SHIRLEY GROWS

From Victory Gardens To Victory Avenue and Beyond

SHIRLEY
Shirley, Shirley bo birley
Bonana fanna fo firley
Fee fie mo mirley,....... Shirley

The Name Game © 1964 Shirley Ellis / Lincoln Chase

 

THE END OF MASTIC ACRES?

Ever since he started buying and advertising Mastic Acres in 1944, Shirley always inserted SHIRLEY, LI as the location . With the establishment of a Post Office in June of 1952, he now made it official . But the name game continued well into the 50's then came back with a vengence in the late 1980's

 

a first day postmark

 

"The Beach Boys"

That's the boys from Mastic Beach Fire Dept. stopping by the new Shirley PO to pick up a deed to some Shirley land from George Csabon (Walter's right hand man in the '50's) George in the civies is handing it over to Frank Rink. Walter wanted a fire house built in his neck of the woods. MB didn't build it however ??? Brookhaven FD did even though MBFD was much closer to Shirley. MBFD still responded to most Shirley alarms. That's my Dad "Wally" on the far left.

 

Another Major Development That Certainly Helped Shirley Transform from a Vacation Destination to a Bona Fide Town was his donating the acerage to build a school there. It was a literal no brainer for him. Build it and they will come.

Here is the original floor plan from 1950

 

 

QUINBY'S PLANS FOR ATLANTIC CITY AT SMITH POINT RESURRECTED

This Quinby Guy Is A Mind Blower ....a real mind blower!

 

Frederick Quinby's original 1910 Tangier plans for an Atlantic City type development on Fire Island must of been on Shirley's mind since the day he ran across them. Shirley knew it was finally coming and was lining up the players by 1953-54. There were quite a few of them slicing and dicing the Tolfree & Smith's beach land. I would think the major derailment that scaled everything back for the movers & shakers was the red tape they still had to go through to get the bridge to it built. It didn't open till 1959....To see the whole Smith Point Bridge story on that visit "Long Wait For A Short Bridge"

 

 

 

JULY 1954

The First Shirley Decade

 

"Beach clubs are becoming more and more popular. Existing clubs cannot begin to take care of the applications for rooms, cabanas, and bathouses. Ocean frontage in this area is getting scarcer and more and more expensive I believe the next scene of action for new beach clubs will be adjacent to the authorized new bridge and county park opposite Shirley, LI on Fire Island." __M. A. Salazar

 

Shirley's First Smith Point Beach Pavillion circa 1956

 

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