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Health & Fitness

WOODCASTLE HOTEL

Only 25 miles from New York City;

the Finest and Healthiest location on Long Island, surrounded by beautiful cedar pine and oak woods; near the Great South Bay.

Famous for its Fishing, Hunting, Boating and Bathing.

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Good Board from $6 to $8 per week according to rooms.

 

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This enticing advertisement was directed to New York City residents by the owners of the Woodcastle Hotel, one of the many hotels that dotted the Massapequas from the 19th century until the mid 20th century. What is unique about Woodcastle is that it was the focal point for German settlers to the area. Even more interesting (and for our good fortune), the descendants of the original owners still live in Massapequa Park.

German immigrants from Wurttenberg settled in the farming district and in what is today Massapequa Park in the 1860s. They came in small numbers, but populated the latter area steadily. The area came to be known as Stadt Wurttemberg because of its exclusive German population. Two immigrants in particular appreciated the appeal of the Massapequas to New York City residents: fresh air, clean water, open spaces to hunt and fish.  They were Clara Wittfelder and Louis Dessart. In 1868 they moved from the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn to what was then called South Oyster Bay and built their hotel. Originally called the Prospect Park Hotel, it was renamed Woodcastle in the late 1870s to separate it from the city. The hotel had a dining room, bar, dance hall and bowling alley, and there was a general store and beer hall adjacent to it. It consisted of six single rooms, two double rooms and two suites on the second floor, and a glass-enclosed cupola, from which guests could see South Oyster Bay.  Originally, guests used candles in the dark and the building was heated by wood stoves. A barn and stables as well as fruit and vegetable plots completed the Hotel complex.

The Hotel was located on Front Street across from the newly-completed Southside Railway and was near the Unqua Station (near today’s Grand Boulevard). The Massapequa Park Station wasn’t built until the late 1930s. Visitors would be picked up at the station and transported to the Hotel by horse and buggy. They would also be transported to South Oyster Bay if they wished to swim, to Massapequa Lake to fish, or they could walk through the fields and woods if they wished to hike or hunt. Clara Dessart would furnish them with a lunch.

This latter piece of information was provided by Lillian Bryson (family name Rumfield) in a conversation she had with Barbara Fisher in 1995. Both were Trustees of Historical Society of the Massapequas at the time, and Lillian is the great granddaughter of Clara and Louis Dessart.  Her memories of the Hotel are priceless, providing great detail about the Hotel and her family. We learn that the Hotel prospered until the end of the nineteenth century, probably because it was overshadowed by the much grander Massapequa Hotel near South Oyster Bay. By around 1900 Lillian’s grandparents accepted the fact that the Hotel was no longer profitable and used it as their residence.  Her mother was raised there and Lillian visited it many times. She and other family members grew up in houses built nearby.

The family decided to sell the buildings in 1948 to take advantage of the offers of real estate developers, who were gobbling up every piece of land in the area. The Hotel was torn down soon after and the adjacent general store was consumed by fire in 1952. The cleared space soon became the Massapequa Park Firehouse. Of note is that Eugene Bryson, who has been a volunteer fireman for over 50 years and is the current Department Chaplain, is Lillian’s husband.

The Historical Society recognized Woodcastle Hotel as an important historic site in October 2000, when a marker was erected on Front Street between First and Second Avenues. Donna Cohen was the Society President and Lillian Bryson provided a brief history. Fittingly, her grandchildren unveiled the marker.

 

A NOTE ON GERMAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE MASSAPEQUAS

There is a triangle of land between Front Street and Clark Boulevard, bordered on the west by Atlantic Avenue. A stone marker was placed there in 1989 by the Village of Massapequa Park to recognize the earliest settlers and their descendants. The plaque reads

Heerlein-Rumfield Memorial Park

In honor of all our founding families.

“Yea we have a goodly heritage.”

Psalm 16:6

1989 AD

 

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