Long Beach marks centennial with yearlong celebration

From elephants used to build the Long Beach boardwalk, to bootleggers and gangsters during the Roaring '20s, to carnival games and then the destruction of Superstorm Sandy, Long Beach has been a city built on highs and lows for the past century.

The city is celebrating the centennial of its founding in 1922 with a yearlong celebration. It included festivities last Sunday with a marching band parade, presentations by historic reenactors and a time capsule to marry the city’s history with its future.

City officials have also placed new bricks outside City Hall as part of the heritage walk and will host events through the year to tell the city’s history. Officials rededicated the location of the first home in Long Beach, built in 1869, after the last historical marker was washed away by Superstorm Sandy.

“It reminded me just how critical it is that we remain focused and vigilant in addressing our future growth, infrastructure and environment so that many generations to come may have the same opportunity to fall in love with Long Beach as we have today,” City Council President Karen McInnis said of the occasion.

Long Beach historians say the city’s history isn’t well known and the historical society is spending the year to tell of the city’s rich heritage.

 “I think the city is still on its way back and has always had its ups and downs,” said Eileen Pollis, a librarian and historian at the Long Beach Public Library.  "They say Long Beach sand is in your shoes, but it’s really in your heart and everyone who goes away comes back in some way because this is their home.”

The city was first settled in 1880 with the construction of the Long Beach Hotel and the railroad arriving at the beach from Manhattan.

Sen. William Reynolds helped build the barrier island in 1906 by dredging what is now known as Reynolds Channel to fill in marshland, envisioning Long Beach as a vacation getaway for the rich and famous of New York City.

“He envisioned a Riviera resort and bought land from Hempstead but it couldn’t be built on,” Long Beach Historical Society archivist Joanne Belli said. “He is the father of Long Beach and did an amazing job, using political power in 1922 to transform it from a village into a city.”

As the city boomed, so did the rum runners of Prohibition with a history of political corruption and organized crime. The city switched from mayoral control to a city manager in 1939 after Mayor Louis Edwards was shot and killed by a police officer who lost his bid to run the PBA.

The city continued to transform after World War II. The boardwalk became a draw of hotels, carnival rides and vendors through the 1950s as a Ferris wheel loomed nearby, but many of the attractions later closed and hotels were torn down to make room for condos.

The city was forced into another rebirth after it was ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, flooding nearly every home and destroying the boardwalk before it was rebuilt a year later. 

Karen Adamo, president of the historical society and a Realtor, said there are signs of the city flourishing with a high demand of housing and influx of new residents as it marks its centennial and reconnects to the city’s history.

“I think we’re on a good solid path,” Adamo said. "People want to be in Long Beach and by the ocean. I think it makes the city vibrant.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.