During my youth, I lived in the WaveCrest Gardens Apartment complex. I seem to remember that back in 1952, Central Avenue was a two-way street - from Seagirt Avenue heading north up to but not including Cornaga Avenue. (That part of Central Avenue between Mott and Cornaga had always been a one-way street.) It was early in 1953 that they decided to make Central Avenue (from Mott to Plainview) into a one-way street. So, after that time, in order to "drive into town" (facing northeast) one would have to cross over to Beach 19th Street and then continue driving north.
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Beach 19th Street basically "ended" at Cornaga Avenue - and to continue on, you would have to make a left turn (west) or a right turn (east). Actually, Beach 19th does continue on about 20 yards west, but only runs for another block before ending on Mott Avenue. On the southwest corner of Beach 19th, there still sits a building which had housed the original trolley station for that road back at the turn of the century - and the street had been cobblestone with trolley tracks running directly down the middle. This building has seen many owners and has been put to many uses over the century and after WWII, it was a gas station - "Mike's Texaco." When I got my first car, I bought all of my gas from that station - at 36 cents per gallon. What made Mike's station so unique (for its time) was that it was the only station in Far Rockaway with a "roof" over the pumps. A lot of people found the roof too "confining" and rather uncomforable. They were just not used to seeing covered pumping areas. After the gas station closed its doors, the place was completely rebuilt as "Karmel's Kosher Kitchen." Today it is a laundry service.
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