Story
A Ramble Through Hamilton Beach
A portrait of Hamilton Beach, previously known as "Ramblersville," and "West Hamilton Beach" prior to neighboring JFK's expansion. The neighborhood is bounded by the A-train tracks, Hawtree Creek, and the 102nd Street Creek. It is accessible by one road and two pedestrian paths. These photographs are from Sister Sonia Duthoit, who lived in New York from 1964 to 1968.
Howard Beach Station, IND Rockaway Line
The Hamilton Beach neighborhood was once twice the size, occupying the land just east of the A-train tracks. The area was cleared in the 1940s in preparation for Idlewild Airport (now JFK) expansion.
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Hawtree Basin Pedestrian Bridge
The area is accessible by one road and two pedestrian walkways. The Hawtree Basin Bridge, where this photo was taken, was converted to a pedestrian-only bridge in 1963. The Hawtree Creek is the reason many of Hamilton Beach's residents settled here in the first place. The area was a fishing community - the small salt-water creek provided a lively waterfront.
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133 Broadway
Houses here are built on piles over the water. Docks and boat ownership is common. The neighborhood is reminded of its proximity to the airport by the hundreds of planes that fly over every day.
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Broadway Boardwalk at 102nd Street
The streets of Hamilton Beach flood just about every full moon. Boardwalks were used to traverse much of the landscape. The LIRR added a stop at "Ramblersville" (a colloquial name for the area) in 1899, where passengers disembarked on Russell Street without a station: "If the tide was high they stepped from the train into a foot of seawater."
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Broadway Boardwalk at 102nd Street
The name "Ramblersville" is fabled to have come from a visitor in 1890, who exclaimed: "This is the greatest place for a ramble that I ever struck!"
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Broadway Boardwalk, Ramblersville
Hamilton Beach was not connected to the city's sewer system until 1995. Instead, Residents relied on private cesspools until the Lenihan Bridge (now 102nd Street Bridge) was replaced to bear the weight of construction trucks, which were able to carry the materials necessary to install a sewer system.
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133 Broadway
Hamilton Beach was once paved by boardwalks. One of the only ways into town was via quarter-mile long rickety boardwalk between the train tracks and the creek.
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99-67 Russell Street
The area's streets are constantly threatened by the tide. Many of them had been gravel for many years.
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135 Broadway
Independent to New York City prior to 1898, residents held elections for mayor, allowing any "land-owning male" to vote, "provided he had caught at least 50 pounds of fish."
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Hawtree Creek
Traveling by water was preferred. One past resident wrote that: "if you found a sunken rowboat somewhere if you could get it to float, that was an afternoon's escape...we built rafts out of all kinds of things. If it could float, we made a boat out of it!"
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Hamilton Beach Park
The small community has been increasingly threatened by large storms. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy left Hamilton Beach without power for weeks, flooding every single home on the peninsula. Different groups have proposed both man-made and natural barriers to protect Hamilton Beach and neighboring Howard Beach.
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