What is that? Dec. 12, 2023
If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.
Last week’s photo (below) of one of the most beautiful places on an Island filled with them, is of Rainbow Park in the Heights, looking down from Grand Avenue to Dering Harbor.
On our Facebook page, John Michalak, Brian Caputo and Kathryn O’Hagan recognized the view almost as soon as we posted it, and John Evans and Eleanor P. Labrozzi emailed us with the correct answer.
It sparked a memory for Regina Hartley: “We used to lie in the grass there and look up at the stars after getting an ice cream.”
We asked Island historian Ed Shillingburg about Rainbow Park. Ed wrote: “The basic layout dates to the early Methodist maps, and that has been carried forward into the present Suffolk County Tax Map, showing a circular roadway (never built) with six house lots. Four of the lots have houses now, one of which replaces the Eggleston house, which burned. Several friends recalled a fountain, down some steps from Grand Avenue across from the Pharmacy. In early days, the park provided a path from the Chequit area to a pier with a boat rental business that jutted into the inner harbor. My son, Donald, has been advising a small group about restoration and/or improvement there.”
