In 1965, a short but interesting history of the early days of our Civic Association was written by Joseph Dooley of Freeport Ave. at the request of Justin McCann of Inwood Ave.

Mr. Dooley described the early efforts to start an Association in our community. In May of 1931 a group of ten residents met at the Brooklyn Elks Club. Later, a meeting was held at Savage's Hotel, Lido Blvd. and Baldwin Ave. One hundred residents attended that meeting and the Point Lookout Civic Association was born. Joseph Garahan was elected its first President (1931 1939) and Michael McPhillips, then Assistant District Attorney of Queens County, "took over the legal work--gratis".

The early presidents of the Association included Joseph Dooley (1939-47), Robert Doxsee (1947-51) (the elected Mayor of Freeport), Joseph J. Scully and James McCarthy. Mr. Scully of Freeport Ave. also served as the first Chief of our Fire Department.

Mr. Dooley outlined the early problems facing the new Association: lack of sanitary garbage disposal, unpaved streets, inadequate fire protection, undesirable parking of cars after the streets were paved, a heavily littered beach, lack of adequate zoning ordinances and the problems created by ocean front lots which were privately owned. The solutions to these problems did not come easily. Some residents did not want the streets paved because they felt their children would be endangered by traffic; others did not want to pay for garbage collections, especially if, they were summer residents; some wanted to be able to park on the streets but wanted to deny parking to outsiders, etc.

Gradually with the cooperation of the Hempstead Town Board the association began to solve many of these problems. Our early community paper, THE LOOKOUT, reported that Michael McPhillips spent long hours preparing for his frequent appearances before the Board on behalf of the Association.

With the introduction of garbage collection, no parking ordinances, street paving, single family residential zoning and better fire protection behind them, the Association began to address the problems at the beach. Later, the Town Board agreed to condemn the privately owned lots south of Ocean Blvd. along the beachfront. The lots were acquired for a little less than $50,000. In June of 1940, the Point Lookout Park District was formed and its budget in 1941 was $5,828 -- $3,128 of which was used to cover bond maturities and interest payments.