Wyandanch, New York

For the Chief of the Montaukett in the 1600's, see Wyandanch (sachem).

Wyandanch, New York
CDP
Motto:  " We Believe "
U.S. Census Map
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Suffolk
Area
• Total	4.4 sq mi (11.3 km2)
• Land	4.4 sq mi (11.3 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	56 ft (17 m)
Population  (2000)
• Total	10,546
• Density	2,410.8/sq mi (930.8/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	11798
Area code	631
FIPS code	36-83294Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	0971769Template:GR

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

History

Earliest settlers: 1706-1874

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

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

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

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

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

Before 1854, "peaches were produced in large quantities and at profitable returns on the backbone hills of the island, which lie north of the main line of the Long Island railroad, near West Deer Park or Wyandance station," the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1885, "...Nathaniel Conklin and Jesse Conklin and others... had large orchards from which they marketed thousands of baskets of peaches. Messrs. Hawley, Smith and Carmen, a firm of produce dealers in the fulton market, rented a parcel of land, also situated in these hills, known as the Nine Partner tract, upon which they established peach orchards...One year their crop was upward of twelve thousand baskets. In the summer of 1854, however, there came to Long Island a visitation of seventeen year locusts, the baleful effects of which annihilated the fair prospects of the peach growers there so effectively that cultivation on any extensive scale has not been attempted since."

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

Pickle Farms in West Deer Park in the 1880's

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

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

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

Water Bottling and Brick Making in West Deer Park/Wyandance

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

Sources: "Random Thoughts," South Side Signal, April 4, 1919: 2; George Wm Fisher and Donald H. Weinhart, A Historical Guide to Long Island: Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies: 1840-1970: Nasaau-Suffolk-Brooklyn-Queens, Long Island Antique Bottle Association, 1999. The Pennypacker Collection at the East Hampton Public Library holds several documents on water bottling in West Deer Park.

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

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

West Deer Park/Wyandanch: 1875-1903

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

German-Americans dominate Wyandanch: 1900-1955

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irish-American pioneers in Wyandanch

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

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

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

Pioneering African-Americans in Wyandanch: 1920's

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

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

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

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

Pioneering Italian-Americans in Wyandanch

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

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

Hispanic pioneers in Wyandanch

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

World War II

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

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

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

Wyandanch population grows in the 1940s

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

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

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

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

Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944

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

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

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

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

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

Upwardly mobile African-American families such as the Boxhills, Mayers, Wilsons, Ellisons,Fischers, Slaughters, Piggotts, Allaways, Walthalls, Edwards,Spanns, Dudleys, Jarvis', Mc Cords, Joiners, Levis, Williams, Walkers, Collins,Batchelors,Hazelwoods, Hicks, Wallaces, James', Colemans, Punters, Jennings, Smiths,Jarmonds and Taylors established homes in the Triangle area of Wyandanch in the late 1940s and 1950s. Many of these families- both middle class and working class- purchased homes in Wyandanch because they were denied opportunities to move into other fast developing white housing tracts on Long Island-such as Levittown- due to exclusionist real estate practices: steering,restrictive covenants, redlining, etc. The Rev. Dr. Sherman Hicks, who grew up on S.22nd Street in Wyandanch next door to the Trinity Lutheran parsonage, graduated from Wyandanch High School, earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wittenberg University and went on to become the Bishop of Chicago for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dr. Hicks is currently the Executive Director of the Multicultural Ministries Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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

Sources: "Non-Racial Dwellings Opened at Wyandanch," New York Times, March 11, 1951, 219; Louis B. Schlivek, "Wyandanch: A Case Study In Conflict Over Subsidized Housing," in The Future of Suffolk County: A Supplement to the Second Regional Plan: A Draft For Discussion, November 1974: 52-56; Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of an African-American Suburb, 1971. Ed. Note: If any reader knows the names of original homeowners, or long-time residents in either the Carver Park or Lincoln Park developments; please feel free to add their names.

Wyandanch gets a new Post Office: 1955

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Racial distrubances roil Wyandanch: August 1967

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

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

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

Sources: Abraham Rabinovich, "Wyandanch Negroes Cite Recreation Need," Newsday, August 5, 1966; Frances X. Clines, "Violence Strikes L.I. Village Again," New York Times, August 3, 1967:18; LI Violence In 2nd Night," Long Island Press, August 3, 1967: 1; Frances X. Clines, "Wyandanch Youths List Complaints in Move to End Strife," New York Times, August 5, 1967: 8; John Childs and Gurney Williams, "Dennison Vows Wyandanch Aid," Newsday, August 10, 1967: 3

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: Kent D. Smith, "Day Care Group Breaks Ground," Newsday, September 14, 1970; Ahmid-Chett Green, "Helping Mothers Get Off Welfare," Newsday, July 23, 1973, A11; "The 'mayor' of Wyandanch," Newsday, February 4, 1973; Harriet Rosenberg, "Open Wyandanch Day Care Center," Babylon Beacon, March 1, 1973: 1,6. http://open.nysenate.gov/openleg/api/1.0/html/bill/J390

Wheatley Heights Post Office approved-July 1974

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Government and politics

Wyandanch gets its first polling place in 1932

The first polling place in Wyandanch was established in the Wyandanch Fire House for the 1932 presidential election. Before 1932, Wyandanch residents voted in Deer Park. Previous to the Great Depression, Wyandanch trended Republican politically but the community was solidly Democratic after 1932 with FDR defeating Alf Landon there in 1936 by a 318-200 vote.

Law enforcement in Wyandanch: Pre-1960

Law and order was originally maintained in Wyandanch by Troop "L" of the New York State Police, which was headquartered at Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon and by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office. The State troopers had a Pistol Range on a hillside sandpit in what is now Wheatley Heights.Troop "L" held its seventh annual Christmas Turkey Shoot at the State Troopers' Pistol Range on Sunday,December 25, 1940. It was reported that over 1,500 people had attended the troopers's turkey shoot in 1939. The participants did not actually shoot turkeys but shot at rabbit targets with .22 rifles and at turkey targets with 20-gauge shotguns and .38 calibre revolvers. The best marksmen were awarded turkeys. It cost 35 cents to enter the event. Guns were supplied to contestants who did not own weapons. After World War II, the Babylon Town Police patrolled Wyandanch, and on January 1, 1960, the Suffolk County Police Department took control of law enforcement in Wyandanch.

Source: Raymond R. Camp, "Wood, Field and Stream," New York Times, December 20, 1940: 36.

Wyandanch votes Republican in 1948

Where Wyandanch had been predominately Democratic in the 1930s, in the November 1948 presidential election voters casting their ballots in the Wyandanch Fire House voted almost 2-1 Republican. Governor Thomas E. Dewey (R) received 550 votes in Wyandanch while President Harry S Truman (D,L) received 315 votes. Republican candidates for Representative in Congress, State Senate, State Assembly, County Clerk and County Coroner received similar numbers of votes. The return of prosperity, the patriotic effects of employment at the nearby Republic, Grumman, Sperry, Ranger and Liberty defense plants and the effectiveness of the Babylon Town Republican Party organization in the 1940s account for this significant, if short term, political change.

Source: Babylon Leader, November 4, 1948

Wyandanch becomes overwhelmingly Democratic: 1960's

With the racial transformation of Wyandanch in the mid-1950s many white Republicans moved away and the newcomer African-Americans trended heavily Democratic, although some African-American businessmen and civic leaders in Wyandanch (such as realtor James Ellison, Robert Washington and Theodore Williams) were active in the Republican Party. Most Democrats in Wyandanch belonged to the Mid-Island Democratic club.

Wyandanch residents discuss incorporating as a Village: 1955

Members of the Wyandanch Civic Association and the Carver Park Citizens Association held meetings in the auditorium of the Wyandanch School in February 1955 to discuss the feasibility of Wyandanch incorporating as a village. Frederick J. Dunwoody, the president of the Wyandanch Civic Association had Lindenhurst mayor, Alex Jager, address the residents about the incorporation process and the possible benefits of Wyandanch having its own "trustees, police department and all else that would befall an incorporated area." Edwin S. Shanks, the chairman of the Babylon Township Taxpayers Association advised a mass meeting in Deer Park that both Deer Park and Wyandanch should incorporate as villages since he believed incorporation would mean "the payment of less overall property taxes."

Sources: "Wyandanch Civic Clubs to Hear Talk On Incorporation," Deer Park Wyandanch News, February 11, 1955: 1; "Favor Incorporation Of Local Villages," Deer Park Wyandanch News, February 11, 1955: 1.

Wyandanch Residents Block Proposed Town of Babylon Highway Dept. Gravel Pit: May 1973

Over 150 Wyandanch residents turned out at Babylon Town Hall to vehmently criticize a proposal by the Highway Department of the Town of Babylon to condemn 22 acres on the west side of Little East Neck Road south of Long Island Avenue for a 15' deep sand and gravel pit. Highway Superintendent, Robert Hannington told the Town Board that the department could no longer mine the 60,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel it needs for its road work from the town incinerator property on the Wyandanch/West Babylon border. He belived the proposed pit would meet Babylon's needs for eight years. The controversial proposal united all shades of opinion in Wyandanch. Arthur Figliozzi, the District Principal of the Wyandanch Schools said the Wyandanch school board was "shocked that such a proposal would be considered for in front of a school (the Milton L. Olive School) where children would ne endangered by passing trucks." Figliozzi said he was "continually amazed that Wyandanch is used as a scapegoat. Why does our town have to be the dumping ground for this sort of thing." Hermann Griem, president of the Babylon Joint Civic and Taxpayers Association proposed that the property be used as a park. Griem, who fought strip sand mining in Wheatley Heights in the 1950's, told supervisor Aaron Barnett and the full board, "everything gets dumped in Wyandanch. If a representative from Wyandanch was on the town board, this proposal would never be brought to the floor." Rev. David Rooks, president of the Wyandanch Community Development Corporation, argued that the proposed sand pit was too close to the Wyandanch Memorial High School and the Milton L. Olive Middle School and noted that "condemnation by the town would create another tax free piece of property in the poorest hamlet in the town." Herbert Abramson, an attorney for the Pinelawn Cemetery said "'the foul, loathsome pit' would violate the sanctity of our dead who cannot speak from their graves."

Sources: "Wyandanch Gravel Pit Causes Town Uproar," May 24, 1973

Jesse Jackson Campaigns for President in Wyandanch: April 1988

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the first African American to make a serious run for President, made a campaign stop to more than 600 black church members, community residents and elected Democratic officials in the gymnasium of the Wyandanch High School on April 8, 1988. Jackson entered the packed gym to repeated chants of "Jesse, Jesse." Rev. Jackson's stop was part of a whirlwind bus tour of Long Island to drum up votes in the April 19 New York primary. His main contenders were: Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen Al Gore. In his 20-minute speech, Rev. Jackson called for economic justice and ethnic harmony in America and urged the predominantely black student body of Wyandanch High School to "resist drugs and take responsibility for their lives."

"Many Wyandanch residents," Roy Douglas wrote in the Babylon Beacon, "said Rev. Jackson's visit was a historic day for the community which would be remembered for decades." Martha Nash said: "I think this is such a wonderful occasion. This is a fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. We've got a long way to go, but, we've come a long way. The message, not the color of one's skin is what's important. This election will tell if America is really democratic." Khalid La Teef, the president of the Wyandanch School Board said: "Rev. Jackson is a symbol of hope of the opportunity of the ability in America to achieve against all odds. Jesse Jackson is an African-American who is achieving positive things." Rev. John Cervini, the pastor of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church in Wyandanch said: "Rev. Jackson's visit to Wyandanch is a wonderful experience for the community. He is so positive and so hopeful. He generates so much self-worth and self-dignity."

Jackson came in second in the New York primary with 37% of the vote statewide. Governor Dukakis won 51% and Senator Gore only 10%. Rev. Jackson won New York City by 6,000 votes, but Gov. Dukakis did very well in the New York City suburbs. Dukakis' victories in the New York Democratic primary, and shortly after in the Pennsylvania primary, effectively ended Rev. Jackson's historic presidential run.

Sources: Michael Oreskes, "Poll Finds Dukakis Extending Lead as the Candidates Stump New York," New York Times, April 9, 1988; Roy Douglas, "Presidential Candidate Visits Wyandanch As Supporters Cheer," Babylon Beacon, April 14, 1988: 3; E.J. Dionne Jr., "New York Gives Dukakis a Crucial Victory; Jackson Far Ahead of Gore, Who May Quit," New York Times, April 20, 1988: 1.

Wyandanch residents seek a referendum on incorporating as a village: 1989

In the summer of 1989, the Coalition for Better Government, an activist group in Wyandanch, lead by Wyandanch businessman, Delano Stewart, formed the Committee to Incorporate Wyandanch on the grounds that the unincorporated, predominantly black hamlet had been "'dumped on,' neglected, overassesed" and denied a voice in government by the Town of Babylon." The Committee to Incorporate Wyandanch sought to include Republic Airport in the proposed Village of Wyandanch and sought local zoning, taxing and planning powers in an effort to better the lives of the 13,600 residents, whose median income was $35,000. The effort did not succeed.

Sources: "Wyandanch Needs Better Government-Not More," Newsday editorial, March 1, 1989: 64; Dele Olojede, "Wyandanch Incorporation Gets a Boost," Newsday, July 15, 1989: 11; "Don't Make Wyandanch the Soweto of Long Island," Newsday editorial, July 21, 1989: Dele Olojede, "Residents Petition for Local Control: Wyandanch Begins March to Incorporation," Newsday, July 23, 1989: 1; 84; Delano H. Stewart, "Wyandanch Needs a Voice of Its Own," Newsday {Viewpoints} July 31, 1989: 45; Tom Morris, "Wyandanch Incorporation Opposed: County Planners Cite Zoning Issue," Newsday, August 3, 1989: 33; Michael Kornfeld, "Wyandanch Seeks a Vote On Incorporation as Village," New York Times, August 20, 1989, Section 12: 1,14; Dele Olojede, "The Low Road to Incorporation? Babylon Highway Chief Spurns Group's Criticism,: August 30, 1989: 31.

Wyandanch Residents Fight Back Against Influx of Crack, Prostitutes and Crime: 1991

Wyandanch, like all communities, has experienced crime and criminals. Earlier in the 20th Century it was mostly petty theft, vandalism, burglaries, auto theft, the occasional shooting or stabbing or fist-fight- usually under the influence of alcohol near one of the several "bars" in the community. In the early 1950's, some white teenagers , as was true nationally, became involved in gangs and gang fights in Wyandanch. These patterns of behavior generally continued as Wyandanch became a predominately black community after 1958, although the amount of crime increased as the population increased. Wyandanch in the 1960's, as was true throughout the US, saw a major growth in the use of drugs, and the crimes that are associated with drug addiction.

Beginning in the mid-1980's, however, Wyandanch was adversely affected by the introduction of Crack: "A new more potent from of cocaine-cheaper, easier to use and more addictive than {cocaine} powder..." Crack was sold in small quantities "costing from $10 to $50" and was said to be "fast becoming the drug of choice among cocaine users..." {especially among} "street kids aged 18 to 25." The rise of crack harmed neighborhoods in Wyandanch as "crackheads" committed crimes to obtain money for crack. Empty houses were taken over by crack users as "crack houses," where groups would smoke crack together. Neighbors rightly saw these numerous "crack houses" as a menace to their children and themselves.

The general public's awareness of crack in Wyandanch reached its peak between 1989 and 1991, when two events were highly publicized by the regional media. The first in 1989, involved the arrest of a 10-year-old in Wyandanch who was arrested for selling Crack from his bicycle. The other was the huge influx of prostitutes into Wyandanch who walked the sidewalks of Straight Path in search of "johns"- even plying their trade in front of the Wyandanch Public Library, the Straight Path school and on the steps of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C Church. Most of the "johns" were white men who drove into the community seeking assiginations with the prostitutes. As a result of the increased crime associated with drugs-especialy crack; some homeowners began erecting steel gates on the windows and doors of their home; others turned to belligrent guard dogs for protection.

Source: Michael Winerip, "Tears, Handcuffs for Boy, 10, Facing Judge in Crack Sale," New York Times, January 21, 1989: 1.

In a controversial move, the members of the Wyandanch Civic Association, as the New York Times wrote: "Tired of the prostitutes on the corners and the men propositioning their daughters, and frustrated by police sweeps that have not solved the problem, the Wyandanch Civic Association took a drastic step this winter. Using a list provided by the police, it sent letters to the homes of 63 men arrested for soliciting prostitutes, with the words 'Patronizing a prostitute' written in bold red ink on the envelope and a copy of bthe police report with the accused man's name highlighted." Muriel Simmons-Mc Cord said" "This is to let people know that we do not want you to use our community as a playground." Daria Cooper told the New York Times: "This is Long Island; you're supposed to be able to enjoy your privacy, and its being invaded on a day-to-day basis."

Sources: Edna Negron and Michelle Slatella, "CRACK: Smokable Cocaine-Cheap, Convenient and Powerfully Addictive- Is Ensnaring New Users at an Alarming Rate," Newsday, April 6, 1986: 5; Michael Winerip, "Our Towns; At Youth Center, Need and Crack Are the Enemies," New York Times, January 24, 1989: B. 1; Sarah Lyall, "Stung by Prostitution, Town shames Customers," New York Times, July 18, 1991: B1; Pete Sheehan, "Prostitutes on church steps a symbol of community ills," Long Island Catholic, August 7, 1991: 12

Community Help Center opens in Wyandanch: November 2009

The Town of Babylon opened a Community Help Center in a trailer at the southeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue to assist residents with job training and home ownership. The $100,000 Help Center is located on land the Town of Babylon purchased for $600,000 across from the Wyandanch LIRR station, which was previously the site of an unsuccessful Mc Donald's franchise. The Wyandanch Help Center is part of the Wyandanch Rising community revitalization plan. The opening was attended by Town of Babylon supervisor Steve Bellone, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, Suffolk County Legislator De Wayne Gregory and residents of Wyandanch. "We have to get the community ready and get residents prepared for the revitalization," supervisor Bellone told the people of Wyandanch, "We're going to make sure we train people now so that when the development is going on, we can make sure thy're working." The center is to be "staffed by the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk County, First AME Church's Family Life Center/New Beginnings, Farmingdale State College's Small Business Development Center and the United Way of Long Island." The center is being managed by Mannix Gordon of the Town of Babylon Downtown Revitalization Office. It will be operated for $30,000 a year.

Source: Denise M. Bonilla, "New Center Part of Plan to Revitalize," Newsday, November 3, 2009: A.29.

Transportation

Early roads, Vanderbilt's Motor Parkway, and "Castle" Estate

The main roads in West Deer Park in the horse and carriage era were: Little East Neck Road, Straight Path, Belmont Road (now Mount Avenue,which August Belmont used to transport his thoroughbred horses to his historic 1865 Belmont Lake estate and horse breeding farm in North Babylon from the West Deer Park railroad station) Colonial Springs Road and the Old Country Road-Kings Highway (Main Avenue from South 28th Street to Straight Path). What we know today as Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch was originally known as Conklin Street in 1895 when the Merritt brothers in Farmingdale had Conklin Street cut through from Farmingdale to Deer Park so that the real estate lots they were selling in what then was called Wyandance could be more easily reached. Farmingdale residents considered this "a great improvement as there has been no direct road form this village (Farmingdale) to Deer Park." Straight Path was improved in 1937 (straighted between Portland Way and Brown Boulevard) and widened and improved again from N. 11th Street to the Southern State Parkway in the mid-1950's to facilitate the hundreds of workers at the Fairchild Guided Missiles plant in Wyandanch who needed better access to the Southern State Parkway.Sources: Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," 1982.

A section of William K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP) toll road (1908)- introducing the automobile era to the area- ran through Wyandanch with two concrete overpass bridges crossing Little East Neck Road and Colonial Springs Road (across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office) until the parkway was dug up and the bridges demolished in the early 1960s to make room for the Westwood Village housing estate in Wheatley Heights. Parts of the asphalt on top of reinforced concrete Long Island Motor Parkway roadbed can still be seen in the woods behind the VFW Hall. The speed limit on the 16' wide LIMP was 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) up to Wyandanch and 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) beyond Wyandanch.Vanderbilt's "Castle" estate and mansion in Wheatley Heights- with its famous "Black Tower"- between Burr's Lane and Bagatelle Road is now the campus of the Sisters of Good Shepard's Madonna Heights School (1963)- since Baroness Mac Kay-Baruch donated the estate to the Catholic Church after Dr. Baruch's death in 1953.. Dr. Herman Baruch, financier Bernard Baruch's brother, later improved the Vanderbilt estate and named it "Bagatelle." Herman Baruch also developed the renowned Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills-where the Koster Blue spruce tree was developed by Peter M. Koster, a Wyandanch resident, who died in 1944. The large and varied upscale nursery stock of the Bagetelle Nursery was shipped in and out by rail from a siding just west of the Wyandanch railroad station. Interestingly, there is a "Wyandanch Pink" rhododendron. This hardy rhododendron hybrid was developed by Charles O. Dexter of Sandwich, Mass. in the 1920's or 1930's. Further research is required to discover if the "Wyandanch Pink" was developed for Dr. Herman Baruch for growing at his Bagatelle Nursery Farm.

Source for "Wyandanch Pink," www.learn2grow.com

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

Sources: Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957. On Long Island Avenue see: "Farmingdale," The Long Islander (Huntington) June 1, 1895: 4

Wyandanch residents struggle for protection at dangerous LIRR Crossings: 1930s

Numerous individuals were killed in horrific accidents involving crashes with Long Island Rail Road trains-especially the "Cannonball" express trains from Greenport- at the unguarded grade-level rail crossings at Straight Path, 18th Street and Little East Neck Road in Wyandanch. In 1935, after repeated protests from the people of Wyandanch, the Public Service Commission (PSC) ordered the LIRR to provide crossing guards at the 18th Street and Straight Path crossings during school hours on school days so the school children living north of the LIRR could walk safely to the 1913 school house at South 20th Street and Straight Path. "Residents of the village had complained that the railroad crossings were dangerous for school children, that the visibility bwas limited and that engine whistles were not always sounded as a warning of approaching trains." Sources: "To Dedicate Quogue School Building, First Erected On L.I. with PWA Aid," Suffolk County News (Sayville) January 18, 1935; 9; Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers."

1941: Conklin Street is closed and the Southern State Parkway opens

1941 was a historic year for transportation in Wyandanch. On January 6, 1941 the main highway from Wyandanch to "The City," Route 24-Hempstead Turnpike was blocked at the rapidly expanding Republic Aviation factory at Broad Hollow Road (Route 110) and Conklin Street in East Farmingdale on January 6, 1941 by the Suffolk County Highway Department, severing auto and truck traffic into Wyandanch via Long Island Avenue and limiting economic development along Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch. Before and after the U.S. entered World War II, the Town of Babylon repeatedly tried, but failed, (including instituting legal actions) to pressure the U.S. Government to re-open Conklin Street. Long Island Avenue remains one of the least improved major roads in the Town of Babylon today. Most of it still is a two-lane road, which is mostly uncurbed and has few sidewalks, although it is heavily traveled-especially by trucks. Conklin Street at Republic would not be reopened until 1965 (when the Town of Babylon convinced the new owners-Fairchild Republic to re-open Conklin Street to the public) and the bothersome Conklin Street "dogleg" near New Highway would not be straightened until the late 1990s.

Later in 1941, however, Robert Moses' ultra-modern Southern State Parkway was opened to Straight Path (Exit 36) in West Babylon. The opening of the Southern State Parkway made the African-American community in Little Farms section in southern Wyandanch less isolated and more accessible to future settlers. African Americans in Wyandanch had much social interaction with the older, more established, North Amityville African-American community (dating to at least the 1820s) - mainly attending church services and social events there. White and black youngsters went to school together in the Wyandanch Grade School, but otherwise lived in mostly separate social spheres. Sources: Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," Douglas: "Conklin Street Cutoff."

Wyandanch residents struggle to have the Town of Babylon assume responsibility for "Paper Streets": 1946

In the spring of 1946, Wyandanch and West Babylon residents were pressuring the Town to assume responsibility for paving and maintaining the miles of "private" roads in the unincorporated sections of Babylon town. Homeowners claimed the streets were muddy and frequently impassable when the Spring thaws and heavy rain set in. They said their children could not get to school and that doctors visits, fire protection and food deliveries were frequently impossible in the wet months. The streets east of Straight Path and south of Long Island Avenue in the high water table area closest to the Carll's River were most impacted. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dr. Leon Schultz and Dr. Patrick Salatto established pioneering medical offices in Wyandanch. In the mid-1940s residents in isolated Wyandanch had milk and dairy products delivered by the Evans Dairy, bread and cakes by the Dugan Bakers, and eggs and chickens by Rudy Hoegner, who raised chickens on N. 22nd Street. Cars often had to be pulled out of the muddy bogs in the numerous unimproved roads by Town Highway Department machinery. There was no home delivery of mail in Wyandanch before the mid-1950s. Middle and lower middle residents rented mail boxes in the Post Office while poorer residents picked up their mail at the General Delivery window. Leaders of the Town of Babylon replied that existing law would not allow the town to spend money on the unimproved roads and said residents would have to pay for their own improvements. In July 1946, the Wyandanch Taxpayers Association filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court in Riverhead to force the town of Babylon to take responsibility for improvements to "many poorly constructed development roads." The six streets which assistance were called for were: S. 29th Street, Jamaica Avenue, Lake Drive, Bedford Street, Irving Avenue and State Street. Later, 10 additional streets and roads in Wyandanch were added to the petition.

In September 1946, State Supreme Court Justice Meyer Steinbrink in Riverhead dismissed the Wyandanch residents request that Babylon assume responsibility for maintenance of unimproved roads in Wyandanch. The court decision occurred after Wyandanch residents rejected a proposal by the town of Babylon to create special assessment districts in the unincorporated areas of Babylon where residents would pay the costs of road improvements in their communities over a ten or twenty year period. In October, the Wyandanch residents decided to appeal the Supreme Court decision to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. In January 1947, George Stephan, the Highway Superintendent for the Town of Babylon, began to solve this serious problem when he asked the Town Board to take over four streets in Wyandanch after he had the roads graded and tarred. Supervisor Donald E. Muncy and the Town Board refused to approve Stephen's recommendation. Residents demanded that their roads be graded with "crowns" in the middle so water could run off. In August 1947, the Wyandanch Civic Association agreed to drop legal action on the matter and work with the town on a plan to float long term bonds to cover the costs of repairing the privately owned roads and putting the roads in shape that would legally permit Babylon to assume responsibility for the streets. Even after this settlement, many paper streets in Wyandanch remained uncut and unimproved, or were mere paths until well into the 1950s, particularly in the Triangle section. Mrs. William Fried, a Spruce Street resident, and the author of the "Wyandanch News" column in the Babylon Leader, spearheaded the campaign to pressure the town of Babylon into upgrading roads in unincorporated Wyandanch. In September 1948, mothers of the Wyandanch PTA discussed "the unprotected and dangerous (LIRR) railroad crossing at Straight Path in North Lindenhurst...(which) has been of great anxiety of all the parents of (Wyandanch) children using the school bus to Lindenhurst High School and the Lindenhurst (Catholic) Parochial School."

Sources: "Town Faces Legal Action To Force Repair Of Roads: Wyandanch Taxpayers Oppose Creation of Special Assessment Areas," Babylon Leader, June 13, 1946: 1; "Wyandanch Sues Town On Roads," Newsday, July 11, 1946, 2; "Wyandanch Taxpayers Offer Road Plan," Newsday, August 30, 1947, 22.

Miniature railroad built in Wyandanch: 1948

In December 1948 track was laid by the New York Live Steamer Society between the LIRR and Merritt Avenue at North 17th Street for a miniature trains powered by steam locomotives using coal fired scale model Long Island Rail Road locomotives generating 100 pounds of steam pressure. Harold Rector of Straight Path, the president of the NYLSS, expected the miniature trains to be carrying passengers by Decoration Day 1949.By 1951 three miniature engines were in operation on Sundays and holidays, "two of them steam and the other diesel." No fares were charged for the rides although space was limited. The miniature railway moved to Freeport, in 1953,when the LIRR needed the land on which the New York Live Steamer Society had been using without charge. Source: Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History.

Wyandanch's historic 1875 LIRR station is demolished: 1958

In June 1958, the LIRR demolished the 1875 Wyandanch railroad station and replaced it with a non-descript 37' x 12', $40,000 concrete block depot on the north side of Long Island Avenue about 500 feet (150 m) west of the 1875 station. The LIRR said the move was designed to stop tains from blocking the Straight Path intersection. The new station was a replica of the Bethpage station. The LIRR leased 50,600 square feet of property on both sides of the track between Straight Path and 18th Street for expanded parking. The LIRR also lengthened the platform at Wyandanch from 300 feet to 898 feet " to accomodate the ever longer trains that operate on the LIRR's Main Line.The New York Times reported that the Wyandanch railroad station "had been used as the setting for several Western motion pictures in the pre-Hollywood era." The ugly 1958 LIRR depot was in turn demolished in 1986 when the MTA electrified the Main Line from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma and a new modernistic, unmanned, LIRR station was built on the site of the original 1875 station.Parking at the Wyandanch railroad station became problematic in the 1960s with the development of upsale housing in Half Hollow Hills as these commuters to Manhattan used Wyandanch since it was closer than the station in Huntington.

Wyandanch residents unite to save historic LIRR Stop: 1983

The MTA/LIRR announcement in early 1983 that it was planning to electify the Main Line from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma and eliminate railroad service in Wyandanch (after 108 years) angered and united disparate groups in Wyandanch. The LIRR believed moving the Deer Park station to Pineaire and eliminating the Wyandanch and Pinelawn stations would allow the faster electric trains to significantly reduce commuting times to Penn Station. Civic leaders in Wyandanch such as Herman Griem and Jordan K. Wilson mobilized residents to protest any termination of railroad service in Wyandanch. The closing of the Wyandanch station would have meant that all LIRR trains would have sped through Wyandanch at speeds up to 90 mph. Working on a bipartisan basis, Senator Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon) and Assemblyman Patrick Halpin, (D-Lindenhurst) convinced the MTA/LIRR to maintain rail service in Wyandanch and at Pinelawn, As part of the $186 million modernization program. the LIRR agreed to spend up to $10 million to fence both sides of the third rail track from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma in residential areas. Assemblyman Halpin warned the LIRR/MTA: "Without a fence, as soon as the tracks are electrified, there will be a terrible tragedy." The LIRR agreed build two steel crossover bridges in Wyandanch (at S. 27th Street and just east of the new Wyandanch LIRR station) so residents could safely cross over the railroad without walking all the way to S. 18th Street or Straight Path. The 1958 station was razed and a new $667,000 fully automated (clerkless) Wyandanch station was erected by Slattery Associates (Farmingdale) on the site of the original 1875 Wyandanch station at Straight Path and Acorn Street. The new "no-frills" station was "roughly twice as large" as the 1958 LIRR station at Wyandanch and would not ne manned but would have ticket vending machines. LIRR lectric rail service started in Wyandanch on January 18, 1988.

Sources: Bill Bleyer, "LIRR Awards Contract for New Stations," Newsday, September 16, 1986: 19; William Bunch, "Safety Fencing Is Urged Along Electrified Rails," Newsday, September 24, 1986: 31; "Electric Service Extended by L.I.R.R.," New York Times, December 31, 1987

Emergency services

Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. : 1925

With the increased home building south of Long Island Avenue, and the need for fire protection throughout Wyandanch, Edwin Mason and John Prohaska organized the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. in 1925 to protect the lives and property of community residents from the all-too-present danger of ferocious brush fires. Forest fires, especially in the spring and summer months were a constant concern for residents and their scattered homes-especially those west of Straight Path, north and south of the LIRR. The highly flammable pitch pine and scrub oak could erupt in flames-often ignited by sparks and embers from the coal-burning LIRR locomotives and spread very rapidly-particularly in the early spring. The Wyandanch Fire Department was incorporated by the town of Babylon on May 18, 1928. The original two-truck, wood-frame, stucco-covered firehouse was built in 1929 on land on the west side of Straight Path between South 17th and 18th Streets, which was donated by realtor Harry Levey. Many of the larger forest fires in spring and summer were extinguished with the help of Army troops stationed at Republic Aviation, or tented for summer maneuvers, on farmland on the east side of Wellwood Avenue north of the US National Cemetery, or by Long Island Lighting Company and New York Telephone Company workmen. The department's first fire truck was a used Model T which was purchased from the Hicksville Fire Department for $125. In the 1930s, the fire company added a chain-driven used 1927 AC Mack truck and a new International Class A pumper in 1939. From 1932 until 1956, the Wyandanch Fire House was the only polling place in Wyandanch. Fire wells were drilled throughout the community in 1951 to help the fire fighters replenish the fire truck tanks in major blazes. In 1955 the company bought a Diamond T pumper, which featured "a high-pressure fog fire attack system." In 1959, the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. moved into a modern new firehouse on the site of the original 1929 firehouse. In 1964, a second Wyandanch Fire House was erected on Main Avenue between North 21st Street and North 22nd Street to serve residents in Wyandanch and Wheatley Heights north of the Long Island Railroad tracks. "Bad Forest Fire At Wyandanch," The Long Islander (Huntington) November 7, 1924: 8.

Wyandanch Firemen who died Serving the community:

1. July 15, 1984-Kevin Cioffi, 20, killed by a moving fire truck in the fire house.

Source: "Death Toll of LI Firefighters," Newsday, November 28, 1988: 3.

Especially Tragic Fires in Wyandanch:

1. February 24, 1952-Three children, Donna Grimsmann (4), Wallace Grimsmann (8) and Robert Grimsmann, Jr. were burned to death in a flash fire that consumed their two-story unheated home at South 27th Street and Jamaica Avenue in Wyandanch. Robert Grimsmann, Jr., suffered severe second and third degree burns saving his sister Joanne (5)from the inferno, but later died in Southside Hospital. Firefighers from the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Company "found the home completely enveloped by flames and the roof about to crash in when they reached the scene" at 4:45 am. Robert Grimsmann,Sr.(36) was able to pull his 10 month infant daughter, Linda, from the fast moving fire. The three victims were interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn with their brother, Ritchie (8), who had been hit by a car in June 1951.

Sources: "2 Children Burned To Death in Home," New York Times, February 25, 1952: 15; 2 Tots Die in 4 AM House Blaze," Newsday, February 25, 1952: 3S; "2 Children, Hero Brother Die As Flash Fire Destroys Home," Newsday, February 25, 1952: 3N; "Boy Hero Dies, 3rd Fire Victim, Newsday, February 26, 1952 3S; Walt Brevig, "Three Wyandanch Fire Victims Lie Beside Brother in Pinelawn," Newsday, February 28, 1952: 3S.

2. May 24, 1967-Five members of the Meola family died when flames engulfed their split-level home at 168 Ridge Road in Wyandanch. Robert Meola, Sr. (49) and four of his sons: Keith, (2), Daniel (5),Thomas (13) and Richard (20), perished in the fast-moving blaze, which was fought by firemen from the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. Mrs. Catherine Meola and her eight year old son, Ronald (8) survived the blaze when they jumped "into the backyard from an upstairs bedroom window."

Source: "Blaze in L.I. Home Kills 5 in a Family; 2 Jump to Safety," New York Times, May 25, 1967: 40.

3. February 15, 1985-In the deadliest fire in the history of Wyandanch, seven members of the Shedrick family were killed when a fast-moving fire trapped them in two upstairs bedrooms of their Cape Cod home at 37 Davidson Street and they were overcome by smoke and intense heat. The victims included: Alma Shedrick (20) and six children: Yolanda Shedrick (13), Latasha Shedrick (9), Jeanetta Shedrick (4), Jonathan Jackson (3), Sophia Jackson (2) and 9 month old Tyshina Nero. The fire broke out about 1:30 A.M. and seven others escaped the house although the father, John Shedrick (54) suffered cuts and burns while escaping the fire and his daughter Eva Mae suffered a broken leg when she jumped from a second floor window The Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department responded to the inferno with 10 pieces of equipment and 45 firefighters.

Source: Lindsey Gruson, "7 Die in Fire At L.I. Home," New York Times, February 16, 1985

4. February 7, 1988-The 52-year old one-story brick, slate roofed, Straight Path School was destroyed by a fire, which broke out about 5:30 p.m, causing over $2 million in damages. About 225 students were displaced by the fire and the district's administrative offices were badly damaged, although key records were still legible. The Straight Path School housed two third-grade classes, five fourth-grade classes and two special-education classes. The students and their teachers and aides were placed in classrooms in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School and the Milton L. Olive Middle School. In June 1988, Suffolk Arson detectives arrested an 11-year old Bay Shore boy for starting the fire. District officials promised to rebuilt the school as a preschool learning center.

Sources: Tom Demoretcky and Phil Minz, "Blaze Guts Wyandanch School: Arson Squad Investigating: Cold a Factor," Newsday, February 8, 1988: 3; D.J. Hill, "Dislocated In Wake of Fire: Students Moving," Newsday, February 9, 1988: 23; D.J. Hill, "Amid School's Rubble, Questions," Newsday, February 10, 1988: 35; Bill Mason and Patrick Brasley, "Youth Charged In Wyandanch School Arson," Newsday, June 30, 1988: 25.

5. December 30, 2007-The 71-year our Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch sustained $1 million in damage in a fire set by an arsonist about 10 p.m. Fire fighters from the Wyandanch, West Babylon, North Babylon and Deer Park Fire Departments battled the roaring blaze and saved the sanctuary of the church-although it suffered severe smoke damage. The 55-year old rectory and the Gerald J Ryan Outreach Center (which provides food, clothing and fuel assistance to the needy) were destroyed. No one was injured in the fire. The Rev. Bil Brisotti told Newsday: "We're going to rebuild here." The parishioners attended mass in the parish hall, which was undamaged.

Sources: Kathy Drouin-Keith, "Wyandanch Church Rectory Catches Fire," Newsday, December 31, 2007; Erik German, "Faith Intact After Fire," Newsday, January 1, 2008: A7; Bart Jones, "Fire at Wyandanch Church Called Unusual Arson," Newsday, January 9, 2008.

On January 11, 1984 , the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church suffered significant smoke damage when an arsonist set fire to the church's confessional booths. The blaze was extinguished by firefighters from the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. Father Andrew Connolly told Newsday after the fire: "I expected vandalism in a public place but not like this. We've received threats before. We have enemies who don't like the work we're doing here. Some people don't like our involvement in the community, our work with the poor. We'll have to clean this place up from top to bottom now. It will take us a few weeks, but we'll get back. I've spent 15 years building this place. I won't stop now."

Source: Scott Minerbrook, "Vandals Start Fire In Catholic Church," Newsday, January 13, 1984.

Campaign for fire wells: 1951

While Wyandanch in the early 1950s was still ravaged by furious forest fires-especially in the spring-the Wyandanch Fire Department only had two fire water wells. One was at the Fire House at Straight Path and South 17th Street; the other was at North 18th Street and Washington Avenue near the Conservative Gas complex. The Wyandanch Fire Department, the Wyandanch Civic Association and the Combined Organizations of Wyandanch succeeded in having a bond issue passed to establish one hundred fire wells drilled (at a cost of $400 each) throughout the community to allow fire fighters access to water close to potential blazes. The wells were between 10 and 25 feet (7.6 m) deep. The Board of Fire Underwrites helped in locating the wells. Sources: Newspaper articles in Newsday and the Babylon Leader.

Ambulance service begins : 1951 (and is restored) in Wyandanch: 1970's

Many people in Wyandanch faced difficulties getting to area hospitals (such as Lakeside Hospital in Copaigue, Southside Hospital in Bay Shore or Huntington Hospital) during medical emergencies. Thus in December 1951, fifteen men in the community formed the Wyandanch Ambulance Club and raised funds with monthly paper drives to purchase a $5,000 ambulance, which was put into service in January 1952. Day and night shifts provided ambulance service twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A two-way radio was added in June 1952 and the ambulance was housed in the Wyandanch VFW Hall on Straight Path. Stretchers were donated by Wyandanch Boy Scout Troop 131 and the V.F.W. Auxiliary 2912. Wyandanch's first ambulance service ended in the summer of 1967 when the ambulance and the Wyandanch VFW Hall were firebombed in racial disturbances in Wyandanch.

Sources: Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957: "VFW Post Burned: LI Violence in 2nd Night," Long Island Press, August 3, 1967: 1; Francis X. Clines, "Violence Strikes LI Village Again,: New York Times, August 3, 1967: 18.

In the 1970's, the Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. Volunteer Rescue Squad operated a converted 1968 hearse as an ambulance out of a garage on S. 23rd Street. Although the ambulance squad tried their best, and funded operations themselves, the squad only had four volunteers and only one of the four was a medical technicial. The MLK Rescue Squadin Wyandanch "lacking the government unit status of an Ambulance District, is unable to levy taxes as a means of support," the Babylon Beacon reported, "and, consequently is often underequipped to meet the emergency needs of the community."

The non-profit Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corps (WWHAC)was organized by Sister Mary Mc Carthy in 1979-80 out of the previous M.L. King, Jr. squad to provide badly needed Emergency Medical Services to the community. Babylon Town Councilman Louis J. Maestri (R-Wheatley Heights) played a very important role in having the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corps Ambulance District established and then approved and funded by the Town of Babylon. The Babylon Town Board voted to "approve the preperation of a plan, report, and map, defining the boundaries of an Ambulance District for the Wyandanch area of the Town," on December 4, 1980. Council Maestri said: "Steps have been taken by the group insuring that the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corp. will provide a service that will prove good for the community." The WWHAC was the first volunteer ambulance district in the Town of Babylon. Originally housed in Republican Hall on Merritt Avenue between North 18th Street and North 17th Street, which the Corps purchased for $107,000, the Corps later built a modern facility to provide emergency services to the sick and injured of Wyandanch. The WWHAC became a New York State Certified Ambulance Service in 1983-the first such in the town of Babylon and began providing Semi-Automated Defibrillation in 1984. The Corps currently "responds to around 2500 calls for assistance every year." The Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance Corps has done more to have the people of Wyandanch and Wheatley Heights cooperate and work together for the common benefit than any other institution in the area.

Sources: Jane Snider, "2 Offices Join Ambulance Sanfu Probe," Newsday, February 15, 1979: 26; Town O.K.'s Wyandanch Ambulance District," Babylon Beacon, December 4, 1980: 1; Scott Minerbrook, "A Nun's Effort Revives Dying Ambulance Corps," Newsday; Don Smith and Jean Schindler, "Offical Seeks Better Ambulance Service," Newsday; "Town Approves Contract With Ambulance Service," Newsday; Mark Henry, "Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors, Heart to Help," Newsday, December 2, 1990.

The creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center in Wyandanch: 1968

In response to community concerns about the need for greater health care services in Wyandanch, the Suffolk County Health Services Department teamed with the medical and paramedical staff of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip to open the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center on July 15, 1968. The King Center in Wyandanch was originally housed in a 4,500 square-foot quarters that had previously housed the Security National Bank (1960) in Wyandanch. At first, the King Health Center treated children with pediatric medicine. It then established a prenatal clinic in August 1968 and began diagnosing and treating adult medical and surgical diseases in August 1969. On January 23, 1978, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center in Wyandanch moved into the 13,000 square-foot building at Straight Path and Long Island Avenue(that had previously housed the A & P Supermarket in Wyandanch). The new health center featured: 15 examination and consultation rooms,six public health nursing offices,, nine offices for mental health, a playroom, an X-ray room, clerical and administrative offices and a spacious lobby and reception area.

Source: Frank Mooney, "Health Care Dedication," New York Daily News, January 23, 1978: BNL1.

Wyandanch Medical Center Opens: May 1973

After renting space in a private house in Wyandanch since 1965, Dr. Henry S. Dunbar, a dentist, and physicians, Dr. Joseph E. Sutton and Dr. Alfred S. Howe, were able to open their Wyandanch Medical Center on Straight Path at Arlington Avenue. The Long Island Economic Development Corporation, based in Hempstead assisted with $192,000 in funding for the modern medical office. The office included: "an optometrist, a podiatrist, two obstetrician-gynecologists, a radiologist and an apothecary shop." Dr. Dunbar told Newsday: "The demand for services was here. We needed to improve our equipment and facilities."

Source: Daniel Kahn, "Growing Firms Find Seed Cash," Newsday, January 31, 1974: 34.

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

As late as 1980, hundreds of homeowners in Wyandanch were not serviced by the public water mains of the Suffolk County Water Authority. The relied on questionable private water wells, which often clogged or ran dry, and electric water pumps, which eventally "burned out" and had to be replaced. In addition, residents began to have serious concerns as to the quality of the shallow well water they were drinking, cooking and bathing with. The New York Public Intrest Research Group organized the Northwest Babylon Citizens Alliance group, led by West Babylon resident, Barbara Logan. The Citizens Alliance committee held meetings and conducted a march up Straight Path for affordable, healthy public water for all residents in the Town of Babulon. At the same time, Herman Griem of the Wheatley Heights Community Association was writing strong editorials in the Babylon Beacon questioning the role of the Babylon Town landfill and sewage dump in possibly contaminating public water wells in West Babylon and Wyandanch. Mr. Griem also wrote a letter in the Babylon Beacon, "Babylon Pollution," calling for all levels of government to identify and monitor "all sources of water contamination in Babylon," and called for "a crash program" to hook up all home with private wells in the Town of Babylon to the Suffolk County Water Authority system.

In September 1980 Dennis J. Lynch, the Town of Babylon Commissioner of Environmental Control informed Barbara Logan and the Northwest Citizens Alliance group that "he would be supportive in developing and implementing a plan to make public water available and affordable 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..." Allmendinger looked for Suffolk County to provide up to $2. 4 million to allow the Suffolk County Water Authority to lay up to 80,000 feet of water pipe to hook up all private well households in the Town of Babylon. Suffolk County Legislator, Louis Petrizzo (R-Copaigue) pledged to do all possible "in obtaining the County aid needed to undertake the accelerated hook-up program." Allmendinger said that Babylon would use Community Development funds to "ease the connection costs to homeowners." By the late 1980's public water had been extended to thousands of home in Wyandanch, West Babylon and North Babylon.

Sources: "Town To Work Towards New Water Plan," Babylon Beacon, September 25, 1980: 1; "Babylon Seeks Public Water For All Residents By '81," Babylon Beacon, November 13, 1980: 1.

Wyandanch residents protest plan to burn medical waste at incinerator: 1990

Civic leaders in Wyandanch strongly protested a plan by the 22 nonprofit hospitals of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council to have the Town of Babylon's incinerator burn up to 80 tons of the hospitals' medical waste and trash per day. The Town of Babylon stood to gain up to $6 million a year under the hospitals' plan. Robert Lord, executive director of the Hospital Council said that the waste would not include "body parts or needles and syringes" and "would be sterilized before it leaves the hospitals and transported in closed containers to the incinerator." Lord said the proposal would allow 11 Long Island hospitals to close their on-site hospital incinerators. Delano Stewart, chairman of the Coalition for a Better Government in Wyandanch, told a public meeting sponsored by the Joint Civic and Taxpayers Council of the Town of Babylon that the proposal amounted to "dumping on the black community" of Wyandanch and "showed a lack of regard for the health of the hamlet's residents." Stewart said the hospitals should upgrade their on-site incinerators to meet tough 1992 state air pollution guidelines "instead of making Wyandanch residents bear the burden."

Source: Mark Henry, "Medical Waste Plan Irks Blacks: Proposal to Burn Refuse in Wyandanch Called Racist," Newsday, June 27, 1990: 29.

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health Center in Wyandanch Honored for 40 Years of Service: 2008

State Senator Owen Johnson (4th Senate District, Babylon) honored Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Medical Center in Wyandanch for its 40 years of service. Sen. Johnson, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said: "The Martin Luther King Jr. Center represents a successful, long lasting coalition of government, Good Samaritan Hospital and the Wyandanch community, working together to serve the poor and medically indigent with quality medical care." The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health Center started as a pediatric clinic in 1968. It now "offers services in pediatric care, prenatal services, family planning, pediatric cardiology, health center laboratory, adult medicine services, mental health services, alcohol treatment services, pap smear program, radiology department, tuberculosis diagnostic and treatment services, ear, nose and throat services and a midwife program."

Senator Johnson also honored the following employees of the Martin Luther King Community Health Center with New York Senate Citations: Latonia Johnson, Barbara Keach RN, Helen Device, RN, Virginia Cortes, Ella Felder and Emilio Quines, MD. Sen. Johnson told the medical professionals: "I am very proud to meet the honorees of the 40th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health Center. It is very appropriate that we honor these individuals for their years of dedicated service to the community. Their compassion and devotion is what make this health center a success."

Sources: http://ourowenjohnson.com/news_10_22_healthcenter.html "Johnson Honors MLK and Employees of Martin Luther King Center," Babylon Beacon, February 15, 2009.

Education

Origins of the Wyandanch Schools: 1923

Wyandanch south of Main Avenue was part of the Deer Park School District # 7 until the Wyandanch Union Free School District #9 separated from the Deer Park district in 1923. The Deer Park school district built a two-story wood frame elementary school in Wyandanch in 1913 on the west side of Straight Path at South 20th Street following protests by Wyandanch residents that traveling back and forth to the Deer Park school was too distant, difficult and time consuming. The enlightened members of the Deer Park School Board also desired to fulfill the progressive impulse to bring education "within reach of all." There is some evidence that Deer Park operated a school in the Wyandanch Athletic Club at Straight Path and Grand Boulevard and in a home in Sheet Nine. The Long Island of September 27, 1901 reported that: "Mr. Johnson is teaching the Sheet Nine schhol this year. Later in the 1930's students were taught in the Sheet Nine school by the legendary Deer Park educator, May Brennan Moore. It was especially difficult for the children of Sheet Nine west of Little East Neck Road to get to the Deer Park School. Some took the LIRR from the flag stop at the Pinelawn Cemetery to Deer Park-but for most it was an expensive burden. Some of the children in the southern part of Sheet Nine went to the West Babylon School since Sheet Nine was divided between the Deer Park and West Babylon School Districts. The children of families living north of Main Avenue-Colonial Springs Road attended classes in the Half Hollow District # 8 school house on Straight Path just north of the Babylon Town line.

Source: Roy Douglas, "'Within Reach of All,' The Origins of the Wyandanch School District," Long Island Forum, 1985.; "Pine Lawn" The Long Islander (Huntington) September 27, 1901: 4.

Wyandanch gets a modern grade School: 1937

In September 1937, the modern one-story, red-brick $120,000 Wyandanch Elementary School opened for classes on Straight Path on 7 and 1/3 acres across the street from the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church and alongside the Town of Babylon Highway Department sand pit and debris dump. $54,000 of the school's $120,000 construction cost was provided by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Public Works Authority (PWA). The school had seven classrooms and 280 pupils as well as an auditorium which sat 400 people. The principal was Jesse K. Chichester, Jr. The building was formally dedicated on November 17, 1937 with representatives of the PWA and Dr. William K. Wilson the director of the School Buildings Division of the State Education Department joining school board: La Clede Wilson, Anthony Tafuri, Henry Claus Busch, trustees and Edwin Mason district clerk and Hugo Avolin, district treasurer in the evening ceremony. A.M Jones the Superintendent of Schools of bthe Third Supervisory District of Suffolk County also spoke. The assessed valuation of Wyandanch in 1937 was only $726,000. Hugo Avolin, an architect who lived in Wyandanch, designed the "seven-room school house." The construction of the school was approved by the "qualified voters" of Wyandanch on October 22, 1935 by a vote of 152 to 60. Ed. Note: The 2009-10 Wyandanch School District budget was approved by voters in Wyandanch on May 18, 2009 (74 years later) by a vote of: 161-116.

Sources: "Two Long Island Villages Approve Propositions for New School Buildings, " Suffolk County News (Sayville) October 25, 1935: 9; "Activities of School Supervisory Dist. 3," The Long Islander (Huntington) November 19, 1937: 12; "Deer Park Wyandanch," Lindenhurst Star, September 11, 1937; "Wyandanch Dedicates It New PWA School, "Lindenhurst Star, November 12, 1937: 9

The 1913 Wyandanch Grade School was purchased by the Wyandanch Post 2912 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and used as the Post headquarters. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) financed the laying of sidewalks on the east side of Straight Path so school children could walk safely to school. In February 1937 entrepreneur Gus Simone (Freeport) established regular bus service between Wyandanch and Lindenhust. The route started at the Wyandanch LIRR station ran along Straight Path to Little East Neck Road and then along Hertzl Boulevard to Straight Path. The bus then followed Route 109 to Wellwood Avenue and down Wellwood to the Lindenhurst railroad station and on to the Lindenhurst dock. The bus route allowed residents of Wyandanch access to shops and professional services in Lindenhurst at a time when many residents could not afford automobiles.Wyandanch residents could take the bus to Lindenhurst and connect with the Freeport-Patchogue bus, which ran along Montauk Highway. The new bus route allowed the transfer of about 40 Wyandanch students from Farmingdale High School to Lindenhurst High School. Sources: "Wyandanch-Lindy Bus Line Assured," Babylon Leader, February 12, 1937: 1; Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers."

Growth in population causes construction of an addition to the Wyandanch Grade School: 1948-9

By September 1948 the growth of the school population in Wyandanch had increased enough by construction of new homes and a rising birth rate in the community that the 1937 Wyandanch Elementary School was insufficient to house all the elementary age school children in the community. The twenty 8th Graders in Wyandanch were sent by bus to the Lindenhurst Junior High School and half the children in the first grade were taught in the Wyandanch VFW Hall, which had been the Wyandanch School from 1913 until 1937. Overcrowding was so great that community leaders feared that seventh and perhaps even sixth graders would have to be bussed to Lindenhurst. In December 1949, the Wyandanch PTA petitioned the Wyandanch School Board to "retain the services of a qualified architect for the purpose of drafting plans for an extension of the Wyandanch Elementary school to alleviate present overcrowding and provide sufficient facilities for the near future." The board, led by Hazen Robertson (who lived on S. 29th Street near Jamaica Avenue), agreed to hire an architect to develop plans and cost estimates for an addition to the 1937 school, which then could be put to a vote by district taxpayers. Sources: articles in Newsday and the Babylon Leader

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School opens: 1956

The Wyandanch School Board opened the $1,155,000 26-classroom Mount Avenue Elementary School in September 1956 to make room for the increased school enrollment due to the construction of the Carver Park and Lincoln Park housing developments. In 1957, the school board named the school the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in honor of Dr. King's civil rights leadership during the historic Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Wyandanch was perhaps the first to be so named on Long Island. In 1955, the Town of Babylon sold the 10-acre (40,000 m²) former Town Highway Department sand pit and refuse dump to the Wyandanch School District for $20,000. The property was situated on the south side of the Wyandanch Grade School and the Martin Luther King Jr. School and was developed with athletic fields and a bus maintenance building. Where Wyandanch had 386 students and 34 teachers in Grades 1-8 in 1950-1, there were 1002 students and 34 teachers in 1957-8. 152 students were being bussed to West Babylon High School and parochial high schools in 1957. In 1954, developer Max Staller built a shopping center with a Blue Jay Supermarket, a Jack & Jill's tavern, a luncheonette and a Big League dry cleaning establishment on the north side of the LIRR at Straight Path and Acorn Street. In 1955, Wyandanch School Board voted 4-3 to reject a State Education Department proposal to consolidate Wyandanch School District # 9 into the adjoining North Babylon and Deer Park school districts. In the late 1950s, "North Wyandanch" above the LIRR track was still predominantly white and the stores on Merritt Avenue and Straight Path were mostly white owned. African-Americans, Dr. Mallie Taylor, and dentist Dr. Henry Dunbar, established a professional medical office on the east side of Straight Path across from the Wyandanch Fire House and African-American pharmacist George Greenlee established a pharmacy (on the east side of Straight Path near Long Island Avenue) in the 1950s and serviced both black and white patients and customers. In 1956-7 the Babylon Town Highway Department enlarged Geiger Lake on the Wyandanch side to allow access to additional swimmers. News articles in Newsday and the New York Times; Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History; Roy Douglas' recollections

The Wyandanch Board of Education plans a Junior-Senior High School: 1958-60

In August 1958, the Wyandanch Board of Education led by board president Charles Moeller (who owned a grocery on Straight Path at Mount Avenue) began planning the development of a junior-senior high school for Wyandanch, which was scheduled to open in September 1961. The School District obtained 10 acres (40,000 m²) between South 32nd Street and Little East Neck Road and between Garden City Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue by condemnation for the high school and its athletic fields. Several houses were moved to nearby sites on Garden City Avenue, Levey Boulevard and Brooklyn Avenue and are still inhabited. Previously, some graduates of the Wyandanch Grade School had attended public or private high schools in: Farmingdale, Lindenhurst and Amityville, and public schools in West Babylon and Hauppauge. Before 1955, a substantial proportion of the graduates of the Wyandanch Elementary School went to work after graduating the eighth grade. The groundbreaking for the school took place on December 6, 1959. Louis E. Jallade, Jr. was the architect and Fischer-Mallik was the general contractor. The school opened in September 1961. Sources: News stories in Newsday and the Babylon Town Leader

The Milton L. Olive Elementary School opens honoring an American hero: 1966

On October 2, 1966 the $1.3 million, 29-room, Milton L. Olive Elementary School was opened at Garden City Avenue and South 37th Street with 870 pupils. The school was named for Milton Lee Olive III, a 19-year old Private First Class, a member of the 3rd Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade in the US. Army. PFC Olive, hailed from Chicago, but was born in Mississippi, and gave his life in Phu Coung, Vietnam, a city on the Saigon River at the head of a branch of the Mekong Delta about 13 miles from Ho Chi Mhin City (formerly Saigon), on October 22, 1965, when he saved the lives of four of his comrades by falling on an enemy grenade.President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded PFC Olive the Congressional Medal of Honor April 21, 1966. PFC Olive was the first of twenty African Americans awarded Congressional Medals of Honor for service in Vietnam. James Ellison, an African-American realtor in Wyandanch and a veteran of the US Army, suggested that the Board of Education name the new school in honor of Pfc. Olive because Private Olive "had given his life to save fellow soldiers, without worrying about their race, creed or color." 70% of the students in the Wyandanch School District were African-American in 1966. PFC Olive's name on the Vietnam Wall is on Panel 02E, Line 131.

Sources: "L.I. School Named For Negro Soldier Who Died a Hero," New York Times, October 3, 1966: 26; "Milton L. Olive School Is Dedicated on Sunday," Babylon Town Leader, October 6, 1966; Milton L. Olive website; www,virtualwall.org

State Education Chief Refuses to Dissolve the Wyandanch School District: 1968

On November 15, 1967, seven Wyandanch parents, with sixteen children attending the Wyandanch schools, petitioned, Dr. Gordon Wheaton, the Third Supervisory District principal, to dissolve the Wyandanch School District No. 9. The parents, supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), also asked Dr. Wheaton to order the 2,295 students in the Wyandanch schools (86 per cent of whom were African-American) to be divided equally into the more affluent and predominantly white surrounding Half Hollow Hills, Deer Park, North Babylon, West Babylon and Farmingdale school districts. Dr. Wheaton told the petitioners on December 11, 1967 "that it would take six months to assemble data on which to base his decision." He indicated that he "would have to consider such questions as apportionment of the district's bonded indebtedness and four buildings and the disposition of the district's 250-odd employees." The NAACP action in Wyandanch was the first step in a planned "series of actions designed to break up impoverished , all-Negro school districts and merge them with wealthier, adjacent, predominantly while districts."

Shortly after the parents' petition was filed with Dr. Wheaton, the six-member Wyandanch School Board (five African-Americans and one white man) announced its unanimous opposition to the NAACP plan to have the Wyandanch School District dissolved.The board issued a statement which said it was "opposed at this time to the dissolution of the school district and its annexation with an absorption into surrounding school districts." Conceding that the district had problems, the board called for the state and federal governments to provide "increased, intensive financial support...from state and federal governments... to expedite a crash program directed at improvement of the overall educational program in the Wyandanch School District." Dr. James Lewis, the recently hired Superintendent of Schools, had proposed a "$1,000,000 program designed to make Wyandanch a model school district." Dr. Lewis' proposal included spending: $212,000 for a planning study for district reorganization; $200,000 for a "computerized instructional curriculum;" $130,000 for an extended school year; $200,000 for a pre-school program and $50,000 for a television project. Dr. Lewis, who was opposed to the break-up of the Wyandanch School District, told the New York Times: "The uprooting of culturally disadvantaged students to schools where the educational program is planned for the middle class would have damaging effects on our community's children."

Thomas De Chalus, the regional director of the NAACP, responded: "In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled de facto segregated school systems illegal. Now you (the Wyandanch school board) are avowing you want to keep a separate but hopefully equal system. You are talking about something outlawed." Ernest R. Reynolds, the president of the Wyandanch school board told Newsday: "This community happens to be composed of a large percentage of black people. And I see nothing wrong with that. The suggestion has been made that proximity of blacks to whites necessarily makes for better education. I don't endorse this. There is something wrong if we assume that black people cannot provide an education for black people that is second to none." Mr. Reynolds later told the New York Times: "Many parents have just broken away from the city ghettos and would be surrendering their first real chance to play a role in community responsibility."

The Suffolk chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) disagreed with the NAACP bid to dissolve the Wyandanch School District. Irwin Quintyne, chairman of the Suffolk CORE chapter, told Newsday: "The district should be kept intact," and "called for all black teachers on Long Island" to join the staff to end "the white-controlled" schools in Wyandanch. Quintyne predicted dissolution of the Wyandanch School District would result in the African-American students being "devoured" by "an unwanting" white majority in the surrounding school districts. Roy Innis, the chairman of the Harlem branch of CORE, also criticized the NAACP move, telling the New York Times: "No one talks of improvement of schools by integration any more. The N.A.A.C.P. is in the dark ages. People today talk about control of their community schools. Integration is counter to the mood of black people."

NAACP national counsel, Robert L. Carter,(later a distinguished federal jurist) told Newsday: "We're trying to establish that New York and all the other states are not meeting the Constitution when middle-class white people are in a position to provide to their own children, while Negro children just across a line are deprived." Roy Wilkins, the iconic long-time leader of the NAACP (which brought the historic 1954 Brown case), told Newsday: "The bald fact of the matter is that the Wyandanch taxable resources as a school district are inferior by far to the surrounding school districts..." Wilkins noted that the NAACP had taken up the issue because: "It offered an opportunity to attempt to advance legally an idea we've had for a long time that school boundaries are artifical separations posed for administrative reasons-but in many cases for class and racial reasons." Mrs Gladys Mc Coy, one of the parents who brought the petition, told Newsday: "As a parent, I didn't want my child to live in a segregated world. The kids in Wyandanch aren't dumb kids. The only way to prove it is to get them out of there and let them compete with the whites."

Rather than wait a prolonged period for a decision by Dr. Wheaton, the NAACP "appealed directly to Dr. {James E.} Allen in Albany." Dr Allen was the nationall recognized chief of the State Education Department. On July 24, 1968, Dr. Allen rejected the NAACP backed petition to dissolve the Wyandanch School District-which had been in existence since 1923. Dr. Allen told the New York Times that "serious obstacles imposed by existing law" prevented "dissolution of the district," which the Times reported "is now 91.5 per cent non white." Specifically, Dr. Allen contended that "existing laws do not provide for the tenure and status of the district's staff of more than 100 persons, nor for the disposition of the district's existing debt of $3.9 million."

Sources: C. Geral Fraser, "L.I. District First vTarget," New York Times, November 16, 1967; Jim Toedtman, NAACP Bids State Act On Wyandanch,' Newsday, November 16, 1967: 5; "Wyandanch Split By N.A.A.C.P. Plan," November 17, 1967: 38; John Childs, "School Board In Wyandanch Rejects Plan," Newsday; Gurney Williams, "What's Good For Wyandanch?" Newsday, January 8, 1968: 6-8W; Frances X. Clines, "State Weighing L.I. School Plan," New York Times, July 14, 1968: 32; Frances X. Clines, "Wyandanch Plan Refused By Allen," New York Times, July 26, 1968: 34.

The La Francis Hardiman Early Childhood Center opens honoring another American hero: 1969

The three-classroom La Francis Hardiman Early Childhood Center opened for pre-K education for 90 four and five year olds in Wyandanch in 1969. The Center at 792 Mount Avenue, adjacent to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School,was made up of six prefabricated metal units designed by Weidersum Associates and constructed by the Denton-Panelfab Corporation. The school was named in honor of La Francis Hardiman, a Wyandanch resident, and a PFC in the B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade,4th Infantry Division, US Army, who was killed in action on a search and destroy mission in the Battle of Dak To on November 13, 1967 in Kontum Province in the central highlands of South Vietman. PFC Hardiman was one of 208 "Sky Soldiers" of the 173rd Airborne Brigade killed in the Battle of Dak To.His name on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC is on Panel 29E, Line 089.

Sources: "Progressing in Education: Chief School Officer: 1968-69 Annual Report: Wyandanch Public Schools, Wyandanch, NY 11798: 5-6; www.virtualwall.com  ; John Pradus, Vietnam. University of Kansas Press: 2009: 226-7.

La Francis Hardiman, was one of three Wyandanch residents killed in the Vietnam War. The other two were Staff Seregant Kevin E. Ver Pault(See citation under Recreation in Wyandanch) and PFC Mark Albert Barnes,who served in A Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, US Army. PFC Barnes was one of thirteen soldiers killed on September 27, 1968, while defending a Special Forces camp southeast of Duc Lap,about three miles from the Cambodian border. PFC Barnes' name on the Vietnam Wall is at Panel 42W, Line 026.

Source: www.virtualwall.org

The original La Francis Hardiman Early Childhood Center was torn down in 1996. It was replaced with the 50,000 square-foot LaFrancis Hardiman Early Childhood Wing of the Martin Luther King Elementary School on Mount Avenue, which opened for classes on September 2, 1999. The new wing, named after one of three Wyandanch residents killed in the War in Vietnam, has "a state-of-the-art library, computer rooms, a communal science and art room, a separate gymnasium and a laboratory attached to each classroom."

Source: Stacy Altherr, "Martin Luther King Elementary Opens New Wing," Newsday, September 20, 1999: G23.

The origins of the Wyandanch College Center: 1969

Alfred Miller, head of the Task Force Council of the Wyandanch Schools, proposed in March 1969 that the State of New York establish a four-year liberal arts college in Wyandanch to train teachers for service in low-income communities with "culturally different" children. Miller hoped that the first classes for 150 students could begin in September 1969 in a 15.000 sq ft (1.3935 m²) truck garage at a cost of $200,000. Miller, whose idea was supported by executives from Grumman Aerospace and Lunn Laminates, hoped the Wyandanch College could eventually grow to 1,500 students. Community leaders were forming a steering committee to prepare a presentation for a permanent Wyandanch College to the State University in Albany. Ernest B. Reynolds, the president of the Wyandanch School Board, James Lewis, Jr. district principal in Wyandanch and Dr. Gordon A. Wheaton, the superintendent of Suffolk's 3rd Supervisory District, enthusiastically supported the concept. Funded by a $140,000 State grant, the Wyandanch College Center opened its evening classes for over 200 students in early October 1969. Richard R. Robinson was the director of the Wyandanch College, which was sponsored by: SUNY Stony Brook and Old Westbury, the State Agricultural and Technical College in Farmingdale, Suffolk Community College, Dowling College and Hofstra University.

Sources: "Propose College in Wyandanch To Train Ghetto Teachers," New York Daily News, March 6, 1969; "College Gets Moral Support," Long Island Sun, March 6, 1969; "Wyandanch College Plan Goes To State in 6 Weeks," Newsday, March 6, 1969; "Wyandanch Center 'Dream'Becomes Reality Wednesday," Long Island Press, September 29, 1969.

Origins of the Wyandanch Public Library: 1974

The Wyandanch Public Library was begun with humble beginnings by librarian, Wendell Cherry, in the basement of the Trinity Lutheran Church on S. 20th Street. On April 24, 1974, voters in the Wyandanch School District approved the development of a public library in Wyandanch on property at S. 20th Street and Straight Path donated by the Marine Midland Tinker National Bank. The successful referendum allowed the Library Board to rent two portable classrooms for use as a library-until a permanent library building could be constructed. Robert Washington, the director of the Wyandanch Local Action Center, supported the idea of a library in Wyandanch, telling Newsday: "We need the kind of facility bthat offers the kind of things that most libraries have to offer. I look at it as the beginning of a cultural center for the community." The portable classrooms served the community until the $1.4 million, 18,000 square-pfoot L-shaped Wyandanch Public Library (designed by Robert St. C Gaskin RA) opened on April 16, 1989. Voters has approved the construction of the new library with its 100-seat meeting room in a referendum on October 29, 1984. The site of the library was once the Wyandanch VFW baseball field.

Sources: "Wyandanch Residents to Vote on New Library, Oct 29th," Babylon Beacon, October 18, 1984: 8; Donald P. Myers, "A Primer of Hope: A New Library Gives the Advantage to Wyandanch: A Community That Knows Disadvantage in Abundance," Newsday, April 6, 1989: 4; "New Library Looking Up," Newsday, April 17, 1989: 31.

Bitter Wyandanch teachers strike ends after two months: 1979

The two month strike by teachers in the Wyandanch School District ended on November 17, 1979 after teachers' walked picket lines for forty one school days. It was then the longest school strike on Long Island and the second longest in the State of New York. 138 members of the 150 member Wyandanch Teacher's Association (the WTA was affiliated with the National Education Association) struck on September 17 demanding a 32 percent wage increase over three years, limitation of class size to 32 students and teacher input in educational policy decisions made by the school district. Wanda Williams, the president of the WTA, told the New York Times: "The average salary of teachers in this district with seven years experience is $15,000, and that is $4,000 below the average of teachers with the same amount of experience in Suffolk County." James Galloway, the superintendent of the Wyandanch School Distinct said that the district had offered the teachers a 13.3% increase. Galloway said that district residents were overtaxed and simply could not afford the type of tax increase needed to fully meet the teachers demands. The striking teachers were subject to the Taylor Law meaning they lost two days pay for each of the forty one days they were on strike. A State Supreme Court judge had fined the WTA $10,000 plus $1,000 for each day of the strike. The fines totalled $35,000. In late October it was reported that 60% of the 2,200 students in the Wyandanch district were attending classes taught by substitute teachers and 12 teachers who opted not to strike. The final compromise settlement granted the teachers a 19.5% salary increase

Sources: Shawn G. Kennedy, "Wyandanch Teachers Strike Enters 7th Week in Standoff," New York Times, October 30, 1979: B2; "Wyandanch Teachers Gain a Tentative Pact After Long Walkout," New York Times, November 16, 1979: B4; "School Strike Ends," New York Times, November 17, 1979.

Wyandanch School Board Approves Bonds for Additional High School Classrooms and Track and Football Field: 1987

The Wyandanch School Board voted 5-1 to approve the sale of $4 million in bonds to add ten classrooms to the Wyandanch Memorial High School and build new tennis courts, a modern running track and a new football field for the district. The additional classrooms at the high school on S. 32nd Street were designed to relieve overcrowding at the Milton L. Olive Middle School by moving eighth grade students from Milton Olive to the new classrooms at the high school.

Source: D.J Hill, "Wyandanch School Board OKs Bond Sale," Newsday, June 16, 1987: 27.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.3 km²), all land.

Wyandanch is a suburb of New York City. It is served by Exit 36 on the Southern State Parkway and Exit 50 on the Long Island Expressway..

Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park, (1875) and Wyandance, (1888) the area of scrub oak and pitch pine on the outwash plain south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch by the LIRR and the US Post Office in 1903 to honor the sachem of the Montaukett Native American tribe, who deeded much of Suffolk to the English, and to minimize confusion between the nearby West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. Historic Wyandanch was bounded by the Huntington Town line on the north, the Carll's River wetlands on the east, the Southern State Parkway (1941) on the south and Wellwood Avenue and Little East Neck Road on the west. It included four school districts: Sweet Hollow # 8; Wyandanch #9 (Deer Park # 7 before 1923), North Babylon # 3 and West Babylon #2. Topographically, Wyandanch's nutrient-poor loam and sandy soils are part of the outwash plain which was formed as the last glacier melted about 10,000 B.C.E. The outwash plain slopes gently towards Belmont Lake State Park from the Half Way Hollow Hills terminal moraine (the edge of the debris left when the glacier melted) and from Little East Neck Road. The lower elevations (the site of an ancient stream) in Wyandanch extends east diagonally from North 22nd Street and presents drainage problems in the area from South 23rd Street to the Carll's Creek where the water table is very close to the surface. Unfortunately, Wyandanch does not have sewers. In the mid and late 20th Century, the Wheatley Heights area (Half Hollow Hills School District) developed as a separate community (due to class and racial dynamics) but is still served by the Wyandanch Fire Department, Inc and the US Postal Service. Wheatley Heights being closer to the glacial hills enjoys better soils, was utilized as productive farmland in the 1800s, and supports non-pine barrens, broad-leaf trees. Much of the Pinelawn Industrial Park (bounded by Edison Avenue, Wellwood Avenue, Patton Avenue and Otis Street) is now thought of as West Babylon or East Farmingdale; although a significant portion of this area is included in the Wyandanch School District #9.

Sources: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" US Geological Survey Map of Long Island: 1930.

Demographics

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

There were 2,525 households out of which 46.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 35.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16% were non-families. 11.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.14 and the average family size was 4.25.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 35.6% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 18.2% from 45 to 64, and 6.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females there were 89 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $40,664, and the median income for a family was $41,857. Males had a median income of $29,344 versus $26,831 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $13,153. About 13.4% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.8% of those under age 18 and 19.5% of those age 65 or over.

Recreation and Culture

Wyandanch: Noted for the Breeding of Thoroughbred Dogs

In the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Herman Baruch bred famous thoroughbred dogs at his Marobar Kennel on his lovely estate in Wyandanch. Dr. Baruch's dog, Inveresk Cashier, an English Springer Spaniel, was judged best dog in the English Springer Spaniel category at the Westminster Kennel Club's annual bench show at Madison Square Garden on February 10, 1930. Baruch's thoroughbreds won awards at: the Newark Kennel Club; the Queensboro Kennel Club; the Long Island Kennel Club; the Westbury Kennel Club and others. Three of his fine dogs: Inveresk Cashier; Marobar Moonshine; an Irish Setter, and Colin of Fermanar, an Irish Setter, were pictured in the March 5, 1933 issue of the New York Times . On February 21, 1942, Tom Thumb, a one year old miniature pinscher, owned by Paul Jefferies of Wyandanch, won top prize as winning trick dog at Bloomingdale's eleventh annual pet dog show. On October 2, 1960, the Suffolk Obedience Training Club held its annual trials in Wyandanch. Today, the former Baruch estate, is not considered to be in Wyandanch and not even in Wheatley Heights. It is considered Dix Hills but before 1953, Dr. Baruch considered himself a resident of Wyandanch.

Sources: Henry R. Ilsley, "Bates Fox Terrier Scores at Garden," New York Times, February 11, 1930: 29; "Sporting Dogs Owned By The Marobar Kennels of Dr. Herman Baruch," New York Times, March 5, 1933: S6; "Tom Thumb Is Best Among Trick Dogs," New York Times, February 22, 1942: S5; "Poodle Takes Prize in Obedience Drill, New York Times, October 2, 1960: S16.

Memorial Day parade begins in Wyandanch: 1947

The tradition of Wyandanch holding a Memorial Day Celebration with a parade and festive ceremonies to commemorate the veterans who died in World War II started on May 30, 1947 with a parade from railroad station to the Martin A. Kessler V.F.W. Post 2912 at S. 20th Street and Straight Path. A set of colors were presented at the end of the parade in front of the VFW Hall (the ex 1913-1937 Wyandanch Grade School)where hot dogs, ice cream and soda was served to the children of the community. In 1948 the marchers walked on Straight Path from Nichols Road to the Honor Roll of World War II veterans in the front of the Wyandanch Elementary School at Levey Boulevard. Organizations which took place included: Wyandanch Veterans of Foreign Wars; Catholic War Veterans; Wyandanch Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts; school children; Wyandanch Fire Department and Ladies Auxiliary and the fire trucks. A Gold Star mother, Mrs. Lena Primarose, placed a wreath alongside the Honor Roll. Taps were played and a salute was conducted by the Firing Squad of the Wyandanch VFW. The Honor Roll commemorating men and women from Wyandanch, who served and died in World War II now stands in front of the Wheatley Heights VFW post on Colonial Springs Road across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office.

Town of Babylon develops Geiger Lake for swimming: 1946

In July 1945, the Town of Babylon accepted a deed from the owners of 40-acre (160,000 m²) Geiger Lake property (Wheatley Heights Estate, Inc.) located between Long Island Avenue and Grand Boulevard on the border between Wyandanch and Deer Park. The Babylon Town Board voted $3,500 to improve the "small lake," install a culvert, and develop it as a wooded, protected lake beach town park and picnic area. Previously, youngsters in Wyandanch had to pay 15 cents for a bus ride to Lindenhurst and then walk two or three miles (5 km) to Babylon's Venetian Shores Beach park, or take their chances swimming in the shallow, marshy, reedy, unprotected "lake." The Babylon Leader described the Geiger Lake area as "a marvelously wild and undeveloped section of the township." In 1946, Babylon cut the brush around the lake, dredged and cleared it, and rehabilitated "a sturdy log cabin" at the lake into concession and comfort stations. The Geiger Lake Town Beach and picnic grove was opened to the public on July 21, 1946. Pristine beach sand from Oak Beach was trucked to Wyandanch to furnish "a sandy bottom and a suitable beach for sun bathers" in Wyandanch. Every inch of beach was jammed on opening day. In the summer of 1947, Babylon roped off a safety area in the lake for children, hired two life guards and provided a life raft and buoys for extra security. At least 20,000 bathers used Geiger Lake in the summer of 1947. Geiger Memorial Lake was so popular that by 1948 "many houses" had been built on Elk Street on land with lake views and residents were praising the Town of Babylon for aiding Wyandanch with a "place of scenic beauty." William Geiger moved to Wyandanch in 1906 and had major real estate holdings in Wyandanch, such as Wheatley Heights Estates and Harlem Park, norht of the LIRR. He died in Bellrose, Queens in 1934. In 1957, the Town of Babylon installed a marble plaque in in honor at Babylon's Geiger Lake Park.

Sources: Dyson, Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957; The Long Islander (Huntington) "Babylon Dedicates Geiger Park Area," July 4, 1957: 11; "William Geiger" obituary, New York Times, June 14, 1934.

Recreational opportunities in Wyandanch

The Town of Babylon opened Wyandanch Park between Mount Avenue and the Carll's River in 1917 and established a baseball diamond there in 1937. For recreation, there was swimming in Wyandanch Lake in the summer and skating there in winter. Hunting and camping in the hills. Picnics, and baseball games in Wyandanch Park were popular as were picnics, cook-outs, hiking, bicycle riding and rowing boats in Robert Moses' Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. In the summers in the 1940s and 1950s fund-raising carnivals were held on the grounds of the Veteran's of Foreign Wars, the Fire Department and the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church. The Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church Parish Hall (1941) alongside the Catholic Church at Levey Blvd and Straight Path was the scene of many plays, square dances, bingo and card games and musical presentations in the 1940s. The Willing Workers of the Trinity Lutheran Church held card and bunco parties, strawberry festivals and other recreational activities in the basement of the Lutheran Church on S. 20th Street and Jamaica Avenue. Many social functions were also held in the Community Hall bar and restaurant on the east side of Straight Path at Belmont Road. The Wyandanch Inn on Andrews Avenue and the Station Tavern (alongside it) across from the Wyandanch LIRR station were also popular drinking spots

Baseball was the game in Wyandanch before 1955 and there were additional baseball fields behind the Wyandanch Elementary School, and alongside the VFW Hall on S. 20th Street where the Wyandanch Public Library stands today. The Police Athletic League (PAL) of the Town of Babylon Police Department and the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Little League ran baseball leagues for youngsters in Wyandanch in the 1950s and 1960s (in Wyandanch Park and on a field northwest of Geiger Lake to help reduce juvenile delinquency. Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in Wyandanch hiked and camped and cooked out overnight in the hills in Wyandanch during the summer months. Bay and surf fishing in the Great South Bay and on the barrier beaches were also popular. In the 1950s Wyandanch residents were allowed to fish off the Babylon Village dock. Before Robert Moses opened the Captree Bridge in 1954 most Wyandanch residents reached the Fire Island State Park by taking the ferry from Babylon village dock. A fortunate few had their own boats, which they trailered to the shores. Others drove to Jones Beach State Park via the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh Parkway. Relatively few residents of working class Wyandanch golfed at the State golf courses in Farmingdale-Bethpage but some Wyandanch teen-agers caddied there on week-ends. The population of Wyandanch increased slowly but steadily during the Great Depression of the 1930s as people left the more expensive "City" and lived without rent and with low property taxes in Wyandanch. Source: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers."

Staff Seregant Kevin E. Ver Pault, of Wyandanch, who served in B Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, Ist Infantry Division, US Army, was killed in action on February 19, 1968 in Binh Duong Province in southeastern Vietnam. The Town of Babylon commemorated Staff Sergant Ver Pault's service and sacrifice by naming Kevin Ver Pault Memorial Park on the east side of Little East Neck Road in Wheatley Heights in his honor.Sergeant Ver Pault's name on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC is on Panel 40 E, Line 035. Source: For Kevin E Ver Pault's service see: www.virtualwall.org

One of the major complaints voiced by young adults in Wyandanch after the August 1967 unrest was the lack of positive recreational activities. Buddy Mc Clain, a youth aide with the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity and former boxer, fundraised tirelessly to collect money to establish a Wyandanch Youth Center. The center opened in January 1974 in a 4,000 square foot building equipped with donated pool tables and a Ping Pong table.

Source: Kay Cordtz, "Nickels and Dime Add Up to a Center," New York Times, January 27, 1974.

Thousands Flock to the Town of Babylon's First Soap Box Derby Race: 1957

The Town of Babylon's first annual Soap Box Derby races were held at an "especially built down-hill race track" in Wyandanch on the Fourth of July in 1957. Over one hundred young men-ages 11 to 15 raced the cars they built "to exacting specifications" down the hard surface coasting track ,the Town of Babylon built parallel to Landscape Drive. The winner won a place at the All-American Soap Box Derby championships at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio on August 18. The winner of the Akron race won a $5,000 scholarship and a two-week tour of Europe. The races started at 11 a.m. following a Fourth of July parade to the track from the Wyandanch shopping center. WPIX-TV, sports broadcaster, Jack Mc Carthy, called the races.

Source: Long Islander (Huntington), June 27, 1957: 10.

The All-American Soap Box Derby was created by Myron E. Scott, a photographer and ad man from Ohio in 1934. Based in Dayton, Ohio for one year, the moved to Akron, Ohio in 1935 due to complaints in Dayton about noise and congestion. The All-American Soap Box Derby races were sponsored by General Motors Chevrolet division until 1972. While working for General Motors in 1952, Mr. Scott named the Corvette sports car.

Source: Robert McG. Thomas, Jr., "Myron E. Scott, Ohioan, Who Created Soap Box Derby," New York Times, October 8, 1998.

Wyandanch Recognition Day Parade begins: 1963

Wyandanch civic leader, Robert Washington, organized the first Wyandanch Recognition Day parade in June 1963. Many community groups, residents and school children participated in the march up Straight Path to the Wyandanch Grade School. The 47th Wyandanch Recogniton Day will take place on June 10, 2010.

Mary Baird and the Venettes Cultural Workshop

Mary Baird "prepared a generation of young people in dance, voice, music and life" at her Venettes Cultural Workshop in Wyandanch. Mary Baird started "the Venettes Cultural Workshop in 1967 with 12 students from 7 to 10 years old, holding free dance lessons in her basement." The Venettes grew to almost 200 students, ranging in age from 5 to 18. Mrs. Baird taught dance, voice, drumming and charm lessons to the young people on weekends in the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church parish hall. Mary Baird "insisted on academic excellence" in her students and raised almost $250,000 for college scholarships for her graduating seniors. The Venettes performed "throughout Long Island as well as in Europe..." Mrs Baird graduated from Morris High School in the Bronx and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology from C.W Post-LIU. Mary Baird passed away at 63 years in October 1992. Her administrative assistant, Fran Bush, told Newsday: "She instilled in her students self-esteem, pride, cultural awareness, and she always instilled in her students that they could be the best that they could be."

Source: Patrica Huang, "Mary Baird of Wyandanch, 63, Ran Non-Profit Performance Workshop," Newsday, October 2, 1992: 107.

Wyandanch Youth Services, Inc. created: 1984

The Wyandanch Youth Services, Inc. (WYS) was formed in 1984 under the leadership of William "Bill" Collins. The WYS originally assisted youth in a building at 1363 Straight Path. With the assistance of the Suffolk County Youth Board, the Town of Babylon Youth Board, the United Way and the New York State Department of Children and Family Services, the WYS was able to open and operate a full service youth center at 20 Andrews Avenue in Wyandanch in 1998.

Source: Dele Olojede, "A Site for Growing Youth Agency: Donation of Building to Center Considered," Newsday, April 12, 1987: 27.

Geiger Lake Pool in Wyandanch refurbished: 1989

The Town of Babylon spent $156,000 refurbishing the Geiger Lake Pool in Wyandanch in the summer of 1989 until the pool complex could be completely rebuilt for the summer of 1990. Town board member, Patrick Haugen, told Newsday: "It's in horrible shape. The deep end has cracks in it, the piping that supplies filtered water is rusty and gives an unsightly tinge to the water." The G.L. Raffaelli engineering firm of Rocky Hill, N.J was the contractor. William Collins, the director of Wyandanch Youth Services, Inc. said Geiger pool was vital to the children the youth center in Wyandanch bring to the pool every day in the summer.

Source: Dele Olojede, "Geiger Lake Pool Renovation OKd: Town Allots $156,000 for Wyandanch Work," Newsday, March 3, 1989: 33.

Dream achieved: the Wyandanch Youth Center opens: 1998

Although it was a long time in the making, the one-story, 11,850 square feet, cinderblock and glass Wyandanch Youth Center opened to provide wholesome recreation for 680 young people in Wyandanch on March 28, 1998. The $1.5 million center on 1.2 acres on Andrews Avenue (land donated by the Town of Babylon) was constructed by the New York State Office of General Services with additional financial assistance from the Chase Bank and the Town of Babylon. The center has a full-length gymnasium, two classrooms, two rooms for counseling and private offices. Town of Babylon supervisor Richard Schaffer said: "Perseverance paid off. Patti Bullard (the executive director of Wyandanch Youth Services) came up with an original idea and never lost faith. This project was approved eight years ago and it took a lot of hard work and patience by a lot of people to get it to this point." Robert Meyer, director of the Town of Babylon Youth Bureau told Newsday: "The community really wanted this. This is one-stop shopping for youth services. Kids will be going from counseling to recreation under one roof" The Wyandanch Youth Services $225,000 annual budget was funded by the State of New York, Suffolk County and the Town of Babylon.

Source: Samson Mulugeta, "Wyandanch Youth Get a Big Boost: After 8-Year Wait, Doors Open at New Recreation Facility," Newsday, March 29, 1998: G15; Michael Rothfeld, "Where Child's Play Is the Point: A Modern Wyandanch Facility is a Big Hit for Preschoolers to Teens," Newsday, June 25, 2000: g.21; Michael Rothfeld, "Saturday, 10 a.m., Andrews Avenue, Wyandanch...? Quite a School, Thank You," Newsday, July 30, 2000: G. 02.

Religion

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church: 1932

The Italian-Americans, the Irish-Americans and the German-American Catholics tired of taking buses on Sundays to attend masses in St. Kilian's Roman Catholic Church in Farmingdale in the early 1930s and asked the Most Right Rev. Bishop Thomas E. Molloy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to establish a parish and church in Wyandanch. The first Catholic Mass was celebrated in Wyandanch in June 1932 in Harry Levey's real estate building (formerly the Wyandanch Athletic Club) on Long Island Avenue and Grand Boulevard by Father Ernest Fries of the Benedictine Fathers in Farmingdale. Only 29 of the 57 original parishioners were year round residents. This underscored the fact that in the 1920s and 1930s many of the houses in Wyandanch were "summer bungalows" and usually occupied only on week-ends in the warmer months.

In November 1934, newly appointed Father Steven A. Cuddeback, celebrated the Catholic Mass in the Community Hall Restaurant on Straight Path at Belmont Road. Within two years, the dynamic Father Cuddeback organized the planning and fund-raising which resulted in the opening of the $20,828.50 Little Mission Chapel of the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish in Wyandanch at Levey Boulevard and Straight Path on June 28, 1936 on land purchased from Harry Levey.The Chapel was designed by Henry V. Murphy, a Brooklyn architect. The nave of the church had a seating capacity of 224 parishioners. The south wing was used as a meeting room before the parish hall was built.

The Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch was racially integrated in the mid 1930's. The Davidson family (perhaps the first African-American parishioners in Wyandanch) were generous benefactors to appointing of the Little Mission Chapel. An adjacent $15,000 Parish Hall was blessed and dedicated on November 29, 1941. The building was blessed by the Very Rev. Monsigner Charles J. Canvin, dean of western Suffolk County. A 100-seat north wing, rectory and garage was added to the church in June 1950. The Franciscan Brothers moved their novitiate from Smithtown to the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish in Wyandanch in 1949. The novitiate, a residence for nuns and monks in training, was located on an estate on the east side of Straight Path near Deer Park Avenue, is what is now known as Half Hollow Hills.

Sources: "A.M.D.G. The Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal: Wyandanch, L.I.: 1932-1952" illustrated booklet; "Our Parish History," Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Golden 50th Anniversary booklet: 1982; "New Parish Hall Is Dedicated," Suffolk County News (Sayville), December 5, 1941: 9; Rose Gallagher recollections.

For decades, under the leadership of Rev. Andrew Connelly, Rev. John Cervini and the Rev. William "Bill" Brisotti, the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church parish in Wyandanch, has reached out to help the physically and spiritually poor, "the downtrodden, the homeless and the refugees." Although with only about 1,200 parishioners (one of the smallest parishes in the diocese of Rockville Centre, "Miracralous Medal,"Newsday said, "is ... one of the most active in social causes, in activism and family atmosphere." Pastor Cervini told Newsday in 1990: "The people who knock on the doors of the rectory at all hours of the day and night are like casualties of war. If you've ever been to a bombed out area, you walk through a lot of rubble. People here are devastated by pain and violence." Up to 50 families a day are serviced with emergency food, clothing and shelter by the parish. Between 600 and 700 turkeys were distributed by the parish to the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas in 1990. Parish members also volunteered at the soup kitchen for the poor in the basement of the Trinity Lutheran Church on S. 20th St in Wyandanch.

Sources: Richard Firstman, "Church's Safety Net for the Needy," Newsday, November 21, 1984; Mark Henry, "Nurturing a Needy World: Wyandanch Church Opens Its Doors; Hearts to Help," Newsday, December 2, 1990; Scott Minerbrook, "A Battle in the War on Hunger," Newsday;

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church: 1932

On June 5, 1938, Protestants in Wyandanch of German, Austrian and Scandinavian ancestry opened the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church on South 20th Street and Jamaica Avenue on property donated by Mrs. Clara Olsen with the Rev. Frederick E. Pruess serving as pastor. Rev. Pruess was formerly pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Farmingdale. Lutherans in Wyandanch had held services in the Wyandanch Republican Hall on Merritt Avenue since 1932 where the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance building now stands. The cement block church and basement auditorium was "completed by the voluntary labor its men and the cooperation of its women" led by contractor Bjarne Pedersen-who worked without compensation. About 150 people participated in the first service lead by Walter E. Schiel, Lay Reader. The church windows were of ecclesiastical glass "in the form of a blue cross in an amber background." Source: "Trinity Church Opens Its Doors," Babylon Leader, June 10, 1938.

Other churches in Wyandanch

• Apostolic Holiness Church, 17 Henry Street
• Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church, 142 Irving Avenue
• Full Gospel Church of God by Faith, 114 Long Island Avenue
• Church-God-Jesus Christ Dctrn, 1225 Straight Path
• Church of God of Prophecy Community Mission, 13 Andrews Avenue
• First Baptist Church, 85 Parkway Boulevard

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

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

Source: House of Prayer Church of God in Christ website: http://houseofprayercogic.org/history.htm

• Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall, 83 Grand Boulevard
• Macedonia SDA Adventist Church, 27 Jackson Street
• New Shiloh Baptist Church, 221 Merritt Avenue
• Wyandanch Community Church of the Nazarene, 58 Cumberbach Street
• Wyandanch Missionary Baptist Church, 1181 Straight Path
• Wyandanch Seventh Day Adventist Church, 34 Nicolls Road

Notable natives

Jacob Conklin- (1675-1754) established his home and estate in 1710-one of the first houses in what is now the Town of Babylon in 1710. The locale of the Jacob Conklin homestead in the Babylon highlands has had several names: Half Way Hollow Hills,Colonial Springs, West Deer Park, Wyandance, Wyandanch and now Wheatley Heights. The Conklin estate was in the Town of Huntington from 1710 until 1872. After 1872 and the establishment of the Town of Babylon it was legally located in the Town of Babylon. Conklin purchased his property in 1706 in what was known as the "Goshen Purchase." Jacob Conklin's historic homestead, which stood for 208 years, burned on December 18, 1918 while unoccupied. Jacob Conklin was an "unwilling" member of Captain Kidd's pirate ship. He escaped from Kidd's "San Antonio" in Cold Spring harbor and reportedly lived among the Native Americans in the Half Way Hollow Hills Sources: James B. Cooper, "Babylon," in History of Suffolk County, N.Y, W.W. Munsell & Co. 1882: 1-35; "Old Conklin Home Razed," Babylon Leader, December 20,1918: 1; Lorena M. Frevert, "The Town of Babylon," in The History of Two Great Counties: Nassau and Suffolk, edited by Paul Bailey, 1949, I: 361-2.

Henry Amherst Brown (1834-1933)-the "Sage of Wyadanch," – lived on Main Avenue for 77 years. A writer, justice of the peace, and the only Wyandanch resident to serve as supervisor of the Town of Babylon: 1912-13. His home, "Tranquillity," still stands and is the oldest home in Wyandanch. Brown Boulevard is named for him. Justice of the Peace in Babylon for 14 years, Judge Brown also served as commissioner of Highways for the Town of Babylon and was president of the Board of Education of the Deer Park-Wyandanch school and served as postmaster in West Deer Park. Henry A. Brown was associated with the Suffolk County Agricultural Society for over 70 years. He was famous for his fruit orchards Source: "Henry A. Brown Is Supervisor Now: Wyandanch Republican Elected By Two Democrats and His Own at Town Board Session Here Yesterday Noon," Babylon Leader, June 28, 1912: 1; "Judge Brown: A Remarkable Man," The Long Islander (Huntington) April 18, 1919: 12; "Suffolk's Oldest Official Dies At Age 99," The Long Islander (Huntington), May 12, 1933: 1; "Henry A. Brown," Suffolk County News (Sayville), May 12, 1933: 4.

William Geiger-real estateman who platted and owned several real estate sub-divisions in Wyandanch in the early 20th Century: including: Harlem Park, Wheatley Heights Estates and Colonial Springs. The Geiger family had a home at Main Avenue and 20th Street for many years. about a decade after William Geiger died in 1934, his family gave 23 acres of property for Babylon Town's Geiger Lake, later Geiger Pool Park on the border of Wyandanch and Deer Park.

Edwin A. Mason – businessman who played a major role in the organization and development of the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. in 1925. Mason operated an ice cream parlor on Straight Path near S. 20th Street in the 1940s and 1950s.

John Prohaska-A self-employer carpenter, who lived in Wyandanch for 65 years, was a charter member of the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department and served as its first chief. Prohaska supervised the expansion of the Straight Path School in 1949 and the construction of the Mount Avenue school (1955)-the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School since 1957. For decades, the Prohaska family occupied a summer cottage on Oak Island and the Prohaska brothers built the original flumes at Argyle Park in Babylon. Source: "John Prohaska Dies: 1st W'danch Fire Chief," Babylon Town Leader.

Harry Levey was a real estate developer who sold many lots in Wyandanch in the 1920s and 1930s on both sides of Straight Path south of the Long Island Rail Road tracks. Levey promoted his lots (most of which had been platted in the 1890s) from a tent and later a real estate office he near the LIRR station in Wyandanch. He sold lots in Wheatley Heights Estates on the east side of Straight Path and in Home Acres and Wyandance Spring Park in the Pine Barrens on the west side of Straight Path. Levey brought train loads of prospective buyers to Wyandanch-usually in May and June when Wyandanch looked its best- in the years before the Great Depression dampened real estate sales. He named Levey Boulevard in Home Acres for himself. Levey helped found the Bethpage Jewish Community Center, produced silent films in the 1920s and helped sponsor the Vanderbilt Motor car races in 1908-9. Levey died on February 28, 1972 at age 95. Source: "Harry Levey Dead; Realty Developer," New York Times, February 29, 1972: 38.

Mrs. Anna Fried- a tireless civic activist in Wyandanch in the 1940s, Mrs. Fried used her "Wyandanch News" column in the Lindenhurst Star and Babylon Leader newspapers to voice the grievances of Wyandanch residents about muddy, dusty roads, poor quality water, the lack of zoning and building code enforcement, and unsafe sandpits and garbage dumps in Wyandanch. Mrs Fried led the Wyandanch Taxpayers Association in its historic lawsuit against the Town of Babylon, which persuaded Babylon to take responsibility for maintaining streets and roads in Wyandanch.

Verne Dyson-writer and editor, who lived in Brentwood but was the first historian of Wyandanch. Dyson's Deer Park Wyandanch Story (1957) is still useful. He edited the Deer Park Wyandanch News: 1953-57. Unfortuntely, except for the 1955 issues, the Deer Park Wyandanch News has been lost.

Ignatius Davidson- pioneering African-American business man in Suffolk County: concrete block manufacturer, businessman, and real estate entrepreneur, who co-established (with Mortimer Cumberbach)the C & D Cement Block factory in Wyandanch in 1928. A real estate entrepreneur, Davidson and Cumberbach's D &C Corp. assisted the development of the Carver Park housing tract in the early 1950s. Ignatius Davidson was very generous to the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal parish in Wyandanch.

Rev. Steven A. Cuddeback – developed the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic parish in Wyandanch in the mid-1930s and served as pastor until the mid-1950s. Father Cuddeback also developed the St Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic Church in Deer Park. Rev. Cuddeback died in May 1974 at the age of 74. Source: "Rev. S.A. Cuddeback," New York Times, May 25, 1974.

Ada C. Hamilton- Ada and William Hamilton moved to Wyandanch in the early 1950s. Mrs. Hamilton was a graduate of the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. She was hired as the elementary school nurse by the Wyandanch Schools. Mrs. Hamilton was one of the first African-Americans hired by the Wyandanch School District. She completed a Master's in counseling at St. John's University and became a guidance counselor at Wyandanch Memorial High School and later was placed as director of guidance for the Wyandanch schools. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton moved to Sacramento, California where she worked as a junior high school guidance counselor. Ada Hamilton passed away in Sacramento on October 22, 1989. Source: Sidney C. Schaer, "Ada C. Hamilton, 73, Ex-Guidance Counselor," Newsday, November 1, 1989: 43.

Rev. Dr. Sherman Hicks-grew up on S. 22nd Street, attended Wyandanch schools,and the Trinity Lutheran Church in Wyandanch. The Rev. Dr. Hicks graduated with a D.D. degree from Wittenburg University and became Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago.

Geoffrey Canada-internationally famous social activist and educator, Geoffrey Canada was born and lived in his early years in the South Bronx. He later moved with his mother to Freeport and then Wyandanch where he attended Wyandanch High School. After graduating from Wyandanch High in 1970, he then attended Bowdoin College in Maine (B.A., 1974), and Harvard University Graduate School of Education (M.A. Education, 1975). Geoffrey Canada is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the highly successful Harlem Children's Zone and leads the Harlem Promise Academy. He is widely respected for "his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem and as a passionate advocate for educational reform." The Harlem Children's Zone now encompasses 100 blocks "and combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. Itmeshes those services into an interlocking web and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood." In 1995 Geoffrey Canada was awarded the Heinz Award of $250,000. He has also received honorary degrees from Harvard, Williams College and the Bank Street College of Education and his work has been featured on "60 Minutes," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and "The Charlie Rose Show." Sources: Current Biography, February 2005; www.hcz.org

Dr. Patrick J Salatto served as a general practitioner and obsstetrician in his Merritt Avenue medical office beginning in 1951. He was known as a compassionate, generous doctor, who was always available for his patients-many of whom he treated without charge. He "delivered more than 2,600 children and refused to leave the community when its economic and racial makeup changed." Dr. Salatto died on July 28, 1987 . Source: Dominic Bencivenga, "Patrick Salatto, 67, 'Small-Town' Doctor," Newsday, July 30, 1987: 41.

Charles J. Moeller-born in Hamburg, Germany, Charles Moeller came to Wyandanch in 1950 and established a successful deli on Straight Path at Mount Avenue. Active in the Wyandanch Lions Club, Moeller was president of the Wyandanch School Board for ten years and guided the development of the Wyandanch Memorial High School, as well as attempting to increase the non-residential tax base in Wyandanch. Source: "Charles J. Moeller, 70, Ex-School Chief," Newsday, December 13, 1977.

Dr. Mallie C.Taylor- graduated from the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and became the first African-American physician to practice medicine in Wyandanch. Dr. Taylor opened his medical office on Straight Path across from the Wyandanch Fire House in the mid-1950s.

Dr. Alfred Sidney Howe-Born in Manhattan in 1931 of Trinidadian parents; Dr. Howe grew up in the Bedford-Styvestant section of Brooklyn and graduated with a B.S. in psychology from New York University in 1954. A composer and musician, who played the four-stringed cuarto, Alfred S. Howe earned his M.D. degree from the University of Lausanne medical school outside Geneva, Switzerland. Newsday wrote of Dr. Howe: he "opened a private medical practice in Wyandanch. Over the next 30 years, Howe treated both rich and poor, often regardless of medical insurance." His wife, Esme Howe, who he met at medical school said: He still took house calls" for "older patients who he knew had trouble getting to his office." Dr. Howe passed away in August 2002. Source: Andrew Ryan, "Dr. Alfred Sidney Howe, 71," Newsday, August 16, 2002: A. 63.

Robert "Bob" Washington-born, raised and educated in New York City, Robert Washington served very effectively as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity's (OEO) Wyandanch Community Action Center from 1966 to 1976, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty. Mr. Washington served in the US Army during World War II, married his wife, Helen Ash Washington in 1946, worked for the Veteran's Administration before beginning a career with the U.S. Postal Service. A long time jazz performer (trumpet), Bob Washington was a Jazz DJ and produced the show "The Grooveyard Show" for radio station WBAB in Babylon, for seven years while directing the Wyandanch Community Action Center. Washington served on The Wyandanch School board, was a Republican committeeman, organized Scout groups and youth and senior citizens groups. He assisted in the development of the Wyandanch Day Care Center and helped organize the Wyandanch Community Development Corp. Robert Washington currently lives in Florida. Source: http://foreverjazz.com/bio.html

Amy James-a community activist and founder of the Wyandanch Day Care Center, Inc. Mrs James lived in Wyandanch for more than 50 years and worked for the Suffolk County Economic Opportunity Commission. She "was instrumental in establishing the Martin Luther King, Jr., Health Center the Senior Citizen program and the Nutrition program" in Wyandanch. Mrs James passed awy on April 16, 1992 at the age of 80. Source: "Amy James: Community Leader in Wyandanch," Newsday, September 19, 1992: 78.

Mark Albert Barnes, La Francis Hardiman, and Kevin E. Ver Pault: Three Wyandanch residents who were killed in action in the Vietnam War and whose names appear on the Vietnam Wall near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. See their service information on: www.virtualwall.com

Wendell Cherry, developed the Wyandanch Public Library, from a basement to trailers to the opening of a modern library. Wendell Cherry served as director of the Wyandanch Public Library for more than two decades.

Peter Koster – lived on S. 24th Street, worked at Dr.Herman Baruch's Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills, where he developed the "Koster Blue Spruce" tree.

Hermann Griem – civic activist for more than forty years in Wyandanch; led the campaign to end strip sand-mining in Wyandanch; encouraged the development of the Hermann Griem Town Park; pressured for vigilant zoning and building code enforcement; lobbied for the creation of the Wheatley Heights Post Office and the extension of public water to all parts of Wyandanch. In the late 1970s he vigorously protested the creation of a huge gasoline tank farm in Wyandanch. Sources: Frank Mooney, "Petite Painter Makes Politicos Show Colors, New York Sunday News, February 4, 1968; Dele Olojede, "Quiet End to an Outspoken Life: Hermann Griem, 81, Was Town's Foremost Civic Activist For 4 Decades," Newsday, September 10, 1989: SBA. 17

James Monroe Ellison-prominent real estate man in Wyandanch who maintained a real estate-insurance office in Wyandanch in the 1960s and 1970s. Ellison served as a first lieutenant in the 902 Airborne Security Battalion in the Pacific during World War II and was a graduate of prestigious Morehouse College and New York University. A civic activist and a Republican committeeman, Ellison struggled for years to pressure the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. to increase its African American membership. Mr. Ellison and his wife Ruby Miles Ellison "worked with the Suffolk County Police First Precinct to establish a community advisory council and helped develop a community policing model." The Ellisons moved to Wyandanch in 1952. Mrs Ellison worked with others in Wyandanch to have the Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Center established.Source: Karl Grossman, "Negro Politican Criticizes Vamps As House Burns," Babylon Town Leader, December 26, 1963: 6; Karl Grossman, "Negroes Start Drive to Integrate Wyandanch Fire Company, VFW," Babylon Town Leader, January 30, 1964: 44; Keiko Morris, "Ruby Miles Ellison, 82, Wyandanch Community Leader, Newsday, January 25, 2002: A. 59.

Vincent J. Bernardo started teaching in the Wyandanch Grade School in 1946 and worked for the district for over 30 years eventually becoming Superintendent of Schools. He lead the growth of the district from one to four schools.

Stephen T. Voit opened the first law office in Wyandanch on 1950. His office was alongside Harold Isham's Insurance Agency at Straight Path and Long Island Avenue. The offices were located where the Wyandanch Community Help Center now stands.

William Collins-served for ten years as founder and director of Wyandanch Youth Services, Inc. A talented jazz pianist, and cook, William "Bill" Collins graduated with a B.A. from Hofstra University in 1973 and earned a Master's in Social Work from SUNY Stony Brook in 1977. Collins moved to Wyandanch with his wife Clotella in 1961 and was a member of the Wyandanch Chamber of Commerce and was the president of the Wyandanch school board in 1985. He was especially interested in assisting children of broken homes. William Collins passed away at age 62 on March 16, 1990. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the opening of the Wyandanch Youth Center in 1998. Source: Estelle Lander, "William Collins, 62, Wyandanch Leader," Newsday, March 19, 1990: 27; Michael Winerip, "Our Towns: at Youth Center, Need and Crack Are the Enemies," January 24, 1989: B. 1.

David Bullard-program coordinater of the Wyandanch Youth Services Center. David Bullard's family moved to Wyandanch and David attended school in Wyandanch and graduated from Wyandanch Memorial High School in 1969. He played on the Wyandanch High's 1965 championship football team for coach Anthony Fusco. His widow, Patti Bullard, the executive director of the Wyandanch Youth Center told Newsday: "He was involved in everything. He helped the kids get jobs, taught them sports and kept them out of trouble. He also counseled them." David Bullard passed away in August 1997. Source: Bill Kaufman, "David Bullard, 47, Was Dedicated to Helping Youth in Wyandanch," Newsday, August 19, 1997: A. 33.

Delano Stewart-real estate agent and publisher of the "Point of View" monthly newspaper. A graduate of Columbia University, Delano Stewart has been very involved in civic and political affairs on Long Island with the Coalition For a Better Government. He developed the Mid-Island Restoration Corp. to revitalize Wyandanch and lead the unsuccessful effort to incorporate Wyandanch as a village in 1989.

Anne Stewart-former Town of Babylon Commissioner of Human Services and member of the Suffolk County Economic Opportunity Council. Currently, the director of the Wyandanch Weed & Seed program. She organized the effort which is working with government agencies, such as the Town of Babylon, to revitalize Wyandanch. As Commissioner of Human Services, Anne Stewart played a major role in the development of the Wyandanch Senior Nutrition Center, which opened in August 1991. Source: Sallie Han, "$1-Million Menu for Elderly in Wyandanch Group Finally Get a Place for Lunch and Recreation," Newsday, August 25, 1991: 1

Isabel Kennedy- Isabel and William Kennedy moved to Wyandanch from Brooklyn (where they operated two businesses) in the 1950s. Mrs. Kennedy worked hard registering new voters in Wyandanch and spurring residents to vote. A Democrat and NAACP member, she organized the North 17th Street Neighborhood Watch crime prevention program and helped organize the creation of the Wyandanch Day Care Center. The Kennedys opened the African Arts and Import store in Wyandanch and used African artifacts to instruct school children about the rich history and culture of Africa. Ms. Kennedy died on May 28, 1999 at the age of 86. Source: "Lives Lived Well and the Lessons They Teach," New York Times, December 26, 1999: 14LI1.

Dorothy Greenridge-moved to Wyandanch in 1956 and was a founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center and the Wyandanch Day Care Center. A teacher who earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from SUNY-Stony Brook and taught in the Wyandanch Schools, the Long Island Developmental Center in Melville and at the Long Island Correctional Facility in Melville. Mrs. Greenwood was director of the Wyandanch Head Start program and was very active in community outreach with the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch. Dorothy Greeridge passed away in January 1989. She was 59 years old. Source: Tony Schaeffer, "Dorothy Greenridge, 59, Wyandanch Civic Leader," Newsday, January 3, 1989: 35.

Renowned rapper Rakim b. 1968 – considered by many to be the greatest rapper of all time – was born and raised in Wyandanch. Rakim and Eric B. became famous for their historic hip hop albums Paid In Full and Follow the Leader and their single "Eric B. For President", among other pioneering hip hop hits.

Rapper Poetic, better known as The Grym Reaper, from the hip-hop group Gravediggaz.

Wyandanch was home to Dave Fredericks, who starred in basketball, football and track at West Babylon High School 1956-60, who held the Suffolk County High School record for the most points in a single basketball game (61) for decades, and George Cooper, a star running back for the Wyandanch Warriors and later the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Warren Fuller – Warren Fuller's family moved to Wyandanch in 1951. He attended the Wyandanch schools from K-12, graduating from Wyandanch High School in 1966. After taking a B.S. in Physical Education from Hiram Scott College, Warren Fuller began teaching at Wyandanch High School in 1971. He taught and served as head coach of the highly successful Wyandanch "Lady Warriors" basketball team for more 38 years until his retirement in October 2009. In March 2008, Fuller was inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame in Glens Falls, NY. At the time Warren Fuller's Wyandanch girl's basketball teams had won 532 games for him-"the second winningest coach in the state." Under his direction, the Wyandanch Girls Varsity Basketball team won "20 League titles, 17 Classification titles, 12 Long Island Classification titles, five Overall Suffolk County Championships, three New York State Championships and two Federation titles." Sources: "J3032: Honoring Warren Fuller Upon the Occasion of his Retirement as Teacher and Coach, After 38 Years of Dedicated Service to the Students of the Wyandanch School District," sponsored by Senator Owen Johnson: http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/api/1.0/html/bill/J3032 ; Darren Sands, "Friends Usher Full Into State Hall," March 30, 2008: B. 24.

Ray Mills-an English teacher (32 years) and legendary wrestling coach (27 years) at Wyandanch High School. Ray Mills was a "four-sport athlete" at Islip High School and earned All-American honors for his efforts on the Hofstra University lacrosse team in 1975. In 2008, Ray Mills was inducted into the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame. The fourth African-American to be so honored. Wyandanch athletic director Kenneth Mc Coud told Newsday: "Wrestling was never a popular sport here, but (Ray Mills) made the program phenomenal. He was able to give everyone attention and instruction, and I thin that's the reason those guys were successful." Source: Stephen Haynes, "Huge LI Imprint Made by Resouceful Mills," Newsday, February 21, 2010: B. 10.

In October 1949, Dr. Herman Baruch, the former Ambassador to Portugal (1945) and the Netherlands (1947) and former director of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, was married to Anne Maria Baroness MacKay at Bagatelle, Dr. Baruch's country summer home on Burr's Lane in Wyandanch. The bride was the daughter of Dirk Rynhard Johan Baron MacKay of The Hague, the Netherlands. After Dr. Baruch died at home in Wyandanch on March 16, 1953, the Bagatelle estate with its many signature azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron plantings and its numerous specimen trees, was sold to the Catholic Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which developed it into the Madonna Heights School complex. The Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills, was sold and sub-divided into expensive large lot upscale homes about the time the Long Island Expressway reached Half Hollow Hills in the late 1960s. Baroness MacKay Baruch frequently attended church in the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Church (driven in a chauffered limo) during the summer months when the Baruchs vacationed in Wyandanch.

Sources: "Dr. Herman B. Baruch Will Wed Tomorrow," New York Times, October 21, 1949, 32; "Herman Baruch,77, Weds Baroness," Newsday, October 24, 1949; "Herman B. Baruch, Former U.S. Envoy," New York Times, March 16, 1953; "Widow, Children Share Baruch Estate," The Long Islander (Huntington) March 26, 1953: 8; Rose Gallaher recollections.

Business and industry

Electricity and telephone service extended to Wyandanch: 1920's and 1930's

The Long Island Lighting Company provided the first electric service to Wyandanch in December 1928 meaning that homeowners in the community could replace oil or kerosene lamps with electric lights.The lines were extended from Deer Park Avenue at a cost of $20,000: LILCO paid $10,000 and the 52 residents of Wyandanch, who signed up for service paid $5,000. The Wyandanch residents were "petitioning for a street lighting district and it is likely one will be established soon after the current reaches Wyandanch." Electricity also meant prosperous families could replace hand-powered pitcher water pumps with electrically-driven water pumps. Wood and coal burning stoves could be replaced with oil-fired furnaces. Each homeowner had to drill and drive their own water well or have one drilled. The "points" at the bottom of the wells clogged every eight to ten years due to the very "hard" water, and had to be laboriously or expensively replaced. Homeowners had to pay to have electric and telephone lines strung to their homes. This meant paying for the utility poles as well. There were a very few telephones in Wyandanch "which nestles on the town's highlands" in 1932 with a Farmingdale exchange but telephone service with the Midland 3 exchange became commonplace in Wyandanch in the 1940s. Property owners who wished to build homes in Wyandanch often had to pay to have the "roads" opened to their property. Many of these unpaved roads became muddy bogs with the spring rains since the Town of Babylon refused to accept responsibility for paving and maintaining what it called "paper streets" in "cheap lot" sub-divisions. In 1937 the Simone Bus Company instituted bus service between Wyandanch and Lindenhurst. Wyandanch had natural gas service since LILCO's main gas line was extended from Lake Ronkonkoma to Farmingdale in the mid-1920's Sources: L.I.L.C.O. May Extend Lines: Looks Now As If Wyandanch and Deer Park would Get Current," Lindenhurst Star, December 22, 1927: 6; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers."

Businesses in Wyandanch in the 1920s and 1930s

The Conservative (propane) Gas Division of the National Propane Corp. was established with its on rail siding on a large plot bounded by: N. 18th Street, N. 20th Street, Merritt Avenue and Washington Avenue in 1929. Many Wyandanch residents used propane gas (in tanks) for cooking and baking in the 1930s and 1940s. There were stores and businesses in Wyandanch such as: Anthony Tafuri's Liquor Store, Joseph Bulin's Eagle Meat Market, Michael Ryan's Grocery, Willi "The Plumber" Wengle's Plumbing and Haeting, Tom Ardizone's Italian-American Grocery and Bakery, Emil Moeller's Grocery, John Barilla's Lumber Yard on Merritt Avenue, Charles Watkins Lumber Yard on Long Island Avenue, and Rudolph Zotter's Automobile Service Station on Long Island Ave at 27th Street. World War II vet, Sal Messina, ran this station from the 1950s until well into the 1990s. On March 4, 1933, the Nostrand family took over the Watkins Lumber yard and successfully ran the business until the mid-1960s-when the property was taken over by the Weld Built auto wrecker firm. Before the shopping mall era, Wyandanch residents, shopped primarily in Farmingdale, Lindenhurst and Bay Shore villages and to a lesser extent in Babylon, Amityville or Huntington. Most shopping was done on Friday night or Saturday afternoon and evening-when workers were off work. Shopping malls did not exist before the late 1950s. Some rode the LIRR to shop in Jamaica or on 34th Street in Manhattan near Penn Station (Macy's especially). Larger purchases were delivered by United Parcel. William Werner operated a woodworking business on Straight Path at S. 17th and Garden City Avenue where he built wooden boats. For serious medical conditions, residents were treated at: Huntington Hospital, the Nassau-Suffolk Hospial in Copiague and Southside Hospital in Bay Shore hospitals in Huntington, and visited doctors and dentists in Farmingdale, Lindenhurst, Amityville or Huntington. In the 1940s, Dr. Leon Schultz began his medical practice in Wyandanch. A very interesting 1940's photo shows the Wyandanch Pharmacy standing next to the Wyandanch Post Office on the north side of Merritt Avenue. Other than the churches, the Wyandanch Bar and Grill (across from the railroad station), the Community Hall (at Straight Path and Mount Avenue) and the VFW Hall at S. 20th Street and Straight Path were spirited social centers for whites (drink, music and dance)-especially after Prohibition ended in 1933- and the Wyandanch Colored Community Club (as it was known in the 1930s) at the Five Corners (Little East Neck Road, Straight Path and Edison Avenue) was the main social center for African-Americans in Wyandanch. Source: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" For the 1940s photo: see: Wyandanch Rising: The Wyandanch Hamlet Report (2003) by Sustainable Long Island, p. 109, Google: Wyandanch Rising Report and click onto p. 109. The source of this very interesting photo is not attributed in the most interesting study.

Expansion of airplane industry in Farmingdale-Bethpage ends the Depression in Wyandanch: 1940's

The massive expansion of Republic Aviation, Grumman, Ranger Engine and Liberty in Farmingdale-Bethpage before the U.S. entered World War II, and during the war, provided greatly expanded job opportunities for Wyandanch residents. The testing of airplanes by Grumman 1932-37 and by Seversky-Republic 1935- and by the U.S. Army Air Corps lead to several spectacular airplane crashes in Wyandanch. The most famous was the collision of two Curtiss P-40 fighters over Wyandanch on February 6, 1941, which killed an army pilot. One fighter plane crashed on Main Avenue, the other came to earth on Long Island Avenue near Little East Neck Road. On July 20, 1943, W.J. Forrest, Brosel Hasslacher, Harry Roalef and Mrs. J. B. Smith saved a badly burned Army fighter pilot whose plane had crashed west of Conklin Street and south of the Motor Parkway. They suffered burns and lacerations as they used axes to cut the injured pilot out of his downed and flaming plane. Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) order and the wartime labor needs of the airplane factories opened job opportunities for African-Americans and women in Wyandanch-West Babylon. Other Wyandanch residents worked in Pilgrim State or Central Islip State Hospitals, at the American Field of Honor, the U.S. National Cemetery in Pinelawn, which opened in 1938, or at the other cemeteries in Pinelawn: St. Charles, New Montefiore, Wellwood, Beth Moses, Mount Ararat Cemetery or Pinelawn Memorial Park. Most, however, worked in skilled laboring trades, such as: plumbers, carpenters, painters, electricians, masons, roofers or mechanics. Most women did not work for wages outside the home but were preoccupied with traditional child rearing and homemaking. Sources: New York Times and Newsday; Roy Douglas' recollections

Origins of the Town of Babylon Incinerator in Sheet Nine: 1946

In May 1945, Babylon town officials first looked at a 20-acre (81,000 m²) site in the middle of Sheet Nine in Wyandanch between Grunthal (Edison) and Grunwedel (Patton) Avenues as a possible location for the town incinerator and ash dump Babylon was contemplating after Lindenhurst residents rejected the future Babylon incinerator being located at Sunrise Highway and the LIRR crossing in North Lindenhurst. Just before the town wide referendum on the incinerator in November 1945, residents in Sheet Nine and in Wyandanch fruitlessly objected to the proposed incinerator claiming it would attract rats, generate smoke and odors, and depreciate property values. They were assured by Babylon officials that the "modern" facility would be odorless, that the ash would be trucked away and no outdoor dumping or burning of garbage would be allowed. The incinerator was approved by voters in November 1945. In April 1946, Babylon awarded a $103,000 contract to the Nichols Engineering and Research Corp. of New York to build the two-story incinerator. The Babylon Town incinerator, described as the "most modern and complete in the State of New York," had "two giant 45-ton furnaces and a mechanical blower." All other dumping grounds in Babylon Town were to be closed when the incinerator started burning. The incinerator began operation in June 1946. With the closing of the town dumps, 147 tons of refuse was dropped off at the incinerator in its first two weeks of operation. Workers toiled late into the night to burn the trash. Sources: Newsday and Babylon Leader news articles

Business expands in Wyandanch: late 1940s

In 1946, Andrew and Jack King of 24th Street and Long Island Avenue sought permission from the Town of Babylon to establish their King's Hardware store. The Kings' would later sell the store and the name and the second (and much m ore successful and lon-lasting) King's Hardware was established on South 19th Street and Long Island Avenue. Attorney Stephen A. Voit opened a law office on Straight Path in Wyandanch in 1950.Harold S. Isham operated a successful insurance businesses on the southeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue. Ross's Shoe Store was located on the east side of Straight Path near S. 18th Street. Mason's Ice Cream Parlor stood where the Hasgill Funeral Home stood for many years on the east side of Straight Path near S. 20th Street. Ignatius Davidson sought permission from the Town of Babylon for a re-zoning to allow him to erect a modern C & D cement block factory at Booker Avenue and Straight Path where he and Mortimer Cumberbach had been making concrete blocks since 1928. The new factory opened in 1947. Wyandanch went from making reb bricks in the 19th Century to manufacturing cement blocks in the 20th Century. Industrialization continued in Wyandanch in October 1947 when the James F. Walsh Paper Corp. purchased 54 acres (220,000 m²) east of Straight Path and along the LIRR from the Anderson and Watkins families for a paper mill. The mill was expected to employ 500 workers and make boxes with plastic impregnated paper. The Babylon Town Board granted the required rezoning for the plant only after securing safeguards that the factory would not pollute the Carll's River, which feeds into Geiger and Belmont Lakes. Early in the 20th Century, the Watkins and Geiger families owned all the property from Straight Path to the Carll's River and from Acorn Street to Nichols Road. The Caruso family operated a 14-acre (57,000 m²) blueberry farm in the rich acidic soils on the Wyandanch side of the Carll's River behind the Wyancanch Park.

Sources: Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History; Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers; "Paper Firm Buys Long Island Site," New York Times, October 5, 1947, R3

Fairchild Guided Missiles establishes a factory and Wyandanch residents win crossing gates and lights at LIRR crossings: 1951

In March 1951 the Fairchild Guided Missiles Division broke ground for a $1,750,000, one-story, 155,000-square-foot (14,400 m²) factory on the east side of Straight Path north of the LIRR. Highly skilled workers at the Fairchild Guided Missiles factory in Wyandanch built the Lark anti-aircraft missile for the US armed forces. In 1959, the Astrionics Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation in Wyandanch was awarded a $268,000 contract to provide engineering services on the Sperry bombing-navigation system for the B-58 "Hustler supersonic bomber. With the prospects of 1,000 workers at Fairchild Guided Missiles, crossing the railroad each working day, civic leaders in the Combined Organizations of Wyandanch pressured the Public Service Commission in 1951 to have the LIRR install flashing lights and safety gates at the dangerous "death" rail crossings at 18th Street and at Straight Path.The Fairchild factory in Wyandanch tremendously increased traffic on Straight Path, which heretofore had been a bucolic country road. In the mid-1950s, Suffolk County responded by widening Straight Path (CR 2)to four lanes to the Southern State Parkway. Suffolk County had taken over Straight Path from Deer Park Avenue (now Route 231) to Broad Hollow Road (now Route 110) on January 27, 1930. Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. later occupied the Fairchild factory until 1977. The lights and safety gates were installed at Straight Path and 18th Street LIRR crossings in 1952 at a cost of $35,000. The distinctive Fairchild and Grumman water tank dominated the Wyandanch skyline for over three decades.

Sources: "Start This Month on New Fairchild Plant," Newsday, March 2, 1951, 51; "Fairchild Awarded $268,000 Sperry Contrct," The Long Islander, (Huntington) July 2, 1952: 24; and Grumman archives at the Grumman History Center in Bethpage.

Direct distance dialing comes to Wyandanch: 1960

New York Telephone officials announced that as of July 11, 1960 Wyandanch residents with MIdland 3 telephone numbers and Deer Park residents with MOhawk 7 numbers would be able to direct dial station-to-station calls to any of 56 million telephones throughout the United States. The new improved service was made possible by modern dial switching equipment which had been installed in the New York Telephone's new dial center on West Second Street in Deer Park.

Lunn Laminates moves to Wyandanch: 1962

Lunn Laminates, Inc., one of the largest custom molders of fibreglass reinforced plastic products, and a major producer of fiberglass boats to the U.S. Navy, moved into the 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m²). former Kollsman Instruments Corp. factory building on the north side of Acorn Street, east of Straight Path in Wyandanch in the spring of 1962. Lunn employed 180 workers and moved to Wyandanch from Huntington. Lunn also built submarine fairwaters and mast fairings for the Navy and 16-foot (4.9 m) and 30-foot (9.1 m) lifeboats for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Fairchild Stratos leaves Wyandanch and Grumman Aircraft moves In: 1963

In 1963 the Fairchild Stratos Corporation moved its Electronics Systems Division and its 200 engineering, production and administrative employees from Wyandanch to a facility in Bay Shore specifically designed for electronic operations. Fairchild Stratos worked on reconnaissance equipment for aircraft, airframes, meteorological ground stations and radar. The Fairchild factory, on the east side of Straight Path north of the LIRR, was built in 1951 by the Fairchild Guided Missiles Corp. Fairchild announced that its Wyandanch factory would be leased to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Grumman built aircraft frames for "some of the world's advanced aircraft" at its Plant 27-in the former Fairchild factory- from 1963 until September 1977, when Grumman ceased operations in Wyandanch. Grumman's 250 highly-skilled employees custom-built plexiglass and fibreglass forward, mid and tail sections and nacelles for the Grumman E2A Hawkeye, EA-6B Prowler, A-6A Intruder, S-2E Tracker, A-6E Intruder and EC-2 Hawkeye in the Wyandanch factory. After 1966, Grumman's entire plastics production effort was centralized in Wyandanch. This included manufacturing plexiglass aircraft canopies, windshields and windows. When the Plant 27 in Wyandanch was closed in late 1977, the work was transferred to Grumman plants in Bethpage, Great River and Milledgeville, Georgia.

Town of Babylon expands Wyandanch Incinerator: 1963

The Town of Babylon released plans in December 1963 to add two new automatic feed furnaces to the Town Incinerator in Wyandanch expanding the burning capacity of the plant from 250 tons of refuse a day to 650 tons. The expansion was expected to cost $1,985,000. The incinerator had been upgraded in 1954 when the population of the Town of Babylon was 80,000. The extra 400 ton burning capacity was said to satisfy the needs of the 165,000 town residents until 1978. The expansion was said to eliminate outside burning of refuse which often "caused a pall of smoke to blanket the area."

Sources: "Incinerator's Neighbors Protest Expansion Plans," Town-News, November 19, 1959:1,12; "$2 Million Incinerator Program Near Approval: No Tax Hike," Babylon Town Leader, December 5, 1963: p. 5.

Wyandanch women fight strip sand miners with baby carriages

During the suburban building boom of the 1950s demand was great for high quality sand and gravel for the production of concrete. Thus, strip sand miners began digging into the hillsides of the Wheatley Heights terminal moraine to easily mine fine sand and stone with heavy earthmoving equipment. Constant streams of heavy trucks roared along 18th Street and Straight Path endangering residents-especially the children- as the huge trucks sped to the concrete makers. Ugly scars were left on the previously forested hillsides and problems with erosion and local flooding were exacerbated. One hill, later the site of the now defunct Taukomas Elementary School, was completely leveled. This may have been the site of the Indian burial grounds mention in local newspapers in the 1880s.Led by the forceful Hermann Griem of the Wheatley Heights Civic Association, mothers in Wyandanch/Colonial Springs organized baby carriage brigades and blocked the sand trucks trying to enter and leave the sand mines in an effort to have the Town of Babylon abolish above ground strip sand mining in the hills. Entire hills were removed by the strip miners before these environmentally destructive practices were brought under control. The voracious strip miners never restored the scarred hillsides. The Herman Griem Town of Babylon Park in Wheatley Heights was developed on what had been one of the largest strip sand mine operations in Wyandanch until fierce pressure from the Wheatley Heights Civic Association forced its closing in the mid-1950s. Newspaper reports in the 19th century indicate that there was a Native American burial ground in the hills in Wyandanch, dating from before the 300-year old Conklin family Cemetery, yet sadly there is no evidence of remains of this historic burial site today. It may be that the site was destroyed by the strip sand and gravel miners and hill levelers in Wheatley Heights in the early 1950s. Sources: Hermman Griem obituary in the Babylon Beacon; Leroy Douglas' recollections.

Wyandanch Community Development Corporation formed: 1971

The Wyandanch Community Development Corporation (WCDC) was formed in March 1971 by members of the Wyandanch community interested in neighborhood revitalization and preservation. The non-profit corporation "grew out of a public meeting called by the Wyandanch Churches Joint Committee in October 1970." An organizing meeting of approximately 100 Wyandanch residents (representing 20 community organizations) took place in November 1970. The WCDC began "working on a development plan for the Wyandanch area" (especially for decent housing) soon after the group was formed in March 1971. The WCDC soon joined the Suffolk County Community Development Corporation. The New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) provided $25,000 to finance "an initial study and planning analysis of the Wyandanch area by a planning firm, Raymond, Parish and Pine, Inc." The Wyandanch Planning Area was bounded "on the north by the Babylon Town Line, on the east by the Belmont Lake and the {Carll's} Creek, on the south by the Southern State Parkway and on the west by Wellwood Avenue." The 30-page, Raymond, Parrish and Pine planning analysis ( May 12, 1971) drew on previous studies such as: the Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board's 1970 Survey of Housing Conditions, the Bi-County Master Plan, and the 1970 Babylon Town Master Plan, and identified the Commonwealth Drive area, east of Straight Path about one-quarter mile south of Long Island Avenue, "as ideally suited to the development of a multi-family housing program." The WCDC asked the state UDC to prepare a "feasibility study" for "low and moderate income housing" on a ten-acre tract on Commonwealth Drive.The Commonwealth Avenue site was chosen, in major part, because 'in a 1967 joint survey of Wyandanch by the Suffolk County Health Department, the Welfare Department and the Building Department, the Commonwealth Drive area was identified as having 'a severe housing problem'" A letter of agreement between the WCDC and the UDC was signed in November 1971 and the WCDC "chose the architectural firm of Gindele and Johnson of Poughkeepsie, NY and Mr. Jeh Johnson" to develop the Commonwealth Housing Proposal.

Sources: Commonwealth Drive Residential Development: Wyandanch; Town of Babylon Informational Brochure, 1973; "History," WCDC Development Newsletter, Vol. II, No. 6, June 1973: 11-12; "This, Or This, for Wyandanch," WCDC Informational Phamphlet, June 1973.

Town of Babylon Rejects Wyandanch Community Development Corp. Commonwealth Drive Housing Plan: 1973

In October 1972, the Wyandanch Community Development Corporation (assisted by the Suffolk County Economic Development Corp. and the New York State Urban Development Corp.) presented plans to spend $5.3 million on 29 two-story town house and garden apartment buildings to house 182 subsidized units of housing for moderate and low-income and elderly tenants on 11.3 acres on Commonwealth Drive in Wyandanch. This state UDC plan provoked a firestorm of "bitter conflict," within Wyandanch, and from conservative activists from surrounding communities.

The Commonwealth Drive housing was to be 70% moderate income (less than $9,689 per year for a family of five), 20% low income (less than $7,100 per year for a family of five) and 10% elderly. The advocates of the controversial plan felt the housing would allow residents of substandard homes in Wyandanch (especially in the "tree street" area) the opportunity to move into safe, reliable, affordable housing. The WCDC also wanted the Town of Babylon to enact and enforce tough housing codes to force the upgrading or razing of substandard homes in Wyandanch.

When the plans for the Commonwealth Drive housing were first presented; the state UDC had unlimited powers to build multi-family subsidized housing in the suburbs without the traditional approvals from local government-in this case the Town of Babylon. But, by the time the Commonwealth plans were finalized; the Legislature of the State of New York had passed legislation, which limited the authority of the UDC-which meant the Commonwealth Drive housing would require the approval of the Town of Babylon.

Powerful and often emotional arguments were made for and against the Commonwealth housing plan. The Rev. David Rooks, the president of the WCDC told the New York Daily News: "Home rule. Everyone talks about home rule. We're trying to pull overselves up by our own bootstraps. Now we find that we're not supposed to have much home rule." The Rev. Andrew Connolly, the secretary of the WCDC, and the assistant pastor of The Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church in Wyandanch, agreed with Rev. Rooks telling the Daily News: I think it is important tp emphasize that this is a black community that has been criticized and malinged by some of its white neighbors. Now that it has finally decided to do something about its own situation, those same neighbors are in vocal opposition." Mrs Doretha Davidson, a third grade teacher in the Wyandanch school system, whose family was among the first African American settlers in Wyandanch in the 1920's, and who owned and operated a prosperous cement block factory in Wyandanch, told the New York Times: We pay a good deal of taxes. Let's say we've got it made. Does that mean we shouldn't help the next person in line? All you've got to do is visit some homes here. You know people need better than they've got."

In opposition to the proposal, Theodore Williams, an African-American businessman and president of the Triangle Community Association, told the Daily News: "This will kill us financially. People are losing their homes right and left now because of high taxes. I don't see how the project could possibily help our situation. It will jam 692 people with about 400 kids into a three-square block area. How are they going to educate those kids? Whose going to pay for their schools?"

Another African American opponent, Mrs Bernice Bostic told the New York Times: "I've been living in Wyandanch for 15 years. We've got enough recipients. I'm sick of my taxes taking care of everybody. And I believe this is just a first step. They'll want more housing if they get this." Opponent, Judith Bernor, a white woman, who lived in Deer Park, the chairman of Babylon Citizens for Home Rule, told the Sunday News: Upgrading housing in Wyandanch "can be accomplished by enforcement of Babylon Town's building, zoning and health codes, all of which will help to improve the living conditions for the citizens of Wyandanch."

More than 1,000 people turned out at a public hearing at the Wyandanch Memorial High School on the proposal on July 26, 1973. Over 100 people spoke for and against the plan. Two weeks later,at a special meeting on August 16, 1973, the Babylon Town Board voted 3-2 to reject the Commonwealth Drive housing plan. Three Republicans, supervisor Aaron Barnett, and councilmen Vincent Manna and Rowland Scott, voted against the plan. The board's lone Democrat, Sondra Bachety and the board's only Conservative, Patrick Waters, voted for the plan.

Sources: Jack Leahy, "Wyandanch Housing Plan Stirs Concern & Controversy," New York Daily News, October 15, 1972: BNL2; "Wyandanch's Plight Aired in Fight on UDC," Sunday News, December 24, 1972: Q2; George Vecsey, "New Housing Plan Stirs Wyandanch," The New York Times, July 26, 1973; Ahmid-Chett Green and Ed Lowe, "The Wyandanch Housing Fight," Newsday, July 26, 1973: 2,21; Mitchell R. Freedman and Karl Grossman, "1,000 Hear Pros, Cons of Wyandanch Project," Long Island Press, July 27, 1973: 1,4; George Vecesy, "Babylon Town Board Faces Tough Decision: Should It Reject State Apartment Project in Wyandanch?" The New York Times, August 8, 1973: 38; Ed Lowe, "Defeat in Babylon: Board Kills Wyandanch Project," Newsday, August 17, 1973: 1,3,28; Percy Watson, "Babylon Vetoes UDC-aided Project in Wyandanch," Long Island Press, August 17, 1973: 1,3; George Vecesy, "Babylon Officials Reject Wyandanch Housing Plan, The New York Times, August 17, 1973; "Housing for Wyandanch," New York Times editorial, August 17, 1973. For a thoughtful review of the ideological underpinnings of the conflict within Wyandanch over the Commonwealth Drive housing: see: Louis B. Schlivek, "Wyandanch: A Case Study In Conflict Over Subsidized Housing," The Future of Suffolk County. The Regional Plan Association, November 1974: 52-56.

Town of Babylon rejects building large fuel tank farm in Wyandanch: 1979

April 10, 1979-The Babylon Town Board voted 5-0 to reject an application from Northville Industries to rezone 11 acres in Wyandanch from Light to Heavy Industry to allow Northville to construct a 13-tank gasoline and fuel oil tank farm between Patton Avenue and Edison Avenue near Wellwood Avenue. The thirteen 40'-48' high above ground Northville tanks would have had a maximum capacity of 387,000 barrels of gasoline and fuel oil. The terminal, which would have cost $4.5 million to construct, was opposed by all the fire departments in the Town of Babylon, many civic groups, which were concerned about advese impacts on traffic, air quality and the dangers of potential fuel spills or leaks, and by the nearby cemeteries. The project was supported by the Wyandanch School District, which would have gained $142,000 in school taxes per year for its schools. Sources: Linda Field, "No Tank Farm In Wyandanch," Newsday, April 11, 1979: 3; Ellen Mitchell, "Northville Facility Upsets Babylon," New York Times, April 8, 1979.

Town of Babylon blocks proposed asphalt plant for Wyandanch: 1981

On March 3, 1981, the Babylon Town Board unaminiously rejected a zoning change request by Millbrook Enterprises to built an 800-ton-a-day asphalt plant on 9.5 acres on the north side of New Avenue within 500 feet of the Carll's River greenbelt in Wyandanch. The proposal had been opposed by nearby residents in Wyandanch and Deer Park and by the Long Island State Park Commission (LISPC) The LISPC feared that the plant, if built, could pollute the Carll's River and Belmont Lake. The Suffolk County Planning Commission opposed the $1 million project and Newsday published a strong editorial in opposition.

Sources: "Concern Grows Over Proposed Asphalt Plant," Babylon Beacon, January 29, 1981: 1; T.J. Collins, "Proposed Asphalt Plant Draws Opposition," Newsday, January 31, 1981: 25; "A Bad Place to Put an Asphalt Plant," Newsday editorial, February 3, 1981: 42; "Asphalt Plant Dead: Town Urges County Acquisition of Proposed Site," Babylon Beacon, March 5, 1981: 1.

Town of Babylon drops plan for compost dump in Wyandanch following civic protests: 1989

Arthur Pitts, the supervisor of the Town of Babylon, in the face of vehement opposition from Wyandanch residents ,dropped plans by to establish a leaf composting facility on 20 acres of pine barren property at Long Island Avenue and Little East Neck Road. The Babylon Dept. of Environmental Control plan, which would have cost $900,000, could have been in operation by November 1989. Larry Mc Cord, a member of the Wyandanch School Board said the proposed leaf composting site was too close to the Milton Olive Middle School and the Wyandanch Memorial High School. Khalid Lateef, deputy commissioner for buildings and grounds for the Town of Babylon told Newsday: "Wyandanch has been used too often. I'd like to see more plans for our community in terms of businesses, rather than dumps and compost sites and ashfills and resource recovery plants."

Sources: Dele Olojede, ""Wyandanch Residents Say Plan Stinks," Newsday, August 7, 1989: 6; Rebecca Morris and Phil Minz, "Babylon Compost Plan Trashed: Wyandanch Protest Kills Town Proposal," Newsday, August 8, 1989: 25.

Town of Babylon refuses affordable cluster rental housing in Wyandanch: 1989

The Babylon Town Board voted 3-2 on December 6, 1989 to reject a change of zone request by Cassata Enterprises, Inc., and the Wyandanch Community Development Corp.(WCDC) to build 10 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom rental units on three acres on the east side of Mount Avenue near the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. Cassata Enterprises would have built the $3 million project and then have turned the units over to the Wyandanch Community Development Corporation (WCDC), which would have managed them. The housing was to have been funded through a grant from the Housing Trust Fund of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal. James Wallace, executive director of the WCDC aid that the cluster rental would have relieved overcrowding in Wyandanch. "You have from two to three families who live in three and some two-bedroom homes," Wallace said, The homes I'm building are geared to eliminate that overcrowding and help those living in substandard housing." Russ Cassata, vice president of Cassata Enterprises remarked: "I'm very surprised at the town board. I'd think they would be in favor of doing something positive for the people of Wyandanch.

Critics of the cluster housing plan, mostly from civic leaders affiliated with the Babylon Joint Civic and Taxpayers Council, claimed it would have too high a density per acre, would generate too much traffic near an elementary school, further impact an already impoverished community, could threaten groundwater quality and possibly lead to future development of open space near the Carll's River wetlands. The builder had vowed to install an underground denitrification sewage-treatment system but The Town of Babylon Department of Environmental Control questioned "the efficiency record of denitrification sewage systems." James Wallace of the WCDC said of the split decision: "I smell racism. These people don't live in Wyandanch, but they don't want Wyandanch to have anything." Supervisor Arthur Pitts (D) and Councilman, Robert Kaufold (D), voted for the project and Councilman Patrick Haugen (D) and Councilwoman Francine Brown (R) voted against it.

Ed. Note: This was the second time the Town of Babylon rejected a WCDC multi-family proposal in Wyandanch. The first, the subsidized 182-unit Commonwealth Drive Housing complex, was rejected in August 1973. The 1989 decision did not receive anywhere near the attention in the media that the 1973 proposal attracted.

Sources: Estelle Lander, "Wyandanch Housing Plan Draws Fire: Civic Group Eyes Fight Over Project," Newsday, September 26, 1989: 31; Estelle Lander, "Wyandanch Housing Plan Bashed," Newsday, October 5, 1989: 29;Gail Bagnati, "Is Cluster Housing A Space Saver," Babylon Beacon, October 5, 1989: 1; Gail Bagnati, "Don't Dump In Wyandanch," Babylon Beacon, October 12, 1989: 1,16; Jenny Abdo, "Babylon Rejects Wyandanch Plan: Vote is 3-2 Against Rental Housing," Newsday, December 6, 1989: 29.

Supermarket and banking service restored to Wyandanch: 2000

At one time in the 1960s, Wyandanch had three full-service supermarkets: Blue Jay's, and then, A & P and King Kullen. All three left the community and Wyandanch went 30 years without a supermarket. Wyandanch had two full-service banks: Security National Bank in the 1960s (in the Blue Jay shopping center at Straight Path and 14th Street) and Chemical Bank (at Straight Path and S. 20th Street-now a laundry). Security National closed in 1967 and Chemical closed in October 1987 and the struggling residents of Wyandanch were left without banking services for 13 years- until the Chase Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) opened a full-service branch in Wyandanch alongside Alfredo's Marketplace (now the Compare Super Market) in 2000. In the late 1990s the Town of Babylon, under the leadership of Town of Babylon supervisor, Richard Schaffer, Babylon acted decisively to assist in the demolition of a early 1950s row of strip stores on Straight Path between Commonwealth Boulevard and Arlington Avenue and to improve the site to allow Alfredo Rodriguez, to establish an Associated super market and Chase to establish its bank branch alongside. Supervisor Schaffer told the New York Daily News in November 1999, about a month after ground-breaking for the super market, "I would go to public meetings in Wyandanch, and the biggest issue was always the lack of a supermarket. For the first time in 30 years, Wyandanch will have a full-scale supermarket. This will not only bring variety and good prices to the community, but offer some good paying jobs." The Long Island Housing Partnership convinced Chase Bank to help Mr. Rodriquez obtain the $1.3 million loan he needed to bring a badly needed super market to Wyandanch. Jim Morgo, president of the Long Island Housing Partnership, said: "Bringimg community development to a downtown like Wyandanch is what we're supposed to do. ...it means a lot as economic development for a downtown and is important psychologically for a community." Rodriquez said he would make every effort to hire Wyandanch residents to operate the store. The new super market was established with assistance for The Empire State Development Corp., the Town of Babylon and the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development.

The supermarket and the Chase bank branch were set back from Straight Path to allow ample parking in front of these important businesses. A positive side effect of the demolition of the 1950's strip of stores and the set back of the Compare Supermarket was the termination of the so called "Living Room," the congregating of winos, drug users and hangers-on who sat under make shift tents and kept warm night and day with fires in barrels-which discouraged use of the post office and stores and frightened paasers by on the Straight Path sidewalk. The developer of the Compare Supermarket was saddled with an additional $300,000 in building expense because he had to establish leaching fields onsite-since Wyandanch is not serviced by the Southwest Sewer District. Many of the stores in Wyandanch were built between 1920 and 1940, when many residents walked to the stores. The stores then were situated close to the streets. With the automobile age, it made much more sense to have the stores set back (as with Compare Supermarket and the Chase Bank). This allows more and easier parking, better traffic flow, and a greatly improves the aesthetic appearance of the community.

Sources: Samson Mulugeta, "Wyandanch to Get a Supermarket," Newsday, December 4, 1997: A. 33;Robert Gearty, "Filling Market Void: Wyandanch Getting An Associated Outlet," New York Daily News, November 3, 1999: 9; Michael Rothfeld, "A Supermarket to Call Its Own: Wyandanch's First in 30 Years," Newsday, December 13, 2000: A. 34; Tania Padgett, "Chase Helps Wyandanch Open Its First Supermarket in 30 Years," Newsday, December 21, 2000: A. 64; Valarie Cotsalas, "Where a Revival Hinges on Sewers," New York Times, February 20, 2005. www.suffolkcountyny.gov/upload/...sewersummitwyandanchcasestudy.pdf

Pinelawn Power Electric Generating Station Opens in Wyandanch: 2005

The $120 million, 79.9-megawatt Pinelawn Power LLC dual fuel electric-generating station opened on November 17, 2005 on a 2.3 acre site at Patton Avenue and Gleam Street at the Babylon town landfill in Wyandanch. The Pinelawn Power plant is owned by Alabama-based, Harbert Power, and Di Fazio Electric, Inc. of Deer Park and supplies electricity to the Long Island Power Authority. The Babylon Town Board authorized a 30-year lease of the town-owned property in July 2004 indicating that the highly efficient utility would contribute $700,000 in payments-in-lieu-of-taxes to the "cash-strapped" Wyandanch School District # 9, and about $300,000 per year for services in the Town of Babylon. The plant produces electricity by burning natural gas, with low-sulfur kerosene as a backup fuel. Ground was broken for the cogeneration plant in October 2004 after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had "issued approvals for several permits for the plant" in September 2004. The New York State Public Service Commission approved construction of the plant on August 25, 2004. The plant utilizes "combined cycle" technology. This means a second turbine uses waste heat from the first turbine "to create more electricity." Residents of West Babylon and Wyandanch had expressed environmental concerns about the project at a public hearing in August 2004 but Babylon supervisor, Steve Bellone, said "the town had insisted on 'rigorous' environmental standards for the plant." Sources: Jennifer Smith, "Wyandanch Says WHOA, a Megawatt Power Play, Town OKs lease for Energy Plant," Newsday, August 15, 2004: G. 36; Jennifer Smith, "West Babylon, Speaking Out Against, and For, Power Plant Plan," Newsday, August 20, 2004: A. 44; "2 Power Plants On LI OKd," Newday, August 26, 2004: A. 37; Jennifer Smith, "Babylon: Construction Begins on Power Plant," Newsday, October 6, 2004: A. 37; Bill Bleyer, "Dedication Ceremony for New Power Plants," Newsday, November 18, 2005: A.57.

Media

In July 2009 The New York Times featured the Wyandanch community and real estate.

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

The Wyandanch Community Action Center published a short-lived "Community Journal" newspaper in the 1970's.

Wyandanch businessman, Delano Stewart's Coalition For Better Government, published the "Mid Island News" in the 1980s. Mr. Stewart now publishes an Afro-centric monthly newspaper: "Point of View."

References

The standard print sources for the history of Wyandanch are: Verne Dyson, Deer Park- Wyandanch History, 1957 (Deer Park Public Library); Roy Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," Long Island Forum, October, November, December, 1982 (West Islip Public Library); Richard Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of a Black Suburb, Institute for Community Studies, Queens College, 1971 (Wyandanch Public Library). Dyson's Deer Park-Wyandanch History is available online at: cdm15281.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/... or by Googling: Deer Park-Wyandanch History and going to the Content DM link.

The Information Revolution of the past twenty-five years, and the rise of computers, data bases and search engines, has made researching local history much easier and more accurate. Especially useful, have been the Pro Quest Newspaper and the Pro Quest Historical Newspaper sites, for Newsday since 1985, and the New York Times since 1851. They are available at the Rockville Centre and Farmingdale Public Libraries and other selected libraries in Nassau and Suffolk. The Suffolk Historical Newspaper database is very useful- it has the Brooklyn Eagle to 1903- and several Suffolk papers.. The microfilm collections of local newspapers (Babylon Leader, Babylon Town News, Babylon Beacon, Lindenhurst Star and Amityville Record) at the North Babylon, Lindenhurst, Amityville and Babylon Village Public Libraries are invaluable to the serious researcher. The North Babylon Public Library has the Suffolk edition of Newsday on microfilm. Suffolk County should make an effort to have marvelous newspapers such as: the Babylon Leader: the Lindenhurst Star and the Amityville Record added to the Suffolk Historical Newspapers site.