Wyandanch, New York

For the Chief of the Montaukett in the 1600s, 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

Main article: History of Wyandanch

This hamlet is named after Chief Wyandanch, a leader of the Montaukett Native American tribe during the 17th-century. Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park (1875), and Wyandance (1893), the area of scrub oak and pine barrens south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch in 1903 by the Long Island Rail Road to honor Chief Wyandanch and end confusion between travelers getting off at the West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. West Deer Park-Wyandanch were part of the Deer Park School District until 1923.

Native Americans and Wyandanch

No archaeological evidence of permanent Native American settlements in Wyandanch has been discovered. Native Americans are said to have hunted and gathered fruits and berries in what is now Wyandanch/Wheatley Heights. The Massapequa or Secatogue Indians first discovered the Wheatley Heights clay pits. The Native Americans established their main settlements near the shellfish and finfish filled waters of the Great South Bay in what today are known as: Babylon, Lindenhurst and Amityville.

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

Archaeological digs and studies should be undertaken in Wheatley Heights, especially on the original Conklin estate property-particularly near the Colonial Spring. Today, this property is part of the USDAN summer arts camp grounds. Archaeologists and anthropologists should especially look for remains of an Indian burial ground and for evidence of Native Americans working the clay pits.

Ed. Note: The name Squaw Pit Purchase may derive from the possibility that Native American women worked (and possibly) lived near the clay pits digging clay and fashioning into pottery. Is it possible that the Baiting Place Purchase was named for a place where Native Americans baited bears in the 17th Century?

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

Earliest English settlers: 1706-1874

Wyandanch (West Deer Park before 1903) evolved out of what was originally known as the Lower Half Way Hollow Hills. The area was first settled by Captain Jacob Conklin after he was given a tract of land in what is now Wheatley Heights by his father, Timothy Conklin, about 1706. By 1733 Conklin had enlarged his estate to 2,792 acres. Gradually, pioneers from Huntington began settling along the southern slope of the Half Way Hollow Hills as they purchased farm and forestlands from the Conklins. What we know today as Wyandanch, originated with the establishment of the West Deer Park LIRR station in 1875. The present-day Wyandanch railroad station sits on the site of the 1875 LIRR station, which was razed in 1958.

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

Jacob Conklin's 1710 "Pirate House" what the first house built in what became the Town of Babylon and was the southernmost house in the Town of Huntington. The oak beams for the frame of the historic Conklin home were taken "from the adjoining forests and fastened with locust pins." The roof and the exterior of the home were sided with chestnut shingles cut from trees on gthe estate. The "Pirate House" was situated on the southern slope of the Half Way Hollow Hills terminal moraine (formed by the melting waters of the Wisconsin Glacier about 12,000 years ago). The ancient Conklin family cemetery and the Colonial Spring flowing out of the wooded hillside can be seen on the grounds of the USDAN Center for the Performing Arts-Henry Kaufmann Camp Grounds in Wheatley Heights. One can look out from the top of the hill (with permission, of course) and view the blinking Fire Islamd Light in the distance and the church steeples in the Village of Babylon.

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

Source: Jasmin Frankel, "Teen's Eagle Scout Project Honors Lineage," Newsday online, April 5, 2011.

Col. Platt Conklin, "an ardent patriot in the Revolution" ran the "valuable" family farm during the American Revolution. Hay and grains were the primary crops on the Conklin farms. His son, Nathaniel Conklin (1768-1844) one of the founders of the village of Babylon, and his children, owned the estate well into the 19th Century. The historic Conklin homestead (then owned by Bishop Mc Donnell of the Roman Catholic diocese of Brooklyn) was destroyed by fire on December 17, 1918, after being inhabited for 208 years!

The area became known as West Deer Park about a decade after the Long Island Rail Road 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 located north of Colonial Springs Road-Seamans Road-now Main Avenue.

Sources: James B. Cooper, "Babylon," 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," South Side Signal, April 4, 1919:2; Frevert, "Town of Babylon," 1949: I: 361-2; Verne Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, 1957; Roy Douglas, "Pine Barrens Pioneers," Long Island Forum, October, November, December 1982.

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

West Deer Park was quite productive agriculturally in the nineteenth century. Before 1854 "peaches were produced in large quantities and at profitable returns on the backbone hills of the island, which lie north of the main line of the Long Island railroad, near West Deer Park or Wyandance station," the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1885. "Nataniel Conklin and Jesse Conklin and others... had large orchards from which gthey 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 tweleve 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."

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

Water Bottling in West Deer Park: 1845-1854

Water from the Colonial Spring in West Deer Park (now Wheatley Heights) was bottled in small blue embossed "West Deer Park" water bottles by the Colonial Springs Mineral Company between 1845 and 1854. The bottlers claimed it had "special medicinal properties." When Dr. George Hopkins (Brooklyn) ran the Colonial Springs bottling works: "A bottling house was built and the springs were welled in with enameled brick and covered with glass tops. The sale of the water was not extensive enough to warrant the continuation of the business and the property was sold to George S. Terry, secretary of the Union League club of New York. He represented certain individuals, among them Colonel George E. Wariung 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: Nassau-Suffolk-Brooklyn-Queens, Long Island Antique Bottle Association, 1999. The Pennypacker Collection at the East Hampton Public Library holds several documents on water bottling in Werstg Deer Park.

Brick Manufacture in West Deer Park/Wyandance: 1850-1894

Millions of building bricks were molded and baked at the Walker & Conklin and W.H. and F.A. Barlett brickyardsnorth of Colonial Springs Road and west of Conklin Street after 1850 (on the Conklin estate) using the Cretaceous clay and fine sand found in the area. The bricks were shipped out by railroad using a LIRR spur which ran along what is now N. 23rd Street. The spur was known as "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" West Deer Park bricks were selling for $7 per 1,000 delivered. The Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta works was destroyed by a forest fire in the spring of 1893. Remnants of the brick works remained evident as late as the 1950's. The establishment of Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta caused the LIRR to briefly rename the West Deer Park station, Wyandance, but the name West Deer Park was reestablished after the works burned in 1893.

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

West Deer Park/Wyandance/Wyandanch: 1872-1903

One might wonder why the Deer Park (established about 1853 by Charles Wilson) and West Deer Park Long Island Railroad (LIRR) stations were located only a mile and a quarter apart in what was then a very sparsely settled area of Pine Barrens? The LIRR built the original rustic wooded two-story West Deer Park railroad station at Straight Path in May 1875 at the request of General James J. Casey, a brother-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant. The LIRR's "Main Line" to Greenport reached the area in March 1842. Eleven years passed before the Deer Park railroad station was built in 1853 and thirty-three years passed before the West Deer Park station was constructed in 1875. The original 1875 West Deer Park/Wyandanch railroad station was demolished in 1958. It was identical to the lovely LIRR station in St. James, which has been preserved. The restored St. James station is the second oldest (and perhaps most attractive) LIRR depot on the Island.

General Casey, (formerly collector for the Port of New Orleans and sheriff of Suffolk County) purchased the 1,000 acre Nathanial Conklin estate in January 1874. Gen. Casey wanted a rail depot and post office located closer to his hillside estate than the Deer Park depot. On August 23, 1875, the West Deer Park Post Office was established within the West Deer Park railroad station. George W. Conklin, a wheelwright and local farmer, was the first postmaster and station agent.

President Grant toured Gen. Casey's "farm" in West Deer Park in late August 1874 after the famous Civil War hero enjoyed dinner at the renowned Watson House on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon village. President Grant's son, Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant (the president's second son) purchased the Casey estate in the spring of 1882. Grant, Jr. was expected "to make extensive improvements in the place." Buck Grant graduated from Harvard and Columbia Law School, and served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, before becoming heavily involved in real estate. Unfortunately, the collapse of the Grant family fortune with the demise of Grant and Ward bank in 1874 forced "Buck" Grant to sell his "farm and country seat at Half Hollow Hills" to Abraham H. Jonas for $60,000 on February 23, 1884. Paradoxically, Grant prospered in real estate after he moved to San Diego, California where he built the elegant U.S. Grant Hotel.

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

The original 3,900 filed real estate lots in North Breslau/West Deer Park/Wyandance/Wyandanch were located near the railroad station and were mapped and sold in the 1872 land boom on Long Island as "North Breslau", or Schleierville, by Charles Schleier, the realtor who developed Breslau-the name later changed to Lindenhurst. Schleier sold about 500 lots in North Breslau/West Deer Park in the 1870's at prices ranging from $15 to $25 per lot. Ads in the Brooklyn Eagle in the late 1870's show Schleier selling property in both Breslau (Lindenhurst) and North Breslau (Wyandanch). Schleier was quite the promoter. He told city residents-primarily German immigrants: There is "no need for emigrating out West." Settle "on Long Island" in North Breslau only 35 miles from Brooklyn. North Breslau, he claimed is "The finest, healthiest location, good for till soil, splendid water, good market for produce, rapid and cheap transit. BUY a place for a RESIDENCE, a homestead, a nursery, for a factory, summer boarding, or a farm..." West Deer Park (North Breslau) was said to have "level land and hills, romantic scenery, fine clay land, mineral springs; the most beautiful place for private residence and garden." Prospective buyers in West Deer Park in the late 1870's were told they would be living near "Several gentleman's residences in the immediate vicinity, viz: August Belmont, the banker; General Casey, ex-President Grant, Royal Phelps, the banker, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Walker &c, &c." West Deer Park in 1877 was said to have "a fine new depot, hotel and several new buildings, a post office and also an office of the Great Union Western Telegraph Co..., It is the principal water station of the Long Island Railroad company." The LIRR did operate a squat, round wooden water tank on the west side of Straight Path. The tank stored gravity-fed spring water through a mile-long two-inch iron water pipe from the Colonial Spring to feed into the LIRR's coal-burning steam locomotives. West Deer Park was the only LIRR "watering station on the Main Line between Mineola and the Manor in Brookhaven While Breslau-Lindenhurst was quite a successful development; North Breslau/West Deer Park did not see much building. However, the fact is that Germans and German-Americans first moved into what is now Wyandanch/Wheatley Heights as a result of Schleier's land sales in the 1870's.

Sources: "BRESLAU! BRESLAU! Charles S. Schleier, Real Estate Dealer," Brooklyn Eagle, December 22, 1877: 3; "BRESLAU! BRESLAU! GRAND EXCURSION MONDAY, June 19," Brooklyn Eagle, June 6, 1878: 1; "TO THE CITY OF BRESLAU," Brooklyn Eagle, July 3, 1879: 3; Roy Douglas, "A Letter From Henry A. Brown," Long Island Forum, July 1987: 152.

The West Deer Park post office was named Wyandance from December 1888 until the spring of 1893-when it reverted to West Deer Park with the burning of the Wyandanch Brick and Terra Cotta works. On February 11, 1903, the LIRR permanently changed the West Deer Park station name to Wyandanch (another version of the Montaukett's name)to avoid confusion among the passengers depoarting at close by West Deer Park and Deer Park. On March 8, 1907, the Wyandanch post office was moved from the LIRR depot to Anthony Kirchner's General Store and Hotel on Merritt Avenue diagonally across from the railroad station. In the early 1890's the fire-prone property south of the LIRR and west of Straight Path 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.

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

In April 1903, the 1,343 acre ex-Conklin estate and historic cemetery was sold to Bishop Charles Edward Mc Donnell of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, who resumed the bottling of spring water from the Colonial Spring. Bishop Mc Donnell was only the second bishop of gthe Diocese of Brooklyn. Eventually the Mc Donnell property became the Catholic Youth Organization's (CYO) summer camp in Wyandanch. In 1955 the Town of Babylon downzoned the 354-acre CYO camp from Residential A to Residential B, so developer, Samuel Siegal, could build affordable housing. In 1960, the property was sold to the USDAN Center for the Preforming Arts/Henry Kauffman Campgrounds after Wyandanch residents blocked the building of "affordable" housing on the site.

Sources: "The Old Conklin Farm at West Deer Park Sold," Brooklyn Eagle, October 26, 1902: 9; "Bishop Mc Donnell Gets Conklin Estate," New York Times, April 21, 1903: 8; "Wyandanch Zoning Requeswt Under Fire," Babylon Leader, March 31, 1955: 1; "Town Downzones Wyandanch Parcel," Babylon Leader, May 19, 1955: 2; "Camp To Replace Housing Project," New York Times, July 17, 1960; 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 Arst: 1,600 Youngsters Will Study Ballet, Music and Painting," New York Times, May 5, 1968: 117.

Maps in the Suffolk County Clerk's Office in Riverhead show that in the 1890's families such as the: Watkins, Stacks, Laegans and Andersons live on the cleared area on the north side of LIRR near the rail station and the general store/hotel. Before 1900, almost no one lived in Wyandanch south of the LIRR tracks because the dangerous pitch pine and scrub oak forest there was frequently swept by very destructive forest fires-many of which were ignited by sparks and burning embers blown out of the LIRR's wood and coal burning steam locomotives. The pitch pine, scrub oak bushes, the occasional Black Jack Oak tree, the huckleberry, dwarf blueberry and bearberry bushes, low-growing ferns and exotic Pink Ladyslipper wildflowers, thrived on the coarse, nutrient-poor, very acidic, droughy soils in the outwash plain in lower Wyandanch. Ironically, fire speeds the release of the seeds in the pitch pine cones. This vegatation zone was called pine barrens by early English settlers in the colonial period since these soils were considered relatively unproductive for either subsistence or commercial farming.

Sources: Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, 1957: 91-106; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," Long Island Forum: October, 1982: 192-93; November 1982: 218-221.

Pickle Farms in West Deer Park in the 1880s

In the 1880s, cucumbers for the pickle trade were successfully grown in West Deer Park. As the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1882: "To-day, in West Deer Park alone, there are one hundred acres of the finest farmland in the country devoted to this crop and on the average the farmers owing them will realize $150 per acre. We had the pleasure of going through Mr. George W. Conklin's pickle field, com prising 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 vines with their mass of yellow blossoms forming a pleasant relief to the background of the dry and parched earth. The pickle farms were located north of the Colonial Springs Road and Main Avenue, in what is now Wheatley Heights. The Gus Wade property on the north side of Main Avenue is the last property in Wheatley Heights, which is used for commercial agriculture. It is the final link with West Deer Park's agricultural heritage.

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

Sanitarium/Health Resort Planned for Wyandance: January 1894

The South Side Signal (Babylon) newspaper reported in January 1894 that "twelve prominent New York and Brooklyn physicans" had the Brown & Howell construction firm (Babylon) erect an 30' X 80' one-story "bottling house" for the Colonial Mineral Springs Corp.(CMSC) in Wyandance. The bottling plant was located "just south of the old Conklin mansion." A "porcelain 'pipe line' conveys the water of the 'springs' to the bottling building. The company planned to erect "a fifty-room hotel and a number of cottages" for a European style "health resort." The physicians believed that "mud baths effcacious in curing rheumatism and other maladies, can be given at Wyandance as successfully as at various places in Germany." The movers in the enterprise believed that "in a very few years Wyandance will become a famous health resort-to which hundreds of sufferers will flock." The Wyandance spring water was reportedly "re-subjected to analysis by competent chemists, and has proved to be possessed of even more medicinal properties than it was at first presumed to contain." Colonial Mineral Springs leaders planned to repair and renovate the "old house on the premises" and use it as an office. The Port Jefferson Echo reported that CMSC was capitalized at $55,000 and noted that the company had been authorized by the NYS Secretary of State to "bottle, barrel and sell the waters of the springs on the Conklin premises and construct and operate hotels near the springs." Obviously, this "health resort" scheme never materialized.

Sources: "A New Health Resort," Long Islander (Huntington) reprint of South Side Signal article, January 13, 1894: 1; "Long Island Notes," Port Jefferson Echo, December 16, 1893: 2.

German-Americans Dominate Wyandanch: 1900-1955

Between 1900 and 1955, the dominant ethnic groups in Wyandanch were the German-Americans and Austrian-Americans with families such as the: Hasslachers, Schultzs, Wengles, Griems, Schwartzkopfs, Becks, Browns, Hogners, Engelharts, Schlitzs, Vogels, Woops, Carlsons, Laegans, Moellers, Luthers, Rooelafs, Heckmans, Krauses, Kramers, Nyholms, Schnieders, Prussers and Zotters living in the community. Charles Moeller operated a deli/grocery on the west side of Straight Path at Mount Avenue and served for many years with the Wyandanch Lions Club, and on the Wyandanch school board-rising to be its president. Emil Moeller, a volunteer with the Wyandanch Fire Dept. for over 60 years also ran a grocery store on the east side of Straight Path across from the fire house. A majority of the Wyandanch Germans were Lutheran and a minority were Roman Catholic and they were instrumental in the construction of the Trinity Lutheran Church and the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic chapel in Wyandanch.

The earliest homes built in Wyandanch south of the LIRR were built by pioneering German and Austrian-American families: the Donner and N. Austin families on Upper Belmont Road in the 1880s. The Prohaska, Heisman, Wilson, Moore and Avolin families built stately homes on the east side of Straight Path between Upper Belmont Road (now Mount Avenue) and S. 22nd Street. The historic pre-1900 Herman Donner house-the first house in Wyandanch built south of the LIRR- was razed to make way for four large new homes after the Town of Babylon rejected a private cluster housing proposal for the site in 1989. Florence Donner, Herman and Clara's daughter, married Calvin Mullen. Their daughter, Rose, married Ralph DiGiovanni, who served in Okinawa during World War II. Their descendents now live in: Deleware, Massachusetts and Alaska.

About a hundred "honest and frugal" German and Austrian-American families lived in Sheet Nine of the City of Breslau as early as the 1880s. Sheet Nine was mapped and marketed by Charles S. Schleier, who as we have seen mapped and developed Lindenhurst. Sheet Nine today is the Pinelawn Industrial Park and Town of Babylon incinerator and ash dump, which forms a rectangle with Wellwood Avenue on the west, Otis Street on the east and Grunthal Avenue (now Edison Avenue) on the south, and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) on the north. Schelier divided the 1,200 acres of Sheet Nine ("the very best farm land, rich and level soil") into "acre plots, each plot has 200 feet front on street and is 200 feet deep." Schleier sold the acre plots in Sheet Nine for $50 in 1880. Schleier promised buyers that land in Sheet Nine "is the best and safest life insurance and savingfs bank to invest in." Many members of these Sheet Nine families: the Neumanns, Affstens, Mitzlaffs and Langs-were skilled workers, gardeners, carpenters, plumbers, stable workers and servants on the nearby August Belmont estate and horse breeding establishment in North Babylon (1865) and on the Corbin, Guggenheim and Phelps estates in North Babylon. Sheet Nine Germans and Austrians also worked in the Wyandance Brick and Terra Cotta works and cut brush and pulled stumps for the construction of Long Island Avenue (Conklin Street) in 1895. In addition to tending their own farms, they also worked for the Pinelawn Cemetery after 1910, St. Charles Cemetery after 1914, New Montefiore Cemetery after 1928 and the Long Island National Cemetery after 1937. It is said that some of the Sheet Nine families migrated to Long Island from Ohio and other parts of the West.

After World War II, the German named streets in Sheet Nine were changed: Bulow Street becane 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, landfill, sandpit and ash dump. In the 1940's and 1950's, African-Americans such as the Davidsons, the Mayers and the Thompsons began to settle in Sheet Nine. After 1960, almost all residents of Sheet Nine, white and black, sold to developers of light industrial sites as the Babylon incinerator, dump and sandpit operations expanded.

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

It was on a parking field adjacent to the Chateau Restaurant that 2nd Lieutenant William A. Shaw crashed his plane when he lost control while dipping his wings in salute to his wife before heading off to war. Brosl Hasslacher sustained severe burns to his face, arms and ankles, while he and W.J. Forrest, Mrs. J.B. Smith and Harry Roalef successfully pulled the unconscious Shaw to safety from his burning aircraft. Brosl Hasslacher's son Brosl Hasslacher, Jr. (1941-2005) graduated with a B.S. in Physics from Harvard University in 1962, and earned a Ph.D from SUNY Stony Brook while working with internationally famous physicists, D.Z. Freeman and C.N. Yang. Brosl Hasslacher, Jr. studied at the very prestigious Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University before beginning a career in theoretical physics at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico, where Hasslacher attained the highest security clearance and wrote numerous scholarly papers on topics in theoretical physics.

The fears of Nazi supporters in Suffolk County 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. Security for the construction of the vast Republic Aviation airplane manufacturing plant was another. 1940-41 was a time of great ethnic tension in the United States. The German and Austrian-Americans in Wyandanch served in our armed forces, worked as producively in our defense plants, and sacraficed with rationing and wartime shortages just as readily as the hamlet's Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans or African-Americans did.

Herman Griem, a housepainter, who lived on Main Avenue near Straight Path, was active in organizing effective protests against destructive strip sand mining of the terminal moraine in Wyandanch and remained very active in civic affairs throughout the Town of Babylon with his Wheatley Heights Civic Association until the early 1980s.

Sources: Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History, Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers,";"For Sale-Lots-A Home For Everyone," Brooklyn Eagle, August 15, 1880: 3; "Farmingdale," The Long Islander Huntington, June 1, 1895:4; Marvin Miller, Wunderlich's Salute, Malmud-Rose Publishers, 1983: 111-113; "Army Pilot Pinned in Blazing Plane, Rescued After Crash by Heroism of Woman, 3 Men," New York Times, July 21, 1943; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brosl hasslacher US Census of Suffolk County: 1910, 1920, 1930; Hagstrom's 1941 Map of Suffolk County, Brosl Hasslacher Jr. recollections; "Barrier Against Sabotage At Long Island Plane Plants, New York Times, January 5, 1941: 29; "U.A.W. Votes Strike Air Engine Plant,: New York Times, January 7, 1941: 5; "Aircraft Workers Prepare to Strike," New York Times, January 9, 1941: 19; Lindenhurst Star, June 20, 1940.

Irish-American pioneers in Wyandanch: 1920s and 1930s

Beginning in the 1920s and extending into the 1930s, intrepid working-class settlers (recently arrived fron County Donegal in Ireland) began building small wood-frame bungalow-type homes in the dangerous fire-prone pine barrens in Wyandance Springs Park-there were no springs, no park and no roads- and in Home Acres in the area bounded by Straight Path, Long Island Avenue, Little East Neck Road and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue). John Douglas, Sr. and his son John Douglas, Jr built the first house (a two bedroom bungalow) in the pine barrens west of Straight Path in 1923 at the southeast corner of S. 29th Street and Jamaica Avenue after cutting a 'road' to the property from Long Island Avenue. John Douglas, Sr had purchased the four 25' x 100' lots from Dunton and Hagerman in 1892-3 and Douglas had built a one room hunting room on the property sometime before World War I. Soon after, John Douglas, Jr. and his wife Eva moved into the house on 29th Street, an African-American, George Wood, a veteran of the US Army in World War I and his German war bride, built a house on S. 29th Street, not far from the Douglas home.

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

More affluent and prominent Irish-American families in Wyandanch (pillars of the community and the Catholic Church) the Stacks, the Mc Mahons, the Reddings, the Goonans, the Lyons, the O'Briens, the Harrigans,and the Sheehans lived nearer the "village" in more prosperous homes with larger plots of land. Catherine "Kitty" Mc Mahon, a Democrat, was postmistress in Wyandanch, having been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from September 1933 until November 1948.

Sources: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers;" Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History; "Drowning Girl Is Saved By Lifeguard, 16," Newsday, August 10, 1953: S20. Ed. Note: This story explains how Wyandanch resident, Ed Sheehan, 16, a lifeguard at Babylon's Geiger Lake park saved a Brooklyn girl from drowning.

Pioneering African-Americans in North West Babylon and Wyandanch: 1920s and 1930s

African-Americans have lived in Wyandanch for almost a century. The earliest recorded African-American settlers bought land from realtor, Herman E. Hagedorn in the Little Farms and Upper Little Farms sections of North West Babylon and Wyandanch in the 1920's. Further research needs to be done but the original African-Americans in North Babylon may have worked and lived on the August Belmont estate and then settled in North West Babylon and Wyandanch after the Belmont estate was broken up in the mid-1920's.

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 Straight Path, Little East Neck Road and Gordon Avenue. This was in the 1920s well before the Southern State Parkway reached Wyandanch in 1941. Elizabeth "Betty" Green Mountain, the father of New York City police officer, Edward Green, pioneered African-Americans studying at the State Institute of Agriculture (now SUNY-Farmingdale) where she was the first African-American to graduate from the school. Edward H. Green, Jr, was one of three Wyandanch residents to die in service during World War II.

In the Upper Little Farms section bounded by Straight Path, Little East Neck Road and Grunwedel Avenue (now Patton Avenue) pioneering upwardly mobile African-American families such as the: Davidsons, Cumberbachs, Farias, Browns, Youngs, Hesters, Hamiltons, Megginsons and Swintons also began building their own homes to fulfill the African-American Dream of having their own land, farms and home. They also bought their land from Rockland County realtor, Herman E. Hagedorn, who reportedly had a falling out with realtor Harry Levey, and later from Ignatius Davidson, a pioneering African-American 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..." As late as the mid-1950s, C & D Cement Block was the only large business owned and operated by African-Americans in Suffolk County. Their business was the driving force behind the Carver Park "affordable housing" development in south Wyandanch. The Davidsons and the Cumberbachs were very active in civic affairs in Wyandanch. Raymond Davidson was elected to the Wyandanch school board in July 1953 by a vote of 75-59 over Richard Klapproth. Mrs. S. Dorothea Cumberbach was elected to the Wyandanch school board in July 1954 with 135 votes, more than fellow African-Americans, incumbent, Raymond Davidson (85) and James Monroe Ellison, Jr.(63). Davidson and Cumberbach may have been the first African Americans elected to the school board since the Wyandanch Union Free School District # 9 was created in 1923.

Sources: "Spirited Contests Mark Annual School District Meetings At Wyandanch, Deer Park, West Islip," Babylon Leader, July 16, 1953; "Wyandanch Elects Quinn and Davidson," Newsday, July 16, 1953: 37S; "Wyandanch Residents Okay School Slate," Newsday, July 2, 1954; "School Elections," Babylon Leader, July 15, 1954; "Wyandanch Battles Over School Budget," Newsday, July 10, 1954: 7S; "Wyandanch, W. Islip School Votes Quiet," Newsday, July 16, 1954: S28

The Republic Aviation News of July 24, 1942 notes that Richard Martialto was employed in Shop 01 at Republic Aviation, when his son Richard, Jr. was born. Richard Martialto and his sister, Carol Martialto, graduated from West Babylon High School in June 1960. Leslie Megginson, who grew up on Lincoln Avenue in the Upper Little Farms section of Wyandanch served bravely as a forward artillery spotter in the US Army in the Vietnam War. Whem August Belmont died in 1925, his widow, philanthroptist, Eleanor Robson Belmont, a leading lady of the American theatre and a grand dame of the Metropolitan Opera, donated the northern wing of the original 1865 Belmont mansion as a Community Clubhouse for the African-Americans living in northern West Babylon and Wyandanch. The building still exists and is located at the "Five Corners," at the intersection of Little East Neck Road, Straight Path and Edison Avenue. It is currently used as a church. Again, the origins of African American settlement in northern West Babylon and Wyandanch may well be the result of the fact that African Americans employed on the Belmont estate may well have wanted to live near the estate as did the German and Austrian settlers in Sheet Nine. It is unlikely that Mrs Belmont would have given part of the original family mansion to African-Americans in Wyandanch had not there been some strong ties and prior relationships between the Belmonts and the African American community.

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 Celebration booklet: October 23, 1999:15; Farmingdale State College archives, Republic Aviation News, July 24, 1942.

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

In the 1920s, 1930's and 1940s, Italian-American families such as: the Mazzas, the Tafuris, the Barillas, the Cioffis, the Ardizones, the De Bellis, the Russos. the Taglieris, the Sommesses, the Orlandos, the De Vitos, the Frangipanis, the Sudanos, the Avistas, the Guidos, the Campanellis and the Di Potos moved into Wyandanch and were very active in business, politics and the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s, 1940's and 1950s, most businesses in Wyandanch (grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, gasoline stations and auto repair shops, liquor stores, butcher shops, barber shops, bars and lumber yards) were owned and operated by either Italian-American of German-American entrepreneurs.

Notable Italian Americns in Wyandanch in the 1940s and 1950s included: Anthony Tafuri, who graduated from Wyandanch Grade School and Lindenhurst High School and became a prominent attorney and judge in the Town of Babylon. He currently serves on the Babylon Town Ethics Board. Guido Cioffi, was wounded in service in the US Army in France in World War I and worked at Republic Aviation P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers. He was also the commander of the Wyandanch VFW during World War II. Dr. Patrick Salatto maintained a medical office on Merritt Avenue for almost 30 years. Joseph Mazza, a contractor, who lived on Garden City Avenue at S. 19th Street was president of the Wyandanch school board for several years and strongly supported educational and recreational opportunities for youth in the community. For more than 40 years the Fontana and Rizzuto families sold high-quality meats at fair prices in their butcher shops at Straight Path near Commonwealth Bouelavard. Sal Messina, a World War II veteran, operated a successful auto repair business and Sunoco gasoline station at Long Island Avenue and S. 27th Street. Dominick "Red" Sommese, was a skilled football, basketball and baseball player at West Babylon High School in the late 1950s.

Sources: Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," December 1982: 244-45; Republic Aviation News, records of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church.

Hispanic pioneers in Wyandanch: 1940s-1960s

Hispanic families began to settle in Wyandanch in the late 1940s since the community offered affordable housing and land, within easy commuting distance of nearby defense plants and Pilgrim, Edgewood, Central Islip and Kings Park State Mental hospitals-wherejobs were plentiful. The Hispanic families were welcomed into the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church and they enjoyed accessible LIRR train service and easy access to nearby state parks. Some early Hispanic families in Wyandanch included: the Quevados, the Spadys, the Seguras and the Silveras. Anthony and Virginia Segura graduated from the Wyandanch Elementary School in 1954 and West Babylon High School in 1958. Anthony Segura went on to a career in social work.

Piri Thomas (Juan Pedro Tomas) discusses the bias Hispanics face living north of the LIRR in Wyandanch before 1960 in his second autobiography: Savior, Savior: Hold My Hand: 1972, In the 1960s Hispanic families such as: the Burgos, the Caballeros, the Gonzales', the Lopez', the Navarros, the Neives, the Prados, the Rodriguez' and the Torres settled in Wyandanch.

Sources: Suffolk County Voter Registration Lists; Leroy Douglas' recollections.

World War II Bolsters Wyandanch

Wyandanch was a very sparsely populated community in 1941. Yet 201 men and women from Wyandanch served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Three, William M. Farley, Edward H. Green,Jr. and Mary Isanzananiro died serving their country.

Pfc. William 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 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 interred in the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale.

Martha Isanzananiro was a Navy WAVE who died at a naval hospital in Maryland just two weeks after joining the Navy. Her parents, who hailed from the Azores, built and operated the first apartment building in Wyandanch on the east side of Straight Path at S. 21st Street.

At least two Wyandanch residents were captured during World War II. Pfc. Leif Jahnsen was taken prisoner of war by the Germans on December 16, 1944. Pfc. Harry Bauerle, who lived on Ash Street was also taken prisoner by the Germans. Bauerle became the Chief of the Wyandanch Fire Dept. 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 Great Depression and attracted defense workers to the community. Many "defense plant" workers joined carpools. Many families had "Victory Gardens" growing vegtables and fruits to supplement their diet. Apple, pear, plum, and peach trees were common in many yards. The home grown fruits and vegetables were canned or "put up" in Mason or Ball jars. Many families raised chickens and/or goats for eggs, roast chicken and milk and cheese. Homemade wine was produced from many of the grape arbors in Wyandanch.

Sources: World War II Memorial Monument in front of the VFW Hall in Wheatley Heights; Douglas, "Pine Barren Pioneers," : 244-45; William M. Farley on Google.

Wyandanch's population grows in the 1940s

In the 1930s and 1940s, other pioneering families such as the Zotters, Farias, Allaways, Davidsons, Cookes, Robertsons, Dannemeyers, Wilsons, Mingins, Youngs, Burgans, Currys, Krauses, Prokopiaks, Guldens, Lohrs, Spooners, Boxhills, Makins, Gregorys, Martins, Carlsons, Mazzas, Conns, Wards, Grecos, Krsamers, Weiss', Paschalides, Crowes, Stringers, Sudanos, Leas, Zirks, Hendersons, Walls and the Spady's joined the original Irish pioneers in the pine barrens west of S. 18th Street and Straight Path.

Other families in Wyandanch in the 1930s and 1940s included the: Reddings, Schultzs, Harrigans, Marshs, Goonans, Schlitzs, Winters, Donoghues, Ryans, Mc Cues, Mc Gees, Kersbergens, Mollers, Hajeks, Heckmans, Richters, Goetzs, Stankowitzs, Aufenangers, Fullers, Romdalviks and the Ryders. Benjamin Ryder, Sr. operated a TV repair business from his home on Bedford Street from 1949 until 1960. Dr. Leon Schultz established a medical office in his home on N. 15th Street and Straight Path and served the health needs of the community for over thirty years.

In October 1948, the Wyandanch Post Office was relocated from the storefront on 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 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. Large plots for major subdivisions with the Wyandanch school district were unavailable, or very difficult to assemble. Well into the 1950s, numerous houses in Wyandanch were still "summer homes," whose owners and visitors swelled the hamlet's population in the months from May through September-especially on week-ends. Year-round residents and the "summer people" enjoyed the peace and quiet, the fresh pine air, the privacy, the opportunity for stimulating walks and hikes, picking wild blueberries and strawberries in the woods, swimming in "the lake," and the neighborliness of the community.

The increased year-round population bolstered the school-age population as the "baby-boom" reached Wyandanch after World War II ended. This necessitated the school board approving the addition of lower grade classrooms (1-5) and a gymnasium/auditorium to the 1936 Wyandanch Elementary School. The new facilities were opened to students and staff in September 1949.

As World War II ended, Town of Babylon officials tried but failed to have Conklin Street at Republic Aviation re-opened to motorists. The U.S. Navy had built an addition to the Ranger (Fairchild) Aircraft factory in the Conklin Street roadbed for use as a cafeteria for Ranger employees. Babylon's request that the U.S. Government pay for a by-pass around the Republic/Ranger factories was rejected by Washington. From 1941 to 1965, Wyandanch residents could not drive directly to Farmingdale via Long Island Avenue and Conklin Street. This hindered the development of Wyandanch. Babylon Supervisor Gilbert Hanse was able to re-open Conklin Street at Republic in 1965. Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch is not much different today that it was in the 1940s although traffic is much heavier. There are few curbs and sidewalks and no traffic signals or stops between Little East Neck Road and S. 18th Street,

Sources: Douglas: "Pine Barren Pioneers," Douglas, "Conklin Street Cutoff," Long Island Forum, 1985.

Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944

Hurricane # 7, or the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, hit Wyandanch on Friday. September 15, 1944 with very heavy rains and wind gusts of of to 85 mph, which brought down many trees. The powerful storm drove large trees against electric and telephone lines leaving the isolated community without electricity, lights, water or telephone service. Foodstuff in local stores spoiled. Members of the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department carried water door-to-door to homes without pitcher pumps. Residents filled their bathtubs and pails with water taken from the fire trucks. The Wyandanch School was forced to close for a few days due to the lack of power, light and water.

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

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

In March 1951, Taca Homes offered expandable four-room Cape Cod style homes for sale in Wyandanch on a "non-racial" basis at the Carver Park developoment at Straight Path and Booker Avenue. The 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 $7,200 and were eligible for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)loan insurance. Carver Park was advertised as "ingterracial housing." One original Carver Park resident told the Regional Plan Association in 1974 "In fact, there were never more than two or three while 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 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 for Carver Park had been filed in the Suffolk County Clerk's Office in Riverhead on February 6, 1950. The building of Carver Park and then the construction of Lincoln Park on Parkway Boulevard between Straight Path and Mount Avenue in 1956, with over 400 homes, triggered the transformation of Wyandanch from a mostly white community in 1950 to a majority African-American community in 1960. Many of the whites who lived south of the LIRR relocated and lower middle class African-Americans bought modest, individually-built, homes in Wyandanch Springs Park and in the "Tree streets" area east of Straight Path.

Upwardedly mobile African-American families such as the: Boxhills, Wilsons, Mayers, Ellisons, Fischers, Slaughters, Piggotts, Allaways, Edwards, Greens, Smiths, Spanns, Dudleys, Everettes, Jarvis', Joiners, Mc Cords, Levis, Williams', Walkers, Collins, Batchelors, Hazelwoods, Hicks, Wallaces, James, Colemans, Punters, Jennings, Taylors and Marshalls established homes south of the LIRR in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these families-both middle class and working class-purchased homes in Wyandanch because they were denied opportunities to move into other fast developing white housing tracts on Long Island-such as Levittown- due to exclusionist real estate practices: steering, restrictive covenants, red-lining or price points.

The Rev. Dr. Sherman Hicks grew up in a neatly kept, middle class, home on S. 22nd Street adjacent to the Trinity Lutheran Church parsonage. The Rev. Dr. Hicks graduated from Wyandanch schools and earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wittenberg University. He became Bishop of Chicago for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCIA) and later became the Executive Director of the Multicultural Ministries Program for the ELCIA.

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

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; Richard Koubeck, Wyandanch: A Political Profile of an African-American Suburb, 1971.

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

Activists from the Emergency Civic Association and the Long Island chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) held a six-hour sit-in outside the offices of the Planning Board in the Babylon Town Hall in North Lindenhurst on April 30, 1963. They were protesting the clearing of land in south Wyandanch for an industrial park. The militants then conducted a four-day "camp-in" in the town hall parking lot. The picketing of the construction site, the sit-in and the "camp-in" were lead by Calvin Cobb, an attorney, who lived in North Babylon; Edward H. Green, a long-time civic activist, who lived in West Babylon, and Lincoln Lynch, the head of the Long Island chapter of CORE.

The demonstrators were protesting the opening phase of a planned 60-building, 1,000,000 square foot industrial park, developer, William Shames, intended to erect on property bounded by: New Avenue, Saratoga Avenue, Wyandanch Avenue and Straight Path. This land had been downzoned by the Town of Babylon from Residence A (minimum 12,500 sq. ft) to Industrial "G" (light industry) in 1955, 1956 and 1959. The industrial park was expected to bolster the tax-base of the fast-gvrowing Wyandanch School District #9 (which was burdened by the highest school tax rate in the Town of Babylon) and provide thousands of easily accessible jobs to area residents.

The activists cancelled the "camp-in" and proposed additional sit-in's on May 3, 1963. Three days later, Babylon supervisor, William T. Lauder (R), rejected a request by the protestors that the light industrial site be upzoned to Residential "C" (minimum 7,500 sq. ft.) Lauder told the public that the downzoning and industrial park were necessary "to broaden the tax base of the Wyandanch School District, which has a present school tax rate of $10.26 for each $100 of assessed valuation." Supervisor Lauder told Newsday that the demonstrators suggestions "are not realistic and could not be justified under the facts."

The protestors charged that the planned industrial park was being unfairly wedged "in the middle of the predomiantly Negro section of Wyandanch (and) would transform what is largely a residential community into a slum." The proposed industrial park was located between the Carver Park and Lincoln Park housing estates. The activists wanted the industrial park "transferred to a less inhabited section of Wyandanch."

The industrial parks' individual one-story industrial buildings: designed by architect, Irving H. Hirshman, were promised to "combine stone, masonary, aluminum and glass" and to "occupy an average of about 15,000 square feet." A New York Times story indicated that the new 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 new industrial park. Wyandanch realtor and civic activist, 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 an industrial park. Everyone was happy until these people were stirred up."

Sources: "Negro Sit-In Protests Babylon Board's Stand," Newsday, May 1, 1963; John Clark, "Zone Protestors Plan 4-Day Camp," Newsday, May 2, 1963; "Sit-In Demands Upzoning in W'danch Negro Section," Babylon Town Leader. May 2, 1963: 1,9; "Cancel Sit-In In Babylon," Newsday, May 4, 1963; "Sit-In Halted, Talks Held," Babylon Town Leader, May 9, 1963: 1,2; "6-Plant Industrial Park on L.I. Lures Travel-Weary Communter," New York Times, October 20, 1963.

Racial disturbances roil Wyandanch: August 1967

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

Very few African-American residents of Wyandanch participated in these night-time disturbances. Suffolk County officials, led by County Executive, H. Lee Dennison, attended a community meeting in the Wyandanch Junior-Senior High School shortly after the outbursts in an effort to discover ways to quickly respond to grievances in Wyandanch-especially among young men. Community leaders called for the Town of Babylon and Suffolk County to quickly address: joblessness, improved bus access to area businesses and factories; deploying more African-American police officers in Wyandanch and creating wholesome recreational facilities and activities for young adults in the community. 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 claims that local merchants were overcharging residents; try to have fees at Babylon Towns 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 and "provide more county jobs for Negroes."

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

Ed. Note: When news of the tragic assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reached Wyandanch on Thursday evening, April 4, 1968, residents were stunned, saddened and angered. But, there was no violence in Wyandanch-unlike the major riots which erupted in many African-American communities in the U.S. The Wyandanch School District closed classes on Friday, April 5. In the months after Dr. King's killing, numerous efforts were made to assist Wyandanch.

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 inMove to End Strife," New York Times, August 5, 1967: 8; John Childs and Gurney Williams, "Dennison Vows Wyandanch Aid," Newsday, August 10, 1967: 3; Carole Ashkinaze and Maurice Swift, "Suffolk CORE, NAACP Plan United Effort," Newsday, April 14, 1968: 23.

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; governments, private businesses, the Wyandanch School District, community church groups and individuals, residents and non-residents, acted to address the numerous problems facing the community.

The U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and its Wyandanch Community Action Center, under the leadership of Robert Washington, worked to improve bus routes, develop job training programs and assist the indigent with accessing government services. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P) built a modern supermarket in downtown Wyandanch at the corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue. Today, this building houses Suffolk County's Martin Luther King, Jr Community Health Center. Genovese Drugs built a large, modern full-service pharmacy on the east side of Straight Path north of the LIRR. The King Kullen grocery chain erected a modern supermaket next to Genovese Drugs. (Both of these buildings were converted to industrial purposes after Genovese and King Kullen closed in the mid-1970s. The buildings have been razed to make way for the new Intermodal Parking facility the Town of Babylon is planning for the Wyandanch railroad station.) Wyandanch would wait more than 20 years for another supermarket.

The Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church (OLMM), under the leadership of the Rev. Andrew Connelly, greatly expanded parish outreach to the disadvantaged and worked to bring institutional change. Suffolk County moved to bolster health services in Wyandanch. The Long Island Catholic, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic diocese of Rockville Centre, published articles articulating the needs of Wyandanch and suggested sensible solutions. When the Wyandanch school district was no longer able to provide four classrooms for the children in the Wyandanch Head Start program, the OLMM provided safe space for the children in its parish hall. The Trinity Lutheran Church in Wyandanch, under the leadership of Rev. James Christ, also reached out to assist the poor and disadvantaged in Wyandanch-especially by housing a badly needed soup kitchen.

Source: "Community Action Center Faces Many Difficulties," The Long Island Catholic, July 11, 1968: 13

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.

The 2005–2009 American Community Survey for the Wyandanch, New York CDP, was published December 14, 2010. It indicates there were 10,611 people (5,083 male and 5,528 female) in the Wyandanch CDP. There are 2,644 occupied housing units: 1,665 were owner-occupied homes and 989 were renter-occupied units. There were 261 unoccupied housing units, meaning 9% of the homes in Wyandanch were vacant. 10 % of the households in Wyandanch did not have telephone service and 12% "did not have access to a car,truck, or van for private use." The median value of the owner-occupied homes was reported as $298,300.

The racial makeup of the CPD was reported as: 13.8% White (1,464), 71.9% (7,634) Black or African-American, 1.5% Asian (163), 7.3% (766) Some other Race, 5.4% and (574) Two or More Races. Hispanic or Latinos (of any race)are reported to be 21.9% (2,327)of the Wyandanch population of 10,611. It seems as if a high per centage of the Whites in Wyandanch are Hispanic or Latino. ACS figures indicate that there are only 144 Non Hispanic Whites living in Wyandanch. The per centage of Blacks or African-Americans living in Wyandanch rises to 77% when the statistic includes Blacks who are Hispanic/Latino, or are included in the Two or more race category.

Of the population of 10,611: 8.5% were Under 5 years old; 21.5% were 5 to 18 years old, 11% were 18–24, 28% were 25–44, 23% were 45–64 and 7.2% were 65 years and older. The median age was 30.8 years. 21.7% (2,305) were Foreign born and 23.1% (2,238) "speak a language other than English at home." 62% of the residents of the Wyandanch CDP were born in the State of New York. "Of those speaking a language othe than English at home, 74% spoke Spanish and 26% spoke some other language." 61.6% (4,817) were 16 or over and in the labor force. The average household size was 4.01 and the average family size was 4.31; 8.8% of the residents were civilian veterans 18 years and older. The median family income(in 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars) was said to be $51, 108. 19% of the people in the Wyandanch CDC "were in poverty. Twenty-five percent of the related children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 22 percent of people 65 and older." The 2005–2009 ACS data showed that "73 percent of the workers in Wyandanch drove to work alone, 10 percent carpooled, 13 percent took public transportation, and 3 percent used other means. The remaining 1 percent worked at home."

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.

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

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."

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 traveled to Deer Park to cast ballots. Previous to the Great Depression, Wyandanch trended Republican politically but the community was solidly Democratic after 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt outpolled Gov. Alf Landon in 1936 by a 318–200 vote.

Law enforcement in Wyandanch: Pre-1960

Law and order was maintained in Wyandanch by Troop "L" of the New York State Police and by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office. The State troopers were originally headquartered in Bay Shore and later at Belmont Lake State Park. 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. They fired at rabbit-shaped targets with .22 rifles, and at turkey-shaped targets with 20-gauge shotguns and .38 calibre revolvers. The best marksmen were awarded turkeys for Christmas dinner. 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.

Wyandanch votes Republican in 1948

Wyandanch had voted predominately Democratic in the 1930s. But in the November 1948 presidential election residents, casting their ballots in the Wyandanch Fire House, voted almost 2–1 Republican. Governor Thomas E. Dewey (R) received 550 votes in 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 did equally well. 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.

Wyandanch becomes overwhelmingly Democratic: mid-1950s

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

The Wyandanch Civic Association (mostly white) and the Carver Park Citizens Association (African-American) met in the auditorium of the Wyandanch School in February 1955 to discuss the feasibility of Wyandanch incorporating as a village. Lindenhurst mayor, Alex Jaeger, briefed 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. He believed incorporation would mean "the payment of less overall property taxes." The incorporation process proved too complicated and cumbersome. It faced significant opposition from the Town of Babylon and did not succeed.

Wyandanch gets a new Post Office: 1955

In 1955 a new red-brick U.S. Post Office was put into service on the east side of Straight Path at Commonwealth Bouvlevard as part of a strip of stores which had been erected between Commonwealth Bouvlevard and Arlington Avenue. Thomas A. Brown, who had earned a Purple Heart in combat in World War II, was postmaster, having been appointed in 1950 by President Harry Truman. This was when the Wyandanch Post Office was located in a store on the east side of Straight Path near Long Island Avenue. Before the late 1950s residents had to pick up their mail either from mail boxes in the post office or from general delivery at the clerk's window. Postmaster Thomas A. Brown instituted house-to-house mail delivery to residents home mail boxes. This major improvement reduced congestion and waiting times in the small post office, reduced residents' visits to the post office and lessened the need to rent mailboxes. In 2000, the 1950s strip of stores and the 1955 post office were razed to make way for the Compare Supermarket and other businesses.

Wyandanch residents block proposed Town of Babylon Highway Dept. gravel pit: May 1973

In the spring of 1973 the Babylon Town Highway Department sought to condemn 22 acres (89,000 m²) on the west side of Little East Neck Road south of Long Island Avenue for a 15' deep sand and gravel pit. Over 150 angry Wyandanch residents turned out at the Babylon Town Hall to vehmently criticize the sand pit plan. Highway Superintendent, Robert Hanington, told the Town Board that the department was no longer able to mine the 60,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel for its annual road work from the town incinerator property on the Wyandanch/West Babylon border. He believed the proposed Wyandanch pit would meet sand and gravel needs of the Town of Babylon 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 Joint Civic and Taxpayers Association of the Town of Babylon proposed that the property be used as a park. Griem, who successfully fought strip sand mining in Wheatley Heights in the 1950s, 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."

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 post office as their school district. But, as Wyandanch was increasingly perceived as a locale with disproportionate crime, welfare clients, drugs, welfare clients and poverty related ills, residents, (white and black) in the Half Hollow School District # 5 in the new middle class Westwood Village housing tract, and in the homes on the hillsides north of Main Avenue and Nicholls Road, sought a new identity for what they perceived as a distinct and unique community. Hermann Griem, president of the Wheatley Heights Community Association and Kenneth Going, of the Half Hollow Hills Civic Association, lead the ten-year drive to have a separate US Post Office located in Wheatley Heights to serve the 1,200 families who lived there. The name Wheatley Heights comes from a filed map real estate man, William Geiger, drew up in 1913. Mr. Going told Newsday: "Postal service in the area has deteriorated over the years." As the New York Times put it: "Mr. Griem sees a new post office address as a way to establish officially a separate identity for Wheatley Heights, whose well-kept homes and lawns provide a contrast to many of the homes in Wyandanch."

Congressman James R. Grover (R-Babylon) persuaded U.S. Post Office (USPO) officials in Washington, D.C. to authorize a branch post office in Wheatley Heights in July 1974. The USPO) contracted with the Colonial Springs Development Corporation in Garden City "build a one-story, colonial-style building on Colonial Springs Road west of Nicholls Road" (directly across the site of one of the razed Vanderbilt Motor Parkway over passes in Wyandanch). The USPO originally paid $18,000 a year in rent for the building and parking of postal vehicles. The Wheatley Heights Post Office remains the only government institutional structure within Wheatley Heights, which is named Wheatley Heights.

Sources: "A Postal Branch for Wyandanch," Newsday, July 2, 1974:27; Pranay Gupte, "Wheatley Heights, Expensive Area of Wyandanch, Wins Battle for Post Office," New York Times, July 4, 1974:21.

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

As late as 1980, hundreds of homes in Wyandanch were not services by the public water mains of the Suffolk County Water Authority.. These unfortunate residents relied on private wells, whose "points" frequesntly clogged with calcium and ran dry. Also, their electric water pumps would eventually "burn out" requiring a considerable replacement cost to the residents. In addition, residents began to have serious concerns about the safety and quality of their private shallow well-water-which they depended upon for drinking, cooking and bathing.

After the publication of its landmark book:L "Toxics on Tap," The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) organized the Northwest Babylon Citizens Alliance (NBCA), led by West Babylon resident, Barbara Logan. The NBCA pushed for greater access to public water. The NBCA held meetings in the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church in Wyandanch and organized a march up Straight Path to rally support in the community for affordable, reliable, public water for all homes in the Town of Babylon.

At the same time, Hermann Griem, leader of the Wheatley Heights Community Association, and the influential 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 published a letter, "Babylon Pollution," alos published in the Beacon, which called for all levels of government to quickly identify and monitor all sources of water contamination in Babylon. Griem also demanded establishment of a "crash program" to hook up all homes using private water wells in the Town of Babylon to the Suffolk County Water Authority system as soon as possible.

In September 1980, Dennis J. Lynch, the commissioner of Babylon's Dept. of Environmental Control informed Barbara Logan and the members of the NBCA 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." Allmendinger looked for Suffolk to provide up to $2.4 million to allow the Suffolk County Water Authority to lay up to 80,000 (24,000 m) of wagter pipe to hoop-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 announced that Babylon would use federal Community Development block grant funds "to ease connection costs for homeowners." By the late 1980s , public water had been extended to thousands of homes in West Babylon, Wyandanch and North Babylon. The private water well era was over.

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

Sources:"Town to Work Towards New Public Water Plan," Babylon Beacon, September 25, 1980:1; Hermann Griem, "Babylon Pollution," Babylon Beacon, OIctober 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 a 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 West Babylon 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 chairperson of the legislature's Human Service committee and Gerard Glass R-Lindenhurst) worked on a bi-partisan basis to convine Suffolk County Executive Peter Fox Cohalan to open a temporary Social Services center near Wyandanch until a permanent center could be established in Wyandanch. 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 1985, social service clients in Wyandanch were assisted in the Dept. of Social Services Deer Park office. Newsday reported that Suffolk "is searching for a suitable site for the $2.8 million permanent center." The Rev. John Cervini pastor of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch vowed that the community would maintain pressure for a permanent social services 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 gthat is inhumane."

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

Jesse Jackson campaigns for President in Wyandanch: April 1988

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the first African American to make a serious run for President of the United States, 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 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.

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

In the summer of 1989, the Coalition for Better Government (CBG), an activist group in Wyandanch, led by Wyandanch businessman, Delano Stewart, formed the Committee to Incorporate Wyandanch. They did this is the belief 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. It also sought local zoning, taxing and planning powers. Their purpose was to better the lives of the 13,600 residents, whose median income was $35,000. As in the effort to incorporate Wyandanch in 1955, the CBG effort did not succeed.

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

Under the leadership of Suffolk County Executive, Patrick Halpin (D) and Suffolk County Legislator, Richard Schaffer (D), a social services and labor department office opened on Straight Path at Wyandanch Avenue on March 5, 1990. The 14,000 square foot (1,300 m) 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 developer, Joseph Gazza, and was rented to Suffolk County for $182,000 per year. The new center was designed to serve the needs of residents in: Wyandanch, West Babylon, North Babylon and Deer Park. Some conservative Wyandanch residents had expressed concerns that locating a welfare center in Wyandanch would stimulate a further influx of public assistance reciopients into Wyandanch-a community, which they believed had more than their fair share of social service clients.

The Rev. John Cervini, the p;astor of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch said: "This is one of the biggest days in Wyandanch." He considered the distance that heretofore Wyandanch residents had to travel to apply for assistance "unjust, unfair and inhumane." Suffolk County closed the Wyandanch Social Service Center in 2007 and transferred clients to Suffolk's Southwest Social Service Center in Deer Park. The former welfare center in Wyandanch is now occupied by The Bread of Life Church.

Sources: Rick Brand, "Proposal for Babylon Social Services Center," Newsday, May 7, 1987:7; 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 M ove to N. Bay Shore," Newsday, July 12, 2007: A18; "Suffolk's Social Services New Bigger Center Might Be Better," Newsday editorial, July 13, 2007: A.40; Rick Brand, "Wyandanch: Ire Over Center's Closing," Newsday, August 2, 2007: A.30.

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, arson, the occasional shooting or stabbing, murder, suicide or fist-fight. This criminal behavior usually took place under the influence of alcohol near one of the several "bars" in the community or in the isolated "pine woods" or in "the hills." In the early 1950s, some teenagers , as was true nationally, became involved in unnamed neighborhood gangs. These pseudo-warriors-clad in garish black leather jackets and Garrison belts were more bluster than action. These patterns of behavior generally continued as Wyandanch became a predominately black community after 1958, although the amount of crime increased. Wyandanch in the 1960s, as was true throughout the US, saw a major growth in the use of drugs, and crime aand violence that are associated with drugs, drug dealing and addiction.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, Wyandanch was adversely affected by the introduction of Crack. Crack was: "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." It 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 the drug. Empty houses were taken over by users as "crack houses," where groups would smoke the narcotic together. Neighbors 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. The youngster 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," The prostitutes even plyed 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 men who drove into the community seeking assiginations with the prostitutes. As a result of the increased crime associated with drugs-especially crack; some homeowners began erecting steel gates on the windows and doors of their home; others turned to belligrent guard dogs for protection.

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."

Town of Babylon establishes the Wyandanch Senior Citizen Center: 1991

The $1 million 12,000 square foot (1,100m) Town of Babylon Wyandanch Senior Citizen Center opened in an industrial area on Wyandanch Avenue 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 proudly told Newsday: "We've been in cubbyholes and the basement of a (Trinity Lutheran) church. And now we have our own home." Seniors can arrange to be transported to the center in vans operated by the Town of Babylon. In addition to eating a hearty lunch, the seniors can participate in games, arts and crafts, read, listen to music or chat.

The senior nutrition program's original $117,000 budget was funded by the Suffolk County Department for the Aging and operated by the Town of Babylon. The American Red Cross had been running the senior nutrition program since 1978. Anne Stewart, the Coimmissioner of Human Services for the Town of Babylon said: "The seniors on fixed incomes gretly benefit from this type of program. It helps them alon g with what they're getting in Social Security payhments. They don't get an awful lot."

Sources: Richard Firstman, "Church's Safety Net for the Needy," Newsday, November 21, 1984; William Bunch, "Nourishing the Spirits of Poor on LI," Newsday, November 1, 1985; 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 Development Plan Summit Held: June 2003

In early June 2003 about 400 Wyandanch residents joined representatives of the Town of Babylon, and Suffolk County officials and held "a four-day community 'visioning process' to plan long term 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 be improved by 2023, design workshops, a "community walk-through" and the presentation of a preliminary master plan for Wyandanch. Sustainable Long Island, "a Huntington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to urban planning," organized the watershed event.

Anne Stewart, coordinator for the Wyandanch Weed & Seed program, told the New York Times: We're looking for a renaissance and we're hoping that this will provide the focus for the changes to improve the quality of life in Wyandanch. We're hoping that through this process. we can develop those kinds of facilities where people can go into their own community to do their shop;ping. 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, 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 bring all the players together... This is about creating a Wyandanch vision, and it's a community based vision."

Some of the suggestions made by members of the Wyandanch community included: better lighting on Straight Path, installation of durable and attractive trash cans, making Straight Path more "pedestrian-friendly," erecting an attractive clocktower and providing shelters and benches at bus stops. The preliminary improvement plan included: "streetscape and raodway improvemnet along Straight Path, including decorative lighting and brick pavers. A more detailed plan, including suggestions for improvements with housing, transit development. business and traffic pattern improvements, was promised within two or three months., Jim Morgo, 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 Seeks A Turnaround," Newsday, August 10, 2003: A7; Caroline B. Smith, "Wyandanch Gathers to Envision Future," New York Times, June 15, 2003: 14 LI: 2; Sumathi Reddy, "on the Path to a Better Wyandanch: Hundreds of Residents Join Together to Plot Community'sauture," 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 at Straight Path and Commonwealth Boulevard was suffering from neglect and severely downgraded services. The Wyandanch Coalition argued that the Wyandanch Post Office "suffered from neglect and that services had been progressively downgraded over the years." They contended that the p;ost office had very limited parking, and didn't offer bulk mail or express mail services. Postmaster Anthony Simonetti contended that the Wyandanch Post Office was too small to accommodate full service and claimed that there was inadequate space behind the post office to park the mail trucks. Simonetti also complained thbat he had no room in the post office for his office and therefore had to work out of the Wheatley Heights substation. Residents wanted the USPS to either upgrade and expand the existing post office, or build a larger, more modern facility.

In the mid-1990s, the Town of Babylon condemned the strip of stores on the east side of Straight Path, which included the post office, and moved the office "to a tiny temporary storefront substation closer to the LIRR station. By the summer of 1999, USPS officials revealed that $2.4 million had been budgeted for a larger, new post office in Wyandanch. Eight long years later, in June 2007, the USPS revealed plans for a $4.7 million, 5,700-square-foot (530m) post office at 1569 Straight Path, which proposed to include "a barbed-wire fence surrounding the rear parking lot and bullet-proof customer-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 July 2007, the Town of Babylon filed suit in the US District Court calling for a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order 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 iuts nose (at the people of Wyandanch) is wrong.'" Schumer vowed to "cut through the red tape" and open commun ication between the USPS, the residents of Wyandanch and the Town of Babylon.

By October 2007, a compromise was reached whereby the new brick post office would not have barbed wire or bullet proof glass, but would have its main entrance located on Straight Path (as the Town of Babylon requested) and provide an adjacent municipal parking lot for safer, easier parking. The handsome new post office (the 5th post office in Wyandanch since 1875) open to serve the public on August 8, 2008.

Sources: Dele Olojede, "Group Wants Wyandanch 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: G19; Richard Weir, "Don't Fence Us Out! Wyandanch Polls Irked by Plan for Barbed Wire Around Post Office," New York Daily News, June 27, 2007: 1; Laura Albanese, "Battle Over Fortress-Like Post Office: Schumer Bolsters Lawsuit that Argues a Proposed Wyandanch Location Undermines Economic Renewal,": Newsday, July 4, 2007; Paul Vitello, "They Want a Post Office. A Fortress, Not So Much," 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 2, 2007, Brandon Bain, "Modified Postal Center Being Built in Wyandanch," Newsday, October 22, 2007; "Win-Win in Wyandanch: USPS, Community Come to Agreement," Newday, October 23, 2007; "New Wyandanch Post Office Will Open on July 21," http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/localnews/ny/ny 2008 074a

Town of Babylon 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 in November 2009. The concept was 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. This property was previously the site of an unsuccessful Mc Donald's franchise and before that the site of Harold S. Isham's Insurance office and Stephen Voit's law office. 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.

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

Ground was broken in downtown Wyandanch on October 30, 2010 for the long-awaited extension of the Southwest Sewer District sewer lines into Wyandanch. The new sewers, which will be funded by federal,state, county and town appropriations, will permit the ambitious "Wyandanch Rising" improvement plan to move forward. Senator Charles Schumer, Congressman Steve Israel, Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, NYS Environmental Facilities Corp. (NYSEFC) CEO Matt Driscoll, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Offiucer Bill Lindsay, County Legislative Minority Leader Dan Lo Squardo and Legislator DuWayne Gregory assisted Town of Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone and the members of the Babylon town board in raising the necessary funding to begin this historic initiative.

Senator Schumer secured "the federal support for the ($14.7 million) in financing the Town will receive" from the NYSEFC. Assemblyman Sweeney arranged "an (additional) $300,000 (State) grant for the project;" Suffolk County waived up to $11 million in future sewer connection fees; The New York State Empire State Development Corp. granted the Town of Babylon $2 million for the upcoming sewer extensions; the New York State Department of Transportation provided $486,000 for the extension and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "awarded $410,000."

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

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

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

Wyandanch Rising Project Moves Forward: Spring 2011

On March 3, 2011, the Town of Babylon introduced a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process to "prequalify developers" who would be encouraged to present Request for Proposals (RFP's) for the long-planned Wyandanch Rising redevelopment project. Babylon is seeking developers who have the experience, finances and reputation to develop high quality housing, commerce and green-space along the Straight Path corridor near the Wyandanch railroad station. The Town of Babylon hired a Manhattan engineering consultants firm, PB Americas, Inc. (Parsons Brinckerhoff) in February for $2.4 million to finalize the design of the modern parking facility Babylon is planning for the north side of the LIRR station. In April, Babylon asked three development companies: Albanese Organization, Inc. (Garden City); Douglaston Development (Douglaston, Queens) and the Jonathan Rose Companies (Manhattan) to submit detailed proposals for the Wyandanch Rising project.

In mid-May, Babylon approved an additional $3.5 million in bonds to purchase additional properties within the Wyandanch Rising development area. Newsday reported that Babylon has made "28 property purchases and eight condemnations on properties acquired through eminent domain." Bowe Industries (East Setauket) will begin extending a major new sewer line from the existing Southwest Sewer District pipe in West Babylon along Straight Path to downtown Wyandanch at a cost of $10.8 million. Posillico Civil, Inc. (Farmingdale) will install pump stations for the new sewer line. A sewer line will also be run to the Babylon Town incinerator/ashfill site in West Babylon/Wyandanch. On June 8, 2011, Newsday reported that "The Town of Babylon is asking the state Department of Transportation for $4 million in Federal Highway Administration funds toward its Wyandanch Rising redevelopment." The funds would be used to construct "plazas and roadways" near the large, new parking facility Babylon wants to build just north of the Wyandanch railroad station.

Sources: Denise M. Bonilla, "Seeking a master developer," Newsday, March 3, 2010: A23; Denise M. Bonilla, "Potential developers for Wyandanch Rising named," Newsday online, April 20, 2011; Denise M. Bonilla, "Bonds OK'd to buy property in Wyandanch," Newsday online, May 16, 2011; Denise M. Bonilla, "Town seeks federal funds for roadwork,: Newsday, June 8, 2011: A23.

Transportation

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

The main roads in West Deer Park in the horse and carriage era were: Conklin Avenue, Burrs Lane, Little East Neck Road,Colonial Springs Road, Main Avenue, Nicolls Road, Straight Path, and Belmont Road North, now Mount Avenue. August Belmont used Mount Avenue to transport his famous thoroughbred horses to his Belmont Lake estate and horse breeding farm (1865) in North Babylon from the West Deer Park railroad station. These roads primarily provided estate owners access to the West Deer Park LIRR stattion. What we know today as Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch was originally known as Conklin Street when the Merritt brothers in Farmingdale had Conklin Street cut through from Farmingdale to Deer Park in 1895 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). It was widened and improved again from N. 11th Street to the Southern State Parkway in the mid-1950s to facilitate the hundreds of workers at the Fairchild Guided Missiles plant in Wyandanch who needed better access to the Southern State Parkway.

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. LIMP had two concrete overpass bridges crossing hollows at Little East Neck Road and Colonial Springs Road (across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office). The parkway (abandoned in 1938) was dug up and the bridges demolished in the early 1960s to make room for the Westwood Village housing estate in Wheatley Heights. 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. William K. 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). Dr. Herman Baruch's widow, the 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, improved the Vanderbilt estate and named it "Bagatelle." Herman Baruch also developed the renowned Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills. This is 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 1920s or 1930s. Further research is required to discover if the "Wyandanch Pink" was developed for Dr. Herman Baruch for growing at his Bagatelle Nursery Farm.

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

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

See also; Wyandanch (LIRR station)
Numerous individuals were killed and seriously injured in horrific accidents involving cars and trucks being struck with high-speed Long Island Rail Road coal-burning steam locomotive trains at unprotected rail crossings in Wyandanch. This was especially true with the non-stop "Cannonball" express trains from Greenport-which roared through 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. This allowed the school children living north of the LIRR to safely walk across the railroad on their way 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 was limited and that engine whistles were not always sounded as a warning of approaching trains." Almost twenty years later, in 1951, the Public Service Commission ordered the LIRR to install crossing gates and safety lights at the three rail crossings in Wyandanch. The gates and lights were activated in 1952.

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. This was done 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. 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. Most of it still is a narrow two-lane road, which is mostly uncurbed and has very few sidewalks, and is dimly lit at night, although it is heavily traveled-especially by trucks. Conklin Street at Republic would not be reopened until 1965 (when Town of Babylon supervisor, Gilbert Hanse, convinced the new owners-Fairchild Republic to re-open Conklin Street to the public). 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 Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. Wyandanch residents were able to enter and exit the parkway at Exit 36 at Straight Path in West Babylon. The 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). African-Americans in Wyandanch attended church services and social events in North Amityville. The opening of the Southern State Parkway made interaction between African-Americans in Wyandanch and in North Amityville and in Breslau Gardens in East Famingdale easier. The opening of the Southern State Parkway also allowed the development of affordable housing tracts in West Babylon (such as Legion Park) after 1950.

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 of Babylon to assume responsibility for paving and maintaining the miles of "private" roads in the unincorporated sections of the 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 (the "Tree" streets) 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 mail delivery in Wyandanch before the mid-1950s. Middle and lower middle class 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 told residents they 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.

Ed. Note: It is ironic that while the Town of Babylon took sand from pits in Wyandanch for roadwork elsewhere; it would not (before 1947) use the sand to tar roads in Wyandanch.

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. 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. The town wanted the special districts so Wyandanch residents would pay the costs of road improvements in their communities over a ten or twenty year period. In October, the 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 fire-prone 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."

Miniature railroad built in Wyandanch: 1948

In December 1948 track was laid by the New York Live Steamer Society between the LIRR and Merritt Avenue at North 17th Street for a miniature train. The train was powered by steam locomotives using coal fired scale model Long Island Rail Road locomotives generating 100 pounds of steam pressure. 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.

Wyandanch's historic 1875 LIRR station is demolished: 1958

In June 1958, the LIRR demolished the 1875 Wyandanch railroad station. It was replaced with a non-descript, flat-roofed, 37' × 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 prevent trains from blocking the Straight Path intersection. The new station was a replica of the Bethpage station. The LIRR leased 50,600 square feet (4,700 m²) 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 (90 m) to 898 feet (274 m). This was done " to accommodate 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. 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 upscale housing in Half Hollow Hills. These upper middle class commuters boarded at Wyandanch since it was closer than the LIRR depot in Huntington Station.

Wyandanch residents unite to save historic LIRR Stop: 1983

The MTA/LIRR announced in early 1983 that it was planning to electify the Main Line from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma. It wanted to eliminate railroad service in Wyandanch (after 108 years). This 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 Hermann 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 (140 km/h). 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 in residential areas from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma. 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). This allowed residents to safely cross over the railroad without long walks to S. 18th Street or Straight Path. The 1958 station was razed. 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 station. It was not manned (to the chagrin of the rail unions). It did have ticket vending machines. The LIRR started electric rail service in Wyandanch on January 18, 1988.

Suffolk County narrows a part of Straight Path after community complaints about excessive pedestrian fatalities: 2000

In the summer of 2000, Suffolk County acted to narrow a quarter-mile section of Straight Path in Wyandanch south of the LIRR. It was reduced from five to three lanes following repeated complaints by religious and civic leaders about excessive speeding on the "poorly lit" roadway. In December 1998, a 50-year old Wyandanch woman was "struck and dragged 250 feet" at S. 18th Street and Straight Path. Newsday reported that she was the "sixth person killed in traffic accidents ... during the past four years" along Straight Path in Wyandanch. The Rev. Henry Bacon, pastor of the Compel Community Action Church in Wyandanch said" "Enough is enough. It's been going on for year and year after year. We must learn to forgive, but we must also seek action to stop this epidemic."

Suffolk County police tried to control speeding on Straight Path by deploying a $10,000 Speed Monitoring Awareness Radar Trailer (SMART). They also issued 263 speeding tickets in a three day period in January 1999 for speeds in excess of the posted 35 mph (56 km/h). Yet in early March 1999, a 38-year old Wyandanch man was "struck and killed by a car in front of the Suffolk County office of the of the Department of Social Services on Straight Path at Wyandanch Avenue."

In May 1999, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign held a news conference on Straight Path to direct attention to the problem. Anne Stewart, policy director of the Wyandanch Weed & Seed community betterment program, called for state, county and town officials to develop "a safety program to reduce the number of pedestrian deaths on Straight Path and throughout Long Island." Jon Orcutt of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said "Federal money could be used to create a program that towns and counties could apply to for pedestrian safety projects. It would serve as both an incentive and a resource for local efforts to make walking more safe." Delano Stewart, a member of Sustainable Long Island and a Wyandanch resident, told the New York Daily News: "There is a need to get some action." Stewart claimed that "accidents on Straight Path have killed 14 people on foot, on bicycles and in cars during the past four years...mostly in the half-mile stretch from Long Island Avenue...to Mount Avenue." In June 1999, Gov. George Pataki announced "a $3 million initiative to reduce high pedestrian fatality rates on Long Island." The program envisioned funding "pedestrian crosswalks and signals, new sidewalks and additional signs." Later, in the first decade of the 21st century, attempts were made to slow traffic on Straight Path from Long Island Avenue to the Southern State Parkway with the use of "islands," frequent turning lanes and additional traffic signals.

Town of Babylon spruces up Straight Path in downtown Wyandanch: 2005

The Town of Babylon intalled 57 attractive green colonial style lampposts with hanging flowerbaskets along Straight Path from Mount Avenue to Long Island Avenue to improve lighting at night and upgrade the appearance of the commercial strip. Babylon later installed new trash cans and an attractive four-sided clock in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center at the corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue and planted flowers in a traffic median on Staright Path at Commonwealth Boulevard. Edna Newton, the chairwoman of the Wyandanch Beautification Committee told Newsday: "It's beautiful, isn't it?" adding "We would love to have...somewhere where we can go and sit and leave our tax dollars here in town. We want our town to look like everybody else's." Suffolk County also increased police foot and bicycle patrols along Straight Path.

Emergency services

Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.: 1925

With the increased home building south of Long Island Avenue in the 1920s, there was a pressing need for fire protection throughout Wyandanch, Edwin Mason and John Prohaska organized the Wyandanch Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. in 1925 This dynamic duo sought 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. This was especially true in the pine barrens 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. Fires spread very rapidly-particularly in the blustery early spring months. 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. Realtor Harry Levey donated the property for the fire house. 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. Workmen from the Long Island Lighting Company and New York Telephone Company also helped fight fires in Wyandanch. The department's first fire truck was a used Model T- 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. 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 water 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.

Especially tragic fires in Wyandanch:

• February 24, 1952 – Three children, Donna Grimsmann (4), Wallace Grimsmann (8) and Robert Grimsmann, Jr.(15) 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. He later died in Southside Hospital. Firefighters 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 died aftet having been hit by a car in June 1951. The entire student body, faculty and staff of the Wyandanch Grade School stood at attention on the lawn in front of the school as the hearses passed by en route to the Long Island National Cemetery.

• 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."

• 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. They were quickly 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. 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.

• February 7, 1988 – The 52-year old one-story brick, slate roofed, Straight Path School was destroyed by a fire. The blaze broke out about 5:30 p.m, and caused over $2 million in damages. About 225 students were displaced by the fire and the district's administrative offices were badly damaged. Key district records were still legible, however. 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.

• 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. They 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. On March 25, 2010, church officials broke ground for the rebuilding of the church rectory and priest's residence. Funds were, unfortunately, not available for the reconstruction of the Gerald R. Ryan Outreach Center. Town of Babylon supervisor, Steve Bellone, attended the ground breaking and told Newsday: "This is the most economically stressed community on Long Island. This {parish} is truly a beacon of hope in this hcommunity."

Community Chest X-ray screenings held to identify victims of tuberculosis: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 all residents of Wyandanch over fifteen years of age take free chest X-rays in the Wyandanch Elementary School. The TB inoculations were administered to residents of Wyandanch in the afternoon and evening of December 7, 1948 in the Wyandanch Fire House by Dr. Leon Schultz-Wyandanch's only physician.

Source: "Chest X-rays in Wyandanch on December 7," Babylon Leader, December 12, 1948

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 located 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 had a bond issue passed to establish one hundred fire wells drilled (at a cost of $400 each) throughout the community. The new fire wells allowed fire fighters quicker access to water closer 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.

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

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. The community raised funds with monthly paper drives to purchase a $5,000 ambulance. The ambulance 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. The ambulance was housed in the Wyandanch VFW Hall on Straight Path at S. 20th Street. Stretchers were donated by Wyandanch Boy Scout Troop 131 and the V.F.W. Auxiliary 2912. Wyandanch's first ambulance service ended in the fall of 1967 when the ambulance and the Wyandanch VFW Hall were destroyed by an arsonist. The VFW and ambulance garage had been lightly damaged by firebombs during the racial disturbances in August 1967. The November 23, 1967 arson gutted the 54-year old building, which had been the first real schoolhouse in Wyandanch (1913). Wyandanch VFW chief, Howard Woop, reported that the arson caused $60,000 in damage: $45,000 to the VFW headquarters and $15,000 to the 1963 ambulance. Newsday reported that with the destruction of the Wyandanch VFW ambulance, "rescue squads form surrounding fire departments" would respond to medical emergencies in Wyandanch. Within two days, the Suffolk County VFW loaned an ambulance to the VFW, which housed it in "a private garage."

Sources: Joe Demma, "Wyandanch Fire Guts VFW Post, Ambulance," Newsday, November 24, 1967; "Cops: Arsonist Set VFW Fire," Newsday, November 25, 1967; Larry Novick, "VFW Ambulance Sent To Serve Wyandanch," Newsday, November 27, 1967: 23.

In the 1970s, 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 technician. The MLK Rescue Squad in 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. It developed 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 approved and funded by the Town of Babylon. The Babylon Town Board voted to "approve the preparation [sic] 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 foster cooperation between the people of Wyandanch and Wheatley Heights than any other institution in the area.

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

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 feet (400 m²) quarters that had previously housed the Security National Bank (1960). 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 moved into a 13,000 square feet (1,000 m²) building that had originally housed the A&P supermarket. 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.

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

Suffolk County Police Department First Precinct Patrolman, George Frees, 28, Bayport, was killed and Patrolman, Robert Staab, 30, Amityville, was critically wounded on April 6, 1971 after they "responded to a telephone call reporting a family argument" at 53 Mount Avenue in Wyandanch about 7 p.m. in the evening. They were both hit by .30-06 rifle fire as they exited their patrol car. As the New York Times reported: "A child called to report an argument in the home, and Patrolman Frees and Staab responded. As they approached the dwelling, shots were fired at them, killing Mr. Frees and wounding his partner. Other policemen went to the scene, and tear gas canisters were hurled into the house to flush out the occupants. The house went up in flames." Patrolman Frees was the first Suffolk County police officer killed in the line of duty in the 11-year history of the 2,000+ member force. Suffolk police then recovered the bodies of a man and a woman. The man Ellis Freeman, 43, was reported to have shot and killed, Mrs Elsie Brewster, 26, before shooting officers Frees and Staab. Freeman was reportedly killed by gunfire from police reinforcements. Patrolman Frees "was married and had three young children." Newsday reported that "More thasn 2,000 police officers and ,law-enforcement officials, some from as far away as Washington and Buffalo paid their final respects to Frees. There were representatives from every police department in Suffolk and Nassau, as well as New York City police, Port of New York Authority police, Long Island Railroad police, New York and New Jersey state troopers, sheriff's departments and the FBI."

Sources: "Suffolk Gunman Kills Policeman, Hurts Another," New York Times, April 7, 1971:25; "2 Bodies Are Found After L.I. Shootout," New York Times, April 8, 1971: 27; Joe Demma, Mike Quinn and Jim Scovel, "Suffolk Cop Slain in Shootout," Newsday April 7, 1971: 3,23; Jim O'Neill, Tom Incantalupo and Sidney C Schaer, "First Death in Line of Duty: 'George Was a Quiet Guy,'" Newsday, April 7, 1971: 3; Annabelle Kerins, Jin O'Neill and Jim Scovel, "Suspect in Cop Slaying Found Dead in House," Newsday, April 8, 1971:6; Sidnet C. Schaer, "Black-Taped Badges At the Funeral Home," Newsday, April 9, 1971:20; Jim O'Neill and Maurice Swifgt, "Long Blue Line of Honor," Newsday April 11, 1971. http://www.odmp.org/officer/5112-patrolman-george-a-frees http://www.suffolkpc.org/honor.htm

Wyandanch Medical Center opens: May 1973

After renting space in a private house 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 provided $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."

Town of Babylon and Suffolk County Water Authority extend affordable public water to Wyandanch: 1980s

As late as 1980, hundreds of homeowners in Wyandanch were not served by the public water mains of the Suffolk County Water Authority. They relied on private water wells, which often clogged or ran dry. They also depended upon expensive electric water pumps, which eventually "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 using for drinking, cooking and bathing. The New York Public Interest 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 Babylon. 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." He demanded "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 (24,000 m) of water pipe to hook up all private well households. 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 1980s public water had been extended to thousands of home in Wyandanch, West Babylon and North Babylon.

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." He promised that the medical wastes "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 meeting of the Joint Civic and Taxpayers Council of the Town of Babylon that the proposal amounted to "dumping on the black community" of Wyandanch. He claimed it "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."

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health Center in Wyandanch honored for 40 years of service: 2008

State Senator Owen Johnson (R)(4th Senate District, Babylon) honored the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Medical Center in Wyandanch for its four decades of dedicated 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 several employees of the Martin Luther King Community Health Center with New York Senate Citations. The honorees included: Latonia Johnson, Barbara Keach RN, Helen Device, RN, Virginia Cortes, Ella Felderand 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."

Town of Babylon proposes to move Martin Luther King, Jr Community Health Center in Wyandanch to a new,larger and more modern building: February 2011

Newsday reported on February 11, 2011 that the Town of Babylon has disclosed plans to relocate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center from its current location on the southeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue to one of two potential sites nearby north of the LIRR tracks. The MLK, Jr. Health Center has served Wyandanch since 1968 and is run by Suffolk County. Medical services are provided by Catholic Health Services. The health center has been in its present location since January 1978. Newsday reported that Babylon plans to utilize, National Development Council, a nonprofit developer to build a larger, more modern community 30,000 sq. ft. health center in Wyandanch. The MLK'Jr Community Health Center serves "40,000 patients a year," and needs more parking space. Babylon officials believe construction of the new health center could begin as soon as the spring of 2012. Babylon Town supervisor, Steve Bellone, told Newsday that the modern, new Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center "would be an 'anchor' of the town's Wyandanch Rising redevelopment" plan. Razing of the existing Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Center would free up space near the LIRR station for other proposed Wyandanch Rising goals such as improved housing and commercial sites in downtown Wyandanch.

Education

Origins of the Wyandanch Schools: 1923

Wyandanch south of Nicholls Road 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. The new schoolhouse followed 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 private home in Sheet Nine. The Long Islander of September 27, 1901 reported that: "Mr. Johnson is teaching the Sheet Nine school this year." Later in the 1930s 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 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 families this was an expensive burden. Some of the children in the southern part of Sheet Nine went to the West Babylon School. This was because the Sheet Nine subdivision 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.

Wyandanch gets a modern grade School: 1937

In September 1937, the modern one-story, red-brick $120,000 Wyandanch Elementary School opened for classes. The new school was located on a 7⅓ acre plot on Straight Path across the street from the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church. It was located just north of the Town of Babylon Highway Department's 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. Representatives of the PWA and Dr. William K. Wilson the director of the School Buildings Division of the State Education Department joined school board members: 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 the Third Supervisory District of Suffolk County also spoke. The assessed valuation of the Wyandanch School District #9 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.

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 bus 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.

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 with the construction of new homes and a rising birth rate in the community. This meant that the 1937 Wyandanch Elementary School was too small to house all the district's elementary age school children. 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. The taxpayers approved the addition and the new east wing and gym opened for students in September 1949.

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 14 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 bolstered the tax base in Wyandanch when he 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 October 1957, a State Education Department Master Plan proposed that the Deer Park and Wyandanch School Districts be consolidated but nothing came of the idea. 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.

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 began planning the development of a junior-senior high school for Wyandanch. The high school was scheduled to open in September 1961. Wyandanch started a 9th Grade class in 1957-8 and added a class a year until the high school opened. The School District obtained 10 acres (40,000 m²) between South 32nd Street and Little East Neck Road and between Garden City Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue by condemnation for the high school and its athletic fields. 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.

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. He 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 (21 km) 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 valor 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.

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 "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 artificial 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 nationally 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."

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 The school was 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. PFC Hardiman was killed in action on a search and destroy mission on the infamous Hill 875 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 is on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC is on Panel 29E, Line 089. PFC Hardiman graduated from Wyandanch High School in 1966 and was the 153rd Long Islander killed in the Vietnam War. ; "3 LIers Killed in Viet; One on Hill at Dak To," Newsday, November 21, 1967.

La Francis Hardiman, was one of four Wyandanch residents killed in the Vietnam War. The other three were: Staff Seregant Kevin E. Ver Pault (see citation under Recreation in Wyandanch): Sgt. E5 Guillermo William Gazard, who served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry, US Army,and who was killed by hostile rocket fire in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam on July 27, 1967 after eight years of service in the United States Army. Sgt. Gazard's name was spelled incorrectly on the Vietnam Wall as Guillermo Gazar (Panel 24E 007) Sgt. Gazard is interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn, Sec T: 4382: 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.

The original La Francis Hardiman Early Childhood Center was torn down in 1996. It was replaced with the 50,000 square feet (5,000 m²) LaFrancis Hardiman Early Childhood Wing of the Martin Luther King Elementary School on Mount Avenue The impressive new center 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 for Sgt. Gazard's service: Babylon Beacon obituary, August 17, 1967: 16.

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 Miller wanted 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. The short-lived Wyandanch College 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.

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

Perhaps ther most important long-range improvement in Wyandanch following the publicity generated by the August 1967 disturbances and the heightened civil rights movement in Wyandanch was the opening of the Wyandanch Day Care Center, Inc. facility on a 100' x 300' site on Common wealth Boulevard. The idea of full-service day care center in Wyandanch started when the Wyandanch Community Action Center hired sixteen female community organizers "who had young children and were in need of day care." The sixteen WCAC members formed "The Mother's Club" and asked the Wyandanch Board of Education 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 Elementary School and later provided room in an empty building adjacent to the Milton. L. Olive Elementary School. Whe the Mothers Club determined that the building alongside the 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 Mrs. Amy James, was incorporated in July 1969.

Ground was broken for the new center on September 13, 1970 and the Wyandanch Day Care Center opened on February 25, 1973. The two-story, red brick, eight-classroom Day Care Center was constructed with a $1 million loan from the New York State Social Services Department. Shortly after opening, the Wyandanch Day Care Center served 165 children: 120 preschool and 45 elementary school age children. The center operated from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. and freed mothers for job train ing, 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

Origins of the Wyandanch Public Library: 1974

The Wyandanch Public Library was begun with humble beginnings by librarian, Wendell Cherry. Mr. Cherry started providing books 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. The badly needed library was located 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 classroom 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 feet (2,000 m²) 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.

Timur A. Davis Sr. is the new Director of the Wyandanch Public Library. Mr. Davis, who holds am MLIS from Pratt Institute; a B.A. in History/Philosophy-Africana Studies from Jersey State College and an M.A. from the American Military University, has replaced Corey Fleming, the former director of the Wyandanch Public Library. In April 2011, the Wyandanch Public Library will celebrate 38 years of service to the community and Suffolk County.

Bitter Wyandanch teachers' strike ends after two months: 1979

A 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. They demanded a 32 percent wage increase over three years, limitation of class size to 32 students and teacher input in educational policy decisions. 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 This meant they lost two days pay (plus taxes)for each of the forty one days they would be 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.

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. The successful bond issue also provided: 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 relieved overcrowding at the Milton L. Olive Middle School. Eighth grade students were relocated from Milton Olive school to the new classrooms at the nearby high school.

Area students beautify Wyandanch High School: July 2010

100 students from Huntington, Elwood, Half Hollow Hills West, and Walt Whitman (South Huntington) High Schools power-washed the exterior of the 49-year old Wyandanch Memorial High School, repainted sidewalk lines and planted more than 1,000 flowers. The "Beautification of Wyandanch High School" was developed by Young Leaders, "a community group for teens launched earlier this year by Huntington resident Kevin Thorbourne." Kevin Thorbourne told Newsday: "still, a lot of work needs to be done, but its a start" The Commack Home Depot donated the flowers, paint and gardening gloves, Wells & Wells Equipment in Wyandanch provided a bus to bring the students to Wyandanch while the Compare Food supermarket in Wyandanch "provided burgers and hot dogs for all in attendance."

Wyandanch High School students participate in Dowling College GEAR UP Summer Program: 2010

Eight highly motivated Wyandanch High School students participated in Dowling College's 2010 GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)program this summer. Students earned college credits in English and Chemistry at the Oakdale campus. Dr. Rhoda Miller, the Project Director for GEAR UP at Dowling praised the Wyandanch students for participating in the dual enrollment program on their summer vacation. Dr. Miller said, "Their grades and attendance were excellent, the college professors were impressed by them." Several of the Wyandanch summer scholars are planning to enroll in additional college courses at Dowling this fall. The Wyandanch school district, the GEAR UP staff and Dowling College "are coordinating to identify other eligible students and offer bus transportation one evening a week." The Fall 2010 Dowling College Alumni Newsletter noted that GEAR UP "students gain valuable exposure to the college environment, the expectations of college professors, and obtain college credits at a greatly reduced cost." At the June 2011 Wyandanch High School graduation numerous grads expressed gratitude for the skills and experiences they have received from the Gear Up partnership between the Wyandanch School District and Dowling College. Many of the 2011 graduates have been taking college classes at Dowling and have received no cost SAT prep sessions. Rhoda Miller, the director of Student Support Services at Dowling told Newsday: "We've been with these graduating students the last six years, and we've tried to create a culture of going to college." Kery Murakami, "Geoffrey Canada inspires Wyandanch grads," Newsday online, June 25, 2011.

Wyandanch school district #9 faces severe budget difficulties: September 2010

The 1,900 pupil Wyandanch school district, described by the Long Island newspaper, Newsday, as "Long Island's poorest school district," was confronted with a severe budget crisis following a $2.4 million reduction in anticipated school aid from the State of New York. Although district voters approved a $55 million school budget in the spring of 2010, laid off 15 teachers in June 2010 and reduced school sports and student activities; the Wyandanch school board faced the prospect in September 2010 of raising property taxes by 11.11%, laying off a minimum of eight more teachers or staff and making further trims in the district's sport's program. Newsday reported that the proposed school tax increase "would boost annual school taxes on an average Wyandanch home by $526, bringing the total to $5,263." On September 21, the Wyandanch School Board "ruled out a proposed and controversial 9.8 percent tax hike." News reports indicated that "some community leaders" in Wyandanch were contemplating declaring the district bankrupt. Newsday reported that "state education authorities declared that school boards are legally barred from declaring bankruptcy and that any board members attempting to do so could face removal from their posts." Newsday then reported on October 3, 2010 that the Wyandanch School District would receive only $159,616 in U.S. "Race to the Top" school improvement assistance even though "Sixty-three percent of Wyananch's mostly black and Hispanic students qualify for subsidized lunches because of modest family incomes." School officials were said to be "very disappointed" in the amount of the grant since it comes nowhere near the district's $2.4 million deficit. Newsday also reported that the U.S. Department of Education rejected an application by Wyandanch for more than $11 million in aid to bolster district graduation rates. A Newsday editorial ("State agency should help Wyandanch schools") published on September 29 called for the (New York) State Education Department "to step in and analyze the ongoing financial problems" to assist the Wyandanch school district in "digging out of its financial hole."

Wyandanch Memorial High School restored to good standing by New York State Education Department: November 2010

The New York State Department of Education removed the Wyandanch Memorial High School from its "Needs Improvement" list and restored it to "In Good Standing" status for the 2010–11 school year. NYSED officials did this because students at the Wyandanch Memorial High School "made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two consecutive years in all areas in which they were identified." Wyandanch school officials told Newsday that the change was a consequence of "intensified after-hours tutoring aimed at prepping students for Regents exams." The district officials are concerned about upcoming Regents scores in Wyandanch for 2010–11 since the succcessfulRegents tutoring program fell victim to recent cuts in state aid to Wyandanch and district budget reductions earlier this year.

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. The LIRR wanted to honor the sachem of the Montaukett Native American tribe, who deeded much of Suffolk to the English. They also wanted 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 BCE. The outwash plain slopes gently towards Belmont Lake State Park from the Half Way Hollow Hills terminal moraine and from Little East Neck Road. The lower elevations (the site of an ancient stream) in Wyandanch extends east diagonally from North 22nd Street. This presents severe drainage problems in the area from South 23rd Street to the Carll's Creek where the water table is very close to the surface. The "village" of Wyandanch near the LIRR station was located in probably the lowest spot in Wyandanch with runoff waters flowing down to it from south, west and north into an area with a very high water table. Unfortunately, Wyandanch does not have sewers although the Town of Babylon and Suffolk County are working hard to extend sewers to Wyandanch. Much of the topography of the Triangle section was altered with road construction, home building and especially the construction of the Wyandanch Memorial High School and the Milton Olive school. Previously, Jamaica Avenue ran up a hill from S. 31st to S. 35th. The slope of the hill on Long Island Avenue between S. 24th Street and S. 21st Street was softened as was the incline between Straight Path and S. 20th Street and Straight Path between S. 18th Street and S 21st Street.The downslope hill on Garden City Avenue from S. 22nd Street to S. 20th Street was also softened. These changes lessened stormwater runoff into Wyandanch "village."

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 19th century, 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.

Recreation and culture

Wyandanch: noted for the breeding of purebred dogs: 1930-1960

In the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Herman Baruch bred famous purebred dogs at his Marobar Kennel 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 dogs 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 in lower Dix Hills, but before 1953, Dr. Baruch considered himself a resident of Wyandanch.

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. The marchers paraded 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). 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. 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. 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." It installed a culvert, and developed the site 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. They then had to 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" 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." 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. He had major real estate holdings in Wyandanch, such as Wheatley Heights Estates and Harlem Park subdivisions, north of the LIRR. He died in Bellrose, Queens in 1934. In 1957, the Town of Babylon installed a marble plaque in his honor at Geiger Lake Park.

Recreational opportunities in Wyandanch before 1960

The Town of Babylon opened Wyandanch Park between Mount Avenue and the Carll's River in 1917. It 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 Belmont Lake State Park in. In the summers 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. 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, across from the Wyandanch LIRR station, were also popular drinking spots

Baseball was the game in Wyandanch before 1955. 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 popular baseball leagues for youngsters in Wyandanch (in Wyandanch Park and on a field northwest of Geiger Lake) to help reduce juvenile delinquency. Wyandanch boys played teams from other communities in the Town of Babylon; often at Babylon's Sawyer Avenue Park in West Babylon. The Babylon Town Police also sponsored trips to Dodgers, Yankees and Giants games for the kids aged: 13–15. 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 of the Great South Bay. The most affluent had their boats docked at Babylon,Lindenhurst or Amityville. 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 upwardly mobile Wyandanch teen-agers caddied there on week-ends.

Staff Sergeant 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 Sergeant Ver Pault's service and ultimate 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.

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 feet (400 m²) building equipped with donated pool tables and a ping pong table.

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 before a crowd of almost 10,000. Over one hundred young men-ages 11 to 15 raced the cars built "to exacting specifications" down the hard surface coasting track. The Town of Babylon Highway Department built the track parallel to town-owned property on Landscape Drive. The Babylon Soap Box Derby was the first derby held on Long Island. The winner won a place at the All-American Soap Box Derby championships at Derby Downs in Akron, Ohio in August. The races started at 11 a.m. following a Fourth of July parade up Straight Path and Landscape Drive to the track from the Wyandanch VFW Hall. WPIX-TV, sports broadcaster, Jack Mc Carthy, called the races. The Wyandanch Lions Club set up refreshment stands for the spectators. The Wyandanch VFW Ambulance Corps had its ambulance at the track "to take care of any spectators who may suffer from sun other other ills." 13-year old Robert Van Brederode of Babylon, the Class A champion, "driving his sleek white home-made racer across the finish line a nose ahead of the Class B champ, George Iwasiuk of West Islip." The Soap Box Derby was perhaps the most exciting sporting event ever held in Wyandanch. Bob Van Brederode was beaten in the first round heats at the All-American Soap Box Derby races at Akron.

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. The young artists ranged 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. She 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 died aged 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."

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.

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.

Dream achieved: the Wyandanch Youth Center opens: 1998

Although it was a long time in the making, the one-story, 11,850 square feet (1,000 m²), cinderblock and glass Wyandanch Youth Center opened on March 28, 1998 and provides wholesome recreation for 680 young people in Wyandanch. The $1.5 million center on 1.2 acres (4,900 m²) 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.

Wyandanch Community Garden opens: June 2010

4th and 5th Graders from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School and Wyandanch and Town of Babylon officials opened the Wyandanch FRESH Community Roots organic garden behind the Wyandanch Youth Services center. The 20-plot garden was funded by a New York State Department of Health grant to SUNY-Stony Brook's Family Medicine Department. Seeds were donated by the Quail Hill Farms in Amagansett, compost was provided by Long Island Compost and the plots were constructed by the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades Council. Babylon supervisor Steve Bellone told Newsday: that the garden "...teaches business skills to students. It teaches kids about farming and planting and it teaches them about better nutrition."

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

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

Sources: Denise M. Bonilla, "Babylon's Residents Ask About Town Pool Future," Newsday online: February 1, 2011

Religion

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church: 1932

In the early 1930s the Italian-Americans, the Irish-Americans and the German-American Catholics in Wyandanch grew tired of taking buses on Sundays to attend masses in St. Kilian's Roman Catholic Church in Farmingdale. They 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 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 on June 28, 1936. The land for the church was 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. It is interesting that unlike more traditional villages such as Babylon, Farmingdale and Lindenhurst, the pioneering churches in Wyandanch (the Catholic and Lutheran) were not located downtown near the railroad center but were located on higher ground closer to future housing development in the pine barrens of southern Wyandanch.

The Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch was racially integrated in the mid 1930s. 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.

For decades, under the leadership of Rev. Andrew Connelly, Rev. John Cervini and the Rev. Bill Brisotti, the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church parish, 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.

June 2010-Reconstruction of the rectory and pastor's residence of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church was underway. By October 2010, the restoration was nearing completion. The rectory had been destroyed by fire in December 2007. The Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center, which was destroyed in the fire, is being rebuilt and will serve the poor and needy in the area more effectively than the existing temperory trailers. The new OLMMRC rectory and pastor's residence was opened in January 2011.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church: 1934

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 . The church was built on property donated by Mrs. Clara Olsen. The Rev. Frederick E. Pruess served as pastor. Rev. Pruess was formerly pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Farmingdale. Six Lutherans in Wyandanch held their first services in the Wyandanch Republican Hall on Merritt Avenue in August 1934. Rev. Pruess held Vesper Services every Sunday in Republican Hall until the new church opened. Republican Hall was located where the Wyandanch-Wheatley Heights Ambulance building now stands. Ground was broken for the church on November 4, 1937 and the cornerstone of the church was laid on December 12, 1937. 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 led by Walter E. Schiel, Lay Reader. The church windows were of ecclesiastical glass "in the form of a blue cross in an amber background." The church held Sunday School beginning in 1934 and started the Willing Workers and a Brotherhood.

On January 27, 1946, the congregation of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wyandanch, held a special service to pay off the church mortgage. This allowed the church to start 1946 "free and clear of debt." The Rev. Dr. Paul C. White, Secretary of the United Lutheran Synod of New York was the guest preacher. The Rev. Mr. Frederick Pruess, the first pastor, assisted the Rev. Thomas Van Pelt, B.D. with the Liturgy. Laypersons united with the clergy in the burning of the mortgage. Mrs Clara Olsen, who donated the property for the church, attended the mortgage burning. The Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church had 101 members in 1947.

For many years, volunteers of non-secterian The Mercy INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network, Inc.) soup kitchen have prepared and served hot and nutrition meals without charge to the poor and needy five days a week in the basement of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Wyandanch.

Other religious institutions in Wyandanch

• Al-Jamiyat Islamic Center, 1305 Straight Path
• Apostolic Holiness Church, 17 Henry Street
• Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church, 142 Irving Avenue
• Bread of Life Fellowship, Inc., 325 Wyandanch Avenue.
• Church-God-Jesus Christ Dctrn, 1225 Straight Path
• Church of God by Faith, 114 Long Island Avenue
• Church of God of Prophecy Community Mission, 13 Andrews Avenue
• Community Nazarene Church, 58 Cumberbach Street: 1950

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

• Fellowship Baptist Church, 98 Levey Boulevard
• First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Wyandanch: 1995

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

• First Baptist Church, 85 Parkway Boulevard
• First Church of the Wyandanch Ministry, 85 Parkway Boulevard
• Full Gospel Church of God by Faith, 114 Long Island Avenue
• Full Gospel Outreach Ministry, 1521 Straight Path
• Holy Dove Church, 23 Washington Avenue
• House of Prayer Church of God in Christ, 113 Mount Avenue: 1988

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

• Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall, 83 Grand Boulevard
• Jesus Witness Way of Holiness, 107 North 18th Street
• Macedonia Seventh Day Adventist Church, 27 Jackson Street
• Mount Moriah Church, 76 South 28th Street
• New Shiloh Baptist Church, 221 Merritt Avenue
• Pagecorp Full Gospel Ministries, 84 State Avenue
• Reba Ministries, 21 Buchanan Avenue
• Revalation Church of God in Christ, 61 West Booker Avenue
• Salvation & Deliverance Church, 1498 Straight Path
• Soul Saving Church, 1304 Straight Path
• Wyandanch Church of God, 1477 Straight Path
• Wyandanch Community Church of the Nazarene, 58 Cumberbach Street
• Wyandanch Missionary Baptist Church, 1181 Straight Path
• Wyandanch Seventh Day Adventist Church, 34 Nicolls Road

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

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

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

Notable natives

• 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." Geoffrey Canada spoke at the June 2011 Wyandanch High School graduation. Canada told the 99 graduates that his fine teachers at Wyandanch High had given him the skills and confidence required for demanding college-level studies at Bowdoin College. Newsday reported him telling the grads: "You don't forget the people who changed your life." work Kery Murakami, "Geoffrey Canada inspires Wyandanch grads," Newsday online, June 25, 2011.
• 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.
• Jacob Conklin- (1675–1754) established his home and estate in 1710- the first house 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: lower 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. His son Nathenial Conklin started the settlement of Babylon village in 1803 when he built a tannery and what is now called the Nat Conklin house
• 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. Judge Brown fought successfully to have the Deer Park School District build a grammar school in Wyandanch in 1913.

Ed. Note: Technically, the H.A. Brown house is now in Wheatley Heights but until recently it was always considered part of Wyandanch.

• 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 (93,000 m²) 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Harold S. Isham-first to establish an insurance agency in Wyandanch. His office, established in the late 1940s was located at the southeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue-where the Town of Babylon Help Center is now. Before 1955, Wyandanch residents found it very difficult to obtain homeowner's insurance. Harold Isham helped many residents obtain insurance in a professional and friendly manner.
• 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.
• 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 died in Sacramento on October 22, 1989.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 died in August 2002.
• 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.
• 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.
• Mark Albert Barnes, Guillermo Gazar, La Francis Hardiman, and Kevin E. Ver Pault: Four 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.
• 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.
• Mrs. Geraldine Diggs-member of the original committee which organized the Wyandanch Public Library. Elected as one of five original Library Trustees in 1974, Mrs Geraldine Diggs served fifteen years on the Wyandanch Public Library Board-three years as president. In 1989, Mrs. Diggs left the board and took the position as Administrative Aide to Wendell Cherry, the former Director, and founder of the library; a position she held until she retired in December 2005. Mrs. Diggs died on October 4, 2009. The March/April 2010 Newsletter of the Wyandanch Public Library said of Geraldine Diggs: "Mrs. Diggs had made invaluable contributions to the Wyandanch community at large, and has been a role model for many due to her richness of character, her strength, and her continued dedication to contributing the best she had to offer in whatever role she embraced."
• 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 and heavy trucking in Wyandanch; encouraged the development of the Hermann Griem Town Park; pressured for vigilant zoning and building code enforcement; unsuccessfully fought the development of Republic Airport; brought public water to northern Wyandanch in the 1960s; 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.
• 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.
• 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 led 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 died at age 62 on March 16, 1990. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the opening of the Wyandanch Youth Center in 1998.
• 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 died in August 1997.
• 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 led 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.
• 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.
• 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 died in January 1989. She was 59 years old.
• Albert M Taylor-lived in Wyandanch for 54 years from 1956 until 2010 and was one of the pioneering "second wave" of African Americans in Wyandanch in the 1950s. An all-Suffolk defensive halfback at Westhampton Beach High School under the legendary coach Carl Hansen from 1944 until 1948, Albert Taylor attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania before serving in the US Navy aboard the USS Monterey during the Korean War. He worked as a recreation therapist at Pilgrim State Hospital, Creedmoor State Hospital and at the Suffolk State Developmental Center for almost 40 years. Al Taylor graduated from Suffolk Community College (A.A.), Dowling College (B.A.) and Adelphi University (M.S.) He played semi-pro football, was a powerful swimmer, an active boatsman and ran sprints in the Milrose Games and other major track events. Al Taylor was very active in the Hunter Squires Jackson Amityville American Legion Post 1218
• 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."
• 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."
• Catherine Hannon-started teaching at Wyandanch Memorial High School in 1985. Realizing that "a lot of the {Wyandanch} students did not have a career path," Mrs. Hannon initiated a "state-sponsored work-study program designed to put students on a path to a rewarding career." She told the Daily News: the best part of her job is seeing a student I place in a career cluster become successful and not drop out." Students in the Work Experience program first "job-shadow" mentors in goods jobs and then starting in the 11th Grade, "work in part-time jobs provided by the state Labor Department."
• Lasheca Lewis, a junior at Wyandanch Memorial High School, was selected as one of 72 summer congressional pages for 2010. The announcement was made by Congressman Steve Israel (D), who represents Wyandanch in the House of Representatives. She was selected based upon her excellent academic record and her inspiring personal essay.
• 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.

Business and industry

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

The Long Island Lighting Company provided the first electric service to Wyandanch in December 1928. This meant 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. 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. Telephone service with the Midland 3 exchange, however, became commonplace in Wyandanch in the 1940s. Property owners who wished to build homes in Wyandanch often had to pay to have the "paper streets" 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 the mid-1920s when LILCO's main gas line was extended from Lake Ronkonkoma to Farmingdale along Long Island Avenue.

Businesses in Wyandanch in the 1920s and 1930s

The Conservative Gas Division of the National Propane Corp.(now Amerigas Propane LP) was established with its on rail siding in 1929. Conservative Gas was located on a large plot bounded by: N. 18th Street, N. 20th Street, Merritt Avenue and Washington Avenue. Many Wyandanch residents used propane gas tanks for cooking and baking in the 1930s and 1940s. There were small 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 Heating, 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. Shopping malls did not exist before the late 1950s. Some residents 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 Hospital in Copiague and Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, 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 1940s 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.

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

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 caused several spectacular airplane crashes in Wyandanch. The most famous was the collision of two Curtiss P-40 fighters 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 U.S. National Cemetery in Pinelawn, which opened in 1938, or at 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.

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. Town leaders did this after Lindenhurst residents rejected the future Babylon incinerator being located at Sunrise Highway and the LIRR crossing in North Lindenhurst. Ironically, the site in North Lindenhurst that Babylon rejected for the town dump and incinerator later became the site of the Babylon's second Town Hall and Town Hall Park. 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. They claimed it would attract rats, generate smoke and odors, and depreciate property values. Most Wyandanch residents (not just the families in Sheet Nine) objected to the placement of the town incinerator in their community. As Mrs Anna Fried wrote in her "Wyandanch News" column in the Lindenhurst Star: "This is the consensus of the people of Wyandanch who feel an incinerator is a necessity, but also feel that thisnincinerator is being jammed in our midst in an unfair manner. Why? If other communities have the power to reject this incinerator from their communities, why haven't the people of Wyandanch and surrounding areas been given the same privilege. As taxpayers in good standing they feel they should have a voice whether this incinerator comes into their midst..." 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 town voters via referendum 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. Ed. Note: Ironically, there was no public or private garbage collection in Wyandanch in the 1940s. Well into the 1960s many Wyandanch residents carted their own trash to the "town dump" in Sheet Nine.

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 more 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. In 1946, 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 red bricks in the 19th century to manufacturing cement blocks in the 20th. 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. Dennis Carusos operated a 14-acre (57,000 m²) blueberry farm (starting in 1935) in the rich. swampy, acidic soils on the Wyandanch side of the Carll's River behind the Wyandanch Park. Mr. Carousos, who was born in Greece, successfully grew Coville, Berkeley, Jerseys and Dixies varieties of blueberries on either side of his 1,200-foot (370 m) canal.

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 and the Petrel anti- sub and ship missile for the US Navy. The 14' long subsonic solid fueled Lark was "employed both as a launching-crew training missile and as a surface-to-air flight test vehicle... flew successfully over 100 times." The Petrel "operational in 1956, was a revolutionary new air-launched missile for use against submarines and surface ships. It was 24 feet long, had a 20-mile range, and carried a torpedo-type payload..." 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.

New Town of Babylon Garbage Incinerator Lights Up in Wyandanch: July 1955

The new $952,000 three furnace Town of Babylon incinerator began burning refuse in Wyandanch in July 1955. The new incinerator,"was capable of burning over 400 tons of garbage daily. Babylon's original 1946 incinerator was deemed "inadequate to handle the town's refuse" given the "huge increase in population in the Town of Babylon" since 1946. The incinerator's garbage pit was "large enough to handle the contents of five garbage trucks at a time." The Babylon Leader reported that "the garbage... is transferred from the pit (to the furnaces) by a huge crane." The voters of the Town of Babylon approved construction of the new Wyandanch incinerator in a permissive referendum in August 1953.

Source: "$952,000 Town Incinerator Starts Service in Wyandanch, Babylon Leader, July 7, 1955:1.

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 in the spring of 1962. The factory was located on the north side of Acorn Street, east of Straight Path in Wyandanch 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. The Bay Shore facility was 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. This expanded 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 expected to eliminate outside burning of refuse which often "caused a pall of smoke to blanket the area."

Town of Babylon bans strip sandpits in Wyandanch following massive protests

During the suburban building boom of the 1950s,there was a great demand for high quality, easily accessible, sand and gravel for the production of concrete and concrete blocks. Thus, strip sand miners began digging into the picturesque hillsides of the Wheatley Heights terminal moraine in 1950 to easily mine fine sand and stone with heavy earthmoving equipment and large dump trucks. Constant streams of heavy trucks roared along local streets in northern Wyandanch such as Main Avenue, Landscape Drive, Conklin Street, 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 Half Hollow Hills District #5 Taukomas Elementary School, was completely leveled. Major sand pits were located as follows: four on Conklin Street; two on Willow Street; two on Landscape Drive and one on Brown Boulevard. The Town of Babylon and the Village of Lindenhurst also operated sand pits in this residential area.

Ed. Note: the former HHH School District # 5 Taukomas School is now used by Suffolk BOCES West.

In 1957, the people of northern Wyandanch (north of the LIRR) mobilized to put an end to the slash and strip mining which was disfiguring the terminal moraine at 17 different sites. Civic leaders claimed the strip miners were conducting an illegal business in residentially zoned neighborhoods. Led by the forceful Hermann Griem of the Wheatley Heights Civic Association, residents first pressured the Babylon Town Board to stop heavy trucking in the residential streets south of the sand mines. In June 1957, the town board banned heavy trucking on 27 of the 35 streets the residents wanted closed to sand trucks, which they considered a menace to their children. The irate residents were very angry that the board allowed sand trucks to use: Landscape Drive, Brown Boulevard, Lee Avenue and Walnut Street and 18th Street and N. 22nd Street. The town was trying to please both the residents and the sand miners. Five activists (Mrs Lilian Carsten, Mrs. Alice Gates, John Gordon, Mrs. Lorraine Dunbar and Mrs Mary Stein) then blockaded 18th Street with baby carriages to prevent large sand trucks from using this key access road to Straight Path. The five protesters were arrested by Babylon Town Police. This only further angered homeowners. The residents were further enraged when Babylon supervisor Donald E. Muncy (then engaged in a bitter Republican primary against Judge Charles A. Woehning and Councilman Arthur M Cromarty) told Newsday: "From now on, I'm not going to raise a finger to help you (Wyandanch) people. You're all very ungrateful." At a special Saturday meeting, the town board (acting on a legal opinion made to the board by Lester B. Lipkind, special attorney for the board) "gave Wyandanch sand pit operators a week to reply to recommendations made that the digging operations cease since 'the operators continuous everyday sale of sand gravel and fill are conducting a business in violation of the building code ordinance.'" A few days later, at another special meeting of the Babylon Town Board, the board voted unanimously (after six hours of deliberation) "to close all sand pits in the Wyandanch area." Councilman Arthur M. Cromarty (soon to be supervisor Cromarty) was the driving force on the town board in stopping sand mining in Wyandanch and in establishing "No Heavy Trucking" signs in residential areas. The Town of Babylon enacted a regulatory process whereby future sand miners would have to: apply for special permission from the Town Zoning Board of Appeals; hold public meetings on the proposal; present topographical maps detailing the area to be mined and then conform to Babylon heavy trucking regulations. No legal sand mining took place in northern Wyandanch after these historic regulations were enacted until the early 1980s. This sand ming regulation process was later adopted by other towns in Suffolk.

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 Hermann Griem Town of Babylon Park in Wheatley Heights was developed on what had been one of the largest strip sand mine operations in Wyandanch. 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.

WELD BUILT Wreckers & Carriers moves to Wyandanch: 1960s

The WELD BUILT Wreckers & Carriers Corp., "one of the oldest towing equipment manufacturing firms in the United States," moved its manufacturing operations to Wyandanch in the 1960s. In business since 1948, WELD BUILT "manufactures a variety of light, medium and heavy duty hydraulic wreckers ranging in capacities from 8 to 50 tons," on a 4-acre (16,000 m²) site at the corner of Long Island Avenue and South 18th Street in Wyandanch. WELD BUILT's "manufacturing facility includes a fabrication department, installation areas, hydraulic and machine shops, a lighting department, paint booths and repair facilities."

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 10-acre (40,000 m²) 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.

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 (46,000 m²) on Commonwealth Drive in a high water area of 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 to emphasize that this is a black community that has been criticized and maligned 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 1920s, 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.

Town of Babylon rejects Northville Industries plan to build large fuel tank farm in Wyandanch: 1979

On April 10, 1979, the Babylon Town Board voted 5–0 to reject an application from Northville Industries to rezone 11 acres (45,000 m²) 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 (61,500 m³) 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. Opponents charged that the fuel farm, if built, would mean 42,000 tanker trucks using the facility annually. The project was supported by the Wyandanch School District, which would have gained $142,000 in school taxes per year for its schools.

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 (38,000 m²) on the north side of New Avenue within 500 feet (150 m) 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

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 (81,000 m²) 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."

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 3 acres (12,000 m²) 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.

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.

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, acted decisively to assist in the demolition of an 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 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 businesses. A positive side effect of the demolition of the 1950s strip of stores and the setback 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 passers-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 and better traffic flow, and greatly improves the aesthetic appearance of the community.

Pinelawn Power electric generating station opens in West Babylon: 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 (9,300 m²) 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 (90%), and Di Fazio Electric, Inc.(10%) 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."

Further reading

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