We originally did not know where this building was located because it was entitled 'Long Beach West Club, West End, Long Beach, Long Island.' No one had heard of it, at least by that name.
So we put out a request for information regarding it and a few suggestions submitted were the "Arizona" bar, or maybe the old Knights of Columbus building on Wyoming Ave and Oceanview.
The late John J. Trumm, former Long Beach Police Commissioner, solved our dilemma. This structure became Finnan's On The Bay and later Papa Aldo's, both restaurants. The building sat on the bay at the NE corner of Arizona Ave. It was destroyed in a spectacular fire in the early spring of 1980. A wind change during the fire blew it back on the firefighters and their equiptment and several pieces were damaged. A few smaller fires erupted downwind in bungalows which were covered in flying embers.
How did I not catch this one. I lived on Arizona for many years and caught my first fish on the dock at Finnan's! After I received the information John provided, I found and cropped out a picture of Finnan's from a photo taken in front of my bungalow on Arizona Avenue around 1965. It's grainy due to enlarging it, and you are looking at the south face of the building where the postcard shows the west face, but you can see it's the same building. We are indebted to the late John Trumm for this information.
WWW.ILOVELBNY.Com
Long Beach, New York
The Long Beach West Club
(later Finnan's and Papa Aldo's)
This is an original postcard as the building appeared in the 1920's. This is the West face. You would be standing on Arizona Ave with the bay on your left and looking east. The building originally carried the address 108 Arizona, hence you are looking at the front door. The small structure to the left later became part of the main building and was used for dining overlooking the bay. Docks were also later built.
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The building as it appeared when it was Finnan's on the Bay. This is how it looked when we bought our bungalow down the street in 1960. My parents loved to eat there and we would go often in the summer.
This was taken outside our bungalow at 77 Arizona looking north about 1964 or 65. You can see Finnan's towering above the bungalows on the block.
The above photos are a few from the fire that totally destroyed what was then called "Papa Aldo's".
A fast moving fire on a very windy night in early 1980 created extremely dangerous conditions for firefighters. Several trucks were damaged from the heat. You can see automobiles on the streets have burst into flames in one of the photos. Burning overhead wires also created additional hazards along with copious flaming embers which ignited other buildings downwind. The structure was bulldozed after this fire.
A new home was later built on the lot but was also torn down, possibly due to heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy. The large home shown below was under construction on the large lot in 2017.
