Pauline Felix House

Long Beach, the new "all-year-round city by the sea," was touted as the next Atlantic City in the first decade of the twentieth century. Newspaper ads taken out for the grand opening of the Estates of Long Beach in May 1907 called the new resort a "magnificent stretch of beach between breaking ocean and glassy thoroughfare." S.W. Gumpertz, the Manager, and William H. Reynolds, the President of the development, opened a real estate office in the New York City by the spring of 1907. Reynolds was a former state senator who had acquired about 2,000 acres in 1906 from the Town of Hempstead and private owners. Streets were laid out for the development in 1908 by Charles Wellford Leavitt. A 1909 newspaper ad described the 100-foot wide boulevards stretching from the ocean to the channel, allowing each residence to receive the "benefit of the clear ocean breeze." Reynolds was aiming for a higher-income type of buyer and instituted rules that buyers had to buy at least two lots for a proposed home, homes needed to be set back from the road, and be at least two stories tall. Exteriors needed to be covered in stucco, tile, terra cotta or concrete, and roofs were to be red clay tile. The guidelines were said to be inspired by Reynolds' visit to resorts along the Mediterranean Sea. About fifty houses were built in the Estates of Long Beach from 1909 to 1911. Restrictions were relaxed later to encourage building of year-round residences. By the early 1920s, there were around 500 year-round resents in Long Beach and the settlement became a city, with Reynolds as its first Mayor.

The Pauline Felix House was built on a four-lot land parcel, facing the ocean. The two-and-a-half story building has a stucco exterior on a concrete foundation and is topped by a red clay tile hipped roof. The house faces south, toward the ocean, and is five bays wide with a portico across the whole front of the building. The six posts of the portico continue through the clay tile roof; wooden railings connect the posts to form a low balustrade. The front door leads to a large central hallway with light fixtures that seem to be the original. The interior features the original dark-stained woodwork, hardwood floors, and most fireplaces. Most of the windows have been replaced, including two art glass windows that resemble the original style. The outbuilding in the rear yard is a mid-twentieth-century addition and not part of the National Register nomiation.

Not much is known about Pauline Felix, the first owner. She may have been the Pauline Felix living in Manhattan in the home of her parents in the 1910 census. Pauline was single, 32 years old, and worked as a milliner. She and her parents, Arthur A. (54, a salesman) and Emily (55) were born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. in 1880. Pauline's six siblings (age 25-30) also lived in the Manhattan home, plus the husband and infant daugher of one sister. A servant also shared the house at 322 W. 137th Street. Wanda Boettcher bought the Pauline Felix House in Long Beach 1920 and used it as her year-round residence. Francoise Lowy purchased the home in the 1930s and turned it into a boarding house. The house eventually became a single-family home again.

By 1914, only two other homes stood on this side of the street on this block. The ocean view from the Felix House was partially blocked by the Long Beach Baths building, constructed on the north side of the Boardwalk in 1914, and the adjacent Hotel Nassau built by 1922. A one-story concrete block garage (called an "auto house" on the Sanborn map) was added by 1922 to the rear in the Felix House parcel, in the northwest corner; it is gone now. By 1950, this street, only two blocks north of the boardwalk, was fully developed.

Bartos, Virginia L. NRHP Nomination of Pauline Felix House, Long Beach, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2004.

Gumpertz, S. W. Reynolds, William H. "Long Beach, L.I.." Advertisement. New York Tribune (New York, NY) April 28th 1907. 18-18.

Millo, Tennille Lynn. The Spirit Behind the Felix House, Patch, Long Beach, NY. November 4th 2010. Accessed April 18th 2021. https://patch.com/new-york/longbeach/the-spirit-behind-the-felix-house.

Reynolds, William H. "Long Beach." Advertisement. Sun (New York, NY) November 21st 1909. , Second sec, 14-14.

U.S. Census. Household of Arthur A. Felix at 322 W. 137th Street, Manhattan, New York, N.Y, dwelling 12, family 12. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1910.