The Union Avenue Dock and its ties to Brooklyn

For those who’ve been around long enough, Frowein Road is still the By-Pass, The Seacove restaurant is still The Sunrise, the phone prefix for Center Moriches is 878, and the dock at the end of Union Avenue is named after Brooklyn. To figure out why, one need only consult Van and Mary Fields’ “The Illustrated History of the Moriches.”

At the turn of the 20th century, hotels and boarding houses between Eastport and Moriches catered to vacationers.  The lure of fresh air and beautiful ocean beaches made the area a popular tourist draw in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Center Moriches alone had 13 summer getaway destinations. The largest of these, with accommodations for over 300 guests and towering over the rest of the neighborhood, The Brooklyn Hotel, stood on the west side of Union Avenue, just north of Bowditch Lane.

The hotel’s booking office in NYC promoted its many amenities: all modern improvements, including private, en suite baths with modern—read inside—plumbing; water sourced from artesian wells; and equally cool and comfortable stables for horses. Rail transportation from NYC via a “special Moriches Express” whisked guests to Center Moriches in just under two hours, where hotel omnibuses awaited their arrival.

Once at the hotel, guests enjoyed the cooling breezes on a 600-foot-long veranda, concerts and dancing to a first-class orchestra, as well as “billiards, bowling, croquet, golf and tennis.”

The grounds included a laundry and quarters for the help, as well as a windmill for pumping water and a water tower to supply running water for the interior bathrooms and the hotel kitchen.

And, from its dock, vacationers could board a ferry to Great Gun Beach. Far from the limited-use dock and marina that exist today, Great Gun Beach in the 1890s was replete with stores, a pavilion for bathing, a photographer, restaurant and proximity to hotels. Rates at The Brooklyn Hotel for single or en suite rooms started at $3 per day.

Only a few years after it opened, the Brooklyn Hotel burned to the ground, leaving only the barn, laundry and helps’ housing standing.

The barn is now on private land, west of Union Avenue, between Bowditch Lane and Estate Road. The laundry and helps’ quarters, once moved to Penney’s Boat Yard on Senix Creek, today is part of the Suffolk County Maritime Museum in Sayville.

And for those who have had the pleasure, today the Brooklyn dock at the end of Union Avenue offers visitors and residents fishing and open views of The Great South Bay, east of its namesake.