Cobble Villa

State Senator William H. Reynolds, the President of the Estates of Long Beach development, had Cobble Villa built around 1912 for his private residence and as as example of what type of housing would be built in the new beach resort town. Reynold kept his yacht Day Dreamer anchored at the house's private dock. Reynolds had deeded 18 land parcels at Long Beach in 1909 to his development company, Elmohar Corporation. The corporation built Cobble Villa on part of their land, overlooking Reynolds Channel. The house was sited at the opposite (north) side of the island from the hotel, boardwalk, and beach. Reynolds had the marshland north of the island dredged for three years in the first decade of the 1900s to create Reynolds Channel, 1000 feet wide and 40 feet deep, separating the island from the mainland. The dredged sand was used to build up the island to raise the elevation above sea level and make it easier to lay out the street grid.

The Village of Long Beach was incorporated in 1913 and purchased the rights to the streets and infrastructure from the Estates o Long Beach. In 1914, Cobble Villa was the only house on the block between Laurelton and Lafayette Boulevards, overlooking Reynolds Channel. Reynolds sold the house to one of his business partners, J. Harry Meyers, in 1915. Meyers used the impressive house as a showpiece of his planned development of the north end of the island along Reynolds Channel. A 1915 advertisement touted the home's ten rooms, three baths, and three fireplaces; the house was decorated by Louis Green. Special features were a billiard room, sleeping porches, sun parlor, wine cellar, steam heat, electricity, and a telephone. To develop his landholdings on the island, Meyers formed the Bay Boulevard Construction Company. Meyers lost the home to his wife, Hattie, in divorce proceedings.

By 1922, three more large houses were standing on the block with Cobble Villa. A wood frame "auto house" (garage) was standing in the southwest corner of the Cobble Villa lot, near Pine Street, by 1922. The City of Long Beach was incorporated in the early 1920s with Reynolds as its first mayor. Reynolds was indicted of fraud and graft and was jailed after only one year as the mayor. The second mayor, William J. Dalton, was elected in 1925. The newly-appointed city attorney, David Tolins, purchased Cobble Villa in 1925. Tolins wrote the first history of Long Beach and went on to serve five more mayoral administrations. Wuth the stock market crash in 1929, David and his wife Dorothy Tolins lost Cobble Villa to foreclosure in 1932. The house was vacant and in the hands of speculators for several years.

Joseph Shalleck, another attorney and an investor, bought Cobble Villa in 1937 as a vacation home. Shalleck allegedly had ties to the Mafia. Shalleck's brother, Joseph, was married to a famous film actress, Lillian Roth, until 1939; the couple visited Cobble Villa often. During Shalleck's ownership, one of the sleeping porches was enclosed to serve as a card room. The house was raided in July 1943 by Long Beach police who discovered an illegal gambling operation; Shalleck sold Cobble Villa in December 1943 and it went through a number of owners for the next few decades. John Peri, Sr., a local building contractor and painter, bought Cobble Villa in 1970. While his family never lived at the property, Peri used the house to hold lavish celebrations and parties. Dan Steele and his wife, Clara, purchased the home in 1976. Clara, an Italian immigrant from Trieste, was a well-known artist and painted and decorated the villa with her signature style, trompe l'oeil. Her work has been the subject of newspaper articles and shown on the local PBS television station; special tours of the house to view her artwork have continued periodically, although the house is now owned by Daniel Steele.

Betsworth, Jennifer. NRHP Nomination of Cobble Villa, Long Beach, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2014.