Exhibitions — Sea Cliff Village Museum

In May of 1884, a group of residents gathered at Sea Cliff’s Gardner’s Hotel to hold the organizational meeting of the Sea Cliff Fire Department.That evening, Chancy Combs was elected head of the new company, which they named for the village’s first mayor (then called president), F.W. Geissenhainer, who was the department’s earliest benefactor. Over the next 140 years, the Sea Cliff Fire Department grew to include three companies and built three new fire houses. Sea Cliff’s Bravest will be open February 10 - July 2024.

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A Suburban Village: Sea Cliff in the 1950s

The village of Sea Cliff enjoyed the general prosperity and growth of the American suburbs during the 1950s. Sea Cliffians shopped in the village, sent their children to Sea Cliff High School, and visited the Sea Cliff Summer Theatre and Sea Cliff Beach. Sea Cliff was also a village at war, sending some of its youth to fight in the Korean War (1950-53). A Suburban Village: Sea Cliff in the 1950s was open from August - December 2023.

Sea Cliff’s Fabulous Flappers

Do you have photographs of your Sea Cliff relatives from the 1920s in fabulous flapper attire? Please share a copy with the museum!

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Former Exhibitions

1883: Birth of A Village

In the early 1880s, a group of concerned citizens met with the idea of incorporating the former Methodist Sea Cliff Grove Campground Association into a formal village, and in 1883 the village of Sea Cliff, Queens County, NY, was born. Come learn about the early days of our village and its first president (mayor), Frederick Geissenhainer.

Sea Cliff in World War I

In 1917, Sea Cliff sent many of its young men, and a few women, to fight in World War I. Eight never returned home. Visit our exhibit and learn about the war time experience of a young Sea Cliff soldier, Elias Raff, through his letters home and journal entries.

The Sea Cliff shoreline was a bustling place of recreation, transportation, and commercial activity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Did you know that Sea Cliff Beach was the site of a protest to allow topless bathing? That a rivalry between bathing pavilions led to a brawl with axes? That in addition to the yacht club, Sea Cliff boasted a motor boat club? Visit the museum to discover these stories and more with the new exhibition Sea Cliff by the Sea. Step back in time and visit Sea Cliff as it looked over one hundred years ago.