History of Wyandanch

The History of Wynandanch details the history of Wynandanch, New York, United States.

Earliest settlers: 1706-1874

Wyandanch and Deer Park evolved out of what was originally known as Lower Half Hollows, in the Town of Huntington. Half Hollows was first settled by Jacob Conklin after he purchased land from the Massapequa Indians in 1706. The Native Americans hunted in Wyandanch, and discovered the valuable clay beds in Wheatley Heights but there is no evidence of major Indian settlements in Wyandanch. Some believe they thought the poor soils of the fire prone pitch pine and scrub oak land "jinxed." The Native Americans preferred to live along the rich, fish and shell fish laden waters, on the northern shore of the Great South Bay, near the Atlantic, basically where Amityville, Lindenhurst and Babylon are located today.

Conklin's "Pirate House," (1710) was the first house built in what became the Town of Babylon (1872). The oak beams for the frame of the Conklin home were taken "from the adjoining forests and are fastened with locust pins." The roof and exterior of the house were sided with chestnut shingles cut from trees on site. (Babylon separated from the town of Huntington on March 13, 1872 and the town line was located one mile (1.6 km) north of the Long Island Rail Road(LIRR) Main Line to Greenport track). It was situated on the southern slope of the Half Way Hollow Hills terminal moraine (formed by the melting waters of the last glacier-the Wisconsin Glacier- about 12,000 years ago) in what is now Wheatley Heights. Col. Platt Conklin, "an ardent patriot in the Revolution" ran the "valuable" family farm during the American Revolution. His son Nathaniel Conklin (1768-1844) one of the founders of the village of Babylon, and his grand-children owned the estate well into the nineteenth century. The historic Conklin homestead (then owned by Bishop Mc Donnell of Brooklyn) was destroyed by fire on December 17, 1918 after being inhabited for 208 years. The area became known as West Deer Park about a decade after the Long Island Railroad's track to Greenport reached Deer Park in 1842. The original English settlers-the Conklins, the Bartletts, the Seamans, the Browns and the Whitsons-lived on productive farms in Half Hollows north of Colonial Springs Road and the Old Country Road-Seaman's Road, (now Main Avenue).

Ed. Note: 2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the settlement of what is now the Town of Babylon. This is because Jacob Conklin built the first home in what is now the Town of Babylon in 1710.

Sources: James B. Cooper, "Babylon," in History of Suffolk County, N.Y. 1882: 4, 17; "The Old Conklin Farm At West Deer Park Sold," Brooklyn Eagle, October 26, 1902: 9; "Random Thoughts," The South Side Signal, April 4, 1919: 2; Lorena M. Frevert, "The Town of Babylon," Nassau and Suffolk: Two Great Counties, edited by Paul Bailey, 1949: I:361-2; Verne Dyson, The Deer-Park Wyandanch Story, 1957; Roy Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," Long Island Forum, October, November and Decemeber 1982 issues. Ed. Note: Shortly after the sale, the LIRR changed the West Deer Park station name to Wyandanch in 1903.

Valuable Peach Orchards in West Deer Park Destroyed by Seventeen Year Locusts: 1854

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, "...Nathaniel Conklin and Jesse Conklin and others... had large orchards from which they marketed thousands of baskets of peaches. Messrs. Hawley, Smith and Carmen, a firm of produce dealers in the fulton market, rented a parcel of land, also situated in these hills, known as the Nine Partner tract, upon which they established peach orchards...One year their crop was upward of twelve thousand baskets. In the summer of 1854, however, there came to Long Island a visitation of seventeen year locusts, the baleful effects of which annihilated the fair prospects of the peach growers there so effectively that cultivation on any extensive scale has not been attempted since."

Source: "Peach Culture on Long Island," Brooklyn Eagle, November 3, 1885: 25.

Pickle Farms in West Deer Park in the 1880's

In the 1880's, cucumbers for the pickle trade were successfully grown in West Deer Park. As the Brroklyn Eagle said in 1882: ""To-day, in West Deer Park alone, there are one hundred acres of the best farmland in the country devoted to this crop, and on the average the farmers owning them will realize $150 per acre. We had the pleasure of going through Mr. George W. Conklin's pickle field, comprising 15 acres. The dry weather had of course affected the vines somewhat, but the pickles seemed to be abundant, keeping a small army of pickers at work day after day. ...We saw no weeds. The pickle fields were remarkably clean, the bright green vives with their mass of yellow blossoms forming a pleasant relief to the background of the dry and parched earth."

Source: "Pickles and Peaches: Their Growth at West Deer Park," Brooklyn Eagle, September 24, 1882: 3.

This section of West Deer Park was more elevated, safer, less fire prone, broad leaf forest land. The ancient Conklin family cemetery and the famous Colonial Spring-flowing out of the heavily wooded hillside- can be seen (with permission) on the grounds of the USDAN Center for the Performing and Creative Arts-Henry Kaufmann Camp Grounds in Wheatley Heights. One can look out to the southeast and view the distant blinking Fire Island Light and the church steeples in the Village of Babylon from the top of the terminal moraine in Wheatley Heights across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office.

Water Bottling and Brick Making in West Deer Park/Wyandance

Colonial Spring water was bottled in small blue embossed "West Deer Park" bottles by the Colonial Springs Mineral Company between 1845 and 1854. The bottlers claimed it had special medicinal properties. When Dr. George Hopkins of Brooklyn ran the Colonial Spring operation: "A bottling house was built and the springs vwere welled in with enameled brick and covered with glass tops. The sale of the water was not extensive enough to warrant the continuation of bthe business and the property was sold to George S. Terry, secretary of the Union League club of New York. He represented certain individuals, among them Colonel George E. Waring of New York street cleaning fame, who contemplated organizing a cemetery corporation, and turning the land into a cemetery..." The bottled water was shipped out on the Long Island Railroad.

Sources: "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: Nasaau-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 West Deer Park.

Millions of building bricks were baked at the Walker & Conklin and W.H. and F.A. Bartlett brickyards on the north side of Colonial Springs Road after 1850 (on the former Conklin estate) using the unique Cretaceous clay and the fine sand found in the area. The bricks were shipped out by rail using a LIRR spur which ran along North 23rd Street-sometimes called "Bartlett's turnout." In October 1888, Henry H. Palmer's Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta Corp. (capitalized at $200,000) was organized on the site of the abandoned Walker and Conklin brickyard to produce solid and hollow building bricks. In 1875, the best "hard" Wyandance bricks were selling for $7 per 1,000 delivered. The brick works were destroyed by a forest fire in the spring of 1893 but remenents of the brick works remained as late as the 1950's.

Sources: New York State Museum: 48th Annual Report to the Regents: 1894, Albany, NY: University of the State of New York, 1895: 218-220; Verne Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, 1957, pp.91–93,94-105; Roy Douglas, "Pine Barrens Pioneers," Long Island Forum, November 1982: 218–222.

West Deer Park/Wyandanch: 1875-1903

One might wonder why the Deer Park (established about 1853 by Charles Wilson) and West Deer Park railroad stations were located only a mile and a quarter apart in what was a very sparsely settled area. The Long Island Rail Road built the rustic wooden two story 18' x 35' West Deer Park railroad station at the northeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue in May 1875 at the request of General James J. Casey, a brother-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant. The 1875 West Deer Park station (demolished in 1958) was identical to the lovely LIRR station in St James. The restored St. James station is now the second oldest (and perhaps the most attractive) LIRR station on Long Island. Casey ( a one time collector for the port of New Orleans and sheriff of Suffolk County) purchased the 1,100-acre (4.5 km²) Nathaniel Conklin estate in January 1874 and wanted a rail depot located nearer his hillside estate. On August 23, 1875 the West Deer Park Post Office was established within the LIRR railroad station. The first West Deer Park postmaster was LIRR station agent, Charles W. Conklin, a wheelwright and local farmer. President Grant toured Casey's "farm" in West Deer Park in late August 1874 after the famous Civil War hero enjoyed dinner in the renowned Watson House on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon village.

The original 3,900 filed real estate lots in West Deer Park/Wyandanch were located near the railroad station and were mapped and sold in the 1872 land boom as "North Breslau" or Schleierville by Charles Schleier, the realtor who developed Breslau, later called Lindenhurst. About 500 lots were sold in the 1870s at prices ranging from $15 to $25 per lot. In the early 1890s, the fire-prone property south of the Long Island Rail Road and west of Straight Path in Wyandanch was mapped and sold as 25' x 100' "City lots" in Wyandanch Spring Park by Frederick W. Dunton and George E. Hagerman's New York and Brooklyn Suburban Investment Corporation.

In April 1903, the 1,343-acre (5.43 km²) Conklin/Casey 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 historic Colonial Spring . Mc Donnell was the second bishop of the Brooklyn Diocese. Eventually, the Mc Donnell property became the Catholic Youth Organization's CYO Summer Camp in Wyandanch and in the 1960s it became the USDAN Center for the Performing Arts after Wyandanch residents blocked a proposal to build low-cost housing on the 231-acre site.

Sources: "The Old Conklin Farm At West Deer Park Sold," Brooklyn Eagle, October 26, 1902: 9; "Bishop McDonnell Gets Conklin Estate," New York Times, April 21, 1903: 8; "Camp To Replace Housing Project," New York Times, July 17, 1960: 247; Richard F. Shepard, "A Day Arts Camp Set For Suffolk," New York Times, May 26, 1967: 56; Frances X. Clines, "A Day Camp On L.I. Will Stress Arts: 1,600 Youngsters Will Study Ballet, Music and Painting," New York Times, May 5, 1968: 117.

In the late 19th Century the LIRR operated a squat,round wooden water tank on the west side of Straight Path at Long Island Avenue. The tank stored gravity fed spring water in a mile-long two-inch iron pipe from the Colonial Spring into the LIRR's coal-burning steam engines. West Deer Park was the only LIRR "watering station" on the Main Line between Mineola and the Manor in Brookhaven. The West Deer Park post office was named Wyandance-one of many spellings of the Montaukett sachem's name- from December 20, 1888 until the spring of 1893, when the brickworks was destroyed by a forest fire. The LIRR station at West Deer Park was named Wyandance from December 1888 until June 1892-when it reverted to West Deer Park. On February 11, 1903, the LIRR permanently changed the West Deer Park station name to Wyandanch (another variation of Montaukett's name) to avoid confusion among passengers departing at the West Deer Park and Deer Park stations. On March 8, 1907, the Wyandanch post office was moved from the LIRR depot to Anthony F. Kirchner's General Store and Hotel on Merritt Avenue diagonally across from the LIRR station.

Maps in the Suffolk County Clerk's Office show that families such as the: Watkins, Stacks, Laegans, Browns and Andersons lived on the north side of the railroad near the depot and the general store/post office. Before 1900, almost no one lived in Wyandanch south of the LIRR tracks and west of Straight Path because the pitch pine and scrub oak forest there was frequently swept by destructive forest fires-many of which were ignited by sparks and burning embers blown out of the LIRR's coal and wood burning steam engines. The pitch pines, scrub oak, the occasional Black Jack Oak, the huckleberry, dwarf blueberry, bearberry bushes, ferns and lovely low-growing, Pink Ladyslipper wildflowers, thrived on the coarse, nutrient-poor, very acidic, droughty soils in the outwash plain in lower Wyandanch. Ironically, fire speeds the release of the seeds in the pitch pine cones. This vegetation was called Pine Barrens by early settlers in the colonial period since these soils were considered unproductive for either subsistence or commercial farming.

Sources: Dyson: The Deer Park Wyandanch Story, 1957: 91-106; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," October, 1982: 192-193; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," November 1982: 218-221.

German-Americans dominate Wyandanch: 1900-1955

Between 1900 and 1955 the dominant ethnic groups in Wyandanch were German-Americans and Austrian-Americans with families such as the: Hasslachers, Schultzs, Wengles,Griems,Schwartzkopfs, Becks, Engelharths,Vogels, Woops,Carlsons, Laegans, Moellers, Luthers, Roelafs, Krauses, Kramers, Nyholms, Schnieders, Prussners and Zotters living in the community. Charles Moeller operated a deli/grocery store on the west side of Straight Path at Mount Avenue and for many years served on the Wyandanch Board of Education and rose to be president of the board. He was also active in the Wyandanch Lions Club and later operated a travel agency in Lindenhurst. Emil Moeller operated a grocery store on the east side of Straight Path across from the Wyandanch Fire House. The earliest homes south of the LIRR track were built by German and Austrian-American families such as the Donner and N. Austin families on Upper Belmont Road in the 1880s and by the Prohaska, Heisman, Wilson, Moore and Avolin families on the east side of Straight Path south of Mount Avenue between 1901 and 1915. The historic pre-1900 Herman Donner house-the first house built in Wyandanch south of the LIRR,(which was located on the east side of Mount Avenue) was razed to make way for four large new homes after the Town of Babylon rejected a private cluster housing proposal for the sitein 1989. Florence Donner, Herman and Clara's daughter, married Calvin Mullen. Their daughter Rose married Ralph DiGiovanni who served in Okinawa during WWII. Their descendents now live in Delaware, Massachusetts and Alaska.

About a hundred "honest, industrious and frugal" German and Austrian-American families lived in Sheet Nine of the City of Breslau in what is now the Pinelawn Industrial Park between Otis Street and Wellwood Avenue (originally East Neck Road) and between Grunthal (now Edison Avenue) and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) as early as the 1880s. Many members of these families (who had migrated to Sheet Nine in the 1870's from Ohio and other parts of the West) such as the Neumanns, Arfstens, Mitzlaffs, and the Langs- were skilled workers, gardeners, stable workers and servants on the nearby August Belmont estate and horse breeding establishment at Belmont Lake in North Babylon , and on the Austin Corbin estate between Deer Park and Babylon. The Sheet Nine Germans also worked in the Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta Works before it burned in 1893 and cut brush and pulled stumps for the construction of Long Island Avenue (Conklin Street) in 1895. They also likely worked for the Pinelawn Cemetery after 1910, St Charles Cemetery after 1914 and for New Montefiore Cemetery after 1928.

After World War II, the German named streets in Sheet Nine were changed: Bulow Street became Alder Street; Shubarth Street became Bell Street; Pottsdam Street became Cabot Street; Friedrich Wilhelm Street became Dale Street; Nuchtern Street became Eads Street and Badike Street became Field Street. The streets east of Badike Street were Avenues A to K. Avenue K became Peary Street; Avenue J became Otis Street; Avenue I became Nancy Street; Avenue H became Mahan Street; Avenue G became Lamar Street; Avenue F became Kean Street; Avenue E became Jersey Street and Avenue A became Gleam Street. Avenues B to D were obliterated by the subsequent development of the Town of Babylon Incinerator, land fill, sandpit and ash dump. In the 1950's, African-Americans (such as the Thompsons) began to settle in Sheet Nine. After 1960 most residents ,Black and White, sold to developers of industrial sites as the Town of Babylon incinerator, dump and sandpit operations expanded.

Source: "Farmingdale," The Long Islander (Huntington)June 1, 1895: 4.

Prosperous German and Austrian Americans also lived in the hilly and sylvan Carinthia Heights section west of Conklin Street, which was developed by Brosl Hasslacher after the construction of Willie K. Vanderbilt's Long Island Motor Parkway. Brosl Hasslacher helped Mr. Vanderbilt assemble plots of land for building the Parkway and in gratitude; Mr. Vanderbilt gifted a portion of the Parkway to Mr. Hasslacher. Mr. Hasslacher built the Chateau Lodge (later the popular Chateau Restaurant) off Hasslacher Blvd. (later Chateau Drive). It was on a parking field adjacent to the restaurant that 2nd Lieutenant William A Shaw crashed his plane when he lost control while dipping its wings in salute to his wife before heading off to war. Mr.Hasslacher sustained severe burns to his face, arms and ankles while he successfully pulled to safety the unconscious pilot from the burning plane. Mr. Hasslacher was awarded a Certificate of Heroism from R.F.Nugent, Brigadiere General Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Mitchel Field. (refer to 201.22 Citation for Heroism, Air Forces, Eastern Defense Command and First Air Force, office of Air Force Commander, Mitchel Field, New York, September 10, 1943) Later Mr. Hasslacher's son worked for the U.S. government as a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and attained highest security clearance.

The fears of Nazi supporters in Suffolk sabotaging the Republic/Ranger aircraft factories in East Farmingdale was one of the reasons Route 24/Conklin Street was closed to the public in January 1941 by the Suffolk County Highway Department leader, Harry Tuthill. 1940-1 was a time of great tension in the US over World War II in Europe and Asia. As late as 1960, stories were still told in Wyandanch about a German American home made candy maker who lived on Long Island Avenue and S. 30th Street, (the Krauses) and who had the family business name painted in large white letters on the red roof of their home/ business: "Mrs. Krause's Home Made Candies." The preposterous assertion was that the roof sign "was to direct German bombers to the aircraft factories in Farmingdale and to New York City." The German and Austrian Americans in Wyandanch during World War II served in our armed forces, and worked productively in area defense factories, just as readily as the hamlet's Irish-Americans, Italian Americans or African-Americans. Herman Griem, who lived on Main Avenue near Straight Path, was active in organizing protests against the destructive strip mining of terminal moraine in Wyandanch in the 1950s and up to the 1970's. His Wheatley Heights Civic Association was very active in many civic issues in the Town of Babylon until the early 1980s.

Sources: US Census of Suffolk County: 1910, 1920, 1930; Hagstrom's 1941 Map of Suffolk County; Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History, 106-109; Brosl Hasslacher, Jr. recollections.

Irish-American pioneers in Wyandanch

Beginning in the 1920s and extending into the 1930s, intrepid settlers began building small homes in the dangerous fire-prone pine barrens bounded by Straight Path, Long Island Avenue and Little East Neck Road. John Douglas Sr. and John Douglas, Jr. built the first house in the Wyandanch pine barrens in 1923 west of Straight Path at the southeast corner of South 29th Street and Jamaica Avenue after cutting a "road" into their property from Long Island Avenue. Soon after, George Wood, an African American veteran of the U.S. Army in World War I, and his German war bride, built a house on S. 29th Street just south of the Douglas home. Irish-American families such as the McGintys, the Mc Glincheys,the Collins', James J. Wall, the Mc Gunniness', the McMenimens,the Wards, the Gregorys, the Hardings and the Bonners joined Douglas and Wood and literally built their own modest bungalows on property they had purchased in the 1920s land bubble in Wyandanch Spring Park or in Harry Levey's Home Acres between Brooklyn Avenue and Grunwedel Avenue- now Patton Avenue. The Douglas' built their home with lumber purchased from Charles Watkins Lumber Yard on Long Island Avenue between Straight Path and 18th Street. The newcomers wanted to escape from the crowded economically depressed conditions of the city and enjoy the fresh pine air, privacy and lower costs of rural Wyandanch, yet be within an hour of Manhattan by railroad.

The more prominent Irish-American families in Wyandanch (pillars of the community): the Stacks, the Mc McMahons,the Goonans, the Lyons, the Harrigans, the O'Briens, the Reddings and the Donahues lived closer to the "village," in more prosperous homes. Catherine "Kitty" Mc Mahon, a Democrat, was postmistress in Wyandanch from September 1933 until November 1948.

Sources:Douglas: "Pine Barrens Pioneers," October 1982, 188-197; Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch History, 1957.

Pioneering African-Americans in Wyandanch: 1920's

On the south side of the triangle, (i.e. Patton Avenue, Straight Path and Little East Neck Road) pioneering, upwardly mobile African-American families such as the: Davidsons, Cumberbachs, Farias, Browns, Youngs, Hesters, Hamiltons, Megginsons and Martialos also began building their own homes-to fulfill the African-American dream of having their own: land, farms and homes-on property in the Upper Little Farms section south of Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) they had purchased in the 1920s, originally from Herman E. Hagedorn, a Rockland County realtor who had had a falling out with Harry Levey, and later from Ignatius Davidson, a pioneering Black businessman in Suffolk County. Mortimer Cumberbach and Ignatius Davidson opened their pathfinding C and D Cement Block Corp. on Booker Avenue at Straight Path on December 6, 1928. "By 1948, despite the inability to obtain bank loans, Mr. Cumberbach and Mr. Davidson made a gross income of $200,000..." Their D & C Corp. was the driving force behind the Carver Park "affordable housing" development in Wyandanch.

Other, African-American families such as the: Greens, Gordons, Colemans and the Matthews' bought sizable plots of land and built their own individual homes in the "Little Farms" section of the West Babylon school district between Little East Neck Road and Straight Path in the late 1920s, well before the Southern State Parkway reached Wyandanch in 1941. Elizabeth "Betty" Green Mountain, who lived on Gordon Avenue and Little East Neck Road, pioneered African-Americans studying at the State Institute of Applied Agriculture- now Farmingdale State College- when she was the first African American to graduate from the school (1940). Edward H. Green, was one of three Wyandanch residents to die in service during World War II.The Republic Aviation News of July 24, 1942 notes that Richard Martialto was working in Shop 01 at Republic Aviation, when his son Richard, Jr. was born. Richard Martialto, Jr. graduated from West Babylon High School in June 1960. Leslie Megginson,who grew up on Lincoln Avenue in Wyandanch, also graduated from West Babylon High School in 1960, and served courageously as a forward artilley spotter in the US Army in Vietnam.

When August Belmont II died in 1925, his widow, philanthropist Eleanor Robson Belmont, a leading lady of the American theatre, and a grand dame of the Metropolitan Opera, donated a sturdy building on the Belmont estate -the only surviving part of the original Belmont mansion (1865)- as a Community Clubhouse for the African-Americans in Wyandanch. The building still exists and is located at the "Five Corners," at the intersection of Little East Neck Road and Straight Path.

Sources: Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," December 1982, 245; Cecilia Davidson, "Mortimer Cumberbach & Ignatius Davidson," Babylon's 100 Most Influential People Of The 20th Century, Town of Babylon Millennium Celebration booklet,: 15; Farmingdale State College Archives

Pioneering Italian-Americans in Wyandanch

In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Italian-American families such as the Mazzas, the Tafuris,Carusos, Grillos, the Barillas, the Ardizones, the Messinas, the Cioffis, the Russos, the Taglieris, the Sommeses, the De Vitos, the De Bellis',the Frangipanis, the Montalbanos, the Orlandos, the Sudanos, the Stracruzzas, the Avisatas, the Campanellis, the Guidos and the Di Potos moved into Wyandanch and were very active in the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s and 1940s most businesses in Wyandanch (bakeries, grocery stores,restaurants, bars, auto service stations, liquor stores, butcher shops and lumber yards) were owned and operated by intrepid German-American or Italian-American entrepreneurs. Guido Cioffi, was wounded in service in the US Army in France in World War I, and worked at Republic Aviation in World War II building P-47 Thunderbolts. He also was commander of the Wyandanch VFW Post during World War II. Anthony Tafuri, who graduated from Wyandanch Grade School and Lindenhurst High School, went on to become a prominent attorney and judge in the Town of Babylon and currently serves on the Babylon Town Ethics Board. Dr. Patrick Salatto maintained a medical office on Merritt Avenue for almost thirty years.Joseph Mazza, who lived at Garden City Avenue and S. 19th Street, was president of the Wyandanch School Board for several years. For more than 30 years, the Rizzuto family sold high-quality meats from their butcher shop on Straight Path at Commonwealth Boulevard.

Sources: Records of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church; Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," December 1982, 244-245; Republic Aviation News.

Hispanic pioneers in Wyandanch

Hispanic families began to settle in Wyandanch in the 1940s since the community offered affordable homes and land and was within easy commuting distance of the nearby defense plants and Pilgrim, Edgewood, Central Islip and Kings Park State Hospitals-where jobs were plentiful. The Hispanic families were welcomed into the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church and they enjoyed the accessible LIRR train service. Some early Hispanic families in Wyandanch included: the Quevados', the Spadys, the Seguras and the Silveras. Piri Thomas (Juan Pedro Tomas) discusses the bias Hispanics faced north of the LIRR tracks in Wyandanch before 1960 in his second autobiography: Savior, Savior: Hold My Hand: 1972. In the 1960s families such as: the Burgos, the Caballeros, the Gonzalez', the Lopez', the Navarros, the Nieves, the Prados, the Rodriguez', and the Torres settled in Wyandanch.

World War II

Wyandanch was a very sparsely populated community in 1941. Yet 201 men and women from Wyandanch served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Three, William M. Farley, Edward H. Green and Mary Isanzaniro, died serving their country. Pfc.William M. Farley served as a navigator in the U.S. Marine Corps and was killed on February 6, 1945 while on a hunter-killer mission attacking Japanese Airfield Number Two on the Japanese held Ponape Island a part of the Senyavin Islands in the South Pacific in what is now Micronesia. Private Farley was 18 years old and is buried in Section H, Grave 7648 of the Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn. Martha Isanzananiro, was a Navy WAVE who died at a Naval Hospital in Maryland at age 22 just two weeks after joining the US Navy. Her parents built and operated the first apartment house (which still exists) in Wyandanch on the east side of Straight Path across from S. 21st Street. At least two Wyandanch residents were captured during World War II. Pfc. Leif Jahnsen, was taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans on December 16, 1944. Another German prisoner-of-war was Pfc. Harry Bauerle who lived on Ash Street in Wyandanch and later became Chief of the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Co. in 1954.

The job boom at the nearby aviation factories in Farmingdale-Bethpage (Republic, Ranger, Liberty and Grumman) -accessible by train- for those who could not drive due to wartime rationing of gasoline and tires- lifted Wyandanch out of the Depression and attracted defense workers to the community who wanted to live inexpensively and have short commutes to their jobs. Many "defense plant" workers joined car pools to save on gasoline and tires. Many families in Wyandanch had "Victory Gardens" -growing vegetables and fruits to supplement their diets during wartime rationing. Apple, pear, plum and peach trees were common in many yards. The home grown fruits and vegetables were canned or put up in Mason jars for use in the Winter. Many families raised chickens and/or goats for eggs, a roast chicken on Sunday, and milk and cheese. Homemade wine was produced from many of the grape arbors in Wyandanch. "Icemen," delivered blocks of ice to families with "ice boxes." More prosperous families had oil-fired furnaces while less prosperous families used coal-fired furnaces and had coal "bins" in their cellars. Poorer families would walk along the railroad track and pick up pieces of coal which had fallen off the LIRR coal cars bound for Pilgrim State and Central Islip State Hospitals. Many houses had fireplaces to save on coal given the rationing of coal and oil during the war. Hardwood trees and dried out utility poles were cut up for use as firewood. Household trash was burned, buried or re-cycled.

Sources: World War II memorial monument in front of the VFW Hall in Wheatley Heights; Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," 244-245; William M Farley on Google, Babylon Leader

Wyandanch population grows in the 1940s

In the 1930s and 1940s, other pioneering families (white and black) such as: the Zotters, Farias, Allaways, Davidsons, Cookes, Robertsons, Dannemeyers, Wilsons', Mingins, Youngs', Burguns, Krauses, Prokopiaks', Guldens', Lohrs', Spooners', Boxhills, Mackins, Gregorys, Grecos, Timkos, Crowes, Collins' Martins, Carlsons, Conns, Wards, Leas', Zirks, Hendersons, Kramers',Weiss', Paschalides' and the Spadys joined the Irish-American pioneers in the dangerous pine barrens in Wyandanch Springs Park west of Straight Path and S. 18th Street. By the late 1940s African-Americans families (such as the Davidsons, Farias, Wilsons, Browns and Hesters) had built substantial homes in the Triangle section, which was integrated. Other families in Wyandanch in the 1930s and 1940s were: the Reddings, Harrigans, Goonans, Lyons, Frieds, the Goetzs, Schlitzs, Winters, Donahues, Ryans, Mc Cues, Mc Gees, Heckmans, Richters, Stankowitizs, Aufenangers,Fullers Romdalviks, and the Ryders. Benjamin Ryder Sr. ran a TV repair Business from his home on Bedford St.from 1949 to 1960. Dr. Leon Schultz established a medical office in his home on N. 15th Street and Straight Path and served the community for over thirty years.

In October 1948, the Wyandanch Post Office was relocated from Merritt Avenue-where it had been located since 1907- to a store on the east side of Straight Path just south of Long Island Avenue. After World War II the population of Wyandanch grew slowly but steadily on a house by house basis because most of the community had been divided into small lots by realtors in the 1870s, 1890s and 1920s and large plots of land were difficult to assemble for major sub-divisions.Well into the 1950s, numerous houses in Wyandanch were "summer homes," whose residents swelled the hamlet's population in the good weather months.

The increased school population necessitated adding lower grade classrooms (Grades 1-5) and a gymnasium to the Wyandanch Elementary School. The new facilities were opened in September 1949. As World War II ended, Town of Babylon officials failed to have Conklin Street at Republic Aviation re-opened the general public. The US Navy had built an airplane engine factory in the Conklin Street roadbed for Ranger Engine, a subsidiary of Fairchild in 1942. Babylon's request that the US Government pay for a by-pass around Republic-Ranger was rejected by Washington. Also, the Town of Babylon's efforts in late 1945 after the end of World War II to have the US reopen Conklin Street to the public were also rejected by the federal government. The severing of Conklin Street-Route 24-Long Island Avenue badly hindered the development of Wyandanch after 1950. Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch is not much different today than it was in the 1940's.

Sources: Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," Roy Douglas, "Conklin Street Cutoff, Long Island Forum, 1985; Babylon Leader newspaper.

Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944

Hurricane # 7, or the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, hit Wyandanch on September 15, 1944 with very heavy rains and wind gusts of up to 85 mph felling many trees. The storm drove large trees against electric and telephone wires leaving the community without electric, lights, water or telephone service. Foodstuffs in local stores spoiled. The Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department carried water door-to-door to homes which lacked pitcher pumps. Residents filled their bathtubs and pails with water from the fire trucks. The Wyandanch School was forced to close for a few days due to the lack of power and water. Source: "Wyandanch News," The Lindenhust Star, September 22, 1944.

Community Chest X-ray program to identify tuberculosis victims: 1948

Concerned about the possibility of undiagnosed cases of tuberculosis, the Wyandanch Community Council organized an intensive drive -with a house-to-house canvass- to have everyone in the community over fifteen years of age take free chest X-rays in the Wyandanch Elementary School in the afternoon and evening of December 7, 1948. Dr. Leon Schultz administered TB inoculations to community residents in the Wyandanch Fire House. Source: "Chest X-Rays In Wyandanch On December 7," Babylon Leader, December 12, 1948

The origins of Carver Park and the transformation of Wyandanch: 1951-53

In March 1951, Taca Homes offered expandable four-room Cape Cod style homes for sale on a "non-racial" basis at the Carver Park development at Straight Path and Booker Avenue in Wyandanch. This property was one of the very few in Wyandanch large enough for a major housing development. The homes with basement, hot-water heat and tile baths sold for $7,290 and were eligible for Federal Housing Administration loan insurance.Carver Park was advertised as "interracial housing." One original Carver Park resident told the Regional Plan Association in 1974: "In fact, there were never more than two or three white families. But that doesn't mean that this place was a rip-off of the kind we're used to. It's just that if you're honest about attitudes, and if you consider all the places that whites could choose, you'd hardly expect that many of them would come here. For blacks who wanted to move to the suburbs, though, it was a real opportunity. An honest deal, with houses built soundly and priced fairly. You can see how well most of them have stood up over all these years." By June 1952 builder, Henry Taca, was erecting 183 homes in the second section of Carver Park. These homes were purchased almost exclusively by African-Americans looking to also participate in the American Dream of owning a suburban home with off-street parking, a backyard and an opportunity to accumulate equity. The original development map had been filed in the Suffolk County Clerk's Office in Riverhead on February 6, 1950. The building of the Carver Park, and then the Lincoln Park housing development on Parkway Boulevard between Straight Path and Mount Avenue in 1956, with over 400 homes, triggered the rapid transformation of Wyandanch from a mostly white community in 1952 to a mostly African-American community in 1960. Many of the whites who lived south of the LIRR moved away and lower middle class African-American families bought individually custom built homes in Wyandanch Springs Park and in the "Tree streets" area east of Straight Path.

Upwardly mobile African-American families such as the Boxhills, Mayers, Wilsons, Ellisons,Fischers, Slaughters, Piggotts, Allaways, Walthalls, Edwards,Spanns, Dudleys, Jarvis', Mc Cords, Joiners, Levis, Williams, Walkers, Collins,Batchelors,Hazelwoods, Hicks, Wallaces, James', Colemans, Punters, Jennings, Smiths,Jarmonds and Taylors established homes in the Triangle area of Wyandanch in the late 1940s and 1950s. 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, redlining, etc. The Rev. Dr. Sherman Hicks, who grew up on S.22nd Street in Wyandanch next door to the Trinity Lutheran parsonage, graduated from Wyandanch High School, earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wittenberg University and went on to become the Bishop of Chicago for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dr. Hicks is currently the Executive Director of the Multicultural Ministries Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

With the racial transformation of Wyandanch, residents in sections such as Wheatley Heights north of Main Avenue in the Half Hollow Hills School District - both white and black - began to disassociate themselves from Wyandanch. This was also true of the upper middle class African-American section of the North Babylon School District above the Southern State Parkway,-Belmont Park Estates- which evolved in the 1950s. The rapid development of Wyandanch in the 1950s into one of the largest African-American communities in Suffolk County transformed Wyandanch politically into a hamlet which voted overwhelmingly Democratic on Election Day although the political parties in the Town of Babylon were slow to nominate African-Americans for Town-wide positions. The political interest of African-Americans in Wyandanch was mainly focused on winning seats on the Wyandanch District #9 school board. Julius Walthall and Ernest Reynolds, a businessman, who ran a TV and radio repair shop on the east side of Straight Path near S. 18th Street were elected to the Wyandanch school board in the late 1950s.

Sources: "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; Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of an African-American Suburb, 1971. Ed. Note: If any reader knows the names of original homeowners, or long-time residents in either the Carver Park or Lincoln Park developments; please feel free to add their names.

Wyandanch gets a new Post Office: 1955

In 1955 the new red-brick U.S. Post Office was put into service on the east side of Straight Path at Commonwealth Boulevard as part of a strip of stores which had been built between Commonwealth Boulevard and Arlington Avenue. Thomas A. Brown, who earned a Purple Heart in combat in World War II, was postmaster, having been appointed in 1951, when the Post Office was in a store on the east side of Straight Path between Harold Isham's Insurance office and Tafuri's Liquor Store. Before the mid-1950s residents had to pick up mail at the post office either from mail boxes or from general delivery. Postmaster Thomas A. Brown instituted house to house mail delivery to residents' mail boxes in Wyandanch in the mid-1960s. This reduced congestion and waiting times in the small post office, reduced residents' trips to the post office and lessened the need to rent mailboxes.

Activists hold sit-in in Babylon Town Hall to protest new industrial park in Wyandanch: 1963

Activists from the Emergency Civic Association and the Long Island Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) held a sit-In in the Meeting Room of the Babylon Town Hall in North Lindenhurst for several days protesting the clearing of land in south Wyandanch for an industrial park. The picketing of the construction site and the sit-in's were lead by Calvin C. Cobb, an attorney who lived in North Babylon, Edward H. Green, a civic activist, who lived in West Babylon, and Lincoln Lynch, the head of the Long Island Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. The activists were protesting the opening phase of a planned 60-building, 1,000,000 square-foot industrial park to be built by William Shames on land bounded by: New Avenue, Saratoga Avenue, Wyandanch Avenue and Straight Path: which had been downzoned by the Town of Babylon from Residence A to Industrial G for light industry in 1955, 1956 and 1959. The industrial park was projected to bolster the tax base of the Wyandanch School District #9 (which was burdened by the highest school tax rate in the Town of Babylon) and provide thousands of easily accessible jobs to area residents.

The activists charged that the planned industrial park was being unfairly wedged "in the middle of a predominantly Negro section of Wyandanch (and) would transform what is largely a residential community into a slum." The industrial site was located between the Carver Park and Lincoln Park housing estates. They wanted the new industrial park "transfered to a less inhabited section of Wyandanch." Supervisor William T. Lauder, who met with the activists after they called off the sit-in, indicated he "would stand by the decision of the town board last week not to consider a change in the zoning of the area" since the Wyandanch School District badly needed a bolstered tax base.

The individual one-story industrial buildings: designed by architect, Irving H. Hirshman, were expected "combine stone, masonry, aluminum and glass" and to "occupy an average of about 15,000 square feet." The New York Times indicated the factories were to be "individually styled to avoid repetition of design and harmonize with the residential character of the community."

Not all African Americans in Wyandanch were opposed to the planned industrial park. Wyandanch real estate man, James M. Ellison, told the Babylon Town Leader: "We've been out here for quite a few years. These people have no cry. They've come up here and bought houses without finding out they were living near and industrial park. Everyone was happy until these people were stirred up."

Sources: "Sit-In Demands Upzoning in W'danch Negro Section," Babylon Town Leader, May 2, 1963: 1, 9; "Sit-In Halted, Talks Held," Babylon Town Leader, May 9, 1963: 1,2.; "60-Plant Industrial Park on L.I. Lures Travel-Weary Commuter, New York Times, October 20, 1963

Racial distrubances roil Wyandanch: August 1967

Racial tensions were very high in the United States in the summer of 1967. Detriot, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey were devastated by major racial rebellions, which were highly publicized and took the use of the military to control. On the first three nights of August 1967, racial disturbances broke out in Wyandanch as small groups of young African-American adults smashed windows in three stores, overturned two cars, set fire to the auditorium of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School on Mount Avenue, burned the Wyandanch VFW Hall and Ambulance garage on Straight Path at S. 20th Street, threw stones at the Wyandanch Fire House and pelted Suffolk County Police Dept. officers with rocks and bottles as the officers worked to contain the vandalism.

Very few African-American residents in Wyandanch participated in these disturbances. Suffolk County officials attended a community meeting in the Wyandanch Junior-Senior High School shortly after the outbursts in an effort to discover ways to respond to grievances in Wyandanch. Community leaders called for the Town of Babylon and Suffolk County to work quickly to address: joblessness; improved bus access to area businesses and industries; deploying more African-American police officers in Wyandanch and creating wholesome recreational facilities and activities for young adults in the community. Suffolk County Executive Dennison promised Robert Coupain, the leader of the Wyandanch Young Adults Action Committee , that Suffolk would establish a neighborhood youth board in Wyandanch; investigate if local merchants were overcharging residents; try to have fees at Babylon's four pools eliminated; look into providing more recreational activities ; recruit and hire more Negroes on the Suffolk County Police Department; provide programs for high school dropouts in Wyandanch and "provide more county jobs for Negroes."

Just the summer before, intrepid Wyandanch civic leader ,James Ellison, the director of the Wyandanch Improvement Association, cautioned the Suffolk County Economic Opportunity Council in August 1966 that the lack of recreational opportunities in Wyandanch was making the community a "powder keg," for potential violence. Young men from Wyandanch at the meeting also called for an end to alleged police harrassment.

Sources: 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 in Move to End Strife," New York Times, August 5, 1967: 8; John Childs and Gurney Williams, "Dennison Vows Wyandanch Aid," Newsday, August 10, 1967: 3

Government, commerce, schools and churches respond to the needs of Wyandanch: 1968

As a result of the August 1967 disturbances in Wyandanch and following the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tenn. in April 1968; government, private businesses, the Wyandanch School District and community church groups acted to address problems faced by many residents in Wyandanch. The US Office of Economic Opportunity and its Wyandanch Community Action Center branch under the leadership of Robert Washington worked to improve bus routes, develop job training for area employment and assist the indigent with accessing government assistance. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company built a modern A & P supermarket in Wyandanch at the corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue. (Today the A & P is Suffolk County's Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center). Genovese Drugs built a large pharmacy and store on the east side of Straight Path north of the LIRR and King Kullen,Inc built a large modern supermarket next door to the Genovese Durgs store.. A modern stainless steel diner was located south of the A & P on Straight Path. Unfortunately, by the mid-1970s, A & P, King Kullen and Genovese Drugs left Wyandanch.

The Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch, under the leadership of Pastor Andrew Connelly, greatly expanded parish outreach to the disadvantaged and worked to bring institutional improvements to Wyandanch. Suffolk County moved to bolster health services in Wyandanch. The Long Island Catholic, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, published numerous detailed articles articulating the many needs of Wyandanch and sugguesting sensible solutions. When the Wyandanch School was no longer able to provide four classrooms for the children in the Wyandanch Head Start program, the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal parish provided space for the children in its parish hall. Source: "Community Action Center Faces Many Difficulties," The Long Island Catholic, July 11, 1968: 13

The origins of the Wyandanch Day Care Center, Inc.: 1973

Perhaps the most important long range improvement in Wyandanch following the publicity generated by the August 1967 disturbances and the heightened civil rights movement that followed in Wyandanch was the opening of the Wyandanch Day Care Center, Inc. building on a 100' x 300' site on Commonwealth Boulevard. The idea of the Wyandanch Day Care Center,Inc. started when the Wyandanch Community Action Center hired sixteen female community organizers "who had young children who were in need of day care." The sixteen WCAC members formed "The Mother's Club" and asked the Wyandanch School Board to provide space where their children could receive competent day care. The Wyandanch School District first provided space for 35 children in a classroom in the Straight Path School and later provided space in an empty building adjacent to the Milton L. Olive Elementary School. When the Mother's Club realized that the building alongside the Milton Olive School "did not meet the minimum requirements of the New York State Department of Social Services," they "took the necessary steps to seek incorporation status in order to embark on a path to create a viable Day Care Center in Wyandanch." The Wyandanch Day Care Center Fund, Inc. led by Amy James was incorporated in July 1969. Ground was broken for nthe new center on September 13, 1970 and the Day Care Center opened on February 25, 1973. The two-story, brick, eight-classroom Day Care Center was built with a $1 million loan from the New York State Social Services Department. Shortly after opening, the Wyandanch Day Care Center served 165 children: 120 preschool and 45 elementary school age children. The center was open from 7 AM to 6 PM and freed up mothers for job training, schooling or employment. Each classroom had a certified teacher, an assistant teacher and a teacher aide.

Sources: Kent D. Smith, "Day Care Group Breaks Ground," Newsday, September 14, 1970; Ahmid-Chett Green, "Helping Mothers Get Off Welfare," Newsday, July 23, 1973, A11; "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

Wheatley Heights Post Office approved-July 1974

Prior to the mid-1960s, people in historic Wyandanch identified themselves as much by their fire district or their post office district as their school district. But as Wyandanch was increasingly perceived as a locale with disproportionate crime, welfare clients and poverty related ills, residents (white and black) in the Half Hollow Hills School District # 5 in the new Westwood Village housing tract and in the homes north of Main Avenue and Nicholls Road, sought a new identity for what they perceived as a unique community. Hermann Griem, president of the Wheatley Heights Community Association, led the drive to have a separate US Post Office in Wheatley Heights. As the New York Times put it: "Mr. Griem sees a new post office address as a way to establish officially a separate identity for Wheatley Heights, whose well-kept homes and lawns provide a contrast to many of the homes in Wyandanch." Congressman James R. Grover (R-Babylon) persuaded U.S. Post Office officials in Washington, DC to authorize a Wheatley Heights branch post office in July 1974. The US Post Office planned to have the Colonial Springs Development Corporation in Garden City "built a one-story, colonial-style building on Colonial Springs Road west of Nichols Road" (directly across from the site of one of the two razed Motor Parkway overpasses in Wyandanch). The Post Office originally paid $18,000 a year rent for the building. The Wheatley Heights Post Office remains the only institutional structure within Wheatley Heights.

Source: Pranay Gupte, "Wheatley Heights, Expensive Area of Wyandanch, Wins Battle for Post Office," New York Times, July 4, 1974: 21.

Town of Babylon, Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Water Authority Extend Affordable Public Water to Wyandanch: 1980's

As late as 1980, hundreds of houses in Wyandanch were not serviced by the public water mains of the Suffolk County Water Authority. These unfortunate homeowners relied on private wells,which frequently clogged, or ran dry, and electric water pumps, which eventually "burned out" and had to be replaced at considerable cost to the household. In addition, residents began to have serious concerns about the quality of thier private shallow well water-which they depended upon for drinking, cooking and bathing.. After the publication of its landmark book "Toxics on Tap," The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) organized the Northwest Babylon Citizens Alliance, led by West Babylon resident, Barbara Logan, to push for greater access to public water. The Citizens Alliance group held meetings in Wyandanch about the need for public water and conducted a march up Straight Path to rally support for affordable, reliable, public water for all homes in the Town of Babylon. At the same time, Hermann Griem, the leader of the Wheatley Heights Community Association, and the Joint Civic and Taxpayers Council of the Town of Babylon, was writing strong editorials in the Babylon Beacon newspaper, which questioned the role of the Town of Babylon landfill and sewage dump in contaminating private water wells in West Babylon and Wyandanch. Griem also had a letter, "Babylon Pollution," published in the Beacon, which called for all levels of government to quickly identify and monitor allsources of water contamination in Babylon, and demanded a "crash program" to hook up all homes with private water wells in the Town of Babylon to the Suffolk County Water Authority system.

In September 1980, Dennis J. Lynch, the commissioner of the Town of Babylon's Department of Environmental Control, informed Barbara Logan and the members of the Northwest Babylon Citizens Alliance that "he would be supportive in developing and implementing a plan to make public water available to everyone in neighborhoods within the town with contaminated water." In November 1980, Raymond Allmendinger, the supervisor of the Town of Babylon (R-West Babylon) announced that Babylon would be working with Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Water Authority to develop a program whereby "an affordable public water connection program would be made available to all residents of the Town of Babylon." Supervisor Allmendinger looked for Suffolk County to provide up to $2.4 million to allow the Suffolk County Water Authority to lay up to 80,000 feet of water pipe to hook-up all private water well households in the Town of Babylon. Suffolk County Legislator, Louis Petrizzo (R-Copaigue) pledged to do all possible to "obtain the County aid needed to undertake the accelerated hook-up program. Supervisor Allmendinger said that Babylon would use Community Development Block Grant funds "to ease connection costs for homeowners." By the late 1980's, public water had been extended to thousands of homes in West Babylon, Wyandanch and North Babylon.

Sources: "Town To Work Towards New Public Water Plan," Babylon Beacon, September 25, 1980: 1; Hermann Griem, "Babylon Pollution," Babylon Beacon, October 23, 1980; "Babylon Seeks Public Water For All Residents By '81," Babylon Beacon, November 13, 1980: 1; Frances Cerra, "Contamination of L.I. Wells A Constant Worry To Many," New York Times, January 19, 1981: B. 2.

Suffolk County Establishes Temporary Social Services Center in Wyandanch to Stop "Great Trek" to Huntington: 1986

The Suffolk County Legislature received a two-year lease for a temporary Social Services center at 68 Nancy Street in Wyandanch to service the "1,000 Wyandanch families who have been trekking to Huntington for more than a year." Legislators Sondra Bachety (D-Deer Park) the chairman of the legislature's Human Services committee, and Gerard Glass (R-Lindenhurst) worked on a bi-partisan basis to convince Suffolk County Executive Peter Fox Cohalan to open a temporary Social Services center in Wyandanch until a permanent center could be established. The Suffolk County Legislature voted 14-1 on May 13, 1986 to lease 1,500 square feet of office space for the temporary center over the objections of County Executive Cohalan. Before May 1985, social service clients in Wyandanch were assisted in the Deer Park office. Newsday reported that Suffolk "is searching for a suitable site for a $2.8 million permanent center." The Rev. John Cervini of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church in Wyandanch vowed that the community would maintain pressure for a permanent center in Wyandanch: "Your hopes can really rise and be deflated. But we are not going away...not when you have people traveling to receive what is called human services in a process that is inhumane.'

Sources: Catherine Woodard, "Wyandanch Welfare Office Approved," Newsday, May 14, 1986: 21; Catherine Woodard, "Wyandanch Gains Temporary Center," Newsday, September 10, 1986; 31.

Suffolk County Opens Social Service/Labor Center in Wyandanch: 1990

Under the leadership of Suffolk County Executive, Patrick Halpin (D)and Suffolk County Legislator, Richard Schaffer (D), a social services and labor department office opened on Straight Path at Wyandanch Avenue on March 5, 1990. The 14,000 square foot center and its staff of 60 was expected to serve about 100 clients a day with public assistance, food stamps, emergency food and heating programs, child and adult protective services and job-placement programs. The center was built and maintained by Joseph Gazza and was rented to Suffolk County for $182,000 per year. The new center would serve the needs of residents in: Wyandanch, North Babylon, West Babylon and Deer Park. In the past the indigent in the area had to travel to Deer Park, Bay Shore and even Huntington for assistance. Some Wyandanch residents had expressed concerned that locating a welfare center in Wyandanch would stimulate a further influx of public assistance recipients to Wyandanch-a community which they believed had far more than their fair share of welfare cases. The Rev. John Cervini, the pastor of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch said: "This is one of the biggest days in Wyandanch." He considered the distances clients had to travel to apply for asssitance "unjust, unfair and inhumane." Suffolk County closed the Wyandanch Social Service Center in 2007 and transferred clients to Suffolk's Southwest Social Service Center in Deer Park. The former welfare center is now a church

Sources: Rick Brand, "Proposal For Babylon Social Services Center," Newsday, May 7, 1987: 27; Edna Negron, "Wyandanch Aid Center Planned," Newsday, December 8, 1988: 31; Estelle Lander, "Suffolk Agencies Share New Home," Newsday, March 6, 1990: 27; Chau Lam, "Suffolk Aid Offices to be Consolidated: Wyandanch and Edgewood Centers to Move to N. Bay Shore," Newsday, July 12, 2007: A. 18; "Suffolk's Social Services New, Bigger Center Might Be Better," Newsday, July 13, 2007: A. 40; Rick Brank, "Wyandanch: Ire Over Center's Closing," Newsday, August 2, 2007: A. 30

The Town of Babylon establishes the Wyandanch Senior Citizen Center: 1991

The $1 million dollar, 12,000 square foot, Town of Babylon Wyandanch Senior Citizen Center on Wyandanch Avenue opened in May 1991. The senior nutrition program in the new center provides hot and healthy lunches daily. The original program was directed by Wilhelmina Saunders who told Newsday: "We've been in cubbyholes and the basement of a (Trinty Lutheran) church. And now we have our own home." Seniors can be transported to the center in town vans. In addition, to a hearty lunch, they can participate in games or arts and crafts, read, listen to music or chat. The senior nutrition program's original $117,000 budget was funded by Suffolk County Department for the Aging and operated by the Town of Babylon. The American Red Cross had been running the senior nutrition program in Wyandanch since 1978. Anne Stewart, the Town of Babylon Commissioner of Human Services said: "The seniors on fixed incomes greatly benefit from this type of program. It helps them along with what they're getting in Social Security payments. They don't get an awful lot."

Sources: Richard Firstman, "Church's Safety Net For the Needy," Newsday, November 21, 1984; William Bunch, "Nourshing the Spirits of Poor on LI," Newsday, November 1, 1985: 23; Salli Han, "$1-Million Menu for Elderly Wyandanch Group Finally Gets a Place For Lunch and Recreation," Newsday, August 25, 1991: 1.

"Wyandanch Rising" Community Vision Plan Summit Held: June 2003

In early-June 2003, about 400 Wyandanch residents joined representives of the Town of Babylon, and Suffolk County and held a "four-day community 'visioning process'" to plan strategies to lift Wyandanch out of its "widespread reputation as a community ravaged by drugs, street crime, gangs, poverty and bad schools." The "Wyandanch Rising" event was highlighted by focus groups discussing ideas as to how Wyandanch might look in 2023, design workshops, a "community walk-through," and the presentation of a preliminary master plan for Wyandanch. Sustainable Long Island, "a Huntington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to urban planning," organized the event.

Anne Stewart, coordinator for the Wyandanch Weed & Seed program, told the New York Times: "We're looking for a renaissance and we're hoping that this will provide the focus for for the changes to improve the quality of life in Wyandanch. We're hoping that through this process, we can develop those kinds of facilities where people can go into their own community to do their shopping. We're hoping to develop an economic base that will attract business, provide jobs for local residents and improve upon the aesthetics of Wyandanch to make it an attractive place to live."

Steve Bellone, the supervisor of the Town of Babylon, who was a driving force behind the "Wyandanch Rising" process told the New York Times that "Wyandanch has been named a New York State Empire Zone, which gives tax credits to businesses willing to invest in the community." "'We're already seeing ... an interest from the business community. My greatest hope is that 10, 15 years from now people will look back and say, 'Wow, how did we get here.'" Supervisor Bellone told Newsday: "We are starting from a solid foundation. What we're trying to do now is to bring all the players together. This is abolut creating a Wyandanch vision, and it's a community based vision."

Some of the suggestions which came from community residents included: better lighting on Straight Path, installation of durable and attractive trash cans, making Straight Path "more pedestrian-friendly," erecting an attactive clocktower and shelters and benches at bus stops. The preliminary improvement plan included: "streescape and roadway improvements along Straight Path, including decorative lighting and brick pavers. A more detailed plan will be prepared in two to three months and will include suggestions for businesses, housing, transit development and traffic pattern improvements." Jim Morgo, the president of the Long Island Housing Partnership, told the New York Times that the extension of sewers into Wyandanch would be necessary for the "Wyandanch Rising" vision to succeed.

Sources: Sumathi Reddy, "Lifting the Veil of Neglect: Wyandanch, Town Seek a Turnaround," Newsday, August 10, 2002: A.07; Caroline B. Smith, "Wyandanch Gathers To Envision Future," New York Times, June 15, 2003: 14LI.2; Sumathi Reddy, "On the Path to a Better Wyandanch: Hundreds of Residents Join Together to Plot Community's Future," Newsday, June 29, 2003: G.27.

After a long struggle: the U.S. Postal Service builds a modern Post Office in Wyandanch: 2008

Beginning in the late 1980s, Wyandanch residents and civic leaders began to complain that the 1955 Wyandanch Post Office was suffering from neglect and severely downgraded services. The Wyandanch Coalition argued that the post office on Straight Path "suffered from neglect and that services had been progressively downgraded over the years." They said the Wyandanch Post Office had very limited parking, and did not offer bulk mail or express mail services. Postmaster Anthony Simonetti said that the Wyandanch Post Office was too small to accommodate full service and claimed that there was inadequate room behind the post office to park mail trucks. He also complained that he had no room for his office and therefore had to work out of the Wheatley Heights substation. Residents wanted the USPS to either upgrade the Wyandanch Post Office or build a larger modern facility. In the mid-1990s the Town of Babylon condenmed the strip of stores which included the post office and the post office was moved "to a tiny temporary storefront substation" on Straight Path closer to the LIRR.

By the summer of 1999, USPS officials revealed that $2.4 million had been budgeted for a new larger post office in Wyandanch. Eight years later in June 2007, the USPS revealed plans for a $4.7 million, 5,700-square-foot post office at 1569 Straight Path, which would include "a barbed wire fence surrounding the rear parking lot and bulletproof custormer-service partitions." Town of Babylon supervisor, Steve Bellone, vigorously objected to the USPS plan for Wyandanch. "What the Postal Service is putting forward," Bellone told Newsday, "is a negative vision for Wyandanch's future that is completely at odds with the positive vision that the community and town have put forth...This is an arrogant Post Office that has run roughshod over a proud community that has worked hard to pull itself up by its bootstraps." In early July 2007, the Town of Babylon filed suit in the US District Court calling for a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining and a permanent injunction order to stop construction of the new post office. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) then intervened to support demands by the Wyandanch community and the Town of Babylon that the USPS build the new post office without "a fortress mentality." Sen. Schumer upbraided USPS officials saying: the "Postal Service was 'ignoring the will and wishes of Wyandanch residents...For the post office to thumb its nose {at the people of Wyandanch}is wrong.'" Schumer vowed to "cut through the red tape" and open communication between the USPS and the Wyandanch residents and the Town of Babylon. By October 2007, a compromise was reached whereby the new post office would not have barbed wire or bullet-proof glass, but would have the main entrance located on Straight Path, and have a municipal parking lot for safer, easier parking. The handsome new post office (the 5th post office in Wyandanch since 1875) opened to the public on August 8, 2008.

Sources: Dele Olojede, "Group Wants Post Office Improved," Newsday, December 26, 1988: 35; Ken Moritsugu, "Babylon Votes to Condemn Despite Owner's Wrath," Newsday, February 16, 1994: 33; Joie Tyrell, "A Trip To The Post Office," Newsday, August 29, 1999: G. 19; Richard Weir, "Don't Fence Us Out! Wyandanch Pols Irked By Plan For Barbed Wire Around Post Office," New York Daily News, June 27, 2007, : 1; Laura Albanese, "Battle Over Fortress-Like Post Office: Schumer Bolsters Lawsuit That argues a Proposed Wyandanch Location Undermines Economic Renewal," Newsday, July 4, 2007; Paul Vitell, "They Want a New Post Office. A Fortress, Not So Much," New York Times, July 7, 2007; Lisa Saslow, "Town Sues Over Proposal For Wyandanch Post Office," New York Times, July 15, 2007; Brandon Bain, "Compromise in the Mail? Postal Officials Have Agreed to Meet With Residents and Babylon Officials to Discuss the Post Office Project," Newsday, July 20, 2007; Brandon Bain, "Officials Eye New Post Office Plan," Newsday, August 3, 2007; Brandon Bain, "Modified Postal Center Being Built in Wyandanch," Newsday, October 22, 2007; "Win-Win in Wyandanch: USPS, Community Come to Agreement," Newsday, October 23, 2007; "New Wyancdanch Post Office Will Open on July 21," http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/localnews/ny/ny_2008_074a.