Photographic Tour of Oceanside Today (2001)

Our Little Town

A Photographic Tour
of Present Day

For those of you who no longer live nearby and were wondering how much our little town on Long Island has changed in the 40+ years since we were graduated from OHS (and how much of it's still the same), I prepared the following photographic tour. Most of these photos were taken on October 28, and some on November 28, 2001, but a few were taken earlier, for example, during our 40-year reunion weekend in July 2000.

The current weather back home
in our little town

Our tour begins, of course, at the familiar intersection of Skillman and Brower Avenues — "Home of the Sailors."

Looks different, doesn't it?
(Click here for photos of our class tour of the inside of our high school taken during reunion weekend, July 2000.)

The main entrance is now on Skillman:

Below, the "Red Store" (at the northeast corner of Oceanside Road and Waukena Avenue) was known in our time as "Artie's Little Red Store" — and Artie lived in it!

Next is the intersection of Weidner Avenue and Long Beach Road — the all "new" strip shopping center built in 1976 where Roadside Rest used to be:
(Click on the logo for a brief history of and tribute to in Oceanside.)

And a block away, the northwest corner of Windsor Parkway and Long Beach Road (Ocean Chemists): (The "new" is on the southeast corner to the right of the photo below and to the left of the photo above.)

Two views of the Great Lincoln Shopping Center follow:

And behind the shopping center is the Post Office at Lincoln and Atlantic Avenues:

Next is our town triangle, looking to the south, toward the funeral home where Smiles 5¢ and 10¢ store used to be. The almost 100-year old yellow building just to the right of center on Lincoln Avenue, now housing an automobile radiator rebuilding business, was the Columbia Engine Company No. 1 firehouse, built in 1905.

Looking north on Long Beach Road, the west side of the triangle to the left, below. Note, Levin's Pharmacy is still there as is the beautiful old building that used to house the Oceanside National Bank, now a mortgage company.

Continuing north on Long Beach Road, could this boarded up, empty building have once contained our popular old hang-out, the Towne Tavern? Yes, it did.

The Oceanside movie theater, above, and the Oceanside Motel, below, across from what used to be Farmer Joe's. You can see the Towers Funeral home (click here for information about a once famous 1920s resident in the house that became Towers Funeral Home), still operating, in the distance to the left at Foxhurst Road. (These two photos were taken from the parking lot of the new "Ocean Star" diner, which we always knew as the "Rainbow.")

Rounding the corner at Foxhurst Road, just to the east of the vacant lot that was once Central School No. 1 (soon to be the site of the Oceanside Education Foundation's "Schoolhouse Green"), we get a great view of our old jr. high school building, now used for both the district administrative offices and a pre-school and kindergarten center:

The more familiar view from the rear (Oceanside Road).

The brick building to the left was Henry's German Delicatessen (with the best German potato salad ever), and the left half of the building featured here was Murray's candy store and luncheonette. The right half was the now expanded U-Needa Prime Meats butcher shop.

The very south end of town — a familiar sight — Oil City*:

And the Long Island Power Authority: (We knew it as LILCO.)

Looking north on Lawson Blvd. toward the train station (toward the upper left part of the photo but not visible):

Here it is — the Oceanside LIRR station:

And across the street from the LIRR station at Weidner Avenue and Lawson Blvd. — the VFW hall: (Does anyone remember if this was there when we were kids in the 1950s?)

And what used to be Oceanside Beach:

Below are some of the remaining elementary schools you may remember. This one is School No. 3 (called "Oaks" School) on Fortesque Road.

On Oceanside Road, just south of Merrick Road and opposite South Nassau Communities Hospital (now enlarged and virtually unrecognizable) is School No. 5:

Further south on Oceanside Road is School No. 4:

And this one, Fulton Avenue School No. 8, was opened in 1954, when we were already in jr. high (but if you lived in or near Ocean Lea, maybe you had a younger sibling who went there):

Terrell Avenue School No. 2 was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the 1970s, and it was renamed after its long-time principal, Florence A. Smith.

Florence A. Smith Elementary

OK, so Silver Lake is not in Oceanside — but it's close!

Sorry if I didn't get to photograph something that you wanted to see again. But if you have any recent photos you would like to add to this cyber-tour, send them to me at 252 Hickory Hollow, Las Vegas, NV 89123, or you can send them to me electronically (preferably in .jpg or .gif files) by e-mail at howie@1960sailors.net.

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