Almost two weeks ago, I posted my great-grandfather's obituary, in which it stated that in the 1920s he had owned and operated a popular fisherman hangout, The Greenhouse restaurant, but it didn't say where it was located.
Well, relatives and readers to the rescue! I got a card in the mail last week from my Aunt Ellen, who read my blog post and sent me two photos of "The Green House"! The note stated that the photos were from her mother, whose father, Timothy Cronin, was the one who owned the restaurant. The photos are from 1915, the year my grandmother was born and the year the Cronins moved from Brooklyn to Freeport, Long Island. The restaurant, which I guess was officially called Cronin's Bay House, based on the note from my aunt, was located at the end of Bedell Street, right on the water. (For anyone not familiar with Long Island, Freeport is a waterfront village on the South Shore of Long Island famous for it's fishing industry and its waterfront restaurants, both in 1915 and today). The building is big, and it looks busy, packed with people on the porch and boats docked in the front - its very reminiscent of Freeport's Nautical Mile today, only all old-timey!
I just love these glimpses into the past, these flashes of the every day lives of our ancestors...thank you so much Aunt Ellen for sharing these with me!!
Cronin's Bay House, "The Green House" - the end of Bedell Street in Freeport, New York, 1915.