Sea Cliff, A 25-Cent Ride From Manhattan

These photos recall an era a century ago when the Village of Sea Cliff was a popular resort.

In the 1870s, the Methodist Camp Ground Association had built up the village. Although the fervor of camp meetings had faded a decade later, the boardwalk, steamboat pier, waterworks and lovely view of Hempstead Harbor and Long Island Sound made the village ideal for a summer resort.

These scenes from that resort era comefrom the collection of Ted Smith of Huntington. They were photographed by his uncle, Al Williams, around 1910. Williams, who during his career was a projectionist for the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, also was an amateur photographer who made dozens of images of Sea Cliff, and, in the 1930s, a film. "It was a labor of love for him," Smith says of his uncle's devotion to Sea Cliff.

The top photo shows the Nantasket. Along with the Idlewild, Sagamore and Nassau, it was one of four puffing sidewheelers operated by the Long Island Rail Road to carry excursionists to Sea Cliff from East 31st Street in Manhattan. The round-trip fare: 50 cents. From the 1890s to 1900s, the year-round population of around 1,500 tripled with the arrival of summer vacationers. Among the attractions was a railway built in 1886 that would take visitors from the shore to the cliff top for 5 cents.

An 1899 newspaper ad described the village this way: "Sea Cliff, the prettiest all-around village in America, is 26 miles from New York on the North Shore of Long Island... Sea Cliff's moral and social status is of a high order, making it especially desirable as a family resort."

The resort era would change in the 1920s as cars made other areas accessible.