content: Old Rockaway, New York in Early Photographs, exceeded my expectations! I thought it would provide a photographic history of perhaps the 1930's and 1940's. I was pleasantly surprised to find nineteenth century photographs of the peninsula in its true heyday. Having lived in Arverne during the 1960's and 70's, I was amazed to see that the rich and famous visited this area very similar to the way the rich and famous today visit the Hamptons on the east end of Long Island. As you view the postcards from this early era, you can actually see the unspoiled landscape of sand dunes and bay marshes that no longer exist. And the magnificent hotels and homes that graced this once popular resort prove to me that the City of New York truly mis-managed the development since the 1930's.