Hidden History of Islip Town by Jack Whitehouse

Author:Jack Whitehouse [Whitehouse, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Transportation, Ships & Shipbuilding, History, United States, 19th Century, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA)
ISBN: 9781439673812
Google: GyBDEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2021-10-11T02:44:53+00:00

Signs on the Robert Moses Causeway. Had there been a road and bridge 140 years ago, the signs would have pointed the way to Uncle Jesse Conklin’s, the Wa Wa Yanda Fishing Club and Havemeyer Point. Bigstock WoodysPhotos.

The Wa Wa Yanda Captree clubhouse began modestly in 1878 with a single building at the water’s edge on the east side of Captree Island. The membership had secured a twenty-year lease from Islip Town with the option to renew after that. During the first year, meals were taken at Uncle Jesse Conklin’s by then famous waterside inn, conveniently located close to the Fire Island Inlet. The exact spot was on the eastern side of Captree Island facing today’s Sexton Island, just north of today’s Captree Boat Basin and Fisherman’s Walk. Uncle Jesse’s was connected to the clubhouse by a rudimentary boardwalk of wooden planks. By 1881, the clubhouse had expanded to accommodate ninety members to include a kitchen and other amenities. Charles Delmonico—the great-nephew of John and Peter Delmonico, the founders of the world famous Delmonico’s restaurant, and a restaurateur himself—was a member. He made sure the club’s food service was first class.

Various references mention the guiding principle of the club as “creature comfort.” There was even a “comfort committee” to ensure that members never needed to be inconvenienced with the absence of a luxury.

A piece in the August 10, 1990 Fire Island Tide newspaper by the former editor of the Long Island Forum, Carl A. Starace, described the indulgences afforded the membership even in their transit from New York City to Captree.

The gentlemen from the city reach the place via a palace car, with its luxurious appointments and the constantly changing panorama of pleasant views on either side, the thirty seven miles from Long Island City to Babylon quickly passed. Then a mile ride on a street car, hack, or stage brings one to the wharf where the canopied steam launch Wa-Wa-Yanda (the club had two such launches) belonging to the club is waiting to convey its members and their guests to the club house.

By 1881, after a pleasant seven-mile cruise across the Great South Bay, passengers arrived at a modest-looking two-story structure of three disconnected buildings all under one roof. This was the headquarters of the Tammany Hall Wa Wa Yanda Fishing Club.

Apparently in an effort to tamp down rumors of corruption and debauchery on island, in 1890 a friendly New York Herald news reporter got invited to pay a visit to the clubhouse. Not surprisingly, the reporter’s June 8, 1890 article reflects being charmed by the clientele, the beautiful location and the complete Wa Wa Yanda comfort experience. Of the membership, he wrote: “But let there be no mistake to start with as to the character and status of the Wa-Wa-Yanda club. Though its members, like those of the Americus Club are largely made up of politicians, and many hold high official positions, it is by no means a political organization.”

The reporter described the view from the veranda as one for which no one could grow weary.

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