Boiler Installation in Sheepshead Bay, NY

The name “Sheepshead Bay” applies to the neighborhood north of the bay as well as the bay itself. Sheepshead Bay was named for the sheepshead, an edible fish found in the bay’s waters. Originally an extension of the town of Gravesend to the west, Sheepshead Bay was a secluded fishing and farming community early in its history.

Starting in the 1840s, residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan were drawn to the community as a summer destination. Hunters and fishermen started coming to Sheepshead Bay and various restaurants and hotels were erected. Sheepshead Bay’s allure as a fishing destination was further helped by the opening of Ocean Avenue in 1876 and the extension of the Long Island Rail Road’s Manhattan Beach Branch in 1877-1878, which brought visitors both to the community of Sheepshead Bay and to the Manhattan Beach resort across the bay. The first of the community’s farms was split up into several lots for residential development in 1877. Three years later the Sheepshead Bay Race Track opened in the neighborhood, bringing even more visitors during the spring and fall. Near the racecourse, racing investor William Collins Whitney constructed a training track. A “Millionaire’s Row” was built on Emmons Avenue east of East 27th Street, while socialites tended to go to restaurants such as Tappan’s.

The track would continue to operate as a horse-racing course until 1910 when horse betting was criminalized in New York state. Afterward it operated as an auto racing track from 1915 to 1919. The decline of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track, along with the construction of amusement parks at nearby Coney Island and the proximity of Coney Island’s attractions to the newly built subway, led to the decline of Sheepshead Bay as a tourist destination. Passenger rail service on the Manhattan Beach Branch ceased in 1924, and the line was formally abandoned in 1937. The former race track site was subdivided for the construction of housing, and Millionaire’s Row was soon lined with bungalows. The closure of the race track resulted in a plethora of newly vacant plots in the community of Sheepshead Bay, and by extension, an influx of residents.