With a bay that looks more like Cape Cod than New York City, Little Neck Bay is a premier recreational waterway for the region.
So it’s difficult for many residents to imagine this tiny section of Long Island Sound as anything but the site of summertime fun. However, there's a great deal more to this story, historians and preservationists say.
According to Walter Mugdan, president of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee, the history of the bay as we know it today began 4,000 years ago with the Indians.
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“They were actually the ones who gave this area the name ‘Little Neck,’” Mugdan said. “It was how they referred to all of the lands now referred to as the Douglaston Peninsula all the way to Great Neck."
Mike Gannon, a trustee and researcher for the , tells of a neighborhood intricately connected with its waterfront.
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“At one time there was a creek used as an active waterway to barge coal. There was also a wharf at the foot of Little Neck Parkway … really just a world of history to discuss,” Gannon said.
It was an area that Mugdan suggests was greatly shaped by the fact that it was surrounded on three sides by water.
"The waterfront naturally shaped the history of the Little Neck, which is evident in the fact that the Matinecock were big clammers,” Mugdan said. “Moreover the clamming industry was a thriving economy through out the area, well into the late 1800s."
But once the waters became too polluted to sustain a population of clams that were safe for human consumption, the clamming industry on the North Shore soon vanished, according to Mugdan.
“Then during the 'Gatsby era,' the Douglas Manor estates and Great Neck became the hot spot for the Manhattan socialites instead,” he said. “Similar to what the Hamptons or Fire Island are today."
Today, Little Neck Bay might not be the getaway spot for the rich and famous, but it remains an important backdrop to some great summertime memories.
“The Douglas Manor Association dock has a vibrant youth sailing program, and hosts the annual Dibble Fest for members every year,” said Mike Gannon. “So there's still a lot that goes on out here."