Old Runabout - 1950's near Shapiro's

Old Runabout – 1950’s near Shapiro’s

An old wooden inboard runabout in the bay just off of the Shapiro Mansion

The building to the right was a landmark for decades. The Shapiro brothers were builders on the island. One brother built a home on the ocean and the other built this home on the bay.

It was probably one of the largest homes on the island at the time. The brothers owned the whole tract between the ocean and the bay. The land has since been sold off and is now all homes. The location was just south of the Acme supermarket.

In the days before GPS and even the widespread use of Loran, the Shapiro mansion was a landmark used by many boaters.

For the longest time, there was a barge in front of the Shapiro mansion that had capsized in a storm and sank. It sat there for decades slowly rusting away just a few feet from the Intracoastal Waterway. Eventually, it was removed.

The google map below show the rough location of the original picture. The barge would have been about 100′ from the red pavers. The original mansion has been replaced by a newer mansion behind the pines.

See more photos of this Wooden Boat.

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Hello,
I happened to come across your article and wanted to offer some relevant information. The Shapiro home(original mansion) in the old picture with the boat sat between 106th and 110th st and was part of the tract that was owned from the bay to ocean. You are correct in that it is now all newer homes. The barge however sank in a different location. It is between 99th(the picture with the pavers) and 97th and sits in front of an entirely different home(still a Shapiro home, but not the same location) that was built there. The barge location is correct and there are still substantial pieces that were unable to be removed. It used to be marked by pilings, but they have since come out in storms. At extreme low tides it is sometimes possible to see a very small piece of the wreck.

Old Runabout – 1950’s near Shapiro’s

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