Bayside

Bayside’s history dates back to 2000 B.C. when the Matinecock Native American tribe first settled there. Around 1637, the Dutch West India Company encouraged Dutch farmers to settle on land grants in New Amsterdam, which was the name of New York then. William Lawrence, of England, built the first permanent building, a stone farmhouse, when he settled Bayside in 1644. Twenty years later, England took control of New Amsterdam, renamed it the Province of New York, and English people began settling the area. When Queens County was officially established in 1683, the Town of Flushing was one of the original five towns of Queens County, and today’s Bayside was within the Town of Flushing. During the American Revolutionary War, whaleboatmen from Connecticut raided the Bayside–Little Neck area, and Town of Flushing was occupied by the British military.

The first known written occurrence of the name Bayside was in a deed dated 1798, written as Bay Side.

During the 19th century, Bayside was primarily farmland, where wealthy people from Manhattan would visit it as a rural resort. The Bayside House, owned by Joseph Crocheron, was well-known for its clambakes. The Bayside House burned down in 1906, but Crocheron’s name lives on as the namesake of the 45-acre (18 ha) Crocheron Park.

Bayside was the site of a murder by Peter Hains, a prominent army officer, abetted by his brother, sea novelist Thornton Jenkins Hains, who gunned down prominent editor William Annis at his yacht club in 1908. The so-called “Regatta Murder” led to a widely publicized trial at the Flushing County Courthouse. Peter Hains was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years at Sing Sing, while Thornton Hains was acquitted.

During the 1920s and 1930s, there were several movie studios in Astoria, and movie stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Norma Talmadge, W.C. Fields, and Charlie Chaplin lived in Bayside, some in posh homes. Former heavyweight boxing champion James J. (Gentleman Jim) Corbett lived in Bayside from 1902 to 1933, on a street that is named after him. When rumors ran rampant through the acting community that Bayside would be the location of a new movie and production studio, many actors purchased homes in anticipation of an easy commute to the studio. However, this rumored studio never materialized. When Hollywood emerged as the capital of the movie industry during the 1920s, many actors left Bayside to pursue careers in California.

After the end of World War II, residential development of Bayside increased dramatically, particularly because of its station on the Long Island Rail Road’s Port Washington Branch, where a commuter could ride one train straight to Manhattan without requiring a transfer at Jamaica station.

Bayside remains one of the safest and wealthiest neighborhoods in Queens. However, Bayside has been the setting to several organized crime incidents. Michael Pappadio of Bayside managed the Lucchese crime family’s interests in the Garment District of Manhattan, in secrecy from his wife. In 1989, upon a falling out with his superiors, he was murdered at a bagel shop in South Ozone Park. His wife reported Michael as missing, and three years later she learned about his death and his life in organized crime from the FBI. In April 2002, Gambino crime family associate Darren D’Amico was shot in the leg outside a restaurant in Bayside; his suspected shooter was Bonanno crime family associate Randolph Pizzolo.