It’s a story that runs deep into the founding of Mastic Beach: for the purchase of a newspaper subscription you could get a small lot at a new beachfront community. City dwellers flocked to the seashore and built summer bungalows. They were passed down through generations and many decided to stay year round, upgrading the cottages to permanent residencies.
The owners came together in 1928, forming the Mastic Beach Property Owners Association, and went to work bringing in utilities and organizing the new community. They were the beneficiary of an item in all of the deeds—ownership of 6.5 miles of waterfront surrounding the burgeoning community. The residents took full advantage of their seaside haven with generations making memories of boating, fishing, crabbing, and clamming. A quick jump over Narrows Bay and they were at the ocean, a far cry from the hot streets of New York.
Many learned about the “paradise for young and old” from the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper which offered the subscription deal. They joined forces with the “Henry Fords of Real Estate,” brothers Arthur and Warren Smadbeck of Home Guaranty Corp. They had purchased a large swath of the Mastic Peninsula from the Knapp Family, 2.5 square miles in all, which can be traced back to William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Few know the story better than Kevin Collins, the president of the Mastic Beach association. His grandparents were Eagle subscribers and their beach cottage stayed in the family for generations. His parents vacationed here and so did he, becoming a permanent resident in 1961. A William Floyd graduate, he met his wife Barbara on a summer day along the waterfront. Her grandparents had a subscription lot cottage as well, and so did her parents.
Collins helped build Mastic Beach, putting himself through college working for Anthony Prudenti, a Suffolk icon who chaired the county GOP. “I would say to him, “Tony, I need to make some cash,’ and he would give me an address and tell me to go out and put up the singles,” Collins remembered. He knew everyone in the area having worked as a bartender at Shulties, Captain Andy’s, and Little Joes. He and his wife ran a luncheonette on Neighborhood Road, Barbara’s Kitchen, for seven years where he became even more ensconced in the community.
The oldest of eight, Collins was afforded refuge in the Shirley Motel, owned by the Prudenti’s. He held down shifts at some of the popular clubs in the Hamptons, Dune Deck and the Port-O-Kai while attending Suffolk Community College. He went into the construction industry himself working on large scale projects in the city, including the Breccia Pernice marble at Trump tower, the distinctive reddish-brown Italian stone that can be seen at the famous escalator the President came down when he announced his candidacy.
Collins keeps busy these days with the association’s chief assets, two marinas and a clubhouse that was built at the founding of Mastic Beach. Just as they did so many years ago, the marine facilities keep the connection between the people and the sea.
Collins and the association membership is looking forward to next year when the community celebrates the nation’s 250th Anniversary. They’ll herald William Floyd and the other local Patriots that helped give birth to America. They’ll host a “supersized” parade, he promised, and are working to enlist the fabled U.S. Marine Corps Band to join them.