 The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City mentions that the area comprising present-day Mill Basin and Bergen Beach was the residence of "pathetic communities of squatters, who live in makeshift houses, and eke out a living by fishing and scouring the near-by city dumps for odd necessities".At the time, the southern shore was still marshland.Although fourteen single-family houses were built in the 1940s, much of the neighborhood retained a rural character through the 1960s.