later found cornell university. in return, palmer received land in "madnan's neck", now little neck, queens and great neck, nassau county. cornell had previously purchased what would become flushing, queens. cornell constructed a house overlooking the atlantic ocean known as the "cornell house" or "cornell homestead", said to be the first permanent structure in the area.: 6 : 9−12 : 146−147 the house was located in the vicinity of central avenue (beach 20th street), beach 19th street, and empire avenue in modern far rockaway. this is the location of the contemporary hebrew institute of long island at beach 17th street and seagirt boulevard. the family also created a nearby burial ground on caffrey avenue and new haven avenue. after the partition of the cornell property in 1809, in 1830 john leake norton purchased land from the cornell family, consisting of edgemere and far rockaway. norton formed the rockaway association with several prominent new yorkers, and the association constructed a hotel on the former site of the cornell house called the marine pavilion.: 6 : 20−21, 83−85 the pavilion was opened on june 1, 1833. although it burned down on june 25, 1864,: 84 the hotel catalyzed the development of the rockaways into a resort town.: 6 : 20−21, 83−85 the far rockaway branch railroad of the south side railroad of long island was opened in 1869 between valley stream and far rockaway, and was extended to the seaside house in rockaway park in 1872.: 6 : 6 : 34−38 : 74 the new york, woodhaven & rockaway railroad opened their line from brooklyn and "mainland" queens to rockaway park in 1880.: 34−38 : 48, 74−76 the ocean electric railway opened a streetcar line via the far rockaway branch tracks in 1897.: 34−38 up until the 1880s, the edgemere and arverne areas were largely undeveloped and were among the last to be developed on the peninsula.: 5−6 : 6 : 98 edgemere, originally called "new venice", was developed by frederick j. lancaster beginning in 1892, with the hotel edgemere opening in 1894.: 21, 95−99 the arverne neighborhood was developed by remington vernam. the arverne hotel was erected in 1888. a rail station in the neighborhood at gaston avenue was opened in 1888, and a second at straiton avenue in 1892.: 21, 95−99 the wave crest inlet, also called wave crest lake, was filled in during 1911 in order to further develop the edgemere neighborhood.: 83, 95−96 creation of the landfill in 1916, the new york city waterfront company acquired 359 acres (145 ha) of land on the north shore of the rockaway peninsula in arverne and edgemere, including the area around little bay. the land was located north of the former amstel canal, now amstel boulevard and beach channel drive. the property was previously owned by remington vernam. the land, which consisted of salt marshes and beach, was to be filled in order to construct bungalows; part of the site was already filled by dirt dredged from jamaica bay. in 1920, the new york city board of estimate planned to create amstel boulevard on the former canal right-of-way between beach 35th street and beach 71st street, where it would connect with hammels avenue and eventually feed in beach channel drive. the route would cut across the new york city waterfront property. all three roads now make up modern beach channel drive. garbage landfilling at edgemere by the new york city department of sanitation began on july 15, 1938. the landfill replaced an incinerator in nearby arverne. by this time, garbage incineration was considered "obsolete". the property continued to be owned by the new york city waterfront company. borrow pits with depths of 64 feet (20 m) and 51 feet (16 m) were dug into the norton basin and little bay respectively, with the dirt extracted used to create a base for the landfill. around 2 million cubic yards (1.5 million cubic metres) of dirt were dredged from underwater for the landfill. the alterations to the basins and landfilling activity changed their biodiversity compared to other water bodies in the area.: 1, 12, 17, 32−33, 36−37 the edgemere landfill was one of several landfills created under then-sanitation commissioner william f. carey. in addition to replacing incinerators, the landfill replaced the practice of dumping city garbage in the ocean. this practice was banned by a united states supreme court ruling in 1933. following complaints from the local community, on july 14, 1938 andrew j. kenny threatened to seek an injunction to stop the dumping at edgemere. kenny was the president of the rockaway chamber of commerce and the queens sewer superintendent. that same day, sanitation commissioner carey was confronted by local residents while inspecting the landfill site. one of the complaints was that paint on the side of houses had either peeled or became discolored due to the fumes emitted from the landfill. the fumes were thought to either come from the mud from the bay used to cover the garbage, or the disinfectants used on the waste. the next day on july 15, dumping was halted at the landfill. according to commissioner carey, the odors at the site were caused by the use of mud to cover the garbage, and clean sand would be used in the future. operations resumed on october 10, 1938. meanwhile, residents continued to oppose dumping at edgemere, citing fires and rat infestations. during a tour of the edgemere dump on february 11, 1939, commissioner carey claimed that it was "four and a half times more expensive" to dispose of waste through incinerators than to bury it in landfills. he also spoke of the benefits of landfilling, including reclaiming marshland and eliminating mosquitoes. on march 28, 1939, sanitation commissioner william f. carey and health commissioner dr. john l. rice were indicted on charges of violating the new york city penal and sanitary codes, specifically of "unlawfully dumping raw garbage and maintaining a public nuisance" and of "dumping under or on top of water, or on land, any refuse in which...offensive and unwholesome material is included." the charges were based on the operation of city-run "garbage graveyards" in queens. the five dumps in question were the edgemere dump; the lefferts dump at lefferts boulevard and sunrise highway (conduit avenue) in south ozone park, near the future site of jfk airport; bergen landing; and the future sites of juniper valley park and baisley pond park, respectively located in middle village and south jamaica. the owners of the edgemere and lefferts landfills were also named in the indictment. carey and rice, both cabinet members under mayor fiorello h. la guardia, surrendered to the long island city courthouse and were released without bail. a change of venue was granted on may 18, 1939 and the trial was moved to the bronx. on may 31, the trial was postponed until october of that year. around this time, dumping was resumed at the edgemere landfill. on june 19, 1939, the indictments were dismissed by justice isidor wasservogel. as a consolation, a board of four health experts and a sanitary engineer was appointed by u.s. surgeon general thomas parran jr. to arbitrate the conflict and to investigate the operations of the five landfills. the board included eugene lindsay bishop and kenneth f. maxcy. in addition, carey announced that dumping at edgemere would end on june 25 and cease until the fall. the charges were dropped by district attorney charles p. sullivan due to a lack of individuals to testify in the trial. on september 21, 1939, the arbitration board conducted a "secret tour" of the five landfills. at this time, the department of sanitation anticipated resuming landfilling at edgemere that fall, which was opposed by local residents. in march 1940, the board released its report, which supported continued landfilling at the five queens landfills including edgemere as long as "sound sanitary practice is continued", as the landfilling process helped control rat and mosquito populations in marshland. on june 22, 1940, the new york city council passed a bill mandating the department of sanitation to begin using the available incinerators in the city. the bill was introduced by councilman james a. burke representing hollis, queens. burke then proceeded to submit the bill to mayor fiorello laguardia in an attempt to bypass the board of estimate. many of the city's incinerators, including the arverne incinerator, had been closed under carey's watch. rockaway airport on july 16, 1939, the edgemere airport (also called rockaway airport) was opened on the new york city waterfront company land between beach 46th street and beach 54th street. the airport was operated by lawrence resident and commercial pilot harry gordon, and was said to be the first privately owned airfield in the rockaways. prior to the construction of a hangar, planes for the airport were kept at roosevelt field in nassau county. the airport was created for civilian training and leisure flying. following a lawsuit by gordon, on december 26, 1939 city commissioner of docks john mckenzie was ordered by the manhattan supreme court to award a permit to the airport. on july 8, 1940 after 15 months of operation, mckenzie issued a letter informing gordon that the airport would be closed in 30 days due to not meeting facility requirements for airports in the city. specifically, the airport failed to meet the requirements for 1,800-foot (550 m)-long and 300-foot (91 m)-wide runways, and for an "unobstructed approach" to the airport. at this time, work commenced on expanding and developing the airport. the pilots training at the airport included members of the women flyers of america. the airport would later become the headquarters of women's flyers association of america. in october 1940, the rockaway chamber of commerce petitioned the federal civil aeronautics administration to create a civilian pilot school at rockaway airport. in january 1941, bayside resident charles g. meyer proposed converting his farm along little neck bay into a city-operated airfield to train civilian pilots. several wealthy residents of bayside protested his plan, including actor and movie producer john golden. as an alternative, golden suggested to mayor fiorello laguardia that the edgemere dump be used for the airfield. on january 15, 1941, mayor laguardia publicly rejected both the bayside and edgemere proposals, due to costs and potential hazards to bayside residents. meyer's farm would later become the bay terrace neighborhood, while john golden's estate would become john golden park. on july 26, 1941 the civil aeronautics administration approved rockaway airport along with nassau airport in hicksville, long island as civilian pilot training facilities. meanwhile, idlewild airport (today's jfk airport) was ordered to cease training of pilots. upon the onset of world war ii, in 1941 gordon offered use of the airport and a supply of planes and pilots to the united states military in order to monitor and patrol the coast of long island during the war. in october 1941, soldiers from fort tilden in the western rockaways began using the airport for ten days to conduct air raid drills. the offer to use the airport was officially accepted by civil air patrol major general john f. curry in february 1942. civilian flying, however, was banned by the federal government during world war ii and gordon abandoned the airport at this time. in early 1944, the airport was leased by the united states coast guard as a helicopter training base. following the war, in february 1946 rockaway airport was reopened by war veterans joseph alta and perry fuhr. alta was an army air force pilot in the china burma india theater of the war. fuhr was a navy test pilot. alta had previously operated a flight school at floyd bennett field in brooklyn. beginning on january 6, 1947, the airport was used as the receiving point for a helicopter mail service originating at laguardia airport or newark airport, and serving both the rockaways and five towns in nassau county. park plans and purchase of the property rockaway community park was planned along with the edgemere houses (pictured), which opened in 1960. on january 11, 1946, new sanitation commissioner william j. powell announced that the city would abandon the landfill system favored by his predecessor carey and instead utilize incinerators, with half of the borough of queens' waste to be disposed of via incinerator immediately. on january 17, 1949, the department