Commercial Cable Company Building, ca. 1912.

In 1912, the Commercial Cable Company shifted operations from its Coney Island hub to a new building near the corner of Rue de St. Felix and Grandview Avenue (today, New Haven and Caffrey Avenues). The Far Rockaway building became New York’s link to Transatlantic telegraph cables, via Nova Scotia.

Telegraph communication had declined by the 1930s, and the building was sold and later converted into a yeshiva. In 1985, the structure was demolished, revealing another historic site: the Cornell Burial Ground, situated at the rear of the lot, a 17th century cemetery containing the remains of Far Rockaway’s first European settlers. In 1992, the Parks Department took control of the property, thereby ensuring access to the burial ground as restoration progresses.