The
Grand Opening
In the overall scheme of things the first
"Grand Opening" of Tangiers in November of 1910 wasn't
too big a deal. After all there was nothing to show anyone out
but drawings and plans.... unless you took to the sky in one of
those new fangled flying machines where you could get a birds
eye view of those 10,000 Acres of woods. Perhaps that is what
Fred Quimby had in mind when he took up the sport of flying? Or
perhaps he was just having a little fun with all that new money.
Another million had been added to the press release by the first
grand opening time. So what's a few thousand to the Wright Brothers
for one of their bi planes?
Come Fly With Me
A 1910 Wright Bi Plane
QuMby Making Headlines
Well Fred picked himself up, dusted
himself off and went back to breaking new ground out there from
a safer height.* In staying alive he kept Tangier's Manor &
Tangiers Development Corporation in the news for the next 6 months
......
* There was
a much better known Quimby aviator from Long Island named Harriet.
She learned to fly at the Moisant School in Garden City and was
the first woman pilot to get a license. She made news by crossing
the English Channel plus other aviation feats of the day. Whether
or not she was related to Fred I can't say yet. She died in a
plane crash in 1912.
"FOUR
GUYS IN THE SCRUB OAK'
click
to enlarge
The guy in the straw hat standing
by the corner of the shack could be one
Fred J. Quimby
This post card photo (circa 1910-12)
and note on the back is courtesy of post card collector / dealer
Joel
Streich of Commack, LI. It is RARE! and shows what is
probably either Smith Road or the future William Floyd Pkwy.
Were three large frame and stucco
buildings ever finished out there along Suffolk Blvd ?
I can't say yet, but I would say
at least one was and it still stands today.
The Island View Manor January 2002.
Was it built in the winter of 1910-1911 ?
"Bungalow" had an entirely
different meaning in 1910
With a 215 foot wide road you could
land a plane on , that ran south from Montauk Highway four miles
to the water, and at least one "model home" in place,
Fred started gearing up his newspaper announcements for "The
Worlds Greatest Development " in the spring of 1911.
Long on words, stessing the health
issue of living out there and using BECAUSE over and over like
a whiny kid, this ad looked kind of thrown together and didn't
seem all that exciting for "The World's Greatest Development"
You Are Cordially Invited to....
THE GRAND FORMAL OPENING
