Lonelyville, New York
| Lonelyville | |
|---|---|
| Hamlet and census-designated place | |
 Lonelyville
|
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| Coordinates: 40°38′27″N 73°10′29″W / 40.64083°N 73.17472°WCoordinates: 40°38′27″N 73°10′29″W / 40.64083°N 73.17472°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Suffolk |
| Township | Islip |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 11706 |
| Area code(s) | 631 |
Lonelyville is a small, beach community located in the western end of Fire Island in the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States.
Lonelyville has approximately 80 houses and is located between the communities of Dunewood and Atlantique. As on much of Fire Island, cars are generally not permitted in Lonelyville during the summer months and bicycles are the principal means of wheeled transport. The closest ferry service is to Dunewood from Bay Shore on Long Island. There are no stores, cafes, bars, or other facilities in Lonelyville, but it is a fairly easy walk, or bike ride, to Fair Harbor which serves as a town center for the community. The majority of the houses are predominantly summer-only vacation cottages, and consequently there are only a handful of year-round residents.
Probably the most famous, past, residents of Lonelyville were Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft who had an ocean front house there for many years. Brooks purportedly wrote many of his movies and comedy sketches there. Incidentally, the structure was the first project to be designed and built by famed architect, Richard Meier in 1963.
It is unclear when the first dwelling was built in Lonelyville, but speculation suggest that fishermen may have used the area as a camp site in the late 1890s.
By 1908, it appears that three structures had been built in the community by three businessmen and friends from Bay Shore, NY who “spend their time in killing ducks … catching ‘suckers’ and other things out in the bay when there is nothing else to do, and between intervals of sleep, dining at the expense of each other and swapping stories” They three structures were built by ex-Justice of the Peace, Harry M. Brewster -- “Brewster’s Bungalow”, ex-cashier of the South Side Bank, Harry S. Raven --“Raven’s Ranch” and ex-Tax Collector of Bay shore, Selah T. Clock --“Clock’s Castle”.
At one such dinner, Brewster came up with the idea of calling the place “Lonelyville” and “with due éclat and champagne, the resort was christened and launched upon the sea of fame”
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Wikipedia