Spotlight on: City Island

By BARBARA DOLENSEK

In 1654 an English physician named Thomas Pell purIn 1873, David Carll, a shipbuilder who had moved

chased about 50,000 acres from the Lenape Indians in orhis business from Long Island to City Island, con

der to eliminate Dutch ownership of the land. Included in structed the first bridge to the mainland, construct

the purchase was an island called ed from the timbers

Minneford or Minnewits, but was he removed from the

renamed City Island in the 18th cendecommissioned

tury by a developer who wanted to battleship USS North

make it a rival to New York Harbor. Carolina. The wooden

The Revolutionary War ended that

bridge was replaced

effort on the island, which was then by a steel bridge in

settled by various owners, including 1901, shortly after

George Washington Horton, whose City Island became

house is inside the current building part of New York City,

that houses the Lobster Box restauwhich also built a new

rant. In 1835, a man from Connecticut named Orrin Fordham came to City Island, where he developed a

Boat building and sail making were the major businesses on City Island from the 1860s until about 1980. The island still supports several marinas and yacht and boating clubs.

school, P.S. 17, now the location of the City Island Nautical Muse

method of planting oysters, which became the major industry on the island. Many island families became very prosperous gathering and selling oysters, but the business um and a community center. City Island’s population in 1868 was 800, but after the construction of the wooden bridge it grew to 1,206, and by 1901,

ended in the 1890s, thanks to pollution and overfishing. By that time, the island had turned to boat building, sail making, and piloting ships through Hell’s Gate on their way to New York Harbor. there were 2,000 people living on the island. The southern tip, originally part of the Horton property, was sold in the 1880s to William Belden, a crooked financier who left Wall Street to create a

Freedom was one of the five 12-meter sloops that successfully defended the America’s Cup, often called the Olympics of sailing, that were designed by Olin Stephens II and built at yacht yards on City Island: Columbia in 1958, Constellation in 1964, Intrepid in 1967 and 1970, Courageous in 1974 and 1977, and Freedom in 1980.

resort on the property that was visited by steamships from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Belden never repaid the railroad magnate Collis P Huntington for the investment, however, and when Huntington died in 1900, the property went into his estate. It was a popular hotel and restaurant until the 1930s, when the five-acre property was sold to the Morris Yacht Club. There were several other resorts on the island and many restaurants and bars (especially during Prohibition) and there were hotels and beaches where people could swim for a small fee. None of these exist today, although the island still has many bars and restaurants. Yacht clubs were established on the Island, along with a kayak club and Rosenberger’s boat livery, but City Island was essentially a boat building and sail-making center, whose population lived, worked, and shopped on the island. Some of the best known boat yards were Nevins, Minneford, B. F. Wood, United, and Kretzers, which built

yachts for the wealthy and vessels for the military. During the mid-20th century, City Island was famous in the competitive sailing world for having designed many fine boats, including five America’s Cup defenders that won the cup seven times.

Boat building declined during the 1970s, however, since the firms never retooled for fiberglass, and the population changed. Now many of these yards have become housing developments, so the current population is close to 5,000, and residents share the community with off-Islanders who visit the Island’s many restaurants, shops, and the Nautical Museum.

Barbara Burn Dolensek, a resident of City Island since 1976, has been active in the community for many years. She is reporter and copy editor for The Island Current since 1985, a vice president of the City Island Civic Association, and the administrator of the City Island Nautical Museum.