Jones Beach State Park
Nassau
County
IMPROVED
landmark status: State and National Registers
threat: Inappropriate
alterations, integrity loss
Jones Beach State Park, conceived by
and created under Robert Moses in the 1920s, has experienced incremental
degradation of its historic structures and original plan through
ongoing inappropriate interventions and misguided maintenance procedures.
Today, Jones Beach also faces a significant landscape alteration
with a proposed Trump on the Ocean catering facility on the main
mall.
At its time of construction, Jones Beach
became a national model of an ideal public recreational facility.
Robert Moses developed Jones Beach as part of a larger system of
public parks on Long Island, that would connect to New York City
and provide outdoor recreational space to residents of New York
City. Jones Beach, the flagship of New York State Parks on Long
Island, is one of the state’s best-attended facilities
and provides an important and necessary venue for public recreation.
The extensive and integrated park system on Long Island led to
the creation of the Long Island State Park Commission and New York
Council of Parks, agencies which served as models for similar public
park initiatives around the country.
objectives: The
Preservation League of New York State and the Society for the Preservation
of Long Island Antiquities call for a Preservation Master Plan
of Jones Beach State Park and designation of the site as a State
Historic Park (as at Caumsett State Historic Park and Planting
Fields Arboretum State Historic Park), to fully draw on the services
of the Bureau of Historic Sites. Jones Beach State Park highlights
the need for significant capital reinvestment in the NYS Park System.
The Preservation League and Society for the Preservation of Long
Island Antiquities fully support Governor Elliot Spitzer’s $100 million commitment
to address this issue in the 2008-09 Executive Budget proposal.
We believe that Jones Beach, as one of New York State’s flagship
state parks and one of its most popular recreational sites, deserves
investment and the creation of a Preservation Master Plan that
guides that investment and recognizes the value of the historic
resources at Jones Beach. From small details such as specially-designed
hardware and other architectural details on buildings and overpasses,
to Robert Moses’ grand vision and plan, Jones Beach is a
wonderful example of an historic outdoor recreational site of the
early 20th-century that deserves our full stewardship and commitment
in the 21st.
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