as 1900, people came to use the name "Oceanside" interchangeably with the two-word version until around 1918, the when the one-word version was officially recognized by postal authorities. But for some time thereafter, our little town remained commonly referred to  as "Stop 102," the name applied to the the trolley station at the triangle.

Do these photos trigger some sweet memories? (Like so much we remember from our youth, many of these familiar places are now gone.)

  The eastern boundary of the Oceanside triangle, looking north, circa 1955-'56
Photo from Spindrift, 1956 ed.
This photo, taken with permission from this website, has been on display in the Community National Bank
since it was erected in December 2007 on the site of Chwatzky's Department Store at right facing the triangle.
    

The following two photographs were taken on Memorial Day, 1958, from the window of an office above Chwatzky's. Pictured marching is our Oceanside Jr. High School band. 

Here is another Memorial Day Parade photo. This one is from 1957 and features our Oceanside Jr. High School marching band (including many of us as freshmen) on Long Beach Road heading southbound for the triangle. (For a special tribute to the memory of the wonderful teacher who led that band beginning in the Fall of 1955, click here.)

But Memorial Day was not the only holiday regularly observed along the streets of our little town. Every year, the Oceanside Recreation Department and our local merchants sponsored a Halloween window painting contest for the kids. Remember?

The next five photos were provided by Andy Southard, Jr. ('51). The first was taken by Andy in 1957, and the next four were taken in November 1952: (All are used with Andy's permission.)

Levin's Whelan's Pharmacy on Lincoln Avenue dominated the town
triangle's retail center since circa 1930, here, circa 1957-'59, and still today.

The Oceanside Public Library, Davison Avenue. As pictured here in 1941, shortly after it was
built, the library was virtually the way it looked when we were in school together in the 1950s.

Grand opening in 1954 of our Carvel in Oceanside at the   
southwest corner of  Cortland Avenue and Long Beach Road   

Remember the nightclub across the street from Carvel (on the southeast corner), Page Two?
   

 Here's a special, classic memory (photo taken circa Spring 1954):

The following two were provided by classmate, Ed Chilton:

All of this notwithstanding, everyone knows that when we were kids in the 1950s, the real center of town was not the town triangle. No, it was our most popular hang-out, a source of part-time jobs for so many of us, a huge part of our little town's history and culture, its most famous business, one of its most beautiful structures and its most recognized landmark. It was, of course, (click here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Roadside Rest

Photo courtesy of Nathan's Famous, Inc.

Click on the flashing logo, the photo, or a hot dog for a tribute to, and brief history of, Nathan's and the Roadside Rest and an enlarged version of this photo.

C&J Bowling (on the west side of Long Beach Road just across from Roadside Rest), circa 1955 (and destroyed by fire in 1971). It was previously known as the Oceanside Bowling Center (not to be confused with the Oceanside Bowl, built circa 1955 on Lincoln Avenue South). Its identity was  verified by reference to the address, 600 Long Beach Road, that appeared on the back of the advertising post card at right circa 1950.  (In April 2003, an original of this post card was offered for sale online for $250 from www.vintagepostcards.com. Did you buy it?)
Our little town started out in the 17th century with the name, "Christian Hook." But by the mid-1950s, it had become one of substantial religious diversity. Its most famous religious institution was the Roman Catholic church commonly called the Shrine of St. Anthony with the unique underground chapel built in 1928 (destroyed by fire in 1960).*   But there were many others. The following assembly of photos originally appeared in the 1955 edition of a publication called The Oceanside Annual; it was reprinted by the Oceanside Educational Foundation in the 2000 edition of the Story of Oceanside (written in 1959-'60) by Dr. Walter S. Boardman.  It illustrates the extensive array of houses of worship available in the environment in which we grew up:
___________________ *  Click here for awesome photos of the fire that destroyed St. Anthony's underground church in 1960.  In 1956,.the Temple Avodah building pictured above also was destroyed by fire.

Oceanside's connection to big industry ―

Oil City, South Long Beach Road,  a seaport  and storage area used by several oil companies

Here's a familiar sight no one ever wanted to see (but some of us were born here):

South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside Road, circa 1950 (built in 1928)

From a post card mailed in 1949 This is believed to be where Powell Creek and Mill River joined on the west side of Lawson Blvd. (just north of the Oceanside LIRR Station (shown above), near where you cross the tracks and where Windsor Pkwy and Bayside meet at Lawson Blvd.). Does anyone have any other idea exactly where this might have been?

The following photo of one of the most beautiful buildings in our little town is all over this website, but this page would not be complete without it (and the next one).

HOME OF THE SAILORS     Our own Oceanside High School, on Brower and Skillman Avenues, as it was from 1955, when it  was built, until its first expansion in 1963, which completely covered its original stately facade.  Photo from Spindrift, 1960 ed.       When this building on Castleton Court first opened in 1936, it was the home of Oceanside High School until September 1955, when it became Oceanside Jr. High School. The first year we were there (1954-'55), however, was the only year it served dual duty as Oceanside Jr.-Sr. High, while our high school building was under construction.  This photo was taken sometime before we arrived when the jr. high was still next door in what we called "Central School No.1," and when there was no south wing (see next photo below)    This photo was taken in 1936 when the building opened and became the brand, new Oceanside High School. If you look closely at the right side of the photo, you will notice it shows that the south wing wasn't there; when the new wing opened in 1954 (the year we first attended it as Oceanside Jr.-Sr. High School), it  tripled the school's capacity. The next year, the building became just  Oceanside Jr. High School.

The main thoroughfares (Long Beach Road and Oceanside Road), like many little streets, are unlabeled, but surely you can find them here, along with your own personal Memory Lane.

Maybe some of the streets shown on this map were not there in 1960, but most of them were! Oh, what a feeling! And although they weren't officially in our little town, these childhood and adolescent memories were nearby enough: Many of us remember being  taken as little kids down Sunrise Highway to Baldwin to enjoy Nunley's Carousel: Remember, before they built the Oceanside movie theatre circa 1954 or '55, we usually went north to the next town, Rockville Centre, to see a movie at the old Fantasy on Park Avenue? And when we got a little older, of course, we all spent a lot of time, and got many of our fondest summer memories, on the boardwalk and the beach only 4 miles away in Long Beach.    Click here for a whole page of memories of the Long Beach boardwalk in the 1950s.

	It's an A&P!
A postcard featuring the triangle, southbound, postwar circa 1946-'48
And here's an even older southbound view of the triangle circa 1942 (the year most of us were born). Notice the familiar police booth prominently in the center and to the west, the Columbia firehouse on Lincoln Ave. South. The firehouse was old then (built in 1905) and currently houses an automobile radiator rebuilding business.

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