Pre-settlement The city of Long Beach's first inhabitants were the
Algonquian-speaking
Lenape, who sold the area to English
colonists in 1643. From that time, while the barrier island was used by
baymen and farmers for fishing and harvesting
salt hay, no one lived there year-round for more than two centuries. The
barque Mexico, carrying Irish immigrants to New York, ran aground on a sandbar 200 yards off of Long Beach on January 2, 1837; 115 of its passengers would freeze to death on the deck of the ship.
Austin Corbin, a builder from
Brooklyn, was the first to attempt to develop the island as a
resort. He formed a partnership with the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to finance the
New York and Long Beach Railroad Co., which laid track from
Lynbrook to Long Beach in 1880. That same year, Corbin opened Long Beach Hotel, a row of 27 cottages along a strip of beach, which he claimed was the world's largest hotel. In its first season, the railroad brought 300,000 visitors to Long Island. By the next spring, tracks had been laid the length of the island, but they were removed in 1894 after repeated washouts from winter storms.
20th century In 1906,
William H. Reynolds, a 39-year-old real estate developer and former state senator, became involved in the area. Reynolds had already developed four Brooklyn neighborhoods (
Bedford–Stuyvesant,
Borough Park,
Bensonhurst, and
South Brownsville), as well as
Coney Island's
Dreamland, the world's largest amusement park at the time. Reynolds also owned a theatre and produced plays. He gathered investors, and acquired the oceanfront from private owners and the rest of the island from the
Town of Hempstead in 1907; he planned to build a
boardwalk, homes, and hotels. Reynolds had a herd of
elephants marched in from Dreamland, ostensibly to help build the
Long Beach Boardwalk; he had created an effective
publicity stunt. Dredges created a channel wide on the north side of the island to provide access by large steamboats and seaplanes to transport more visitors; the new waterway was named
Reynolds Channel. To ensure that Long Beach lived up to his billing it "The
Riviera of the East", he required each building to be constructed in an "eclectic
Mediterranean style", with white
stucco walls and red-clay tile roofs. He built a theatre called Castles by the Sea, with the largest dance floor in the world, for dancers
Vernon and Irene Castle. After Reynolds' corporation went bankrupt in 1918, the restrictions were lifted. The new town attracted wealthy business people and entertainers from New York and Hollywood. On July 29, 1907, a fire broke out at the Long Beach Hotel and burned it to the ground. Of the 800 guests, eight were injured by jumping from windows, and one woman died. The fire was blamed on defective electric wiring. A church, several cottages, and the bathing pavilion were also destroyed. Trunks belonging to the guests, which had been piled on the sand to form "dressing rooms", were looted by thieves. A dozen waiters and others were apprehended by the police, who recovered $20,000 worth of jewelry and other stolen property. The community became an
incorporated village in 1913. Officer Alvin Dooley, a member of the police motorcycle squad and the mayor's own security detail, killed Edwards after losing his bid for
PBA president to a candidate the mayor supported. Jackson Boulevard was later renamed Edwards Boulevard in honor of the late mayor. After the murder, the city residents passed legislation to adopt a city manager system, which still exists to this day. The city manager is hired by and reports to the City Council. In the 1940s,
José Ferrer,
Zero Mostel,
Mae West, and other famous actors performed at local theaters.
John Barrymore,
Humphrey Bogart,
Clara Bow,
James Cagney,
Cab Calloway,
Jack Dempsey,
Lillian Roth,
Rudolph Valentino, and
Florenz Ziegfeld lived in Long Beach for decades. By the 1940s and 1950s, with the advent of cheap air travel attracting tourists to more distant places, and air-conditioning to provide year-round comfort, Long Beach had become primarily a
bedroom community for commuters to New York City. It still attracted many summer visitors into the 1970s. The rundown boardwalk hotels were used for temporary housing for welfare recipients and the elderly until a scandal around 1970 led to many of the homes losing their licenses. At that time, government agencies were also "warehousing" in such hotels many patients released from larger mental hospitals. They were supposed to be cared for in small-scale community centers. The boardwalk had a small
amusement park at the foot of Edwards Boulevard until the 1980s. In the late 1960s, the boardwalk and amusement park area was a magnet for youth from around
Long Island, until a police crackdown on drug trafficking ended that. A few businesses remained on the boardwalk, attracting bicyclists, joggers, walkers, and people-watchers. Beginning in the 1980s and accelerating in the 1990s, Long Beach began an urban renewal, with new housing, new businesses, and other improvements. Today, the city is again a popular bedroom community, for people working in New York who want the quiet beach atmosphere. With summer come local youths and college students and young adults who rent
bungalows on the West End; they frequent the local bars and clubs along West Beech Street. Just behind the boardwalk near the center of the city, however, vacant lots now occupy several blocks that once housed hotels, bathhouses, and the amusement park. Because attempts to attract development (including, at one time,
Atlantic City-style
casinos) to this potential "
superblock" have not yet borne fruit, the lots constitute the city's largest portion of unused land.
21st century On October 29, 2012,
Hurricane Sandy struck Long Beach. As a result of flooding, hundreds of vehicles were destroyed and houses suffered various levels of damage. The estimated cost of all the damage was over $250 million. The city was without power and running water for two weeks after the storm. The boardwalk was also destroyed during the storm. The city began rebuilding the boardwalk with grants from
FEMA and the State of New York. The first two-block section of the new Long Beach boardwalk reopened on July 26, 2013, and the entire boardwalk opened on October 25, 2013. The final costs of rebuilding the boardwalk were $44 million, of which ca. $39 million were FEMA grants and the final $4.4 million were reimbursed by the state. ==Geography==