1925 Artworth Promotional View of Oceanside, Long Island, New York

An unrecorded promotional view of Oceanside, Long Island, New York, published c. 1925 by the Artworth Company for the Municipal Realty Corporation. It captures Nassau County during a real estate development boom catering to middle-class families from New York City.

A Closer Look

The view is oriented towards the south-southeast, looking out over Oceanside and the neighboring villages and hamlets of Lynbrook, Baldwin, and Rockville Centre. Island Park, Long Beach, and Lido Beach sit in the background. Clusters of homes, schools, and other buildings are grouped along two branches of the Long Island Railroad, leading to Montauk and Long Beach, respectively. Farmland and undeveloped forests surround the town. The view especially promotes new development on the lands marked Oceanside Manor and Oceanside Lawns.

Text on the recto and verso aims to spur interest among potential investors and homebuyers, pointing out that Oceanside was already the second largest town in the area after Long Beach and that new homes there were especially affordable. Persuasive illustrations and statistics contrast the benefits of buying on Long Island: a modern home near the beach and woodland without the detriments of waiting to invest and continuing to pay rent, with the latter presaging a life of poverty and early death. The overall effect is to both point out and promote the frenzied pace of suburban real estate development at the time.

Publication History and Census

This view was published c. 1925 by the Artworth Company, a short-lived outfit that specialized in bird's-eye views for real estate promotion, mostly for the Municipal Realty Corporation. It is undated, but from context, including references to the 1925 census on the verso, can be confidently dated to the mid-late 1920s. The view has no known history on the market nor presence in institutional collections.