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Fire
Island - Sun, Sand, Surf – The Good
Life at Davis Park
- By Judy Hogan
Davis Park/Leja Beach. Home of the infamous
Casino
– a great restaurant and one of the most populated drinking
hot-spots on the barrier beach, Fire Island. A place some
call a second home.
A first impression of Davis Park may be less than thrilling,
simply because there isn’t much except a small general
store, volleyball net, a children’s playground and a long
boardwalk leading from the ferry dock to the bar, with the
next step taking you down to the beach. Standing high above
the beach, on the Casino deck, the view to east and west
brings only homes. But the view of the south of the pounding
relentless Atlantic Ocean is possibly the most spectacular
found anywhere.
A Brookhaven Town beach, boasting a new bath house a police
station and over 200 dock slips Davis Park has the biggest,
transient population of any town marina. The Davis Park
Ferry Company operated by the Sherman family, estimates that
nearly 10,000 sun and sea worshippers ride to Leja Beach
during the summer season. It has long been considered and
described as a mecca for the single, energetic slice of
life.
But that is not the only type of living style found within
the dunes of Davis Park. Though the parting and reveling is
the most flamboyant signal to the senses, beyond the noise
of the music, there are Davis Park residents who enjoy their
community for its peacefulness-the natural state of being.
Despite the popularity growth over the years, Davis Park has
not suffered from the building boom which left little
breathing space in neighboring communities.
It all began back in 1945 when Davis Park
became official with the town establishing the marina and a
public park. The land for both was donated by the Davis
Brothers of Patchogue. A large building was barged over from
the South Shore and with some work was soon operating as the
bar, the Leja Beach Casino. Houses stated sprouting on the
western edge, in the early 1960’s and then spread east. The
latter formation of homes would garner their own identify in
time, calling itself Ocean Ridge.
Upon a first taste, Davis Park seems unregulated,
hedonistic. But that is not true. Town lifeguards watch over
the crowds with a sharp eye. Police patrols and visitors
themselves often thwart the problems that come with
drinking. The population age is not limited to teenagers and
older single, children are heard laughing, screeching as
they swim, dig their sandcastles, play Frisbee.
Davis Park simply put, is down-to-earth. There is no jet-set
scene, no best-dressed list to follow. It welcomes all who
enjoy soaking their skin, swimming in the rough and cooling
sea. Friendly Davis Park affords its virtues to all.
Hopefully, it will never change.
Area residents are flocking to Davis Park on Fire Island
Source:
www.casinocafefireisland.com
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Description:
Ocean
Ridge is the eastern section of the Davis
Park community located at Fire Island’s east end. Because of its
easterly locale, Ocean Ridge exists in isolation from the rest of
the Fire Island communities, but it possesses its own relaxed
Fire Island beach culture. 
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