History of Wyandanch

The known history of Wyandanch, New York dates back to the early 18th century.

Native Americans Pre-1706

No archelogical evidence of Native American settlements in Wheatley Heights or Wyandanch has been discovered. Native Americans are said to have hunted and gathered fruits and berries in what is now Wyandanch/Wheatley Heights. The Massapequa or Secatogue Indians first discovered the valuable clay pits in Wheatley Heights. The Native Americans established their main settlements near the rich shellfish and finfish filled waters of the Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean in what are now. Babylon, Lindenhurst and Amityville villages. The Massapequa Indians deeded the northwest section of the Town of Babylon in the Baiting Place Purchase of 1698. The northeast section of the Town of Babylon "pine brush and plain" was deeded 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 hunting and 'gathering plume and hucel bearyes." Some writers believed the Native Americans thought that the pitch pine and scrub oak forests were "jinxed." Archaeologial digs and studies should be done in Wheatley Heights, especially on the original Conklin estate property-mostly particularly near the Colonial Spring. Today, this property is the USDAN camp grounds in Wheatley Heights. Archaeologists and anthropologists should look especially for evidence of a Native American burial ground. If a Native American burial ground existed, it would probably have been located in the hills near the spring or a stream. The discovery of a Native American burial ground in Wheatley Heights would indicate that Native Americans did live there.

Ed. Note: The name "Squaw Pit Purchase" may derive from the possibility that Native American women worked (and possibly lived) near the historic clay pits in Wheatley Heights digging clay and fashioning it into clay fired pottery. This is another reason why the Native Americans in Babylon need additional scholarly research.

Source: Lorena M. Frevert, "The Town of Babylon" in Nassau-Suffolk: Two Great Counties, Lewis Publishing, 1949: 359-60

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 and Deer Park. It was first settled by Captain Jacob Conklin after he was given a tract in what is now Wheatley Heights by his father Timothy Conklin about 1706. By 1733, Conklin had enlarged his estate in the Lower Half Way Hollow Hills to 2,792 acres.Gradually, Huntington residents began settling along the southern slope of the Half Way Hollow Hills as they purchased farm and forestlands from the Conklins.What we know today as Wyandanch started with the establishment of the West Deer Park LIRR station in 1875.

Source: Chauncey L. C. Ditmars, "A Story of the Conklin Family," Long Islander (Huntington) June 5, 1936: 4; Verne Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History 1957.

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. 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. The ancient Conklin family cemetery and the famous Colonial Spring flowing out of the heavily wooded hillside can be seen on the grounds of the USDAN Center for the Performing Arts-Henry Kaufmann Camp Grounds in Wheatley Heights. One can look out and view the distant blinking Fire Island Light from atop the terminal moraine in Wheatley Heights across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office.

14-year-old Michael Berdon, a resident of Nesconset in Suffolk County, a descendent of Jacob Conklin and Nathaniel Conklin, who built the first house in what is now the village of Babylon (1803), is planning an ambitious Eagle Scout project. He is attempting to raise $15,000 to construct "a stone path with pillars" to allow the public access to the family cemetery of the "founders of Babylon" on the grounds of the Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds in Wheatley Heights.

Source: Jasmin Frankel, "Teen's eagle Scout project honors lineage," Newsday online, April 5, 2011.

Col. Platt Conklin, "an ardent patriot in the Revolution" ran the "valuable" family farm during the American Revolution. Hay and grains are said to be the primary crops on the Conklin farm. 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 the Roman Catholic diocese 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. Research needs to be done on the Conklins in Wheatley Heights/Wyandanch. Why did they want to live in such an isolated area? Was it because there was rich soil near reliable sources of water: Colonial Spring/Carll's River? Was it because of valuable hardwood trees in the forests of Wheatley Heights? Or, a combination of these.

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: The Town of Babylon separated from the Town of Huntington, which originally ran from The Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, on March 13, 1872. The Babylon-Huntington town line was located one mile (1.6 km) north of the LIRR Main Line track to Greenport and was not far north of the historic Conklin homestead.

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, Deer-Park Wyandanch History, 1957; Roy Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," Long Island Forum, October, November and December 1982 issues.

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

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, "...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 1880s

In the 1880s, cucumbers for the pickle trade were successfully grown in West Deer Park. As the Brooklyn 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."

The peach and pickle farms in West Deer Park were located north of Colonial Springs Road and Main Avenue south of the Half Way Hollow Hills in what is now called Wheatley Heights. The Gus Wade property on the north side of Main Avenue is the last property in Wheatley Heights which is used for commercial agriculture. It is the final link with West Deer Park's agricultural heritage. This section of West Deer Park north of Main Avenue was more elevated, less fire prone broad leaf forest land.

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

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 were welled in with enameled brick and covered with glass tops. The sale of the water was not extensive enough to warrant the continuation of the 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 remnants of the brick works remained as late as the 1950s.

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 LIRR's "Main Line" to Greenport reached the area in March 1842 but it was eleven years before the Deer Park LIRR station (1853) was built and thirty-three years before the West Deer Park station (1875)was erected. 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.

Gen. 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. Casey wanted a rail depot and post office located nearer his hillside estate than the Deer Park station. 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.

Ed. Note: The Conklin estate is reported to have been 2,792 acres in 1733. A study of land records in the Suffolk County Clerk's Office in Riverhead might show to whom the Conklin's sold the 1,600 acres between 1733 and 1874. Five generations of Conklins owned the estate from 1706-1874. Timothy Conklin, Jacob Conklin, Platt Conklin and Nathaniel Conklin and Nathenial Conklin, Jr.

President U.S. 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. President Grant's son, Ulysses S."Buck" Grant,Jr. (the president's second son)purchased the Casey estate in the spring of 1882 and was expected "to make extensive improvements in the place." "Buck" Grant graduated from Harvard and Columbia Law School, and served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, before becoming heavily involved in real estate. The collapse of the Grant family fortune with the demise of Grant and Ward in 1874 eventually forced Ulysses S. Grant, Jr, to sell his "farm and country seat at Half Hollow Hills" to Abraham H. Jonas for $60,000 on February 23, 1884,

Sources: "West Deer Park," South Side Signal, June 5, 1875: 2; Vincent P. Seyfried, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History: Part Three: The Age of Expansion: 189: Seyfried, Part Six: The Golden Age: 1881-1890: 261-2; Wikipedia article Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.; (Grant, Jr purchase) "Timely Topics," The Long Island Traveler (Southold) June 9, 1882: 2; (Grant, Jr. sale) "The Sheep Fund," The Long Islander (Huntington) May 16, 1884:2.

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.

Source: Roy Douglas, "A Letter From Henry A. Brown," Long Island Forum, July 1987: 152.

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 (0.93 km²) 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.

Source: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" J Fred Rodriquez, "The Wyandanch Post Office," Long Island Postal History Journal: Winter 1984: 1-5.

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 History, 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, Browns, Hogners, Engelharths,Schlitzs, Vogels, Woops,Carlsons, Laegans, Moellers, Luthers, Roelafs,Heckmans, 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 had a grocery store on the east side of Straight Path across from the Wyandanch Fire House,Emil Moeller was a volunteer fireman in Wyandanch for over six decades. 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 site in 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. A majority of the Wyandanch Germans were Lutheran and a strong minority were Roman Catholic.

Source: Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers."

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 1870s from Ohio and other parts of the West) such as the Neumanns, Arfstens,Vogels, 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 1950s, 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).

Sources: Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch Story, 1957; Marvin D. Miller, Wunderlich's Salute, Malmud-Rose Publishers, 1983: 111-113

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 and W.J. Forrest, Mrs J.B. Smith and Harry Roalef successfully pulled to safety the unconscious Shaw from the burning plane. Mr. Hasslacher was awarded a Certificate of Heroism from R.F.Nugent, Brigadier General and Chief of Staff of the Air Force at 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)

Mr. Hasslacher's son, Brosl Hasslacher (1941–2005), graduated with a B.S. in Physics from Harvard University in 1962 and earned a Ph.D from SUNY Stony Brook while working with internationally famous physicists, D.Z Freeman and C.N Yang. He studied at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University before his beginning his career in theoretical physics at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico for the U.S. government where he attained the highest security clearance. Hasslacher wrote numerous scholarly papers on topics in theoretical physics.

Source:"Army Pilot, Pinned in Blazing Plane, Rescued After Crash by Heroism of Woman, 3 Men," New York Times, July 21, 1943; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brosl_hasslacher

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. (Construction of the vast Republic Aviation airplane mannufacturing plant was another) 1940-41 was a time of great tension in the US over World War II in Europe and Asia. As late as 1960, false 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. Hermann 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 1970s. 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: "Barrier Against Sabotage At Long Island Plane Plants," New York Times, January 5, 1941: 29; "U.A.W. Votes Strike Air Engine Plant," New York Times, January 7, 1941: 5; "Aircraft Workers Prepare To Strike," New York Times, January 9, 1941: 19; : Lindenhurst Star, June 20, 1940.

Irish-American pioneers in Wyandanch: 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 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 ( a two-bedroom bungalow)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 the 100' x 100' square property (the Douglas' had purchased in 1892-3)from Long Island Avenue. Previously, there had just been a one-room hunting cabin-built prior to World War One 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. They built their own modest bungalows on property they had purchased in the late 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' (having owned their land since the early 1890s) built their home with lumber purchased from Charles Watkins Lumber Yard on Long Island Avenue between Straight Path and 18th Street.(Today this is the Weld Built site.) The newcomers wanted to escape from the crowded economically depressed conditions of Manhattan and The Bronx and enjoy the fresh pine air, privacy and lower costs of rural Wyandanch, yet be within an hour of "the city" by railroad. The Moorhead family (originally from County Cork) built their home on S. 27th Street near Long Island Avenue in 1936 and have lived in Wyandanch for almost seventy-five years.

The more prominent and more affluent Irish-American families in Wyandanch (pillars of the community and the Catholic Church): 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 with larger plots of land. 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: 1920s and 1930s

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 the Swintons also began building their own homes-to fulfill the African-American dream of having their own: land, farms and homes. They settled-almost a century ago-on property in the Upper Little Farms section south of Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) they had purchased in the 1920s. They bought their homesteads 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' had earlier bought sizable plots of land (also sold by Hagedorn) and built their own individual homes in the "Little Farms" section of the West Babylon school district between Little East Neck Road, Straight Path and Gordon Avenue. This was 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 (led by the legendary Halsey Knapp) where 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 the northern wing of the Belmont mansion -the only surviving part of the original Belmont mansion (1865)- as a Community Clubhouse for the African-Americans in southern Wyandanch/West Babylon. The building still exists and is located at the "Five Corners," at the intersection of Little East Neck Road and Straight Path. The origins of the African-American settlement in Wyandanch/Northwest Babylon may well be the result of the fact that African-Americans were employed by the Belmonts on their North Babylon estate after the Civil War; especially in work related to Belmont's horse breeding. African-Americans may well have wanted to live near the estate as did the German and Austrian Americans in Sheet Nine in West Babylon/Wyandanch. It is unlikely that Mrs. Belmont would have given part of original Belmont mansion to African-Americans in Wyandanch if there had not been some prior relationship between the Belmonts and the pioneering African-Americans in Wyandanch.

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; Republic Aviation News

Pioneering Italian-Americans in Wyandanch: 1920s-1940s

In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Italian-American families such as the Mazzas, the Tafuris, Grillos, the Barillas, the Ardizones, the Messinas, the Cioffis, the Russos, the Taglieris, the Sommeses, the Trianios, 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. Italian-Americans in Wyandanch were also quite active in local politics and civic affairs. 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 and strongly supported educational opportunities for the youth in the community. For more than 30 years, the Rizzuto family sold high-quality meats at fair prices in their butcher shop on Straight Path at Commonwealth Boulevard. Sal Messina operated a successful and popular auto repair business and gasoline station for decades at Long Island Avenue between S. 26th and S. 27th Streets. Wyandanch resident, Dominick "Red" Sommese, was a skilled football, basketball and baseball player at West Babylon High School in the late 1950s.

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: 1940s-1960s

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 Bolsters Wyandanch

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 or Ball 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, Currys', 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. Residents and the "summer people" enjoyed the peace and quiet, the fresh, bracing pine air, the pure water,the privacy, the opportunity for stimulating walks and the neighborliness of the community.

The increased year round residents bolstered the school-age population and necessitated adding lower grade classrooms (Grades 1-5) and a gymnasium to the Wyandanch Elementary School. The new facilities were opened to students and staff in September 1949. As World War II ended, Town of Babylon officials tried hard but failed to have Conklin Street at Republic Aviation re-opened to the general public. The US Navy had built an airplane engine factory in the Conklin Street roadbed for a cafeteria for Ranger Engine employees. Ranger was a subsidiary of Fairchild. 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 hindered the development of Wyandanch after 1950. Unfortunately, Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch is not much different today than it was in the 1940s-although traffic is much heavier, especially truck traffic. There are few curbs and sidewalks and no traffic stops or signals from Little East Neck Road to 18th Street.

Ed. Note: Long Island Avenue was re-paved with asphalt in 2010 but still lacks curbs and sidewalks.

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 Friday, 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,light and water.

Source: "Wyandanch News," The Lindenhust Star, September 22, 1944; "Gale Costs Still Unknown; Roads Closed, Lights Out," Newsday, September 16, 1944: 3; "LIRR, Telephones Hit Hard ny Hurricane," Newsday, September 16, 1944: 3; "WPB Grants Hurricane Relief: Lumber, Building Material Given Special Priorities," Newsday, September 18, 1944: 2; "OPA Grants Point Relief In Hurricane," Newsday, September 18, 1944:2.

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-Wyandanch's only doctor at the time- 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 relocated 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, Everettes', Jarvis', Mc Cords, Joiners, Levis', Williams, Walkers', Collins, Batchelors', Hazelwoods', Hicks, Wallaces', James, Colemans', Punters', Jennings, Smiths', Jarmonds', Taylors and Marshalls established homes in the Triangle pine barrens area of Wyandanch 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, redlining or for price factors. The Rev. Dr. Sherman Hicks, who grew up in a neatly kept solidly middle class household 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 became 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 less affluent 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. Children of middle and upper middle class African-American families in Wheatley Heights and North Babylon attended integrated schools in the Half Hollow Hills and North Babylon school districts.

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. Shortly after the beginning of the Twenty-First century, the strip of stores and the former post office were razed to make way for the Compare Foods supermarket and other businesses.

Activists hold sit-in at 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 six-hour sit-in outside the offices of the Planning Board in the Babylon Town Hall in North Lindenhurst on April 30, 1963 protesting the clearing of land in south Wyandanch for an industrial park. The militants then conducted a four-day "camp-in" in the parking lot in front of the Town Hall. The picketing of the construction site, the sit-in and the "camp-in" were led 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 (93,000 m²) 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 fast-growing 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 cancelled the camp-in and proposed additional sit-in's on May 3, 1963. On May 6, 1963, Supervisor William T. Lauder (R)rejected a request by the protesters that the light industrial site be upzoned to Residence "C" stating that the downzoning and industrial development were necessary "to broaden the tax base of the Wyandanch School District, which has a present school tax rate of $10.26 for each $100 of assessed valuation." Lauder told Newsday that the protesters' suggestions "are not realistic and could not be justified under the facts."

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 "transferred to a less inhabited section of Wyandanch."

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 Babylon Industrial Center. 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: "Negro Sit-In Protests Babylon Board's Stand," Newsday, May 1, 1963; John Clark, "Zone Protesters Plan 4-Day Camp," Newsday, May 2, 1963; "Sit-In Demands Upzoning in W'danch Negro Section," Babylon Town Leader, May 2, 1963: 1, 9; "Cancel Sit-In In Babylon," Newsday, May 4, 1963; "Wyandanch Group Loses Bid On Zoning Land in Negro Area," Newsday, May 7, 1963; "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. Ed. Note: The CORE protests in Wyandanch took place at the time of the highly publicized mass civil rights demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. in Birmingham, Alabama.

Racial distrubances roil Wyandanch: August 1967

Racial tensions were very high in the United States in the summer of 1967. Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan were devastated by major racial rebellions in July. These major rebellions which were highly publicized in the mass media and were only suppressed by military intervention. On July 26, H. Rap Brown was arrested in Cambridge, Maryland on charges of inciting a riot after allegedly telling a crowd: "burn this city down." 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 police officers worked to contain the vandalism.

Very few African-American residents in Wyandanch participated in these night-time 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 harassment.

Ed. Note: When news of the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King 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 other black communities throughout the United States. The Wyandanch School District closed classes on Friday, April 5 and in the coming months after Dr. King's assassination numerous efforts were made to assist this needy community.

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; Carole Ashkinaze and Maurice Swift, "Suffolk CORE, NAACP Plan United Effort," Newsday, April 14, 1968: 23; The Almanac of American History, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.: Greenwich, CT: 1993: 577

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, community church groups and individual residents acted to address problems facing the community. 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 Drugs 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 closed their badly needed stores and left Wyandanch because of low sales volume and high insurance costs. It would be more than 20 years before another supermarket was located in 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

Suffolk County Police Officer Killed in Line of Duty in Wyandanch: April 1971

Suffolk County Patrolman, George Frees, 28, Bay Shore, was killed and Patrolman, Robert Staab, 30, Amityville was critically wounded on April 6, 1971 after they "responded to a telephone call reporting a family argument" at 53 Mount Avenue in Wyandanch about 7 P.M... They were both hit by rifle fire as they exited their patrol car. The New York Times reported: "A child called to report an argument in the home, and Patrolman Frees and Staab responded. As they approached the dwelling, shots were fired at them, killing Mr. Frees and wounding his partner. Other policeman went to the scene, and tear gas canisters were hurled into the house to flush out the occupants. The house went up in flames." Suffolk police then recovered the bodies of a man and a woman who perished in the fire. Patrolman Frees "was married and had three young children."

Sources: "Suffolk Gunman Kills Policeman, Hurts Another," New York Times, April 7, 1971:25; "2 Bodies Are Found After L.I. Shootout," New York Times, April 8, 1971:27. http://www.odmp.org/officer/5112-patrolman-george-a-frees http://www.suffolkpc.org/honor.htm

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 the 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, and Kenneth Going of the Half Hollow Hills Civic Association led the ten-year drive to have a separate US Post Office located in Wheatley Heights to serve about 1,200 families. Mr. Going told Newsday that: "Postal service in the area has deteriorated over the years." 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 "build 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, which is named Wheatley Heights.

Sources: "A Postal Branch For Wyandanch," Newsday, July 2, 1974: 27; 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: 1980s

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 their 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 (24,000 m) 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 1980s, public water had been extended to thousands of homes in West Babylon, Wyandanch and North Babylon.

Ed. Note: Northwest Babylon is the area of the West Babylon School District north of the Southern State Parkway.

The installation of water mains in Wyandanch allowed speculative developers to construct single-family homes (many were prefabricated homes) on small 50' wide plots of land. Previously, the cesspools of homes on such plots were located too close to neighbors' water wells to allow safe development. With public water, and the subsequent elimination of individual water wells, houses could be located closer to each other than previously had been the case.

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 (140 m²) 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 (1,300 m²) 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 assistance "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 The Bread of Life 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 (1,100 m²), 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 representatives of the Town of Babylon, and Suffolk County officials 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 watershed 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 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 (530 m²) 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 Vitello, "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 Wyandanch Post Office Will Open on July 21," http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/localnews/ny/ny_2008_074a.

Wyandanch Rising" project makes progress: 2010

The Babylon town board approved $11 million in bonds in June 2010 to acquire properties for redevelopment of the Straight Path Corridor. The property purchases are part of the ongoing "Wyandanch Rising" program to improve Wyandanch. Newsday reported that Babylon has expended $15.5 million acquiring 15 properties in Wyandanch for community revitalization. Newsday disclosed on September 27, 2010 that Suffolk County has transferred five acres (presently being used for commuter parking adjacent to the Wyandanch railroad station) to assist the Town of Babylon in its plans to create a brick-faced multi-story parking garage transportation hub and open plaza north of the LIRR station as part of its bold and innovative "Wyandanch Rising" program. The "Wyandanch Rising" plan would remove decades old retail buildings and construct modern, larger, more efficient, mixed-use retail, office and second story residences near the station as well as making pedestrian movement safer with the relocation of the western end of Acorn Street, and by narrowing Straight Path in the village and establishing better crosswalks, signage, sidewalks and traffic signals. In 2010 the buildings on the east side of Straight Path which once housed the former Genovese Drug store and a King Kullen Supermaket buildings were razed to clear the way for the planned parking garage and re-routed Acorn Street.

Newsday revealed on October 3 that the Town of Babylon has been approved for $14.7 million in financing from the federal government through the Environmental Facilities Corp. of the State of New York. Babylon will use the very low-interest funds to extend the sewer line of the Southwest Sewer District along Straight Path into downtown Wyandanch. The sewer extension is deemed vital for the planned "Wyandanch Rising" revitalization of Wyandanch. Town of Babylon supervisor Steve Bellone (D) told Newsday: "This EFC funding makes it possible for the town to invest in sewer infrastructure in the Wyandanch downtown, which in turn will make revitalization possible." In February 2010, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy in his State of the County address announced that Suffolk would waive $11 million in sewer hook-up fees for qualified urban renewal projects in Wyandanch for five years to make business development more affordable.

Newsday reported on November 21 that the U.S. Green Building Council and the Bank of America have given a $20,000 Affordable Green Neighborhood grant to the Town of Babylon for its "Wyandanch Rising" program to revitalize downtown Wyandanch. The funds will allow Babylon to achieve a "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation" for the community renewal project.

Ed. Note: The suggestion that the proposed parking garage be brick-faced is wise given the fact that brick-making was Wyandanch's original industry.

Sources: Denise M. Bonilla, "Babylon OKs $11 million for Wyandanch Redevelopment," Newsday, June 23, 2010; Denise M. Bonilla, "Suffolk OKs land transfer for Wyandanch Rising," Newsday, September 27, 2010;Wyandanch Intermodal Transit Feasibility Study, The RBA Group, AKRF, Urbitran Associates & VJ Associates, June 2008; Town of Babylon: Final Wyandanch Revitalization Plan: Town of Babylon, AKRF, Inc., The RBA Group and Sustainable Long Island, May 2009; The Wyandanch Hamlet Plan, nd, prepared by Sustainable Long Island; Wyandanch Intermodal Transit Facility: July 2010. United States Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration. These four highly detailed, readable and very interesting and informative reports can be read by consulting "Town Initiatives" at http://www.townofbabylon.com/ ; Denise M. Bonilla, "Wyandanch getting $14.7 million for Wyandanch sewers," Newsday, October 3, 2010; Spencer Rumsey, "A Tale of Two Towns: Do Young Adults Have a Future on Long Island?" Long Island Press, October 7, 2010: 10-12; Denise M. Bonilla, "Wyandanch project gets a grant," Newsday online, November 21, 2010

Dominican Sisters Teaching Life Skills to Latin American Immigrants in Wyandanch: 2010

The Dominican religious sisters of North Amityville are providing literacy and job training education for immigrant women from Latin America and Asia five days a week at the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch. The Dominican nuns' The Opening Word Program, Inc. educational classes are taught virtually tuition-free by 15 sisters and 80 laypeople, at locations in Amityville and Huntington Station as well as Wyandanch. Newsday reported that the Opening Word classes "deal with topics such as health, parenting, domestic violence, income tax...job interviews...and also provides preparation for taking the exam to become a U.S. citizen." While the 250 students in the Opening Word program hail from 27 countries, many of the students at the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal come from El Salvador in Central America.

Source: Bart Jones, "Programs Help Immigrant Women Succeed on LI," Newsday, November 1, 2010; http://theopeningword.org

Ground Broken for Town of Babylon Sewer Project in Wyandanch: November 2010

Ground was broken in downtown Wyandanch on November 9, 2010 for the extension of Southwest Sewer District sewer lines into Wyandanch. The sewers funded by federal, state, county and town funds will allow the Wyandanch Rising Hamlet plan to move forward. Senator Charles Schumer, Congressman Steve Israel, Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (NYSEFC) CEO Matt Driscoll, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer Bill Lindsay, County Legislative Minority Leader Dan LoSquadro and Legislator DuWayne Gregory assisted Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone and the Babylon town board in raising the funds necessary to begin this historic program. Senator Schumer secured "the federal support for the financing the Town will receive" from the NYSEFC; Assemblyman Sweeney, the Chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, secured "a $300,000 grant for the project;" Suffolk County has waived up to $11 million in future sewer connection fees; The New York State Empire State Development Corporation granted Babylon $2 million for the sewer extension; the New York State Department of Transportation provided $486,000 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "awarded $410,000 for the project."

Speaking before a group of federal, state, county and town leaders, as well as residents of Wyandanch, Supervisor Bellone said: "This is an historic achievement for Wyandanch that will pave the way for a real downtown, new jobs, affordable housing and a better environment. This achievement would not have been possible without the incredible work of Senator Schumer, Congressman Israel, Assemblyman Sweeney and our other partners."

Congressman Steve Israel declared: "Even the most innovative projects need to start with the basics. These sewers will provide the foundation for a visionary future here in Wyandanch and future economic development. Today's announcement has been years in the making, but tangible benefits for this community are around the corner. I am proud to have worked with all levels of government to make this possible."

Source: http://www.townofbabylon.com/news.cfm?id=375&searchDate=11/1/2010

Future of Geiger Lake Park Pool in Wyandanch Uncertain: February 2011

Wyandanch and Deer Park residents have voiced concerns that the decades old Geiger Lake Pool on the Wyandanch-Deer Park border is being phased out by the Town of Babylon. Newsday reported on February 1, 2011 that leaders of the Committee to Save Geiger Lake Pool were asking Babylon's leaders for "a definitive yes or no answer" to their questions about the future status of the pool. Steve Bellone, the supervisor of the Town of Babylon, told Newsday that the Geiger Lake Poll was closed in the fall of 2010 because "it is extremely old and has a huge number of problems," which would necessitate "significant expenditure of taxpayer dollars to repair." Supervisor Bellone indicated to Newsday that Babylon is "still discussing plans for Geiger Lake Park, which is part of the town's Wyandanch Rising revitalization." The Geiger Lake Poll is reported to be "the least-used pool in the town" of Babylon. Newsday reported that the Geiger Lake Pool will be closed in the summer of 2011 and that Babylon might provide shuttle bus service to the town's five other pools. In previous summers, the Geiger Lake Pool has been used for recreational purposes by "a local day care and summer camp" in Wyandanch.

Source: Denise M. Bonilla, "Babylon Residents Ask About Town Pool Future," Newsday on line, February 1, 2011 http://www.newsday.com/long-island/babylon-residents-ask-about-town-pool-future-1.2654...

Wyandanch Rising Project Moves Forward: Spring 2011

The Long Island newspaper,Newsday,reported on March 3, 2011 that the Town of Babylon has presented a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) process to "prequalify developers" who would then be encouraged to react to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Wyandanch Rising redevelopment project. Babylon is seeking developers who have the experience, finances and repuation to develop high quality housing, commerce and green-space along the Straight Path corridor near the Wyandanch LIRR station. Newsday also reported that the Town of Babylon hired a Manhattan engineering consultants firm, PB Americas, Inc., (Parsons Brinckerhoff) in February for $2.4 million to finalize the design of the modern parking facility the Town of Babylon is planning for the north side of the LIRR station. Newsday reported on April 20, 2011 that the Town of Babylon has asked three development companies to submit detailed proposals for the Wyandanch Rising project. The companies are: Albanese Organization, Inc. (Garden City); Douglaston Development (Douglaston) and Jonathan Rose Companies (Manhattan).

Source: Denise M. Bonilla, "Seeking a master developer," Newsday, March 3, 2010: A23.; Denise M. Bonilla, "Potential developers for Wyandanch Rising named," Newsday online, April 20, 2011.