Ruffle Bar facts for kids
Ruffle Bar is a 143-acre (58 ha) island in Jamaica Bay, which is part of New York City. It's located near the coast of Canarsie in Brooklyn. This island is a special place because it's part of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a protected area for animals and nature. It sits just east of where Floyd Bennett Field is now, which used to be another island called Barren Island.
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The Early Days of Ruffle Bar Island
One of the first people to live on Ruffle Bar was a man named Jacob Skidmore. He built a house there. In 1842, Mr. Skidmore decided to move his home and family to Barren Island. He carefully took his house apart, piece by piece. There's a fun story that says a big storm actually blew his roof right across the bay to Barren Island!
Ruffle Bar During the Civil War
During the American Civil War (which happened from 1861 to 1865), Ruffle Bar became a stop for ferries. These boats carried people between Canarsie and Rockaway.
Fun and Games on the Island
In the 1880s, a group called the Windward Club started holding exciting boat races around Ruffle Bar. By the 1890s, a hotel even opened on the island! For a long time, Ruffle Bar was thought to be public land belonging to the town of Flatbush. But in the 1890s, parts of the island were sold to 24 different private owners.
Life on an Isolated Island
Ruffle Bar was very isolated, meaning it was far away from other people and towns. When Jamaica Bay froze over in the winter, the few people living on the island were completely cut off from the rest of the world for about three months! A newspaper article once compared their situation to living in the Arctic, saying that for all the help the city gave Ruffle Bar, it might as well be in a faraway, icy land.
Plans for Ruffle Bar's Future
In 1913, the city had an idea to build a garbage incinerator on Ruffle Bar. An incinerator is a place where trash is burned. However, people living in Brooklyn strongly disagreed with this plan. They were worried that the smell from burning garbage would drift north into Flatlands, another part of Brooklyn. Because of their strong opposition, the incinerator was never built on Ruffle Bar.
A Resort Dream for the Island
In 1914, a man named Pierre Noel and his Ruffle Bar Association started building things on the island. Their goal was to turn Ruffle Bar into a fun resort! The association rented parts of the island from the New York City Department of Docks for ten years, starting in 1914.
Growing the Island and its Industry
Throughout the 1920s, more land was added to Ruffle Bar using "landfill." This means they brought in dirt and other materials to make the island bigger. Ruffle Bar then became a very important place for catching clams and oysters. At one point, there were over 40 buildings on the island that helped with this industry. Most of these buildings were on the south side of the island.
The End of Fishing and Island Life
Sadly, the fishing activities stopped when the New York City Department of Health decided the water was too polluted. This meant it was no longer safe for shellfish like clams and oysters to grow there. The Great Depression, a very difficult economic time, caused most of the people living on Ruffle Bar to move away. However, a few people who were squatters (meaning they lived there without official permission) stayed behind.
By 1940, only about twenty-five buildings were left on the island. The very last person to live there, a fisherman, moved away in 1944. Today, Ruffle Bar is uninhabited, meaning no one lives there. Like other islands in Jamaica Bay, it has been named a bird sanctuary. This means it's a safe place for birds to live and nest. Because it's so remote, kayakers sometimes get stuck on the island and need help.
