Summer of 1931 - College Point, Long Island

[joclance22]

Great film. One segment of this film wa titled `Back on 14th Avenue.' Exactly where on 14th Ave was this segment shot? I lived on 136th Street and 14th Avenue back in the '70's.

[robertwmartens]

@joclance22 Oops, I made a mistake in the title - it's really 7th Avenue, between College Place and 119th Street. Thanks for bringing my attention to it - I added a corrective caption to the title at 3:32. Sorry if I caused any confusion!

[ihateyourfaceee]

Yea despite what you just said, you are wrong. College point is not in Long Island it has always been in Queens and is considered NYC since its in one of the 5 boroughs. Long Island is NOT part of NYC.

[robertwmartens]

@ihateyourfaceee True, but geographically, both Brooklyn and Queens are on the island known as Long Island (look at the map), and at the time that my grandparents lived, College Pointers generally identified themselves more with residents of Nassau county than with Manhattan or The Bronx. Before Zip Codes were instituted, they would put "College Point, L.I." as the return address on their mail, and the post office made no issue of it. That's how it was up until the 1960s or so.

[robertwmartens]

@ihateyourfaceee It is also important to know that before the year 1898, Queens was a county of New York State, NOT a borough of NYC, and it's residents called themselves Long Islanders. Then in 1898, Queens County was split into the NYC Borough of Queens and Nassau County. But old habits die hard, and the residents of Queens continued calling themselves Long Islanders long after the split and consolidation into NYC occurred.

[BSS14285]

love looking at these old memories I used to live there in the Schleicher Mansion which has quite a history in and of itself

[Leitner1969]

Fantastic footage of your family.

[lauls85]

Oh My! How different now College point is compared with back then. This is 80 years ago. WOW. Back then it was like a suburban area, everything is wide open. What a change.

Thank you for uploading.

[horacewild]

cool

[RatPfink66]

Marvelous. What a different place Queens was in 1931. You would hardly know you were in Da Boroughs.

And that is some dog. Very talented ears.

[seftonwallet]

Beautifully filmed. So clear, so fresh.

Wonderful

[kathrowe]

What wonderful movies! Love them. :)

[CarolinaaMuffin]

haaa i used to live there.

but its not in long island.

[robertwmartens]

Actually, it is indeed a part of Long Island - geographically speaking. But I see your point. When people today say "Long Island" they generally mean Nassau and Suffolk counties, but back in the days when my grandparents were young, residents of College Point just as often said "College Point, Long Island" as "College Point, NY" or "College Point, Queens." In fact, before zip codes, residents often wrote "College Point, LI" on their mail.

[raindear60]

As usual...excellent. You are so fortunate to have these chronicles of your family history.

[whoyodanny]

Astounding to see wuch wonderful footage from the tender year of 1931. What sort of camera was used? I didn't think there were home movie cameras until the 40s. Great. Thank you.

[robertwmartens]

I have in my possession the camera that I believe my Grandfather used from the early 1930's up till the 1950's. Its a 16mm CINE KODAK Model K manufactured by Eastman Kodak. It's main body is 8 inches long, 2 inches thick and weighs about 5 pounds. Grandpa had to wind up a spring to operate it, and he had to load and unload the film in a darkened room - there were no cartridges back then! I just tried winding it up - it still runs!! Sounded a bit cranky, though.

[WA5MUF]

Excellent!

[eldon12000]

What a wonderful, fascinating video!