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Until the early 1930s, Catholics from the area worshiped at St. Kilian's in [[Farmingdale, New York|Farmingdale]]. The first Mass to be celebrated in Wyandach took place in June 1932 in a real estate building, with fund-raising eventually allowing construction of the Little Mission Chapel of the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish, completed in June 28, 1936. An adjacent parish hall opened in 1941, followed in 1950 by an additional wing and a rectory.
Until the early 1930s, Catholics from the area worshiped at St. Kilian's in [[Farmingdale, New York|Farmingdale]]. The first Mass to be celebrated in Wyandach took place in June 1932 in a real estate building, with fund-raising eventually allowing construction of the Little Mission Chapel of the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish, completed in June 28, 1936. An adjacent parish hall opened in 1941, followed in 1950 by an additional wing and a rectory.


The Franciscan Brothers{{Which?|date=July 2011}} moved their novitiate from [[Smithtown, New York|Smithtown]] to the Wyandanch parish in 1949.<ref>{{cite book |title=A.M.D.G. The Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal: Wyandanch, L.I.: 1932–1952}}</ref><ref>cite book |title=Our Parish History," Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Golden 50th Anniversary booklet: 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |title=New Parish Hall Is Dedicated |newspaper=Suffolk County News (Sayville) |date=December 5, 1941 |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Richard |last=Firstman |title=Church's Safety Net for the Needy |newspaper=Newsday |date=November 21, 1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Mark |last=Henry |title=Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors; Hearts to Help |newspaper=Newsday |date=December 2, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Scott |last=Minerbrook |title=A Battle in the War on Hunger |newspaper=Newsday}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite book |title=A.M.D.G. The Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal: Wyandanch, L.I.: 1932–1952}}</ref><ref>cite book |title=Our Parish History," Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Golden 50th Anniversary booklet: 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |title=New Parish Hall Is Dedicated |newspaper=Suffolk County News (Sayville) |date=December 5, 1941 |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Richard |last=Firstman |title=Church's Safety Net for the Needy |newspaper=Newsday |date=November 21, 1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Mark |last=Henry |title=Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors; Hearts to Help |newspaper=Newsday |date=December 2, 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite newspaper |first=Scott |last=Minerbrook |title=A Battle in the War on Hunger |newspaper=Newsday}}</ref>


===Lutheranism===
===Lutheranism===

Revision as of 01:10, 13 August 2011

For the Chief of the Montaukett in the 1600s, see Wyandanch (sachem).
Wyandanch, New York
CDP
Motto: 
" We Believe "
U.S. Census Map
U.S. Census Map
CountryUnited States
StateNew York
CountySuffolk
Area
 • Total4.4 sq mi (11.3 km2)
 • Land4.4 sq mi (11.3 km2)
 • Water0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation
56 ft (17 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total10,546
 • Density2,410.8/sq mi (930.8/km2)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code
11798
Area code631
FIPS code36-83294Template:GR
GNIS feature ID0971769Template:GR

Wyandanch is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 10,546 at the 2000 census.Template:GR

History

This hamlet is named after Chief Wyandanch, a leader of the Montaukett Native American tribe during the 17th-century. Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park (1875), and Wyandance (1893), the area of scrub oak and pine barrens south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch in 1903 by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to honor Chief Wyandanch and end confusion between travelers getting off at the West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. The history of the hamlet has been shaped by waves of immigrants.

Native Americans

No archaeological evidence of permanent Native American settlements in Wyandanch has been discovered. Native Americans hunted and gathered fruits and berries in what is now Wyandanch/Wheatley Heights.

The Massapequa Indians deeded the northwest section (of what now is the Town of Babylon) to Huntington in the Baiting Place Purchase of 1698. The northeast section of the Town of Babylon "pine brush and plain" was deeded to Huntington by the Secatogue Indians in the Squaw Pit Purchase of 1699. Lorena Frevert reported in 1949 that in the Baiting Place Purchase the Massapequa Indians "reserved the right of fishing and 'gathering plume and hucel bearyes."[1]

Earliest English settlers: 1706-1874

Wyandanch (West Deer Park before 1903) evolved out of what was originally known as the Lower Half Way Hollow Hills. The area was first settled by Captain Jacob Conklin after he was given a tract of land in what is now Wheatley Heights by his father, Timothy Conklin, about 1706. Gradually, pioneers from Huntington began settling along the southern slope of the Half Way Hollow Hills as they purchased farm and forestlands from the Conklins. What is known today as Wyandanch, originated with the establishment of the West Deer Park LIRR station in 1875. The present-day Wyandanch railroad station sits on the site of the 1875 station on the Long Island Rail Road.[2] Jacob Conklin's 1710 "Pirate House" was the first house built in what became the Town of Babylon.[3]

West Deer Park/Wyandance/Wyandanch: 1872-1903

The LIRR built the original West Deer Park railroad station, which incorporated a post office, in May 1875 at the request of General James J. Casey, a brother-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant. Casey had purchased the 1000 acre Nathanial Conklin estate in 1874 and he wanted a rail depot and post office located closer than the LIRR Deer Park depot that had opened in 1853. The station name was changed to Wynadanch in 1903 to avoid confusion with the Deep Park station, and it was demolished in 1958.[4][5][6]

The first lots were sold near the station, around the time of a Long Island land boom in 1872. These were offered by a realtor named Charles Schleier, who tempted potential purchasers, describing the area as being "The finest, healthiest location, good for till soil, splendid water, good market for produce, rapid and cheap transit", and as "level land and hills, romantic scenery, fine clay land, mineral springs; the most beautiful place for private residence and garden".[7][8][9] His efforts resulted in the first arrivals of German and German-American residents.[10]

Grant's second son, Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant, purchased the Casey estate in 1882.[11] After the demise of Grant and Ward bank in 1884, which caused the financial ruin of the Grant family, the estate was sold to Abraham H. Jonas for $60,000.[12]

In April 1903, the 1343 acre ex-Conklin estate and historic cemetery was sold to Bishop Charles Edward McDonnell of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, who resumed the bottling of spring water from the Colonial Spring. Eventually the Mc Donnell property became the Catholic Youth Organization's (CYO) summer camp in Wyandanch.[13]

On March 8, 1907, the Wyandanch post office was moved from the LIRR depot to Anthony Kirchner's General Store and Hotel on Merritt Avenue diagonally across from the railroad station. [14]

German-Americans: 1900-1955

Between 1900 and 1955, the dominant ethnic groups in Wyandanch were the German-Americans and Austrian-Americans. The earliest homes built in Wyandanch south of the LIRR were built by German and Austrian-American families. About a hundred "honest and frugal" German and Austrian-American families lived in Sheet Nine of the City of Breslau as early as the 1880s. Many members of these Sheet Nine families were skilled workers, gardeners, carpenters, plumbers, stable workers and servants on the nearby August Belmont estate and horse breeding establishment in North Babylon (1865) and on the Corbin, Guggenheim and Phelps estates in North Babylon. Sheet Nine Germans and Austrians also worked in the Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta works and cut brush and pulled stumps for the construction of Long Island Avenue (Conklin Street) in 1895. In addition to tending their own farms, they also worked for the Pinelawn Cemetery after 1910, St. Charles Cemetery after 1914, New Montefiore Cemetery after 1928 and the Long Island National Cemetery after 1937.

Prosperous German and Austrian-Americans also lived in the hilly, secluded and sylvan Carintha Heights section, west of Conklin Street, which was developed by Brosl Hasslacher after the construction of William K. Vanderbilt's Motor Parkway. Hasslacher helped Vanderbilt assemble plots of land in Wheatley Heights for the right-of-way for his state-of-the-art parkway. Hasslacher built the Chateau Lodge (later the very popular Chateau Restaurant) off Hasslacher Blvd. (later Chateau Drive).

Irish-Americans: 1920s and 1930s

Beginning in the 1920s and extending into the 1930s, intrepid working-class settlers (recently arrived from County Donegal in Ireland) began building small wood-frame bungalow-type homes in the dangerous fire-prone pine barrens in Wyandance Springs Park-there were no springs, no park and no roads- and in Home Acres in the area bounded by Straight Path, Long Island Avenue, Little East Neck Road and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue).

Irish and Irish-American families built homes in the pine barrens in Wyandanch. These pioneering Irish built their homes on land they had purchased in the 1920s land bubble from realtor Harry Levey in Wyandance Spring Park or Home Acres. Home Acres was located between Brooklyn Avenue and Grunwedel Avenue. The newcomers wanted to escape from the crowded and economically depressed conditions in Manhattan and The Bronx and enjoy the fresh pine air, privacy and lower costs of rural Wyandanch yet be within an hours ride of the "City" on the LIRR. The Moorhead family (originally from County Cork) built their home on S. 27th Street near Long Island Avenue and have lived in Wyandanch for almost seventy-five years.

More affluent and prominent Irish-American families in Wyandanch (pillars of the community and the Catholic Church) lived nearer the "village" in more prosperous homes with larger plots of land. Catherine "Kitty" McMahon, a Democrat, was postmistress in Wyandanch, having been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from September 1933 until November 1948.[15]

African-Americans: 1920s and 1930s

African-Americans have lived in Wyandanch for almost a century. In the 1920s African-American families bought plots of land and built their own homes in the "Little Farms" section of the West Babylon school district between Straight Path, Little East Neck Road and Gordon Avenue.[citation needed]

In the Upper Little Farms section bounded by Straight Path, Little East Neck Road and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) pioneering upwardly mobile African-American families also began building their own homes. Mortimer Cumberbach and Ignatius Davidson opened their C and D Cement Block Corp. on Booker Avenue at Straight Path on December 6, 1928; as late as the mid-1950s, C & D Cement Block was the only large business owned and operated by African-Americans in Suffolk County.

Pioneering Italian-Americans: 1920s-1940s

In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Italian-American families moved into Wyandanch and were very active in business, politics and the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, most businesses in Wyandanch (grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, gasoline stations and auto repair shops, liquor stores, butcher shops, barber shops, bars and lumber yards) were owned and operated by either Italian-American of German-American entrepreneurs.

Hispanic pioneers: 1940s-1960s

Hispanic families began to settle in Wyandanch in the late 1940s since the community offered affordable housing and land, within easy commuting distance of nearby defense plants and Pilgrim, Edgewood, Central Islip and Kings Park State Mental hospitals-where jobs were plentiful.

Population growth in the 1940s

In the 1930s and 1940s, additional families joined the original Irish pioneers in the pine barrens west of S. 18th Street and Straight Path.

Origins of Carver Park and racial transformation: 1951-53

In March 1951, Taca Homes offered expandable four-room Cape Cod style homes for sale in Wyandanch on a "non-racial" basis at the Carver Park development at Straight Path and Booker Avenue. The homes with basement, hot-water heat and tile baths sold for $7,200 and were eligible for Federal Housing Administration loan insurance. Carver Park was advertised as "interracial housing."[citation needed] Homes in the second section of Carver Park were purchased almost exclusively by African-Americans. The building of Carver Park and then the construction of Lincoln Park on Parkway Boulevard between Straight Path and Mount Avenue in 1956, with over 400 homes, triggered the transformation of Wyandanch from a mostly white community in 1950 to a majority African-American community in 1960. Many of the whites who lived south of the LIRR relocated and lower middle class African-Americans bought modest, individually-built homes in Wyandanch Springs Park and in the "Tree streets" area east of Straight Path.[citation needed]

Upwardly mobile African-American families established homes south of the LIRR in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these families--both middle class and working class--purchased homes in Wyandanch because they were denied opportunities to move into other fast developing white housing tracts on Long Island (such as Levittown) due to exclusionist real estate practices: steering, restrictive covenants, red-lining or price points.[citation needed]

The rapid development of Wyandanch in the 1950s as one of the largest African-American communities in Suffolk County transformed Wyandanch politically into a hamlet, which by 1960 voted overwhelmingly Democratic. In the 1950s and 1960s the political interest of African-Americans in Wyandanch was mainly focus on winning seats on the Wyandanch Board of Education.[16]

Racial disturbances-August 1967

Racial tensions in Wyandanch in 1967 were similar to those across the United States. On the first three nights of August 1967, racial disturbances broke out in Wyandanch as small groups of young African-American adults reportedly smashed windows in three stores, overturned two cars, set fire to the auditorium of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School on Mount Avenue, set fires at the Wyandanch VFW Hall and ambulance garage at S. 20th Street and Straight Path, threw stones at the Wyandanch Fire House and pelted police officers with rocks and bottles.

Suffolk County officials intervened quickly and inventoried problems included joblessness, lack of bus access to area businesses and factories, a lack of recreational facilities for youth, and a lack of African-American representation in the police force. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., added to the unease, though no violence was reported.[17]

As a result of the August 1967 disturbances in Wyandanch, governments, private businesses, the Wyandanch School District, community church groups and individuals, residents and non-residents, acted to address the numerous problems facing the community. The U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and its Wyandanch Community Action Center worked to improve bus routes, develop job training programs and assist the indigent with accessing government services. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P) built a modern supermarket in downtown Wyandanch at the corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue. Today, this building houses Suffolk County's Martin Luther King, Jr Community Health Center.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 10,546 people, 2,525 households, and 2,113 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 2,410.8 per square mile (931.8/km²). There were 2,776 housing units at an average density of 634.6/sq mi (245.3/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 3.9% White, 77.7% African American, 0.01% Native American, 0.01% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 6.26% from other races, and 4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.35% of the population. [18]

Media

In 1949, the trustees of the Community Presbyterian Church in Deer Park, began publishing the Deer Park News-Wyandanch News as an eight-page mimeo each Thursday. The paper later expanded into a tabloid size weekly The Deer Park-Wyandanch News under the editorship of noted writer, Verne Dyson. Unfortunately, almost all these newspapers have been lost. One volume of the Deer Park Wyandanch News exists in the Town of Babylon archives at Phelps Lane Park.[19]

Transportation

Roads

The original roads in West Deer Park Wyandanch were Colonial Springs Road and Main Avenue, Little East Neck Road, Upper Belmont Road (now Mount Avenue)and Straight Path. All were esablished before 1900 by the Conklins or the Belmonts. What is now called Long Island Avenue (established in 1895) was originally known as Conklin Street, designed to provide easier access between the village of Farmingdale and the new real estate sites in the future Wyandanch.[20] A section of William K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP) toll road (1908). LIMP had two concrete overpass bridges crossing hollows at Little East Neck Road and Colonial Springs Road (across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office). The parkway (abandoned in 1938) was dug up and the bridges demolished in the early 1960s to make room for the Westwood Village housing estate in Wheatley Heights.

Working class Wyandanch was sandwiched in between the wealthy estates of the: Belmonts, the Corbins and the Guggenhiems in North Babylon, and the Vanderbilts and the Baruchs in Wheatley Heights. What is now known as Wheatley Heights was mapped out as real estate sub-divisions of Wyandanch (including Wheatley Heights Estates, and Harlem Park) by Bellerose developer, William Geiger, (as in Geiger Lake park and pool) in 1913 following the development of the Long Island Motor Parkway. The filed lot sub-divisions south of the LIRR and east of Straight Path was known as the Colonial Springs Development Corp property. These lots ran from Straight Path to the Carll's River.[21]

In 1941, Robert Moses' Southern State Parkway was opened to Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. Wyandanch residents were able to enter and exit the parkway at Exit 36 at Straight Path in West Babylon. The Southern State Parkway made the African-American community in Little Farms section in southern Wyandanch less isolated. Besides, African-Americans in Wyandanch had much social interaction with the older, more established, North Amityville African-American community (dating to at least the 1820s); the Southern State Parkway made interaction between African-Americans in Wyandanch and in North Amityville and in Breslau Gardens in East Famingdale easier. The opening of the Southern State Parkway also allowed the development of affordable housing tracts in West Babylon (such as Legion Park) after 1950.[22]

Railroad

Main article: Wyandanch (LIRR station)

In 1875, a station was built in Wyandanch on the Long Island Rail Road. It was demolished in June 1958 and replaced with a building which in turn was replaced in 1986.[23][24][25]

Miniature railroad built in Wyandanch: 1948

In December 1948 track was laid by the New York Live Steamer Society between the LIRR and Merritt Avenue at North 17th Street for a miniature train. The train was powered by steam locomotives using coal fired scale model Long Island Rail Road locomotives generating 100 pounds of steam pressure. By 1951 three miniature engines were in operation on Sundays and holidays, "two of them steam and the other diesel." The miniature railway moved to Freeport, in 1953, when the LIRR needed the land which the New York Live Steamer Society had been using without charge.[26]

Government services

Fire service

To combat the danger of frequent forest fires, the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. was established in 1925 and incorporated in 1928. A new fire station was built in 1959, and a second one was added in 1964. Water wells were drilled in the 1950s.[27]

Medical services

Ambulance service began in 1951 with the community-formed Wyandanch Ambulance Club.[28] Other volunteer squads operated as well, and in 1980 the non-profit Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corps was formed.[29][30]

The Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center, a community health center, was opened in 1968, and moved into a new building in 19778.[31]

Public water

As late as 1980, hundreds of homeowners in Wyandanch were not served by the public water mains of the Suffolk County Water Authority but relied on private water wells. After community action, public water was extended to thousands of home in Wyandanch, West Babylon and North Babylon by the late 1980s.[32]

Education

Wyandanch was part of the Deer Park school district until 1923. Deer Park built the first permanent school building in Wyandanch on Straight Path at 20th Street in 1913. A modern Wyandanch grade school opened in September 1937, built for $120,000, $54,000 of which provided by the New Deal Public Works Authority.[33] An addition to the Straight Path school was built in 1949 to accommodate the growing population.

In 1967, seven Wyandanch parents petitioned Dr. Gordon Wheaton, the Third Supervisory District principal, to dissolve the Wyandanch School District No. 9. The parents, supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also asked Dr. Wheaton to order the 2,295 students in the Wyandanch schools (86 per cent of whom were African-American) to be divided equally into the more affluent and predominantly white surrounding Half Hollow Hills, Deer Park, North Babylon, West Babylon and Farmingdale school districts. The Wyandach school board (consisting of five African-Americans and one white man) opposed, and noted that the recently hired Superintendent of Schools had proposed a "$1,000,000 program designed to make Wyandanch a model school district." The superintendent noted that "the uprooting of culturally disadvantaged students to schools where the educational program is planned for the middle class would have damaging effects on our community's children." Rather than wait for a decision by Dr. Wheaton, the NAACP appealed directly to Dr. Allen, the chief of the State Education Department. On July 24, 1968, Allen rejected the petition to dissolve the Wyandanch School District; he told The New York Times that "serious obstacles imposed by existing law" prevented "dissolution of the district," which the Times reported "is now 91.5 per cent non white."[34]

In 1979, teachers in the Wyandanch School District went on strike for two months. The Wyandanch Teacher's Association demanded a 32 percent wage increase over three years, limitation of class size to 32 students, and teacher input in educational policy decisions. A 13.3% was turned down; a final compromise granted the teachers a 19.5% salary increase.[35]

In 2010-11, the New York State Department of Education removed the Wyandanch Memorial High School from its "Needs Improvement" list and restored it to "In Good Standing" status for the 2010–11 school year.[36][37]

Elementary schools

In 1956, the Mount Avenue Elementary School was opened, at a cost of $1,155,000. The next year, influenced by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the school was renamed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr..

On October 2, 1966 the $1.3 million, 29-room, Milton L. Olive Elementary School was opened at Garden City Avenue and South 37th Street with 870 pupils. The school was named for Milton Lee Olive III, an African-American private from Chicago who served in Vietnam where he saved the lives of four of his comrades by falling on an enemy grenade, an act for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 70% of the students in the Wyandanch School District were African-American in 1966.[38]

Junior-senior high school

In August 1958, the Wyandanch Board of Education began planning the development of a junior-senior high school for Wyandanch. Wyandanch started a 9th Grade class in 1957-8 and added a class a year until the high school opened. The School District obtained 10 acres (40,000 m2) between South 32nd Street and Little East Neck Road and between Garden City Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue by condemnation for the high school and its athletic fields. The groundbreaking for the school took place on December 6, 1959, and the school opened in September 1961.[39]

LaFrancis Hardiman Early Childhood Center

The LaFrancis Hardiman Early Childhood Center opened for pre-K education in 1969 and was named for a resident who had been killed in the Vietnam War in 1967.[40][41][42] The original center was replaced in 1999 by the LaFrancis Hardiman Early Childhood Wing of the Martin Luther King Elementary School, having been demolished in 1996.[43]

Wyandanch College Center

A liberal arts college was started in Wyandanch, with evening classes for over 200 students, in early October 1969, but soon closed.[44]

Day Care Center: 1973

Following the August 1967 disturbances, the Wyandanch Day Care Center was opened on Commonwealth Boulevard. The Wyandanch school district first provided space for 35 children in a classroom in the Straight Path Elementary School and later provided room in an empty building adjacent to the Milton. L. Olive Elementary School. Ground was broken for the new center on September 13, 1970, and the Wyandanch Day Care Center opened on February 25, 1973. The two-story, red brick, eight-classroom Day Care Center was constructed with a $1 million loan from the New York State Social Services Department.[45][46][47]

Public library

In April 1974, the construction of a public library was approved. Initially operating from two rented portable classrooms, the permanent building eventually opened in 1989.[48]

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.3 km²), all land. Wyandanch is a suburb of New York City. It is served by Exit 36 on the Southern State Parkway and Exit 50 on the Long Island Expressway.

Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park (1875), and Wyandance (1888), the area of scrub oak and pitch pine on the outwash plain south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch by the Long Island Rail Road and the US Post Office in 1903. The LIRR wanted to honor the sachem of the Montaukett Native American tribe, who deeded much of Suffolk to the English, and to minimize confusion between the nearby West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. Historic Wyandanch was bounded by the Huntington Town line on the north, the Carll's River wetlands on the east, the southern boundary of the Wyandanch school district and Wellwood Avenue and Little East Neck Road on the west. It included four school districts: Sweet Hollow # 8; Wyandanch #9 (Deer Park # 7 before 1923), North Babylon # 3 and West Babylon #2. Topographically, Wyandanch's nutrient-poor loam and sandy soils are part of the outwash plain which was formed as the last glacier melted about 10,000 BCE. The outwash plain slopes gently towards Belmont Lake State Park from the Half Way Hollow Hills terminal moraine and from Little East Neck Road.

In the mid and late 20th century, the Wheatley Heights area (Half Hollow Hills School District) developed as a separate community (due to class and racial dynamics) but is still served by the Wyandanch Fire Department and the US Postal Service. Wheatley Heights being closer to the glacial hills enjoys better soils, was utilized as productive farmland in the 19th century, and supports non-pine barrens, broad-leaf trees.[49]

Industry

The early history of Wyandanch was mainly agricultural. West Deer Park was quite productive agriculturally in the nineteenth century. Before 1854 "peaches were produced in large quantities and at profitable returns on the backbone hills of the island, which lie north of the main line of the Long Island railroad, near West Deer Park or Wyandance station," the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1885. In 1854, seventeen-year locusts so devastated the crops "that cultivation on any extensive scale has not been attempted since."[50]

Water bottling

Water from the Colonial Spring in West Deer Park (now Wheatley Heights) was bottled in small blue embossed "West Deer Park" water bottles by the Colonial Springs Mineral Company between 1845 and 1854. The bottlers claimed it had "special medicinal properties." When Dr. George Hopkins (Brooklyn) ran the Colonial Springs bottling works: "A bottling house was built and the springs were welled in with enameled brick and covered with glass tops."[51]

Brick manufacture

Millions of building bricks were molded and baked at the Walker & Conklin and W.H. and F.A. Barlett brickyards using the Cretaceous clay and fine sand found in the area. The bricks were shipped out by railroad using a LIRR spur which ran along what is now N. 23rd Street. In October 1888 the Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta Corp. was organized on the site of the abandoned Walker and Conklin brickyard to produce solid and hollow building bricks. In 1875, the best "hard" West Deer Park bricks were selling for $7 per 1,000 delivered, but the plant was destroyed by a forest fire in the spring of 1893.[52]

Pickle farms

In the 1880s, cucumbers for the pickle trade were successfully grown in West Deer Park. As the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1882: "To-day, in West Deer Park alone, there are one hundred acres of the finest farmland in the country devoted to this crop and on the average the farmers owing them will realize $150 per acre." The pickle farms were located north of the Colonial Springs Road and Main Avenue, in what is now Wheatley Heights.[53]

Industry

The Conservative Gas Corp. established a propane bottling business in Wyandanch in 1929. Today it operates as Amerigas Propane LP.In 1947, Joseph F. Walsh established a paper box factory in Wyandanch and Ignatius Davidson and Mortimer Cumberbach, expanded their C & D Cement Block factory-making it the largest African-American owned business in Suffolk County, NY. Fairchild Guided Missiles established a large factory in Wyandanch in 1951-2 and built the Lark anti-aircraft missile and the Petral anti-sub and ship missile for the U.S. Navy. Fairchild Stratos left Wyandanch in 1963 and was replaced by Grumman Aircraft, which fabricated custom-built fibreglass and plexiglass sections and nacelles for U.S. Navy aircraft. Grumman left the community in 1977. Max Staller built the first supermarket and shopping center in Wyandanch in 1955. All these businesses were located near the Long Island Rail Road track in Wyandanch. Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, light industrial factories were established in Wyandanch in the northern section of the Pinelawn Industrial Park in southwest Wyandanch and on the east side of Straight Path between two African-American housing estates.

Sources: Dyson, 118-9; "Paper Firm Buys Long Island Site," New York Times, October 5, 1947:R3; "Start This month on New Fairchild Plant," Newsday, March 2, 1951: 51; Grumman archives, Bethpage, NY; "Lunn Laminates Moving to Town," Babylon Town Leader, November 23, 1961. Roy Douglas' recollections

Recreation and culture

Geiger Lake

In July 1945, the Town of Babylon accepted a deed from the owners of 40-acre (160,000 m2) Geiger Lake property (Wheatley Heights Estate, Inc.) located between Long Island Avenue and Grand Boulevard on the border between Wyandanch and Deer Park. The Babylon Town Board voted $3,500 to improve the "small lake." In 1946, Babylon cut the brush around the lake, dredged and cleared it, and rehabilitated "a sturdy log cabin" into concession and comfort stations. The Geiger Lake Town Beach and picnic grove was opened to the public on July 21, 1946. Geiger Memorial Lake was so popular that by 1948 "many houses" had been built on Elk Street on land with lake views.[54]

The town spent $156,000 refurbishing the Geiger Lake Pool in Wyandanch in the summer of 1989.[55]

Youth recreation

One of the major complaints voiced by young adults in Wyandanch after the August 1967 unrest was the lack of positive recreational activities. Buddy A youth center opened in January 1974,[56] and in 1984 the Wyandanch Youth Services, Inc. (WYS) was formed. Since 1998 WYS has operated a full service from a new purpose-built youth center.[57]

Religion

Catholicism

Until the early 1930s, Catholics from the area worshiped at St. Kilian's in Farmingdale. The first Mass to be celebrated in Wyandach took place in June 1932 in a real estate building, with fund-raising eventually allowing construction of the Little Mission Chapel of the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish, completed in June 28, 1936. An adjacent parish hall opened in 1941, followed in 1950 by an additional wing and a rectory.

[58][59][60][61][62][63]

Lutheranism

Lutherans in Wyandanch held their first services from August 1934 in the Republican Hall. In June 1938 the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was opened.[64]

Other religious institutions in Wyandanch

  • Community Nazarene Church, 58 Cumberbach Street: 1950

The third oldest church in Wyandanch. The Community Nazarene Church was "founded in 1950 by the late Rev. Walter Eugene Hazard." The sanctuary of the Community Nazarene Church was opened in the early 1970s. Rev. Hazard led the congregation for 47 years until he retired in 1997. Since 1997, the Community Nazarene Church has been directed by Senior Pastor, Rev. David L. Solomon. The Church of the Nazarene celebrated its 60th anniversary on October 23, 2010.[65]

  • First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Wyandanch: 1995

The First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Wyandanch was established in 1995 Under the pastorate of Rev. Linda Smith. The initial church services were helf in a church member's home, later in the Haskill's Funeral Home on Straight Path in Wyandanch and even later in a store front in Wyandanch. In April 2006, Bishop Richard F. Norris appointed Rev. Constance Carter-David as pastor. The 79 active members of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Wyandanch now hold church services in the Wyandanch Senior Nutrition Center, 28 Wyandanch Avenue, Wyandanch, NY.[66]

  • House of Prayer Church of God in Christ, 113 Mount Avenue: 1988

The House of Prayer Church of God in Christ was created by Elder Charles Bond in May 1988. The initial service was conducted in Pastor Bond's house at 20 Russell Court in Copiague. Elder Bond moved the church to a rented storefront in Wyandanch at 1551-A Straight Path. In 1990, "the church had saved enough money to purchase its present building located at 113 Mount Avenue in Wyandanch." The Opening Day Dedication Service of the House of Prayer Church of God in Christ took place on Sunday, June 14, 1992. In 1999, the church obtained " a large tract of land known as 1449–1453 Straight Path, where the new sanctuary will be erected.[67]

Notable natives

Notes and references

  1. ^ Lorena M. Frevert, "The Town of Babylon," in Nassau-Suffolk: Two Great Counties, edited by Paul Bailey: Lewis Publishing, 1949:359-60.
  2. ^ Chauncey L.C. Ditmars, "A Story of the Conklin Family," Long Islander (Huntington) June 5, 1936: 4; Verne Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, 1957.
  3. ^ Jasmin Frankel, "Teen's Eagle Scout Project Honors Lineage," Newsday online, April 5, 2011.
  4. ^ "West Deer Park". South Side Signal. June 5, 1875. p. 2.
  5. ^ Seyfried, Vincent P. The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History: Part Three: The Age of Expansion. p. 189.
  6. ^ Seyfried, Vincent P. The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History: Part Six: The Golden Age: 1881-1890. pp. 261–2.
  7. ^ "BRESLAU! BRESLAU! Charles S. Schleier, Real Estate Dealer". Brooklyn Eagle. December 22, 1877. p. 3.
  8. ^ "BRESLAU! BRESLAU! GRAND EXCURSION MONDAY, June 19". Brooklyn Eagle. June 6, 1878. p. 1.
  9. ^ ""TO THE CITY OF BRESLAU". Brooklyn Eagle. July 3, 1879. p. 3.
  10. ^ Douglas, Roy (July 1987). "A Letter From Henry A. Brown". Long Island Forum. p. 152.
  11. ^ "Timely Topics". The Long Island Traveler (Southold). June 9, 1882. p. 2.
  12. ^ "The Sheep Fund". The Long Islander. May 16, 1884. p. 2.
  13. ^ "The Old Conklin Farm at West Deer Park Sold," Brooklyn Eagle, October 26, 1902: 9; "Bishop Mc Donnell Gets Conklin Estate," New York Times, April 21, 1903: 8.
  14. ^ Rodriquez, J. Fred (Winter 1984). "The Wyandanch Post Office". Long Island Postal History Journal: 1–5.
  15. ^ Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History; "Drowning Girl Is Saved By Lifeguard, 16," Newsday, August 10, 1953: S20. Ed. Note: This story explains how Wyandanch resident, Ed Sheehan, 16, a lifeguard at Babylon's Geiger Lake park saved a Brooklyn girl from drowning.
  16. ^ "Non-Racial Dwellings Opened at Wyandanch," New York Times, March 11, 1951, 219; Louis B Schlivek, "Wyandanch: A Case Study in Conflict Over Subsidized Housing," in The Future of Suffolk County: A Supplement to the Second Regional Plan: A Draft For Discussion," November 1974: 52-56; Richard Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of an African-American Suburb, 1971.
  17. ^ "When news of the tragic assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reached Wyandanch on Thursday evening, April 4, 1968, residents were stunned, saddened and angered. But, there was no violence in Wyandanch--unlike the major riots which erupted in many African-American communities in the U.S. The Wyandanch School District closed classes on Friday, April 5. In the months after Dr. King's killing, numerous efforts were made to assist Wyandanch." >Abraham Rabinovich, "Wyandanch Negroes Cite Recreation Need," Newsday, August 5, 1966; Frances X. Clines, "Violence Strikes L,I, Village Again,: New York Times, August 3, 1967: 18; "LI Violence in 2nd Night, "Long Island Press," August 3, 1967: 1; Frances X. Clines, "Wyandanch Youths List Complaints inMove to End Strife," New York Times, August 5, 1967: 8; John Childs and Gurney Williams, "Dennison Vows Wyandanch Aid," Newsday, August 10, 1967: 3; Carole Ashkinaze and Maurice Swift, "Suffolk CORE, NAACP Plan United Effort," Newsday, April 14, 1968: 23.
  18. ^ For the actual ACS data, search for Wyandanch at census.gov
  19. ^ Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History; Leroy Douglas recollections and archives.
  20. ^ Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," 1982.
  21. ^ Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957. On Long Island Avenue see: "Farmingdale," The Long Islander (Huntington) June 1, 1895: 4
  22. ^ "State To Extend Parkway," Suffolk County News (Sayville) February 7, 1941: 9; Charles G. Bennett, "Newest Link In Parkway: Three-Mile Extension of Southern State Artery To Open Soon," New York Times, November 2, 1941; "Southern State Parkway Extension to Belmont Lake State Park is Now Open," Suffolk County News (Sayville) December 5, 1941: 9; George M. Mathieu, "Parkway Link Opens," New York Times, December 17, 1939; Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," Douglas: "Conklin Street Cutoff."
  23. ^ "LIRR to Move Station At Wyandanch Crossing," Newsday, July 3, 1957
  24. ^ "Wyandanch to Get New RR Station, Babylon Town News, February, 1958;
  25. ^ "Historic L.I.R.R. Station Is Razed," New York Times, June 11, 1958, 37.
  26. ^ Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History
  27. ^ Dyson: 120.
  28. ^ Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch History, 1957: "VFW Post Burned: LI Violence in 2nd Night", Long Island Press, August 3, 1967: 1; Francis X. Clines, "Violence Strikes LI Village Again", New York Times, August 3, 1967: 18.
  29. ^ "Wyandanch Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corp". The Wyandanch Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corp. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  30. ^ Jane Snider, "2 Offices Join Ambulance Sanfu Probe", Newsday, February 15, 1979: 26; Town O.K.'s Wyandanch Ambulance District," Babylon Beacon, December 4, 1980: 1; Scott Minerbrook, "A Nun's Effort Revives Dying Ambulance Corps," Newsday; Don Smith and Jean Schindler, "Official Seeks Better Ambulance Service", Newsday; "Town Approves Contract With Ambulance Service", Newsday; Mark Henry, "Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors, Heart to Help", Newsday, December 2, 1990.
  31. ^ Frank Mooney, "Health Care Dedication," New York Daily News, January 23, 1978: BNL1.
  32. ^ Sources: "Town To Work Towards New Water Plan," Babylon Beacon, September 25, 1980: 1; "Babylon Seeks Public Water For All Residents By '81," Babylon Beacon, November 13, 1980: 1.
  33. ^ "Two Long Island Villages Approve Propositions for New School Buildings, " Suffolk County News (Sayville) October 25, 1935: 9; "Activities of School Supervisory Dist. 3," The Long Islander (Huntington) November 19, 1937: 12; "Deer Park Wyandanch," Lindenhurst Star, September 11, 1937; "Wyandanch Dedicates It New PWA School, "Lindenhurst Star, November 12, 1937: 9
  34. ^ C. Geral Fraser, "L.I. District First Target," New York Times, November 16, 1967; Jim Toedtman, NAACP Bids State Act On Wyandanch,' Newsday, November 16, 1967: 5; "Wyandanch Split By N.A.A.C.P. Plan," November 17, 1967: 38; John Childs, "School Board In Wyandanch Rejects Plan," Newsday; Gurney Williams, "What's Good For Wyandanch?" Newsday, January 8, 1968: 6-8W; Frances X. Clines, "State Weighing L.I. School Plan," New York Times, July 14, 1968: 32; Frances X. Clines, "Wyandanch Plan Refused By Allen," New York Times, July 26, 1968: 34.
  35. ^ Shawn G. Kennedy, "Wyandanch Teachers Strike Enters 7th Week in Standoff," New York Times, October 30, 1979: B2; "Wyandanch Teachers Gain a Tentative Pact After Long Walkout," New York Times, November 16, 1979: B4; "School Strike Ends," New York Times, November 17, 1979.
  36. ^ Oms.nysed.gov
  37. ^ P12.nysed.gov, John Hildebrand, "Schools added, taken off 'needs improvement' list," Newsday, November 4, 2010
  38. ^ "L.I. School Named For Negro Soldier Who Died a Hero," New York Times, October 3, 1966: 26.
  39. ^ News stories in Newsday and the Babylon Town Leader.
  40. ^ virtualwall.com Progressing in Education: Chief School Officer: 1968–69 Annual Report: Wyandanch Public Schools. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
  41. ^ Prados, John (2009). Vietnam: the history of an unwinnable war, 1945-1975. University of Kansas Press. pp. 226–7. ISBN 9780700616343.
  42. ^ "3 LIers Killed in Viet; One on Hill at Dak To". Newsday. November 21, 1967.
  43. ^ Altherr, Stacy (September 20, 1999). "Martin Luther King Elementary Opens New Wing". Newsday. p. G23.
  44. ^ "Propose College in Wyandanch To Train Ghetto Teachers," New York Daily News, March 6, 1969; "College Gets Moral Support," Long Island Sun, March 6, 1969; "Wyandanch College Plan Goes To State in 6 Weeks," Newsday, March 6, 1969; "Wyandanch Center 'Dream'Becomes Reality Wednesday," Long Island Press, September 29, 1969.
  45. ^ Kent D. Smith, "Day Care Group Breaks Ground, Newsday, September 14, 1970
  46. ^ Ahmid-Chett Green, "Helping Mothers Get Off Welfare," Newsday, July 23, 1973: A11
  47. ^ "The 'mayor' of Wyandanch, Newsday, February 4, 1973; Harriet Rosenberg, "Open Wyandanch Day Care Center," Babylon Beacon, March 1, 1973: 1,6; http://open.nysenate.gov/openleg/api/1.0/html/bill/J390
  48. ^ "Wyandanch Library". Suffolk.lib.ny.us.
  49. ^ Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" US Geological Survey Map of Long Island: 1930.
  50. ^ "Peach Culture on Long Island, Brooklyn Eagle, November 3, 1885:25.
  51. ^ "Random Thoughts," South Side Signal, April 4, 1919:2; George Wm Fisher and Donald H. Weinhart, A Historical Guide to Long Island Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies: 1840-1970: Nassau-Suffolk-Brooklyn-Queens, Long Island Antique Bottle Association, 1999. The Pennypacker Collection at the East Hampton Public Library holds several documents on water bottling in Werstg Deer Park.
  52. ^ New York State Museum: 48th Annual Report to the Regents: 1894, Albany,N.Y.: University of the State of New York, 1895: 218-220; Verne Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, 1957,91-105, Roy Douglas, "Pine Barrens Pioneers," Long Island Forum, November 1982: 218-222
  53. ^ "Pickles and Peaches: Their Growth at West Deer Park, Brooklyn Eagle, September 24, 1882: 3.
  54. ^ "Seek Lake For Kids' Beach," Newsday, May 15, 1945; "Kids To Get New Swimmin' Hole," Newsday,June 12, 1945; "Swimmin' Hole In Wyandanch May Get Aid From Township," Lindenhurst Star, July 6, 1945; "O.K. Swimmin' Hole," Lindenhurst Star, July 13, 1945; Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch History 1957; The Long Islander (Huntington) "Babylon Dedicates Geiger Park Area," July 4, 1957: 11; "William Geiger" obituary, New York Times, June 14, 1934.
  55. ^ Dele Olojede, "Geiger Lake Pool Renovation OKd: Town Allots $156,000 for Wyandanch Work," Newsday, March 3, 1989: 33.
  56. ^ Kay Cordtz, "Nickels and Dime Add Up to a Center," New York Times, January 27, 1974.
  57. ^ Olojede, Dele (April 12, 1987). "A Site for Growing Youth Agency: Donation of Building to Center Considered". Newsday. p. 27.
  58. ^ A.M.D.G. The Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal: Wyandanch, L.I.: 1932–1952.
  59. ^ cite book |title=Our Parish History," Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Golden 50th Anniversary booklet: 1982}}
  60. ^ "New Parish Hall Is Dedicated". Suffolk County News (Sayville). December 5, 1941. p. 9.
  61. ^ Firstman, Richard (November 21, 1984). "Church's Safety Net for the Needy". Newsday.
  62. ^ Henry, Mark (December 2, 1990). "Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors; Hearts to Help". Newsday.
  63. ^ Minerbrook, Scott. "A Battle in the War on Hunger". Newsday.
  64. ^ "Trinity Church Opens Its Doors". Babylon Leader. June 10, 1938.
  65. ^ Communitynazarenechurch.com
  66. ^ First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Wyandanch website. first-ame-church.org
  67. ^ "House of Prayer Church of God in Christ website houseofprayercogic.org
  68. ^ Current Biography, February 2005; HCZ.org Kery Murakami, "Geoffrey Canada inspires Wyandanch grads," Newsday online, June 25, 2011.

Further reading

  • Verne Dyson, Deer Park- Wyandanch History, 1957 (Deer Park Public Library)
  • Roy Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," Long Island Forum, October, November, December, 1982 (West Islip Public Library)
  • Richard Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of a Black Suburb, Institute for Community Studies, Queens College, 1971 (Wyandanch Public Library).
  • Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch History available online at: [1]
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