Final Book1 - The Commack School District Website

A Message from the
Board of Education
A Message from the Superintendent
Dear Commackians and Friends of the Commack Public
Schools,
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The Board of Education is
pleased to present you with this
centennial history of the
Commack Public Schools. We
are proud to honor our history and
salute our administrators,
teachers, staff, students, and
community as we celebrate past
and present in Commack.
We have chosen Tess Falcetta as the honorary
chairperson of the Commack Centennial. Tess has served for twenty-four
years as an advisor and guide to so many trustees. Without doubt, no
one represents the Commack spirit we so cherish more than Tess
Falcetta. Tess' character, conscience, unerring sense of the public trust,
style, and elegance remains an enduring example of service to us all.
We thank our own Brad Harris, teacher and historian, author of
Commack's centennial history for his profound scholarship and research.
We acknowledge Hilda Hass, and the Commack Historical Committee for
their invaluable personal assistance and custody of our treasured
archives. We graciously thank all the committees and volunteers, as well
as the corporate and personal donors who have made this great
centennial remembrance and celebration a reality. Without each and
every one of you it would not have been possible.
Finally, we dedicate this book to the teachers and administrators of
the Commack Public Schools who each day give their very best to our
children and parents. We are so very fortunate to live in this place named
Comac "a beautiful place" by the Native Americans who preceded us.
Hopefully, our contributions will continue to make Commack a beautiful
place to live as we bring the district forward into the twenty-first century.
It is with great pride in the Commack community that
we have been celebrating one hundred years of public
education in Commack. The vision of those who
preceded us and your unerring commitment to quality
education have made it possible for us to realize one
hundred years of excellence in teaching and learning. Our
academic community perpetuates this heritage and trust
through vigorous reinforcement of the highest
standards for student success. This comrnemorative
centennial publication will provide you with a capsule
history of our growth and accomplishments.
It is only right that we recognize the Boards of Education, past
and present, for their guidance and leadership. Also, members of the
Centennial Omnibus Committee and all of the Centennial
sub-committee members are to be commended for their selfless
dedication to this memorable year of special events. Finally, sincere
appreciation is extended to all members of our greater school
community who provided support through their participation and
generous giving of donations, personal resources, and caring spirit.
Please accept this commemorative history of the Commack Public
Schools as a memento of this capstone year, and a thank you for all
that you have done to cherish the past, secure the present, and endow
the future. I am deeply honored to serve as the Superintendent of this
exceptionally fine school district on the cusp of the twenty-first century.
It is my hope that you will enjoy this interesting story of Commack's
first one hundred years.
Sincerely,
James H. Hunderfund, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Sincerely,
Mr.Peter Wunsch
Mr. John Pelan
President Board of Education
Vice President
Mrs. Mary Jo Masciello
Mrs. Joan S. Bosinius
Trustee
Trustee
Mr. Thomas L. Tornee
Trustee
(1)
Comac Corners: A
partial view of
Comac Corners
looking west down
Jericho Turnpike.
The Comac Hotel
can be seen on the
left and the Comac
General Store is on
the right. Further
west along the north
side of Jericho
Turnpike is Mrs.
Ketcham's candy
store and a number
of other homes.
Notice the windmill
that towers over the
general store.
Postcard courtesy of
Joel Streich.
Comac, a Rural Village
at the Turn of the Century...
Too often, Commack has been called a split community that lacks an
identity of its own. With half of its residents living within the political jurisdiction
of Smithtown and the other half living within the political jurisdiction of
Huntington, the community has no political unity. It has no downtown, no center, and is nothing more than one sprawling shopping center after another.
Commack has no history of its own, no sense of community and no identity.
These are the things that people say about Commack, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Commack, or “Comac” (pronounced “comic”) as it was spelled at the
turn of the century, was a small country village that straddled the
Smithtown/Huntington town line. Located in the little hollow created by the
gently rolling hills that surrounded the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and
Comac/Townline Road, it was a “cross-roads” that stretched out to the north,
south, east and west from “Comac Corners.”
Comac had two hotels, a general store, a candy store, a large centrally located school building, a wheelwright shop, a blacksmith, a butcher shop, a
Methodist church, a Presbyterian church, a cabinet maker, sawmills, racetracks, and many large homes and farms. Comac also had its share of
wealthy and influential residents. Comac at the turn of the century was a thriving, bustling, little village that had a sizeable population and a history that was
already over two hundred years old.
Although the remnants of Comac’s past have been all but obliterated by
the intrusion of modern suburbia, an identity and a sense of community
survives in today's Commack. It survives primarily because of the unity and
communality brought to the residents of
Commack by its school system, a school district that now has a history that
The Comac General
stretches back over a hundred years of time.
In the Beginning...
In the beginning, there were two small school districts that ser-
viced the Comac area. South of Jericho Turnpike was School District #18
while north of Jericho Turnpike was School District #10. Each of these
school districts straddled the town line so that part of each district was in
Smithtown and part was in Huntington. Each district had its own one-room
schoolhouse, its own trustee, and each employed a teacher. Since both
schoolhouses were less than two miles apart, and both districts were facing increased enrollments, it seemed reasonable to consolidate the two
small districts into one larger district.
In 1899, the school districts petitioned the School Commissioner of
the 2nd District of Suffolk County for consolidation. The Commissioner,
who at the time was Charles W. Fordham, granted their petition and on
October 12, 1899, created a new consolidated school district that was to
be known as School District # 10 of the Town of Huntington. In this way,
Comac School District # 10 was born.
Two days later, on October 14, 1899, a special school meeting was
convened in Burr’s Hall on Burr Road in northern Comac. At 8 p.m. that
evening, the legal voters of the district gathered to consider three important
questions: 1) the election of three Trustees for the District, 2) the selection
of the building site for a new schoolhouse, and 3) the building and financing of a new schoolhouse. Fifty voters, both men and women, attended
this meeting and elected Herbert J. Harned, Carll S. Burr, Jr., and John C.
Hubbs as the new District’s Trustees who, in effect, became the first
Comac Board of Education. They also then voted to approve the purchase
(2)
Store: Across the street
from the hotel, on the
northwest corner of the
crossroads was the
Comac General Store.
The above photograph
was taken around 1905
at a time when Frank
Otten owned and operated the store. At that
time the store also
served as the local post
office. Photo courtesy of
the Smithtown Historical
Society.
The Comac Frame
School: Erected in
1899, the Frame School
was built on the same
site where the Marion
Carll School was later
built.
grades 1-8
and the
classes
were divided so that
one teacher
worked with
the first
through
fourth
graders,
while
another
teacher
worked with the fifth through eighth graders.
Frequently there were only two teachers in the school because
there were not that many students who finished seventh and
eighth grades. Howard Moreland attended this school until the
eighth grade.
Howard Moreland was one of the few people who
knew anything at all about this school, and when he passed
away a few years ago, we lost the opportunity to learn more of
this school from someone who had actually attended it as a
child. But school board minutes, from 1899 to 1924, show that
over the course of the 25 years that the building was used, a
number of renovations and improvements were made. The
floors were oiled, the building painted, a fire escape was
added, storm windows were installed, a storm shed was built
for the entrance, a flag pole was erected, and in 1919, inside
toilets were installed. The days of using the outhouse were
over. In 1922, the L.I. Lighting Company brought electricity to
the school. This made it possible to replace the coal furnace
with an oil burner to heat the school. School board members
were making every effort to stay up with the rapid pace of
change in the world about them.
The Comac that Howard Moreland knew as a boy was
vastly different from the Commack that we know today. Comac
at the turn of century was a little country village that was surrounded by extensive farmlands and open fields. The heart of
the village was to be found at the crossroads of Jericho
Turnpike and Comac/Townline Road. On the southwest corner
of a 1/2 acre parcel of property on Jericho Turnpike for $500, and
authorized the bonding of $3500 to pay the cost of building a new
schoolhouse and fencing the property. (It is interesting to note that
women who were property owners were recognized as “legal voters” at this meeting at
a time when women
were denied the right
to vote in national
elections.)
The construction of a new schoolhouse was begun
immediately on the
crest of the hill on the
southwest corner of
Jericho Turnpike and
Comac Road. It
occupied the spot
where the Marion
Carll School would
later be built. The
new schoolhouse
was known as the
Frame School and
was considerably
larger than the old
one-room schoolhouses. The name of the
building came from the fact that the school was a two-story, wooden frame structure.
The building had an entranceway that led into an interior
vestibule that probably contained a coatroom for the students and perhaps an office for the principal. Beyond the vestibule was one large
classroom. The vestibule must also have had a stairway that led to the
second floor where there was a library that could double as an assembly hall, and an additional large classroom.
According to Howard Moreland, who attended this school
when he was a boy growing up in Comac, there were two classrooms
in the building, one downstairs and one upstairs. The school served
(3)
The Comac Hotel, c.
1908-1910: Although
the building was
later renovated and
its exterior modified,
the hotel stood at
Comac Corners until
it was torn down in
1965. Today this corner is occupied by
the Goodyear Tire
Center. Photo courtesy of the
Smithtown Historical
Society.
Carll S. Burr, Jr. drinking from the well on Jericho Turnpike. Mr.
Henry Shea used to have a glass mug in his possession, a common drinking mug, which used to hang from a wellhouse that
stood to the east of the Goldsmith Hotel on Jericho Turnpike.
Thirsty travellers would stop at the well, crank up a bucket of clear,
sweet, fresh water, and then use the mug to dip out a drink. In the
process they certainly must have ingested more than just water
from the communal drinking mug. Photo courtesy of the
Smithtown Hiistorical Society.
The Goldsmith Hotel: This hotel
stood on the northeast corner of
Jericho Turnpike and Townline
Road where the White Castle
Restaurant stands today. The
hotel burned down in 1895. Photo
courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
of this intersection stood the Comac Hotel. The photograph on page 3 shows the Comac Hotel as it looked
around 1908-1910. The dirt road in the foreground of the
photograph is Jericho Turnpike, and judging from the ruts
in the road, the touring car occupants must have had a bumpy
ride. The barn pictured in this photograph was on farm property
that occupied the southeast corner of the intersection.
Across the street from the hotel, on the northwest corner
of the crossroads was the Comac General Store. The photograph
on page 2 was taken around 1905 at a time when F.A.Otten owned
and operated the store. At that time the store also served as the
local post office and it was where folks
purchased dry goods and picked up the
mail. There aren't many people left in
Commack who remember this store other
than Henry Shea, who grew up in
Comac. His father used to purchase gas
for the family car at this store. Henry
remembered that his father used to draw
gas from a fifty gallon drum alongside the
store. His father would fill up a gallon
measure from this drum, and then he
would carefully strain the gas through a
chamois and pour the gas into the tank of
the family car. This was done to remove
water from the gasoline. Although Henry
remembered his father laboring to fill the
family car with gas, he didn’t have any
memories of the interior of the store.
Unfortunately, not much is known about
the early history of this store. It is known
that this store was previously owned by
generations of the Whitman family and for
that reason, the little hollow at the crossroads had long been known as Whitman’s Hollow.
Across Townline Road from the store, on the northeast corner of the crossroads, was a vacant lot. Just before the turn of the
century, a hotel was also to be found at this location. The
Goldsmith family owned and operated this hotel in 1895.
(4)
Apparently a
hotel had been
operated from
this corner for a
long time. The
building was
originally
known as the
Woodhull
Tavern and
the east wing
of the building, the small wing of the
hotel seen in the photograph, was said to have dated
back to the 1770's. It was in this building that Comac's first school
district was organized in 1814. The Goldsmith hotel burned to the
ground in 1895 and Comac lost this historic landmark.
Just up Jericho Turnpike, about 200' west of the General
Store on the north side of the road, was one store in Comac that
every kid knew about, Mrs. Ketcham's Store. This little store, which
sold ice cream and candy, was a great place for any kid who had a
penny in his pocket and was looking for a place to spend it. It
helped that it was conveniently located near the Frame School.
These were the buildings that occupied the center of
town. The Comac community was spread out over the surrounding area. Along Jericho Turnpike stood some of the largest residences and farms in the Comac community.
Heading east from Comac Corners along Jericho Turnpike,
one would pass the home and farm that once belonged to Caleb
Smith II (1762-1831). This large house was built in 1819 by Caleb
Smith II, a great-great-grandson of Richard Smythe, the founder
and patentee of Smithtown. Although not very large by today's
standards, the house was an impressive and substantial home in
1819. It was a befitting residence for a man of prominence in the
community who had served as a Justice of the Peace, Overseer
of the Poor, Overseer of Highways, Assessor, Fence Viewer, State
Assemblyman, and Supervisor of Smithtown.
When he built the
house, Caleb cleared some two hundred and fifty acres of land to
be worked as farmland. At the time, he was 56 years of age and it
Mrs. Ketcham's
Store, 1905. When
this photograph was
taken, Mrs. Ketcham
was selling ice
cream, chocolates,
and cigarettes from
the little shop. She
lived in an “old
house” that was
immediately to the
east of the store.
She ran the store
with the help of her
daughter Ollie. The
girl in the photograph holding the
cat is Lillian Corbett
Wilson, born 1889.
Photo courtesy of
the Smithtown
Historical Society.
The Caleb Smith
Homestead used to look
this way when it was
located on the north side
of Jericho Turnpike, about
1/4 mile east of the crossroads. It stood on the corner of Ruth Blvd. and
Jericho Turnpike. This
large house was built in
1819 by Caleb Smith II, a
great-great-grandson of
Richard Smythe, the
founder and patentee of
Smithtown. Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
is reasonable to
assume that he
did not clear the
land and build
his house by
himself. He certainly must have
had help from
his relatives,
friends and
neighbors and
no doubt he
paid others to
do the work for
him. It is quite
probable that
some of the
laborers that
Caleb Smith employed on his
farm in Comac were slaves that his family had owned whom he
had inherited and manumitted. We do know that on his property in Comac, Caleb Smith had another small house built for his
servants who were former slaves (The little house can be seen
in the photograph above).
There was another little house on the Caleb Smith
property that stood on the hill behind the homestead. The photograph on the right shows what this house looked like in 1944
when it was still standing. This house originally stood on the
north side of Burr road to the west of Smith Burr Tavern.
Sometime around 1814, it was moved to Jericho Turnpike east
of the Goldsmith Hotel. Here it was used as Comac’s first
schoolhouse from 1814 to 1844. When the district was reorganized in 1844 and two new schoolhouses were then used - the
North School and the South School - this building was then
moved up on the hill behind Caleb Smith’s house.
When Caleb Smith built his house in Comac, we know
that his ''new house” actually had a pre-existing house incorporated into it. There is exterior evidence provided by the window
spacing that the original home was only two or three bays wide
and that Caleb Smith added onto the house and doubled its
size. The internal
framing of the
house provides
additional evidence that this
was done. The
"original" part of
the house has
framing that was
“hand hewn”
while the addition
''has a heavy
frame that was
sawn." What makes this interesting is that the original home was
most likely constructed sometime prior to the Revolution and this
makes it one of the original homes in the Comac area.
Unfortunately, we will never know this since the Caleb Smith
House was moved from its original site in 1955, and no measured drawings of the foundation and other details were taken at
the time that might have revealed if an earlier house was standing on the property.
By the turn of the century, Robert Bailey Smith, Caleb
Smith II's grandson, owned the homestead. It continued to look
much as it had when Caleb Smith owned it, and the 12,000
acres of property that surrounded it were still intact. But in 1904,
Robert Bailey Smith sold this house and property to Carll S. Burr
Jr. who added these lands to his holdings in Comac.
Beyond Caleb Smith's house, further east toward
Smithtown, was the last house on the south side of Jericho
Turnpike. This was the Van Brunt Mansion. It stood about 700'
east of Harned Road. Hardly a mansion, it was a typical farm
house where the Van Brunts lived. The last member of the family
to live in this house was Minnie Van Brunt, the school mistress of
the little one room schoolhouse known as the North School.
Minnie Van Brunt later became a teacher and the principal of the
Frame School in 1907. Beyond the Van Brunt's, acres of woodlands stretched for miles on either side of the dirt road until they
reached the little village of Head of the River in Smithtown.
Traveling west from Comac Corners along Jericho
Turnpike at the turn of the century, one would have passed a
(5)
Comac’s first schoolhouse:
Known as the “Old
Slavehouse,” this building
was actually Comac’s first
school building. It was first
erected on Smith Burr’s
property on the north side of
Burr road. At the time it may
have been a slave’s house.
Around 1814 it was moved
to the north side of Jericho
Turnpike, just east of the
Goldsmith Hotel. Here it
became Comac’s first
schoolhouse. It closed in
1844 and was moved back
behind Caleb Smith’s home.
Photo courtesy of the
Smithtown Historical
Society.
This Edward Lange drawing
(1881) shows the Ira Hubbs farm
on the south side of Jericho
Turnpike where the Heatherwood
Shopping Center stands today.
The farmhouse is on the right.
County Clerk
of Suffolk
County, and
Supervisor of
the Town of
Huntington.
Charles Floyd
was a
respected
lawyer and a
leader in
Comac society and
Suffolk
County.
On
the south
side of the road where the Heatherwood Shopping Center
stands today was the Ira Hubbs' Farm. Ira Hubbs originally purchased this farm and operated it with his four sons Sidney,
William, Frank and Fred. The Hubbs ran a butcher shop from
this property and had a prosperous farm. In 1897, Fred Hubbs
and his family lived in this house.
The last house in Comac on Jericho Turnpike as one
travelled toward Huntington was the Shea family homestead.
The house stood on the northwest corner of Larkfield Road and
Jericho Turnpike. Henry Shea grew up in this house as a young
boy. In the photograph of the Shea Homestead on the next
page, his mother, Mrs. Mae Shea, is standing on the front
porch. Mrs. Shea had the foresight to gather pictures of Comac
throughout the course of her life, and many of the photographs
in this book are from the Mae Shea collection that can be found
in the L.I. History Room of the Smithtown Library.
Travelling south out of Comac Corners along what was
known then as the Babylon Road (Commack Road today), one
would have passed several small homes that faced the road. On
the east side of the road heading south would have been the
Ketcham House, and then the Rae Cottage. The architecture of
both houses suggests they were built in the eighteenth century.
number of homes and farms that were located here. One of
the first houses on the south side of the road would have
been the Tillotson/Beard House. The house was thought to
have been over 200 years old when it was torn down in
1960. The last family to occupy this house was the Beard
family, one of the few black families who lived in
Commack.
Further west along Jericho Turnpike, was
Frank Hubbs' Farm that can be seen in the
accompanying drawing. It once stood on the property where Commack Bowl is now located. Frank
Hubbs, Ira’s son, was known by children in
Comac as ''horse-and-buggy Hubbs” to distinguish him from the other Hubbs brothers. Frank
Hubbs was still using a horse and buggy long
after most horse and buggies had disappeared
from Comac's roads.
On the opposite side of the street was
Edward Carll’s home. Further to the west of the
Carll home was Stout Van Brunt’s house.
As one travelled further west on Jericho
Turnpike, several large farms could be found on
both sides of the road. On the north side was
the William Brush Farm. In the 1850’s, this was
the residence of the honorable Charles A.
Floyd, member of the New York State Assembly,
Minnie Van Brunt
(6)
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Historical Society.
TheTillotson/ Beard
house stood on the
south side of Jericho
Turnpike opposite the
Commack Firehouse.
This house was one of
the few surviving preRevoltionary War buildings in Commack.
Photo courtesy of the
Smithtown Hiistorical
Society.
The Village Blacksmith shop was
owned by J. Keenan, a “Horse
Shoer & General Blacksmith” as
the sign says, who purchased a
piece of property from John Ireland
and built his blacksmith shop next
to the carriage shop. Together Mr.
Keenan and Mr. Ireland did most of
the business in town outfitting and
repairing horses and carriages.
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
On the west side of the
street, you would have seen the
Consalyea House, the Velsor House,
a jewelry and clock store, John
Ireland's House, John Ireland’s
Wheelwright Shop, and J. Keenan's
Blacksmith Shop. All of these houses
and shops are gone now having
been torn down in the late 1960's
and early 1970's.
Beyond these homes and shops, also on the west
side of the road, stood the Presbyterian Church. This church
actually began as the Stillwellite Methodist Church of Comac
in 1831. In that year, a breakaway sect of the Comac
Methodist Church brought this building from Centerport and
moved it to Comac. They worshipped here for some time until
interest in the church declined. Then the church became a
Congregational Church and then a Presbyterian Church. At
the turn of the century, it was a Presbyterian Church. In 1919,
the church became a two family home.
Further to the south along Comac
Road stood the little one-
At the turn of the century, this Presbyterian
Church stood on the
west side of Comac
Road as one headed
south down Comac
Road from Comac
Corners. Photo courtesy of Joel Streich.
The South School: This school
stood on the west side of Comac
Road just to the north of the present
day Commack Library. It was eventually moved across Commack
Road to the Moreland property
where it was destroyed in a fire.
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
The Shea Ho
mestead
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
room schoolhouse known as the
South School. This school stood on
the west side of Comac Road just to
the north of the present day
Commack Library on Hauppauge
Road. This school was used until
the Frame School was built in 1899.
One of the last homes that one saw along Comac
Road while travelling further south was the Carll Farm. This was a
large and prosperous farm. The Carlls owned a huge tract of land in
south Comac that had first been acquired in 1701. The Carll family
passed on the ancestral home from one generation to the next and
at the turn of the century, this was the home where Marion E. Carll
grew up with her brothers and sisters. Today the house and surrounding property is owned by the Commack School District.
The last house that one would see in Comac as one headed
south down Comac Road was the Moreland Farm. The Moreland
Homestead was built about 1740. It is amazing that this house is still
standing and it remains one of the oldest, if not the oldest, standing
structure in Commack today.
Heading north along Townline Road from Comac Corners,
one would come upon several homes and the Comac Methodist
Church. On the east side
of the road, one first
encountered the parsonage of the Comac
Methodist Church and
then the little church
itself. The little church,
which still stands perilously close to the road,
was built in 1789. It is
believed to be the oldest Methodist Church
building in its original
condition in the State of
(7)
To the left is the Moreland Farm as it
looked in 1966, before it was moved
further back onto the Moreland property away from Sunken Meadow
Parkway. It is still standing today on
the east side of Commack Road just
north of the New York State Highway
Maintenance yard. Photo courtesy of
the Smithtown Historical Society.
The North School, as
shown below, was a one
room schoolhouse and
was actively used until
1899 when the Frame
School was built.
New York. At the turn of the
century, most of the inhabitants of Comac came to
Sunday services in this
church. Surrounding the
church was the town’s
burying ground, and at the
north end of the cemetery
was the little one room
schoolhouse known as the North School.
On the west side of Townline Road as one headed
north
was the Goldsmith House, then “Sunshine Acres,” the Baptist
Fresh Air Home, and on the
southwest corner of Burr
Road and Townline Road,
the Burr Homestead.
At the east end of
Burr Road, at its intersection with Townline Road,
was the Crossroads Well.
This well, which stood on
the northeast corner, was
90' deep and lined with
brick. It was said to have
had very good water.
Surrounding the Methodist
Church is a cemetery which
served for many years as the
town’s burying ground. Photo
courtesy of King Pedlar
A walk through this graveyard
offers us a glimpse into
Comac’s past. The names on
the stones are a roll call of the
community’s earliest residents;
Wickses, Brushes, Bunces,
Cheshires, Conklins, Cuttings,
Hubbses, Ketchams, Velsors,
Whitmans, Browns, Sammises,
Gildersleeves are all buried
here. This inscription is to be
found on the headstone of John
Brush who died in 1806:
And further
along the road on the south side, was the magnificent home of
Carll S. Burr, Jr. It was the Burr family that put Comac on the map
and made the town an exciting place to live at the turn of the century.
Heading further up
Townline Road, one
passed through horse
country and open pastureland toward East
Northport. If one headed east down Burr
Road at this point, you
immediately would
come upon Smith
Burr's property which
was on the northside of Burr Road.
Minnie Van Brunt and her class in front of the North School
in 1892.
(8)
“Stop reader and shed a
mournful tear,
Upon this dust which
slumbers here.
And while you read the
fate of me,
Think on the glass that
runs for thee.”
The Comac Methodist
Church....
Perhaps you have seen the little old Methodist
Located on the northwest corner of Burr
Road and Townline
Road, this well was said
to have good water for
drinking. This was an
important well for many
families who could not
afford to have a well
hand dug and needed a
source of drinking water.
The well was removed in
1936. Postcard courtesy
of Joel Streich
T he Burr Family Puts
Comac on the Map. . .
T
he Burr family name is one that is very well known in
Commack. Most residents of Commack recognize the name
from Burr Road and Burr Intermediate School and they are
familiar with the Burr family mansion that stands on Burr
Road in the northern section of Commack. But very few residents are aware of the historical contributions that this family
made to the development of thoroughbred racing and to the
trotting industry. It was the Burr family who made the little village of Comac internationally known as a community where
famous trotters were bred and trained. The Burr family put
Comac on the map and it was horse racing that brought people to Comac from all over the country.
The settlement of the Burrs in Comac seems to date
from 1736. Just where the first Burr family home was built is
not clear but the most likely spot would be the southwest corner of Burr Road and Townline Road. On the north side of
Burr Road, Smith Burr (1803-1887) owned and operated a
hotel and tavern during
his lifetime. Burr Hall, as his hotel and tavern was known,
was a popular place to stay for visiting horsemen.
Smith Burr “began the breeding of light harness horses” and is “responsible for their association with the Burr fam-
Church that stands along the east side of
Townline Road just to the north of the new
Methodist Church. If you look for it, you will
spot the little box-like church with its steep roof
and four-posted front porch just beyond the
modern Methodist Church. Here, just off the
heavily travelled highway, surrounded by many
weathered tombstones, stands the church that
was erected by Comac Methodists in the year
1789. For over two hundred years this little
church has been standing here in the midst
Photo
of the Commack community where it has
courtesy of the Smithtown Historical
served generations of Commack residents.
Methodism first came to Comac in the
year 1783 when a man named John Phillips
delivered the first Methodist sermon heard in
the community. “John Philips was a Methodist
local preacher and a tailor in the English army
during the Revolutionary War. He came from
Huntington, where he was stationed during the
war, to preach in Cow Harbor, which is now
Northport. James Hubbs heard him preach in
Cow Harbor and invited him to come to
Comac. John Phillips accepted and preached
the first Methodist sermon ever heard in
Comac. This was in 1783 and it was shortly
thereafter that a society was formed.” (“Focus
on Religion", Smithtown News. April 21, 1983,
p.l8.)
In the years that followed, the Comac
Methodist Society was visited by a number of
itinerant Methodist preachers and the congregation grew. In 1789, the Comac Society
decided they wanted a church of their own. They purchased land for the church from a Van
Hadah Robbins for two pounds and five shillings and then proceeded to erect a church on
this property. (“The Story of Methodism in Commack”, N.Y., by Rev. A. Roberts, Pastor of
the Methodist Church in 1953, unpublished manuschpt on file in the Long Island Room,
Smithtown Library.)
Apparently everybody “turned out for the 'raising.’” James Hubbs and Nehemiah
Brush seem to have played a major role in building the church and maintaining it. The
church was very simple and plain and was built much like a Puritan meeting house. The
shingled walls were exposed on the inside and on cold Sabbath mornings, the wind must
have whistled through the cracks in the shingles and made the interior of the church frightfully cold. The interior of the church, which can be seen in the accompanying photograph,
is quite open and has a gallery running around the interior except on the north side where
the box pulpit was built. This pulpit must have been quite high because in subsequent renovations, the pulpit was twice lowered. Except for this one change the church is remarkable because it has been so little altered throughout its history. (“The Story of Methodism in
Commack, N.Y." by Rev. A. Roberts, op.cit.)
The construction of the little Methodist Church in the heart of Comac Community in
1789, gave residents a house of worship they could call their own. It was here on a
Sabbath morning that the members of the Comac Methodist Society gathered to listen to
Methodist preachers. One can just picture the people of Comac gathering in the church for
services and giving thanks to the Lord for having a church of their own.
(9)
Photo
courtesy of
King
Pedlar.
ily name.” ( John J. Del Grosso, “A Burr in the Harness, An
Account of the Burr Family of Commack,” , unpublished
manuscript on file in the L.I. Room, Smithtown Library,
1981, p.1.) Smith Burr “was among the first to see that a
large business could be established in breeding trotting
horses.” He owned two trotters named “Rhode Island” and
“Betsy Bounce” and with these horses he began to establish a name as a breeder and trainer of trotters. He was
one of the first trainers of trotters to use a sulky which “he
improvised out of an old gig.” It was during his lifetime that
the evolution of light harness racing using a sulky began
and eventually the old method of riding a trotter under saddle was replaced by harness racing. (Lucille Rosen,
Commack, A Look Into the Past, Commack Public
Schools Publication, 1970, p.29.)
It was Smith Burr who trained a horse named
Engineer II, and this horse was the sire of Lady Suffolk. It
is quite possible that Smith Burr helped train Lady Suffolk
as a trotter, and Lady Suffolk, the Old Grey Mare of Long
Island, was a truly remarkable horse (see story next page).
Smith Burr established a reputation as an excellent
breeder of trotters. His first big sale was that of a purebred
racer named Columbus to a buyer from Detroit for the
astounding price of $3,000.00. Burr’s fame with purebreds
soon began to spread. A Frenchman acquainted with Burr
knew Charles Louis Napoleon, the Emperor of France, and
helped arrange the sale of two colts to Napoleon III. When
Napoleon received these animals and rode them, “he pronounced his great admiration and respect for their breeder.
This praise from European royalty enhanced the popularity
of the Burr stables.” (John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the
Harness,” op.cit.)
Suddenly, Smith Burr became the trainer and
breeder of fine trotters and his work was in demand. It was
on this reputation that Smith Burr’s son, Carll S. Burr, now
built what became one of the most important and influential
horse training schools in the nation - The Burr Equine
Educational Institution.
Carll S. Burr was born at Comac in April of 1831.
He grew up on his father’s horse breeding farm. He
attended the little one-room schoolhouse known as the
North School. His formal education ended when he graduated from this school. It must have been at this time that
his practical education in the breeding and training of trotters began. His father gave him a young filly to train
named Rose of Washington. This horse’s first race came
when she was two years old, and on April 27, 1854, she
won the mile race in a remarkable time of 2 minutes and
30 seconds. (John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the Harness” op.
cit.).
Carll Burr’s work with Rose of Washington was
even more remarkable when you realize that he was a
young man who had just turned 21. Apparently his father
was so pleased with his son’s work that he gave him additional horses to train. Two of the horses, Lady Emma and
Lady Woodruff, were later sold by the Burrs for $3,000.00
each. The Burrs had discovered there was money to be
made in racing.
The success that Carll S. Burr enjoyed as a trainer led him to purchase his own breeding farm which he
named the Indian Head Farm. The 350 acre farm that he
purchased was on the south side of Burr Road where the
Burr family mansion stands today. “He began to specialize
in the breeding of Hambletonians, a specialized breed of
(10)
Burr Hall, 1884, by
Edward Lange: The
painting shows barns
which were later
replaced by a large
two-story dance-hall
operated by Smith
Burr. The horse
speeding along in
the foreground is
thought to be Lady
Suffolk.
The Old Grey Mare...she ain’t what she used to be!
L
ady Suffolk, the “Old Grey Mare” for
whom the vintage song was composed,
was a truly remarkable trotter whose
career became the subject of legend.
Her racing record, established during the
22 years that the horse lived from 18331855, is incredible. She appeared in 162
races and won 89 of them, placed second in 53 of the remaining races, and
was out of the money in only 9 of the
races in which she ran. Her winnings
were estimated to have been over
$35,000 and perhaps as much as
$60,000 at a time when the division of
stakes in a race were unreported and the
average purse was under $500. If there
was ever a bet in horse racing that could
be classified as a sure thing, a wager on Lady Suffolk was almost guaranteed to pay off handsomely.
Lady Suffolk’s incredible winning records become even more remarkable when one reads of
the conditions under which Lady Suffolk raced. Lady Suffolk began her career when “trotting
under saddle vied... with harness contests” in popularity as a way of racing. She was ridden
under saddle nearly fifty times in the races she entered. On other occasions, Lady Suffolk was
entered in mixed races which meant that she might be under saddle, or pulling a sulky, or a fourwheeled vehicle of some sort.
To add to Lady Suffolk’s difficulties was the treatment she received from her owner David
Bryant. In 1837, Bryant purchased Lady Suffolk for $112.50. He bought the four-year-old filly
from Richard Blydenburgh who had been using the horse to pull his butcher’s wagon. What
Bryant saw in the horse will never be known but he took the horse to his farm in Comac. She
was put to work and rented out. She was hired by two horse-racing enthusiasts, gentlemen from
the city, who were so impressed with her speed, they advised Bryant “to make a race mare out of
her.” Bryant turned to his neighbor, Smith Burr, for some help in training the horse. Knowing
nothing about horse training or racing, Bryant refused to allow anyone else to ride her or drive
her. “When he first attempted to ride her in a saddle race..., he was so clumsy and awkward he
could hardly stay on her back, and only occasionally did she manage to win in spite of him.”
“As a reinsman he was chiefly noted for his heavy hands and unmerciful use of the whip.
He had little judgement of pace, and would drive her to break without cause, then snatch whip
and punish her. What a marvel she must have been never to sulk, rebel or fight back but always
giving her speed, strength and endurance under the extreme...” In addition to racing several
days in a row, occasionally twice in one day, she was used to transport her racing harness, feed,
racing equipment and her owner cross-country as she went from race track to race track, state to
state. Lady Suffolk was never given the lavish care and treatment that is bestowed upon modern-day trotters. (John Hervey, Lady Suffolk, The Old Grey Mare of Long Island, the
Derrydale Press, N.Y., pp.19-22, 66, 77-79.)
Despite the treatment Lady Suffolk received and considering all the factors about horse racing of the period, the equipment used, the condition of the tracks, the Old Grey Mare’s achievements were astounding. It was conceded that her speed for the quarter, half mile, and mile, surpassed everything previously established. After eight seasons of racing, Lady Suffolk had
become the finest trotter in America, both under saddle and in harness and the fastest in the
world. At 13 years of age and at the pinnacle of her career, she still had eight more years of racing before her long career came to an end. Lady Suffolk retired in 1853 to be a brood mare on a
farm in Bridport, Vermont. She died at the age of 21 and her remains were purchased by a taxidermist. She was stuffed and displayed in the window of a harness maker’s shop on Broadway.
( John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the Harness - An account of the Burr Family of Commack,“ unpub-
trotters.” At the same time, he trained some of the
country’s best trotters. Interest in his school picked
up and he began to accept horses that were shipped
to him from all over the country.
Carll Burr was only able to handle 30 to 40
horses a year but he picked these horses out the 150
horses he was offered each year. Among the horses
that he trained in his school was Trustee, the first
Carll S. Burr
horse to ever break a trotting speed of 20 miles an
hour. Another horse, Prospero, at the age of three,
pulled Burr and a 90-pound sulky over a measured
mile in 2 minutes and 33 seconds. The horse “was promptly purchased
for $20,000.00 by a William M. Parks of Brooklyn.” The fame of the
Burr Equine Educational Institution now brought him wealthy and
famous patrons. President Ulysses S. Grant, H.O. Havemeyer, J.
Pierpont Morgan, William H. Vanderbilt, Robert Bonner, ex-Governor
Leland Sanford, and Charles Backman all brought their horses to Carll
S. Burr for training. “These people helped to firmly establish the Burr
stables as a select breeding and training center.” Of course this patronEdward Lange’s
age also ensured Burr’s financial success and with it he began to make
painting (1881)
improvements to his property. (John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the
shows Carll S.
Burr’s race track
Harness,” op.cit.)
and stable comOne of the improvements that Carll S. Burr made with his newplex that was
found wealth was to convert his farmhouse into a larger and more fashknown as the
ionable home. The painting below shows the house that was on the
Indian Head Farm
on the south side
property when he bought the Indian Head Farm in 1857. It was to this
of Burr Road
house that Carll Burr brought his wife, Emma F. Case, following their
behind the Burr
marriage on November 26, 1857. It was in this house that the Burrs
home.
raised their two boys, Carll S. Burr Jr. and Tunis B. Burr. As these
boys became young men, the Burrs decided to enlarge and expand
their home.
11
This section of the
Edward Lange painting (seen on the previous page) shows
the original Carll S.
Burr family home
before renovation.
Sometime before 1885 the farmhouse was remodeled into a
much larger and more fashionable residence. The house
was given a mansard roof with multi-colored slate shingles, a
broad front porch that ran the length of the house, and a
large belvedere on the roof. The house became the mansion
that can be seen in the drawing to the right and the photo,
taken years later, on page 15. The house is still standing on
the south side of Burr Road and looks just as impressive
today.
The stately home that Carll S. Burr now owned
reflected the power and influence that he exerted in the community. Carll S. Burr was a Republican and was “an active
member of the Suffolk County Republican Committee.“ He
served as a Republican committeeman and as a delegate to
Republican conventions, and as a Presidential elector, but he
steadfastly refused to run for public office. Although he
refused to run for political office, his son, Carll S.Burr, Jr., did
run for elected office and proved to be a very popular and
successful politician.
Carll S. Burr, Jr., grew up in his father’s home on Burr
Road. Like his father, he attended the one-room schoolhouse
known as the North School. He attended the Flushing
Institute to complete his secondary education. He then began
his practical education in the breeding and training of trotters
on his father’s farm. He learned
from his father how to judge horses
and how to train and develop the trotting abilities of some of
the finest horses in the country.
By 1890 Carll S. Burr, Jr. had joined his father in running the
Burr Equine Educational Institution. His knowledge of horses
was recognized by his peers and as a young man of 34, he
was asked to serve as a judge at the National Horse Show of
America. He did this in 1892, 1893, 1894, and again in 1901
and 1902. He also served as a judge at the New York State
Fair in 1901 and 1902. It was said of Carll S. Burr, Jr., that “he
followed the example of his father and grandfather in elevating
his business to the plane of honorable fair dealing and strict
business integrity, and thus he has the respect and patronage
of the best known lovers and owners of blooded horses of this
country.” (John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the Harness,” unpublished
manuscript on file in the L.I.Room of the Smithtown Library.)
On November 18, 1885, as a young man of 27, Carll S.
Burr, Jr. married Hanie E. Carll, the daughter of Jesse Carll of
Northport. He brought her to live at his father’s house in
Comac. By this time, the house had been remodelled and
there were 22 rooms, so there was plenty of room for the young
man and his bride. Eventually, Carll S. Burr, Jr., would build his
own home across the street from his father and it was here that
he would raise his own family that grew to include two children,
Emma Carll Burr born on August 28, 1886, and Carll S. Burr, III,
born on November 17, 1890.
When Carll S. Burr, Jr. joined forces with his father in
running the Burr Equine Educational Institution, one of the first
things they did together was to build Suffolk County’s first onemile trotting track. The track was built just to the east of Town
(12)
The Burr
Mansion: Edward
Lange’s painting
of Carll S. Burr’s
home as it
appeared after
renovation. The
new mansard roof
and large
belvedere disguised the earlier
dwelling.
Photo courtesy of Anne
Goldsmith Linstadt.
Island sportsmen.” One man
named IsraeI
Tilden of Bellport
remembered
attending a race
at this track in
the gay nineties
and recalled it in
a letter he sent
to the Long
Island Forum. “I attended a match race on the mile track.
All of the New York City social elite, who spent their summers on our south shore, were there in all kinds of carriages. Autos were not even thought of in those days.” The
race that he had come to see was between a team of horses owned by a Col. Payne and a team of horses owned by
H.O. Havemeyer. Col Payne’s horses had been trained by
the Burrs, while the Havemeyer team had been kept and
trained at the Merrivale Stock Farm, another horse farm of
250 acres that was just to the south of the Burr's Indian
Head Stock Farm. What made this particular race even
more interesting was that the Burrs were driving the teams.
Both men were large men, weighing more than 200 pounds,
but this size and weight did not keep
them from climbing in sulkies and racing,
and in this particular race, it was father
against son. “Carll S. Burr, Sr., drove Col.
Payne’s team, while his son drove the
Havemeyer team. It was a close race, as
I remember it, but the son was defeated
by his old man.” (Israel Tilden,
“Remembers the Carll Burrs,” “Reader's
Forum,” Long Island Forum, January
1981, p.27.)
It was only fitting that Carll S. Burr,
Sr. should have won. “In later years,
when he was associated with his son, Mr.
Line Road on the flat land where
Commack High School stands today. At
the time they constructed the track, it
cost them $10,000, a considerable sum
in the 1890’s. The track was laid out on
the western end of a farm of 342 acres
that the Burrs had purchased to add to
their acreage so that they might have
additional room to raise horses.
Apparently, it was on this acreage that
the Burrs conducted the “breeding end
of the business. According to Carll S.
Burr, Jr., the east end of the farm was
where the various buildings, box stalls,
and a well equipped farmer’s house
were located.”
It was here that the Burrs kept their
breeding stock. Although the Burrs were
not extensive breeders, they did own the
stallions Schuyler Colfax, by Hambletonian 10; Ridgewood by
Hambletonian 10; Commac by Kentucky Prince; Favorite
Leland by Leland; Merwate, 2:22 by Alcantra. This farm became
known as the Indian Head Stock Farm and it was to this farm
that horse-racing fans flocked each week to watch trotting
races. (Carll S.
Burr, Jr., “A Cradle
of Trotting Horse
History,” The
Rider and Driver,
May 13, 1916, p.
45-46.)
During the
weekends, trotting
races were held
here between
“horses owned by
well known New
York and Long
Formal portrait of Carll S. Burr, Jr.
and the horse Auditor B with ribbon,
after winning a competition in 1908.
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
(13
This photograph shows the
house and 1/2 mile racetrack
that was to be found behind
the house on Burr Road. The
spectator’s stands in the front
of the barn are jammed
packed. Photo courtesy of
the Smithtown Historical
Society.
Carll S. Burr, Jr., driving
the H.O. Havemeyer
team of Henrietta and
Miss Lida. It was this
team which lost the race
that Israel Tilden remembers watching. Photo
courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
In 1898, Carll S. Burr, Jr., was nominated for state
Senator from the first district of the State of New York, which
then included
Richmond and
Suffolk
Counties.
Unfortunately,
he lost the election when the
voters of
Richmond
County supported his
Democratic
opponent. For a
time, Carll S.
Burr, Jr. left
political office
and returned to
the business of
breeding and
training trotters
with his father.
But he
remained active in politics, and in 1904 he ran
again for the state Senate as the Republican candidate from
the first district, and this time he won. He would serve a total
of four terms there from 1905 to 1908.
As a Senator, Carll S. Burr is remembered for his fight
for the Park Bill, the legislation that created Fire Island State
Park in Suffolk County. His foresight in securing Fire Island for
public use is something that today’s generation also appreciates and applauds. He is also remembered for his stance on
betting and horse-racing. Around 1900, the New York State
Legislature passed an anti-betting law which had effectively
curtailed horse-race betting. Carll S. Burr, Jr. was opposed to
this law since he believed that the prohibition of betting “would
encourage law-breaking... and bring about disastrous results in
Burr was known
in racing circles
as the “grand old
man of Comac.”
He was to be the
“grand old man
of Comac” until
he died in 1916
at the age of 85.
Carll S. Burr, Jr.,
then inherited
the stock farm
and the tracks
and continued
his father’s business alone.
(Barbara
Marhoefer, “Carll S. Burr of Commack,” Long Island
Forum, January, 1970, p.5.)
Although the training and racing of horses was a
business and a pastime for Carll S. Burr, Jr., he also had a
distinguished career as an elected official. He first ran for
office in 1895 when he ran for the New York State
Assembly. With his father’s backing and the support of the
Suffolk County Republican Party, he won the election. He
served in the New York Assembly for three terms, 1896,
1897, and 1898. During his tenure, “he served on several
important committees” and “introduced several measures
of great value to the state and especially his home county
of Suffolk.” The chief piece of legislation for which he was
known was the Burr Water Bill. This act, which became
law, prevented New York City from tapping Suffolk
County's water supply and New York City had to look
upstate for fresh water. The Burr Water Bill actually saved
Suffolk County’s drinking water for future generations and
this can certainly be appreciated by today’s residents of
Suffolk County. (John Del Grosso, “A Burr in the Harness,”
op. cit.).
(14)
This one mile oval Burr
race track was on the
property where
Commack High School
now stands. The view is
to the east of the home
stretch. The judge’s
stand can be seen on
the right with the timer’s
stand and spectator’s
benches on the left.
Photo courtesy of the
Smithtown Historical
Society.
This photograph of the
Burr family mansion was
taken around 1900.
Postcard courtesy of Joel
Streich.
the horse racing business (such as thievery
at tracks, race fixes,
and poorly run
tracks).” As a result,
Carll S. Burr, Jr.
became a staunch
supporter of the HartAgnew Race Track
Bill which would have
restored race-track
betting. In fact, his support of this legislation
became a factor in his re-election bid in 1908, and the voters turned
against him at the polls and he was defeated. (John Del Grosso, "A
Burr in the Harness," op. cit.)
Following his defeat, Carll S. Burr, Jr. returned once again
to the horse training business with his father. But much of the fun
and excitement had gone out of the horse-racing business. Betting
was now illegal and the public’s interest in horses waned as the
horseless carriage came into use. With his father’s death in 1916,
Carll S. Burr, Jr. witnessed the passing of an era. Horse-racing in
Comac came to an end. Carll S. Burr, Jr. found some other interests
in life. He remained active in the Republican Party, became a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Huntington and Trust
Company, and for 50 years he was a member of the Masonic Order
from the Alcyone Lodge of Northport. Just four months before his
death on January 2, 1936, Carll S. Burr, Jr. and his wife, Hanie E.
Burr, celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. When Carll S.
Burr, Jr. passed away, he left his name, his reputation and a wonderful horse-racing legacy to his son, Carll S. Burr, III. But the horseracing tracks had succumbed to weeds, and the business of training
and raising horses in Commack had disappeared. (John Del Grosso,
“A Burr in the Harness,’ unpublished manuscript on file in the Long
Island Room of the Smithtown Library, 1981.)
The one mile track on the Indian Head Stock Farm property
would be used in the summer of 1920 for motorcycle races that
were sponsored by New York Cycle Clubs. And later from 19251930, the track was again used for bicycle and automobile racing,
but the days of horse racing were gone forever.
World War I brings Brindley Field
to the little rural village of
Commack . . .
With the decline in the interest of horse racing, Commack
became a sleepy little rural village on the crossroads to somewhere else. But this tranquility did not last long since international
events soon had a profound impact upon Commack. The great
European War that had begun in Europe in 1914 seemed far away
(15)
Carll S. Burr, Jr. admires the fine lines of
one of his “Hambletonians.”
Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Historical
Society.
Henry O. Havemeyer and the Merivale Stock
Farm of Comac...
If you travel north up Townline Road from Commack Corners, you will come to the
intersection of Havemeyer Lane and Townline Road. This lane, which now leads to a
Tilden, Long Island Forum, Jan. 1981,
p. 27.) It was this open space and country air that Mr. Havemeyer seemed to
like about Comac.
In November of 1907, Mr.
Havemeyer decided that he wanted to
spend a quiet Thanksgiving Day in
Comac with his family. Mr. Havemeyer,
his wife, his son, and his daughter all
travelled to Comac for the holiday. As
was his habit, Mr. Havemeyer decided
to walk about his property. “Early that
morning he started out with his son, and
they tramped about until late in the
Mr. and Mrs. Henry O. Havemeyer
afternoon when they returned to the
Circa 1898
house for dinner. Mr. Havemeyer ate
heartily, and soon afterwards was taken
ill. Dr. W.H. Ross, of Brentwood, was
summoned. He diagnosed the trouble as acute indigestion. Mr. Havemeyer's
New York physician, Dr. Kinnicutt, was called the next day, also Dr. Frissel.
Friday night, Drs. Abbe and Delafield were called in consultation. Eight nurses
were in attendance upon him. Other troubles soon developed and by
Wednesday morning he grew rapidly worse. Soon after noon, one of the two
automobiles which had been kept on the go continually came into Huntington
and hurried back toward Comac with a supply of oxygen. Two hours later came
word of his death. “Mr. Havemeyer died in his house in Comac on December 4,
1907. It was later determined that he died from a ruptured pancreas. Mr.
Havemeyer's body was transported to his New York City residence immediately
by a special train of two cars which took his body and members of the family to
Long Island City. (The Long Islander, Huntington, New York, Dec. 10, 1907.)
The Sugar King was dead at the age of 61. Following his death, the ownership of the Merivale Stock Farm and the little stone house on Burr Road
passed to his son. Eventually the house and property were sold by the family
and the Havemeyer name was forgotten. The only reminder today that one of
the great robber barons in America's past, the Sugar King, once owned a house
and 370 acres of land in Comac, is the little lane that bears his name -Havemeyer Lane.
housing development, once crossed the southern portion of the 250 acres of property
that were owned by Henry 0. Havemeyer. Most of Havemeyer's 250 acres were to the
north of the lane and included the property between Scholar Lane and Havemeyer
Lane, from Townline Road to what is now Sunken Meadow Parkway. Mr. Havemeyer
owned an additional 20+ acres on the northwest corner of Burr Road and Townline
Road. It was on this property that the Merivale Stock Farm was located, and it was here
that a house, barns, and numerous stables could be found. These buildings were on the
west side of Townline Road just to the south of Scholar Lane. Further along Burr Road,
just to the west of Carll S. Burr's property and racetrack, Mr. Havemeyer owned another
100 acres of property that straddled Burr Road. It was on this property that a small
stone house of 1 and 1/2 stories was to be found and this unpretentious residence was
where Henry 0. Havemeyer stayed whenever he visited Comac.
The little country house that Henry 0. Havemeyer maintained in Commack was
the "least pretentious" country house that he owned, and he owned several. In fact, Mr.
Havemeyer, a multi-millionaire, was one of the wealthiest men of his day. Mr.
Havemeyer was the President of the American Sugar Refining Company, a huge sugar
conglomerate that had control over 17 of the 23 sugar refineries in America. Because of
the stranglehold that his company had upon cost of food production in America, Henry
O. Havemeyer became known as the “Sugar King.”
The Sugar King had an enormous house on New York's Fifth Avenue that had
been especially designed for him by Louis Tiffany, an estate on the shore of the Great
South Bay that was valued at $250,000, and a home in Greenwich, Connecticut that
was described as "one of the finest country seats on the Long Island Sound."
(Prominent Families of New York, The Historical Company, New York, 1897, pg. 268.)
Obviously, Mr. Havemeyer could have created an additional mansion in Comac
had he chosen to do so, but he seemed to like the small stone house on Burr Road. He
spent “considerable time here and seemed to enjoy the quietude” of Comac. (The Long
Islander, Huntington, N.Y., Dec. 10, 1907.) He also enjoyed hunting and would tramp
about on his land shooting the pheasant and quail that he had specifically raised for this
purpose. According to Israel Tilden of Bellport, "the pheasant were raised on the farm,
five to ten thousand a year. They would let two or three hundred loose'' when a hunting
party was organized, and off Mr. Havemeyer and his party would go ”gunning” in pursuit
of the birds. Since Mr. Havemeyer had also obtained "gunning rights to adjoining
farms," the hunting parties had a considerable area to roam in pursuit of game. (Israel
(16)
Commack’s Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1 ...
Commack was one of
the first communities in
Smithtown to organize
its own volunteer fire
fighting company. This
happened on “a warm
evening in August of
1906 when a small band
of public spirited residents gathered” in the
Commack Hotel to consider the possiblity of
forming a volunteer fire
department.
“Ironically, it was
an out-of-towner, a
weekend resident from
Canarsie in Brooklyn,
who was the driving
force behind
Commack’s charter
crew of volunteers. His
name was Ferdinand
Freschkorn and he was
a big man with a bigger,
black mustache; he was
active in the Flatlands (Brooklyn) volunteer company when he wasn’t spending his time in Commack.” Ferdinand Freschkorn convinced
the residents of Commack that they should have a volunteer department of their own. No doubt his work and experience with the
Flatlands Company gave him the assurance and confidence that he needed to convince the residents of Commack
that they could organize their own company. With “his persistence” and the support of those who attended the
meeting, the Commack Hook and Ladder Company was born.
The first problem that the newly formed fire company faced was the lack of equipment. Ferdinand
Freschkorn solved this problem when he managed to secure “a one time N.Y.C. hand-drawn” fire wagon from “its
retirement home in Fort Greene Park” in Brooklyn. This fire wagon, with its “heavy wooden ladders, canvas buckets
and high back wheels,” was pulled to Commack by horses and became Commack’s Hook and Ladder wagon.
In October of 1906, “the department was incorporated. Then the dozen or so founding fathers set out to
raise money for the firehouse, mostly by dances.” Their efforts at fund-raising yielded some $300 which was used
“to purchase a lot on the present Jericho Turnpike site of the department.” The only thing lacking now was a building.
The first firehouse was built in 1908. “At this point, every man in the department pitched in, cutting big
chestnut trees--then prevalent in this section-- and carting them over to the sawmill of William Mahler Sr., near the
present post office. Mahler generously did the cutting at cost.” The men of the department then constructed a
building to house their fire wagon. When they were finished, the building looked as it does in the accompanying
photograph. All that was needed was a fire alarm, and the fire company solved this problem when “an old locomotive wheel was acquired and suspended in front of the firehouse.” When a fire broke out and the men were needed, “a strong-muscled vamp” would grab a sledge hammer and “wallop the improvised gong” to summon men.
This rig must have worked pretty well because a “few years later, this same gong was put into use by the
Hauppauge Fire Department.” In fact, the gong is still hanging in front of the Hauppauge Firehouse.
and
Ferdin
By 1908, the Commack Hook and Ladder Company proudly had its own firehouse and fire wagon and
Freschkorn
stood ready to be of service to the community. The company even invested in uniforms, and each man was outfitted in a “red shirt, dark pantaloons, belt, fatique cap and black tie.” So it was that Commack became one of the
best equipped and snazziest volunteer fire fighting companies in the area. (The quotations and information conPhotos courtesy of the Commack
tained in these paragraphs about the Commack Hook and Ladder Company came from the 50th Anniversary
Fire Department .
Journal produced by the Commack Fire Department in 1956.)
Is it Comac or
Commack?
If you ever encounter any real old-
timers in Commack, who were born
before World War I, ask them to pronounce the name of their hometown.
You will hear them say that they live
in Comac, and it will sound as if they
said “comic.” New- comers always
say they live in Commack (Co-mack).
So which is it? At the turn of the century, there was only Comac. Comac is
a name derived from the Algonquin
word of Winnecomac which means
“pleasant land” or “beautiful place”
and it was the name that the native
inhabitants gave to area. The name
appears in several early deeds and
there is even a Winnecomac Patent.
Over time, Winnecomac simply
became Comac. The little cross-roads
village was known as Comac at the
turn of the century, and then suddenly
the spelling of the name changed to
Commack. Why? Marion Carll provided an answer. She said it happened
because the mail for Comac kept getting mixed up with the mail for Coram.
The spelling of Comac was changed
to Commack to end the confusion.
Who was responsible for changing
the name? It must have been the
U.S. Postal Service since postal cancellations going as far back as 1906
contain the name Commack. Most
locals resisted the change, but the
change in spelling stuck when
Brindley Field opened and hundreds
of troops started writing home from
Commack. It is interesting that the
spelling changed to match the prounciation, and at the same time people
started routinely mispronouncing it.
from Commack, but in 1918, the war came dramatically close
to home.
In the summer of 1918, the U.S. Army Air Service
opened a training camp for “aero squadrons” in Commack.
The facility, known as Brindley Field, was located on the
northeast corner of Larkfield Road and Jericho
Turnpike where Modell’s and Home Depot are now
located. The airfield was built on 90 acres of level
farmland that belonged to William H. Randall. “Mr.
Randall’s home, on the corner” where the Barnes
and Noble store stands today, “was turned into a field
headquarters” and all the “farm buildings were utilized for truck and car storage and aircraft parts storage.”
The Army Air Service converted the existing
wheat fields into a flying field and began to construct
barracks, mess halls and hangars on the property.
According to Henry Shea of Commack, who remembered seeing Brindley Field, “about 1,000 men were
stationed here at any one time, with approximately
20 to 30 Curtis Jenny trainers being used as well as
a number of powerful DH 4’s.
At the outset, for about two months, all personnel were housed in big square army tents. By
late August, 20 long barracks were completed opposite the Ruland farm where the south parking field of
Modell’s is now located. In addition, 5 large steel
hangars were put up in a row from Larkfield Road
due eastward through the area where Modell’s store
now stands. A new well was driven and a large
wooden stand tank for water storage was erected.”
(Henry Shea, “Story of Brindley Field, Commack,
L.I.”, unpublished manuscript on file in the L.I. Room
of the Smithtown Library.)
The airfield was named in honor of Major
Oscar A. Brindley, an aviator who was killed in an
aircraft accident on May 2, 1918, at Dayton, Ohio.
Major Brindley had been test flying a Liberty-powCommack resident, John Wendel,
poses in his WW I uniform at
ered DH-4 when the plane went into a spin and
Curtis Jenny Trainer
crashed. It was in his memory that the
field in Commack was named.
It wasn’t long after the dedication of the airfield in Major
Brindley’s honor that a similar tragic accident occurred in
Commack. Flying was a risky business in the aircraft of the day
and Henry Shea remembered hearing about pilots running into
“the fences that surrounded the airfield” and of others having
close calls with the overhead electric wires which were strung
along Larkfield Road. There were dangers on the ground as well
as in the air. But the fatal accident that took the lives of two
young fliers happened during a training exercise when 17 aircraft
were involved in mock aerial combat. On Friday, August 16,
1918, at 9:30 a.m., two men lost their lives when the JN-4H they
were flying, had a wing crumble when they were at about 1,000
feet in the air. Witnesses heard a snapping noise and saw the
plane break apart. Horrified onlookers saw pieces of the aircraft
falling and watched as the aircraft fell to the earth. The two men
who died were 2nd Lt. Harold F. Maxson, the 25 year old pilot
from Los Angeles, California, and his passenger 2nd Lt. G.S.
Gedeon, a 24 year old observer who came from Titusville,
Pennsylvania. The actual crash site was just off Havemeyer
Lane, some 300 feet east of Oakley Place. Many years after the
accident, a large crater could still be seen in the hayfields at this
location.
The tragic loss of life deeply affected the pilots who were
training at the airfield, and they showed their respect for their fellow aviators at the funeral for the two men. The Long Islander
Yaphank. John Wendel was Anne
Goldsmith’s uncle. Photo courtesy
of Anne Goldsmith Lindstadt.
(18)
Photo courtesy of The
Cradle of Aviation
Museum.
A Murder in Commack...
This World War I
pilot is suited up
and ready to fly his
Jenny. Photo
coutesy of The
Cradle of Aviation
Museum.
Sometime in the fall of 1920, a man named Sam Soper was found dead in
his home on Jericho Turnpike in Commack. He had been shot. Sam Soper
owned the house and property that eventually became Nott's real estate office
and is today the west end of the Peppertree Commons shopping center.
Constable Amza Biggs of Huntington was called in to investigate the murder,
but no one had heard or seen anything, and the investigation was to no avail.
The murder of Sam Soper became an unsolved mystery.
The mystery might never have been solved if it hadn't been for the
Halloween mischief of two young boys from Commack. George S. Burr, Jr.
and his best friend Raymond Hubbs, both 12 years old, decided it would be
fun to run a wheelbarrow up the Frame
School's flagpole. So they snuck out
late at night and did just that. When
they finished, they decided to sneak
across the street and steal the barber
pole from the barbershop. The barbershop
was then located in the little building that
had been the Ketcham's Candy Shop. As
they attempted to steal the pole, they
must have made enough noise to alert
someone who responded by firing several quick shots at the
pranksters. This caused the two boys to run like scared rabbits all the
way home.
George was badly frightened and told his father what had happened and
that he thought the bullets flying around him had come from the barbershop.
George's father decided that he better tell Amza Biggs, the Huntington
Constable, about the incident. Amaza Biggs then paid a visit to the barbershop and questioned the barber about the alleged shooting. The Italian barber, who rented the shop, claimed that he knew nothing about it and didn't
even own a gun. Something must have made the Constable question the barber's veracity, because Biggs went back to Huntington, secured a search warrant, and returned with a deputy to the barbershop. When they searched the
barbershop, they discovered a gun hidden beneath the floorboards of the
shop. The barber was arrested and under interrogation, he broke down and
confessed to shooting at the boys and to having killed his landlord Sam
Soper. Apparently, Sam Soper had increased the barber's rent by $3 a month
and this had enraged the barber and led him to murder. The barber must have
had trouble eeking out a living and he had been brooding about his circumstances in contrast to Sam Soper's. He resented the fact that he had so little,
and Sam Soper had so much, that he killed him. The barber also had plans to
kill John S. Carll simply because he owned too much land and because he
refused to let anyone take cordwood from his land. Fortunately for the Carlls,
the barber was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in an upstate
prison for the criminally insane. (This story came from Ron Burr whose father,
George S. Burr, Jr., told it to him.)
reported that “all day
Sunday, sympathizing
friends from Commack
and vicinity called at
Brindley Field and left
flowers at the YMCA
headquarters to be used
at the funeral.” On the day of the funeral, several aircraft “from
the Commack camp left with the flowers and as the cortege
passed from Cornell’s Chapel to the Long Island Railroad Station,
the aviators flew low, doing some difficult stunts to get in position
to drop the flowers on the caskets. The flowers fell squarely on
the caskets, borne on the shoulders of soldiers.” The fellow pilots
of the dead officers walked alongside of and behind the caskets
as the funeral procession made its way to the train station where
the caskets were loaded aboard a train to be sent home. (The
Long Islander, August 23, 1918, p.19.)
Brindley Field was intended to be a temporary flying field,
a satellite field to the large installation at Mitchell Field. The aviators “rotated so that only two squadrons were on the field at any
one time.” The aerial squadrons came to Brindley Field for
advanced training in aerial combat, and once they finished their
training at Brindley Field, they went back to Mitchell Field and
shipped out from there to France. Just how many of the pilots
who were trained at Commack actually saw combat in France is
not known, but surely some of them did fight in France.
The death of the two young men elicited a great deal of
sympathy from the residents of the surrounding area. Commack
residents had welcomed the young trainees to the airfield in their
midst and frequently sponsored evening entertainment in the
huge Knights of Columbus or YMCA tents that were set up on the
airfield. Henry Shea had vivid memories of the entertainment
presented by many town groups under the light of the “big carbon
arc flare lamps” that were used to light up the tents. People had
opened their homes to these young flyers and in some cases
invited them to Sunday dinners and corresponded with them long
after they left Commack.
The presence of the airfield in Commack brought excitement and change to the community. Henry Shea commented
(19)
reminders that the property had ever been the site of a World
War I airfield. (Information contained in an interview that Gil
Tatarsky, a student at Commack High School South, had with
Henry Shea in the fall of 1987. The interview is on file in the L.I.
Room of the Smithtown Library.)
A. Swan Brown Hall
The A. Swan Brown Hall
was originally built to
serve as a YMCA building at Brindley Field and
was later sold and
moved to the Baptist
Fresh Air Home property
on Townline Road. In
1961, this property was
acquired by the Town of
Huntington and converted into a Town Park and
the building was demolished. Photo courtesy of
the Smithtown Historical
Society.
that “the creation of the large army flying field created a sensation for miles around with hundreds of sightseers coming to
watch on weekends. Also at night a new effect was noticed in
hitherto oil-lighted Commack, electric lights.” Power lines were
extended from the end of existing service to the airfield, and the
place “was ablaze with lights.” According to Henry, there were
“no war-time blackouts in those days.” Another change that
occurred in Commack was the closing of all of the local establishments that sold liquor. By Presidential order, military authorities closed all establishments selling liquor within a five-mile
radius of this camp. It was felt that this would guarantee the
sobriety and good conduct of the soldiers at the camp. So, prohibition actually came to the Commack community over a year
before the rest of the country became a “dry” nation.
“At the time of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the
camp was operating to capacity.” With the end of the war, “the
entire facility of Brindley Field was gradually reduced and finally
closed in May of 1919.” The barracks were ripped down or
sold to be made into homes in the Commack area. The newly
completed YMCA building was sold to the Baptist Fresh Air
Home and was moved to the property on Townline Road known
as Sunshine Acres. The building was rededicated as the A.
Swan Brown Hall and it survived until the Fresh Air Home property was obtained by the Town of Huntington and converted into
the town park. The 90 acres of farmland that made up Brindley
Field were returned to Mr. Randall, the original owner. “He
eventually sold the farm to a family from the Bronx named
Kuzig and they started farming the entire 90 acres.” The
Kuzigs farmed the property until 1943 when the property was
“bought by the Johnson Bros. and during the course of repairs
to the buildings in 1943, fire broke out in one of the large buildings with the result that all the buildings were destroyed except
the house.” The original farmhouse on the property survived
until 1951 when it was razed. By this time, there were very few
Change comes
slowly to Commack...
With the end of World War I, the
men of the Army Air Corps were discharged, and Brindley Field was closed
down. Life in Commack went back to
the way it had been before the war. The
population of the little town once again
was just a few hundred people. Most
people were farmers trying to make a
living. In all there were about 30 farms
in Commack. Some of these farms
were small like the one owned by the
Morelands with 40 to 50 acres. Others
were huge like John Carll’s farm that
had over 2000 acres in southern
Commack. Before the war, Commack’s
farmers raised hay and grain crops.
But after the war, “commercial” farmers became established in Commack
and they grew vegetables such as
cabbage, potatoes, corn, broccoli, and
cucumbers. These crops were shipped into New York City by
“solid-tired” trucks which made their appearance on Long Island
after the war. According to Howard Moreland, pickles were the
“big money crop” until the 1920’s when a “fungus” got into the
cucumbers and made them impossible to grow. Farmers then
turned to potatoes as their cash crop.
The demand for potatoes led Commack farmers to look
for experienced help in growing potatoes, and this led to the
(20)
The Moreland boys, Joe
and Howard, help their
father with lumbering on
the Moreland property in
south Commack. Notice
the size of the log that
the boys are getting
ready to move. Photo
courtesy of the
Smithtown Historical
Society.
Commack Grammar
School, which was
also known as the
Brick School, was
named the Marion
Carll School in 1957.
auditorium
to house its
students,
that “conditions are
so bad
here especially in an
old fire hall
where one
classroom
is being held, that every
possible effort should be made to get a new school.” Another special School Board meeting was held on the heels of this letter on
May 12, 1923, and at this time the School Board proposed spending $55,000 to build a new brick six room schoolhouse. When the
proposition was voted upon, 44 votes were cast and 33 were cast
in favor. Construction of the new school began in the fall of 1923.
One year later, at the annual school meeting in May, 1924,
Ferdinand Freschkorn requested that the School Board sell the old
schoolhouse to the Commack Hook and Ladder Company for $5.
The Board voted to sell the school to the fire company. It was
then moved across Jericho Turnpike to become the Commack firehouse. “Moving the structure in those days was accomplished by
the old method of having horses walk in a slow steady circle. As a
result, the schoolhouse blocked Jericho Turnpike for a couple of
days, causing considerable concern among bootleggers who
thought they were running into a police roadblock.” (A History of
the Commack Fire District, Anniversary Journal, 1952.)
The new schoolhouse that was built in l923 became
known as the Commack Grammar School. The schoolhouse was
made of brick and for that reason, it was often referred to as the
Brick School. It was to serve the Commack School District for 66
years from 1924 until 1973 when the school property was sold to
the New York Institute of Technology. It was in 1957, that the
Commack Board of Education named the building the Marion E.
Carll School as a way of saying thank you to Miss Carll for all that
she had done for the Commack community.
It happens that we know a good deal about the Brick school
influx of a number of immigrant farmers and their families into Commack. This
surge in population led to an
increase in the number of
school-age children and
pressure for a new school
building. The Frame School
served as Commack’s
schoolhouse until 1922
when a decision was made
to build a new school for the
district. Crowding in the Frame School had become so bad
that the School Board paid to install a blackboard and seats in
the firehouse and used this building as an auxillary classroom.
The Frame School was bursting at its seams.
In May of 1922, the School Board voted to purchase
three additional acres of land at “Commack Corners for $500
an acre.” At the same time, the Board voted to contract for
plans and specifications for a new six room school building
and voted to move the Frame School off the school property.
The School Board which made this decision ran into a storm
of protest. The voters howled at the thought, and “the Board
was accused of being in the real estate business. Although
the Board was upheld by District Superintendent Leonard
Smith, its decision was opposed by many leading residents,
including Ex-Senator Burr.” At a special School Board meeting in July, 55 property owners attended the meeting and 53
of them voted against moving the school. In a second vote,
48 voters rejected the purchase of additional land. “As a result
the School Board resigned.” A new School Board was then
chosen. (Lucille Rosen, Commack, A Look Into The Past,
Commack Public Schools, 1970, p. 17.)
The new School Board sought the advice of the New
York State Department of Education about what they should
do. A report from the Inspector of Buildings, a Mr. I. L. Sears,
changed public opinion. He wrote that it would not pay to
remodel the exisiting school because of the arrangement of
rooms, that the District needed a six room building with an
(21)
The Commack
Firehouse as it
looked after the
Frame School had
been moved across
the road and attached
to the front of the
existing firehouse.
The building stood
until 1963 when it
was torn down to
make way for the present firehouse. Photo
courtesy of the
Commack Fire
Department.
Miss Marion E. Carll
1885-1968...
Marion E. Carll was born in
The cast of the first community play to be presented
at the new school auditorium in 1924 poses for the
camera. Marion Carll is
seen standing in back (third
person on the right). Photo
courtesy of Sherman Carll.
Commack on April 13, 1885, in the
farmhouse that bears her name
today. She grew up on this farm on
Commack Road with her six brothers
and sisters.
She attended the Old South
School, the one-room schoolhouse
which used to stand on the northwest corner of Commack Road and
Hauppauge Road. Subsequently
she attended high school in
Jamaica and then the Jamaica
Normal School, a training school
Marion Carll an
for teachers. She then taught in
d one of her po
nies
both Commack and New York City.
In 1924 she gave up her teaching
career and came back to Commack. (“Portrait of a citizen: Commack’s
Leading Citizen Past, Present, and Future,” by Peggy Galvin, Smithtown News,
1964, on file in the L.I. History Room of the Smithtown Library.)
Miss Carll now pursued a more active role in the Commack community. She
took an interest in the local school and served as Treasurer and Census Taker for
the Commack District for 25 years from 1929 to 1954. She helped organize
Commack’s first P.T.A. and served as President from 1926 to 1936. She was
actively involved in the Commack Fire Company Auxillary, the Commack
Cemetery Board, and the Commack Methodist Church. She became involved in
local historical societies and produced a map of the Commack area showing the
location of historical sites within the community. This map is one of the most valuable records we have of the history of the Commack community. (Peggy Galvin,
op. cit.)
In 1957 the Commack School Board named the Commack Grammar School
on Jericho Turnpike, the Marion E. Carll School in her honor as
a token of appreciation for all her efforts on behalf of the community. It might have been this act which led Miss Carll to draft
a will which deeded to the Commack School District the Marion
Carll Farm. She always enjoyed having the children of
Commack visit her farm where in 1964 she had “six ponies and
two foals..., one goat, one sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, and
guinea hens.” No doubt she envisioned that one day, the boys
and girls of Commack would be living in a suburban landscape,
and they would have no knowledge of farming and the animals
one might find there. She must have hoped the farm would
continue as a working, active farm that children of Commack
would visit and enjoy. (Peggy Galvin, op. cit.)
Miss Marion Carll died on November 16, 1968, at the age of
eighty-three. She left behind a remarkable record of public service
and the legacy of her farm for future residents to enjoy. In many
ways, Miss Marion E. Carll remains one of Commack’s most important
links to the past. Marion Carll photo courtesy of Society for the
Preservation of Long Island Antiquities.
which served as
Commack's only school
from 1924 until 1958
when Smith’s Lane
School opened. Marion
Carll recalled that the
building "contained four
classrooms and a auditorium downstairs and a fifth classroom and library upstairs. There was a small room for the
principal’s use." For years, only the downstairs classrooms
were used in the school. But following WWII, as the
“enrollment gradually increased” a new wing was added in
1953, followed by another wing in 1956, and yet another
wing in 1960. By the time the school was named in honor
of Marion Carll in 1957, enrollment had increased and so
had the size of the building. ("History of One-Room
Schools in Commack,” by Marion Carll, unpublished manuscript on file in the Commack School District Archives,
p.8.)
In 1973, as the School District's enrollment declined,
the Marion Carll School was sold to the New York Institute
of Technology. The New York Institute of Technology organized a community college at the school and conducted
classes here for a number of years. Eventually a decision
was made to close the facility, and the school went back
on the market. Unfortunately, the empty building was vandalized and set afire. In
1990, the building was
demolished and that was
when a time capsule was discovered in the cornerstone of
the building.
The time capsule was
rescued by Commack Fire
Department members John
Bender and Joe DeJose, and
Fire Commissioners John
Minton and Jerry O'Sullivan
who saw the building being
The Marion Carll Farm house
on Commack Road was built
in 1860 and is presently
owned by the Commack
School District. Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
(22)
razed and ran across the street, found
the cornerstone, and extracted from it a
soldered copper box. When this box was
opened, it was found to contain "a small
leather-bound Bible, a copy of the construction specifications for the school
building, a mason's emblem and a program for the dedication ceremony....
There was also a 48-star American flag
and a history of the school district written
by Grace Hubbs, who taught third-and
fourth-grade students in the building...."
There were also individual class rosters
which listed the names of the teachers
and the names of the 120 students who
attended the school when it opened in
1924. (“Blast From Commack's Past," by
Bill Bleyer, Newsday, Sunday, April 26,
1992, Huntington Special, p.1 and p.6.)
On May 21, 1992, the Commack
Board of Education held a special reception for the students of the classes of 1924. As classmates
from 68 years ago met once again, conversations focused
on memories of friends, relatives, and the good times of long
ago. Many of their memories drifted back to their 1924
school days:
We didn't wear
jeans and no sneakers. I owned two
pairs of shoes.
I had to do
chores before
school, like milk the
cow. After school, I
would help my
brother run the farm. We had 30 or 40 acres on Commack
Road, down from the Marion Carll Farm.”
Charles Harned, who was then in the 1st and 2nd grade
class recalled:
"I remember the classroom was one big room with one
teacher. We had reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, but no
art or science. We had music too. They told me not to sing
because I didn't have a good voice, but to mouth the words.
They tried to teach me to play the banjo, but that didn't
really work out....
Sometimes for lunch, we'd go to this little place on the
corner or eat in the classroom. At recess, we would play ball.
The girls would play ball, too. And some of them were
better than the fellas.
Tony Michalowski, who was in the 1st
Grace L. Hubbs
1892-1957
Grace L. Hubbs was a teacher
in Commack schools for
almost 40 years. She began
her career as a primary
teacher in the Frame School in
1910 at the age of 18 years.
Later on she taught 3rd and
4th grades in the Commack
Grammar School as she continued to do throughout her
career. Every kid in Commack
knew and loved Miss Hubbs.
Sherman Carll remembered
that Miss Hubbs was a little
woman who was barely five
feet tall and weighed less than
a 100 pounds. “She was fast
and nimble on her feet and
she could slap you quick as a
wink for misbehavior and be
your friend the next.”
Mamie Lamberta, who was also in the Ist and 2nd grade
class, remembered: “There were 12 children in our family.
I owned two dresses. You wore one and one you washed.
We usually brought our lunch, but sometimes my
mother would give me a dime and we would buy lunch at
a little luncheonette down the road from the school. For a
dime, we got a bowl of soup, and we would bring our own
bread from home. The husband and wife who owned the
restaurant were thrilled to see us. We were big business.
We had 52 acres on what is now the Mayfair
Shopping Center. We grew potatoes, spinach, corn,
cucumbers, broccoli and sold it. When my father died at
59, we lost the farm and moved to Huntington.
I still have ribbons I won in school running races."
and 2nd grades in
1924, recalled: "There were ten children in our family; we had a farm off
Wicks Road. My father was a farmer.
We walked about two and a half miles
one way to school. Even when there
was three feet of snow, we walked.
My favorite subject was spelling. I
studied it by myself and we had tests. I
hated arithmetic. We didn't have books.
The teacher would do it on the black-
(23)
The Commack School Orchestra
in 1928 with Director Claude
Lounsberry: Music lessons were
$.75 per week. Photo courtesy of
Anne Goldsmith LIndstadt.
Teacher Gertrude
Weyrauch poses with
her 1st and 2nd-grade
class at the Commack
Grammar school in
1924. Photo courtesy of
Anne Goldsmith
Lindtadt.
The third and fourth
grade class taught by
Grace L. Hubbs in
1926 in the Commack
Grammar School:
Some of the children
pictured in this photograph can be seen in
the accompanying photographs on this page
as well as on the previous page. Photo courtesy of Anne Goldsmith
LIndstadt.
it snowed, we walked.
Our parents never
took us to school with
the horse and buggy."
(The preceding quotations came from
"Reunion-Reception
Reaffirms Commack's
Historic Roots,”
Commack Courier, published
by the Commack Board of Education, May 1992, p.l-3.)
These recollections provide insight into the school days
of 1924 and show us what it was like to have attended a little
village school at that time. They also tell us a great deal about
the farming community of Commack in the 1920's. The federal
census of 1920 shows that among the 764 people who
lived in Commack, there were
a number of new immigrant
farm families. The kids speaking different languages in
school were simply a reflection of this diversity. There
were Italian, Swedish,
German, Irish, Scottish, Polish,
Russian, Austrian, French, and
Lithiuanian families living in the
little rural village of Commack.
But language barriers weren't
the only difficulty that one
faced in getting an education in
the 1920's.
There was no high school
in the district. "If you went to
High School you paid your own
tuition and furnished your own
transportation. Marion Carll
attended high school in Jamaica because there was free
tuition.” She recalled that Joe Moreland and his sister Edith “had
a Model T-Ford to go to High School. They paid their own tuition
board. I also didn't like
geography. We learned
reading sitting in a circle.
We had some books but
not too many. There were
about thirty children in the
class and the teacher
taught two classes at one time. We had
singing everyday. Each morning, we would say the Lord’s
Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
I was very well behaved. But if you were bad, the
teacher hit you on the knuckles with a ruler. She would
send a note home to your parents.
All the kids had to take turns cleaning the blackboards and erasers."
Helen Probish, also in the 1st and 2nd grade class,
remembered: "I couldn't speak English, only Polish. I use
to sit next to Frank Michalowski because the teacher
paired the English-speaking kids with the non-English
speaking kids. He was my interpreter. He told me if I had
to go to the bathroom, hold up one or two fingers.
All the kids dressed nicely. We had homemade
clothes. I wore nice shoes, but I took them off when I got
home.
They taught us to count and to do math by counting
on our fingers.
We walked to school; it was a few miles; the school
day was 9 to 3. We brought lunch and ate in the classroom. At recess, the girls would play hopscotch or jump
rope."
Stella Probish, (Helen's sister) was also in the 1st and
2nd grade class: ''There were six children in our family.
We were born in Brooklyn, but we all spoke Polish. Many
of the kids in school spoke different languages. I don't
know how I got through those early school years.
We all walked to school. Our family had a horse and
buggy, but we walked, and it was a few miles. Even when
(24)
The Seventh/Eighth
grade class in 1929
was taught by Emma
Lounsberry who was
also the principal.
Photo courtesy of
Anne Goldsmith
LIndstadt.
The Eighth-grade graduating class of 1930
proudly poses for this
picture. Photo courtesy
of Anne Goldsmith
LIndstadt.
Commack Harbor: On
Townline Road there is a
low spot near Havemeyer
Lane. The surrounding terrain channels water to this
area, and before a sump
and drainage systems were
built, this dip in the road
would fill up with water creating an instant lake.
Commack natives knew
this lake as “Commack
Harbor” and found other
roads to travel when it
rained. Photo courtesy of
Anne Goldsmith LIndstadt.
of fifteen dollars. Marjorie Robbins
who lived across from the Seven
Gables Garage walked to the trolley
at East Norhport to attend high
school. Grace Hubbs got to high
school by riding the mail stage in
the morning.... Clarence Graf
attended Northport High for six
months. He rode with Carlton Burr
in his Gold Band Ford. Getting
there on time was questionable. On one occasion they had
fourteen flats one morning. After six months Clarence changed
to Smithtown High because he could ride mornings with the
baker. He got home the best way he could.” It was only with determination, perseverance, and a real desire that a student succeeded in graduating from high school. (“Reminiscences" by Marion E.
Carll at the testimonial dinner given for Joseph Moreland on his
retirement from the Board of Education, 1959.)
World War I brought changes to Commack, and one of the
changes that outlasted the war was prohibition. With the adoption
of prohibition legislation, the nation embarked on the great “social
experiment” of making the sale of hard liquor and beer illegal. The
era of speak-easies, near beer, bath-tub gin, and rum-running
began. One speak-easy in Commack was the Deer Head Tavern,
a forerunner on the site of today's Bonwit Inn. The tavern had a
bar with a dance hall attached to it. There was a big dance floor
that had fireplaces at both ends, and it was a very popular
nightspot for young adults. Much of its popularity came from the
availability of mixed drinks.
The farmers of Commack, still mostly devout Methodists, didn't much care whether or not a man could buy a shot of whiskey in
a local tavern. If a man wanted beer or whiskey, then he simply
made it in his own still. Howard Moreland, who lived through the
tough times of prohibition in Commack, remembered that a number of people had stills where they were making their own whiskey.
Some of this homebrew, such as Grego's ''White Mule," was notorious throughout Commack. Howard recalled that 15 or 20 such
stills were raided in Commack by revenue agents who seized the
illegal brew and busted up the stills. Ron Burr's father told him of a
illegal still that was set up in Burr Hall in 1931. Apparently, Jack
Nott
rented Burr Hall to some city folks who were interested in the
buildings. Without his knowledge, these gentlemen assembled a
highly professional still in the barns and began to gather the raw
materials they needed to distill whiskey. They brought in a huge
quantity of sugar in 100 pound bags and stored it in the barns.
But the Constable of Huntington, Amza Biggs, got wind of the
operation and decided to raid the site. Before the raid went down,
word leaked out that the law was coming, and Ron Burr's father,
George, was told to get the sugar before the raid. So he took his
Model T pick-up, went to the barns, and loaded the 100 pound
bags of sugar into his truck and departed. By the time Amza
Biggs arrived, the sugar had been distributed to families throughout Commack. The still was dismantled and the operation was
squashed before it even began.
Rum-runners used the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway and a fast
car or truck to haul their contraband from secluded coves on the
North Shore and the East End to drop points in Queens and
Brooklyn. Authorities occasionally stopped them on the Parkway,
but according to Howard Moreland, the rum-runners were "slippery characters” who frequently got away. This flouting of the law
irritated many folks in Commack and made them receptive to
recruitment by the Klu Klux Klan. Howard Moreland remembered
the KKK was politically strong in Commack in the early 1920's.
The KKK preached a message of law and order and 100%
Americanism on Long Island. People were recruited and joined in
(25
Burr Hall in 1943:
Burr Hall was attached
to the Smith Burr
Tavern in 1890. The
downstairs section of
this hall was a carriage
shed and upstairs was
a dance hall which
became a popular
place to hold local
dances. It was in the
barn on this property
that moonshiners set
up their still. Photo
courtesy of Smithtown
Historical Society.
What people were reading about
Commack as reported in
The Long Islander in 1920:
“Amos Harned killed a black snake 7 feet long
Tuesday morning. His attention was attracted to
it by the excitement of the birds." July 23, 1920
“Frank Otten, one of our few remaining Civil
War veterans, died at his home here Friday
noon, at the age of 78 years." July 23, 1920
Klan parades and Klan rallies, but
there is no evidence that such an
event ever happened in Commack.
When Howard Moreland was
“Mr. Trifranco’s cow was killed by lightning at
asked if he knew of anyone who
midnight Saturday and was found dead Sunday
joined the Klan, he replied that no
morning." Sept. 17, 1920
one ever knew who was involved
because the members always
"James Wilson was badly hurt last week while
trying to catch a cow. He ran into a wire clothes
wore their hoods. The Klan was
line and fell, knocking out several teeth and
active on Long Island until the end
fracturing three ribs. He was unconscious for
of the decade when its leadership
several days.'' Oct. 1, 1920
ran into legal difficulties and support withered away. The stock mar"Ralph Tripany broke his arm Saturday last
ket crash of 1929, and the years of
while endeavoring to crank Fred Bohnenkamp’s
hardship and deprivation that folcar." Nov. 5, 1920
lowed, put an end to Klan activities
on Long Island.
The Depression hit Long
Island hard in the 1930’s and Commack experienced hard
times as well. Howard Moreland, who lived through the
Depression in Commack, remembered that Commack was
hit “awful hard.” Farmers were “scratching for a living” and
struggling to hang onto their farms. He knew a “lot of people”
who lost their homes and farms. There were “five bad years
of farming from 1930 to 1936.” Farmers had trouble raising
their crops because there was a prolonged drought, and irrigation systems didn’t exist. When they did manage to bring a
crop to harvest, there was nowhere to sell it. Sherman Carll
remembered that his own grandfather
would load-up a truck with vegetables
that they harvested from the fields
behind their house and drive the
truck into New York City markets to
the sell the vegetables. There were
many days when he returned with the
truck fully loaded and would simply
discard the produce that evening. “It
was tough to keep going” and hundreds of farmers on Long Island went
One of the many houses in Commack that
was for sale during the depression: This
photo was one that was given to the Long
Island Room of the Smithtown Library by a
Commack real estate office. Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Library.
bankrupt.
To make matters worse, there were forest fires that threatened the pine barrens
every spring in April and May. The extensive pine woodlands to the south of
Commack would sometimes catch fire,
and a raging forest fire would burn over
the timber. Howard Moreland recalled several large forest fires that swept through
the Commack area. In 1915 a fire blown
by a southwest wind roared over the virgin timberland that once was found in the
Dix Hills area. The fire began at a point
just south of where the Long Island
Expressway and Deer Park Avenue intersect. It headed in a northeasterly direction and burned over a huge tract of forest until it reached Commack Road. In
1918 in an effort to reduce the danger
presented by runaway forest fires, the
State of New York built a number of fire
watch towers in the pine barrens. Fire
wardens were employed to man these
towers and for many years Fred Goldsmith was the Fire
Warden in Commack. In spite of their efforts, the Fire Wardens
couldn’t stop another huge fire from breaking out in 1928.
Howard Moreland said that this fire was “the wildest fire” that
he ever saw. The fire burned for five to six hours over the
same general area as the 1915 fire. Whipped by a strong
wind, flames leaped high in the air as the fire roared like a
“freight train.” After destroying five or six homes in Brentwood,
the fire burned out when it reached Commack Road. These
fires destroyed much of the remaining woodland in southern
Commack.
Automobiles made their appearance in Commack at a
very early date, but not many families owned one before WWI.
Howard Moreland remembered that his family bought their first
car in1912, an EMF touring car. Henry Shea remembered his
father filling up his family’s 1914 Garford automobile at the
(26)
Program cover for
horse races held on
October 8, 1932, at ExSenator Carll S. Burr’s
Race Track: These
races, which included
pony races, were part
of a charitable event
sponsored by the
Sound Shore Aerie,
1815, a chapter of the
Eagles, a fraternal
organization dedicated
to the betterment of all
humanity. The money
raised by these races
was intended to be
channeled to destitute
families at Christmas
time. Race program
courtesy of Anne
Goldsmith LIndstadt.
The Commack General Store: The gas pump to the left
of the store and the Model T Ford parked in front of the
store show that automobiles were becoming more common in Commack. This photo was taken about 1924
when Kelly and Kress owned the general store. Photo
courtesy of the Smithtown Historical Society.
The Goldsmith garage
Photos courtesy of the Smithtown
Historical Society.
Commack General Store. In the photograph of
the Commack General Store to the left, gas
pumps have been installed and an open touring
car is parked next to the store. Jericho Turnpike
had become a major thoroughfare for automobile
traffic travelling east and west on Long Island.
The heavy traffic on Jericho Turnpike led to
the construction of two garages in Commack.
Built in 1922 the first garage, as seen in the middle photograph, was owned by the Goldsmith
family and was located on the northeast corner of
Jericho Turnpike and Town Line Road where the
Whitecastle Restaurant stands today.
On the west side of Commack, on the
southeast corner of Larkfield Road and Jericho
Turnpike, stood another garage. This garage,
known simply as the Larkfield Garage, was built
in 1927. With its four specially lighted gasoline
pumps and modern repair bays, the Larkfield
Garage, stood ready to service the heavy traffic
on Jericho Turnpike. It was said that the hot dog
vendor who did a brisk business nearby had the
best hot dogs and sauerkraut that one could find
anywhere.
Another major traffic artery that ran east and
west in south Commack was the Long Island
Motor Parkway. This roadway, also referred
to as the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, was the
dream of William Kissam Vanderbilt, Jr.
William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. was an
automobile racing enthusiast. In his
European travels, “Willy K” saw many auto
races and this led him to sponsor a series of
automobile races on Long Island that are
known as the Vanderbilt Cup Races. These
races were held in Nassau County, over
public roadways in 1904, 1905 and 1906.
Unfortunately, they were marred by accidents and fatalities and came to an end
when elected officials
banned the use of public
roads as raceways. This
led William K. Vanderbilt
to organize the Long
Island Motor Parkway
Corporation for the sole
purpose of creating a
private roadway that could be used for
automobile racing. (Chris Vagts, Huntington At The Turn of
the Century, “Automobiles.”)
With the financial backing of men such as J. Pierpont
Morgan, Jacob H. Schiff, Harry Payne Whitney, Henry Ford, and
Alfred G. Vanderbilt, the Long Island Motor Parkway Corporation
had no trouble raising the necessary capital to build the roadway. The original scheme was to build a limited access highway
from western Queens all the way out to Riverhead, but the completed roadway never went beyond the shores of Lake
Ronkonkoma. Construction of the Long Island Motor Parkway
began in 1908, and by 1911 the highway reached south
Commack. By 1913 its terminus on Lake Ronkonkoma had
been reached and the toll road was opened.
When the Motor Parkway was opened, the road was
hailed as an engineering marvel of its day. This was because
the Motor Parkway was unique in many ways. It was the first
limited access highway, the first highway to use reinforced concrete as a roadbed, the first highway constructed with banked
curves for high speed driving, and the first highway to have
such safety features as non-skid surfaces, guard rails, and
fencing. Since it was a private road, a $1 toll was charged to
travel on it and only automobiles were permitted to use the
road. The engineers who worked on the design and construction of the road were careful to preserve the natural terrain and
vegetation whenever possible, and the roadway was then carefully landscaped. The finished result was a roadway which
wound through a hilly, beautifully landscaped right-of-way from
Horace Harding Boulevard in Flushing to Lake Ronkonkoma. It
was an ideal road for automobile driving and should have been
successful for its owners as well. But this did not happen and
(27)
This restaurant and
gas station was located on the south side of
Jericho Turnpike just
to the east of Harned
Road. Postcard courtesy of Joel Streich.
The Vanderbilt Motor
Parkway looking west
torward Redleaf Lane
in Commack. Further
west on the Parkway
is another hill that
every kid in Commack
knew about. Just over
the crest of that near
the Commack Middle
School is “Devil’s Dip,”
a steep dip in the road
that was the best sledding hill in Commack.
When snow fell, the
kids in Commack all
headed for this spot.
Postcard courtesy of
Joel Streich.
Unfortunately, the completion of the Spur
came at the same time
as the stock market
crash. The Depression
which followed greatly
reduced the revenue
that the private roadway received and this eventually drove the
Long Island Motor Parkway Corporation into bankruptcy.
The Depression of the 1930s sounded the Parkway’s
death knell. In an effort to maintain its use, tolls “were reduced
from $1 to 50¢ and finally 25¢, but traffic was scarce and
deficits were building up.” The roadway became more of a burden to sustain. In 1935, the L.I. Motor Parkway stopped collecting tolls and Mr. Bohnenkamp lost his job. “By 1937, the highway was little more than a tax burden for its operators, and
negotiations to dispose of it were begun with the three counties
through which it passed. On Easter Sunday, 1938, the Motor
Parkway was closed officially to motorists.” Then on July 1,
1938, “Vanderbilt signed the deeds to the roads and transferred
title to the government agencies that would now have jurisdiction over the highway.” With the stroke of a pen, Vanderbilt
deeded away the rights to the $10 million Parkway “in exchange
for the cancellation of the parkway’s $90,000 tax debt.” (Colleen
Sullivan, “Whatever became of the Vanderbilt Parkway?”,
Newsday Magazine for Long Island, April 15, 1973, p.9.)
One of the factors that led to the demise of the L.I.
Motor Parkway was the construction of the Northern State
Parkway. The Northern State Parkway started as a germ of an
idea in Robert Moses’ mind soon after he discovered a potential
location for a state park on L.I.’s North Shore. This happened in
1922 when Robert Moses was prowling about Long Island looking for sites to locate public parks. In Smithtown he discovered
that the Lamb Estate, with over 1000 acres, was up for sale.
When he surveyed the property, he was surprised to find the
extensive tidal wetlands that existed behind the north shore
beach front. By 1926 Moses found the necessary capital he
needed to purchase the estate and Sunken Meadow State Park
was established. Now all he needed was a way of providing
the Long Island Motor Parkway came upon hard times.
Initially, the Motor Parkway was very popular and was used
by 150,000 cars annually in the 1920’s. Access to the Parkway was
fairly easy. Toll gates were set up at intersections with the main roadways running north and south. In Commack, access to the Parkway
was where Commack Road and the Parkway came together. A
lodge or gatehouse was built where the Bonwit Inn stands today, and
here a gateman would collect the toll for use of the Parkway. In spite
of its easy access, use of the Parkway remained limited because of
the tolls. In 1929, in an effort to increase the use of the
Parkway, the Long Island Motor Parkway Corporation authorized the
construction of the Commack Spur.
The Commack Spur was built as a connecting link between
the Parkway and Jericho Turnpike and today is known as Harned
Road. Not too long ago, large sections of the original concrete surface of this road was still visible from the Northern State Parkway
bridges to New Highway. This Commack Spur made it possible for
someone driving west along Jericho Turnpike to leave the Turnpike
and drive south to the Parkway entrance. Here they would pay the
toll at the gatehouse, pass through the entrance gate and be on their
way to Queens. Julius Bohnenkamp served as the gatekeeper and
collected tolls. He lived in a house on Jericho Turnpike.
(28)
The Carll family photographed with the surveyors of the Long
Island Motor Parkway in
1906: They were staying at the Carll farm
while completing the
survey work on the
Motor Parkway. The
snapshot was taken in
the front parlor of the
Carll family homestead
on Commack Road.
Surrounding Mrs. Carrie
Carll (center) are her
daughters Edith (left)
and Marion (right).
and standing behind
Carrie Carll are her
three sons, John, Ralph
and Howard. Photo
courtesy of Sherman
Carll.
Commack.
The explosive growth that Commack experienced
occurred over a 12 year period from 1954 to 1966. “In 1954
Commack had one school, 256 pupils and a total population of
less than 800.'' By 1966, Commack had "11,368 pupils, 38,000
residents, 17 schools and a district school budget of
$9,964,130." In just 12 years, Commack had become a suburban community that was distinctly different from the farming village that preceded it. (Gene Gleason, “Commack, Hit by
Population Burst, Takes Growth in Stride,” Nev York Herald
Tribune, 1966, article on file in the L.I.Room of the Smithtown
Library.)
There were a number of factors that contributed to the
explosive growth in Commack's population. One of these factors was World War II. The war caught the residents of
Commack by surprise just as it did the rest of the nation. Most
people heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
over the radio. Sherman Carll remembered that the attack on
Pearl Harbor happened on a Sunday, Dec. 7th, and that on
Monday, Dec. 8th, he was back in school at Northport High
School. That morning, all the students gathered in the auditorium to listen to Franklin Roosevelt's war message that was
broadcast over the radio. The United States was now in the
war and President Roosevelt called upon all Americans to do
their part in supporting the war effort.
The war came terrifyingly close to home in Commack in
December of 1941. Ron Burr remembered the day that the
Commack Grammar School kids and teachers were in the
midst of a rehearsal for their Christmas program. The entire
school was in the auditorium rehearsing the Christmas caroles
and special pageant that had been planned for the program.
Ron recalled that his sister Carol had the lead in the play which
was entitled "She Didn't Believe." In the middle of this
rehearsal, there was a sudden pounding on the door of the
auditorium. Mrs. Lounsberry-Phiford, who was the principal,
answered the door. She returned to the auditorium visibly upset
and proceeded to tell the teachers to take their students back
to their classrooms and dismiss them. The kids were going
home. Ron and Carol didn't know what to do since their mother
access to
the park
from New
York City.
Northern
State
Parkway
would
become
that
access.
The newly constructed Sunken Meadow
Parkway snakes its
way south through
the surrounding
woodlands of Sunken
Meadow State Park.
This photo was taken
in 1958. Photo courtesy of David Flynn.
Begun in
1931, the
Northern
State
Parkway
inched its way eastward throughout the 1930’s and finally arrived in Commack about the same time that the
Vanderbilt Motor Parkway was converted into a public highway. But the actual construction and completion of the
Northern State and the Sunken Meadow Parkway through
Commack would not happen until after WW II. Only then
would Robert Moses’ dream of creating a state park on Long
Island’s north shore become a reality. Just as Moses’ Sunken
Meadow State Park opened up the north shore of Long
Island to the families of city dwellers, the access roads would
open up the little farming community of Commack to a tidal
wave of new residents from Brooklyn and Queens.
Commack experiences a period of explosive growth...
In the 1950's and 60's, the farming community of
Commack was transformed from a little cross-roads village
into a densely populated suburban community. This happened so rapidly that it was to have a profound impact upon
the character of the suburban community that emerged in
(29)
This diner was located on the southwest corner of Larkfield road and
Jericho Turnpike. It was owned by
two German brothers who were
known for their German cuisine.
Photo courtesy of the L.I. Room of
the Smithtown Library.
Homeowners had their own victory
gardens to support the war effort.
Everyone had to deal with shortages of staples such as butter,
coffee, beef and sugar. Rationing
became a way of life, and everyone recycled newspapers, cans,
soap, lard, tinfoil and string. Even the
students of Commack Grammar School were
Senator s Grandson
asked to do their part for the war. They sold war
is a War Casualty
stamps to raise enough money to buy a jeep. It
took them awhile but they raised the required
First Lieutenant Carll Burr
$900.
MacDowell
of
Commack
and
Commack's farmers pitched in to do their
Melbourne, Fla., was killed in
action on Jan. 3, while fighting
part and increased their production of potatoes
the Germans in Belguim, according
and vegetables. The government paid premium
to word received last week by his
prices for potatoes and stockpiled them along
uncle, Carll S. Burr Jr.
of
Commack. He was with the 101st
the north side of Burr Road near its intersection
Airborne Division.
with Larkfield Road. By the end of the war, there
The 29-year-old parawere huge mounds of these potatoes stored out
trooper was a son of the late
Louis G. and Emma Burr MacDowell
in the open. In an effort to preserve the potaof Melbourne, and a grandson of
toes, cosmolene had been sprayed over the
Mrs. Carll S. Burr Sr. of Commack
and the late State Senator
mounds. Fortunately, the potatoes were never
Burr....
used and at the end of the war, bulldozers
Lt. MacDowell was wellburied the potatoes. The stench of rotten potaknown in Commack where he spent
many summers before entering the
toes hung in the air for days.
service.
When the war ended with the announce(Reprinted from the Smithtown
ment on August 14, 1945 that Japan would surStar, January 31, 1945)
render, Commack's residents celebrated the
coming of peace. Life slowly returned to what it
had been before the war but the war had set
forces in motion that would soon impact
Commack. The war had forced many young people to
postpone marriage or to delay their marriages. These
young people now opted to get married and begin raising
families. A tremendous housing shortage resulted as these
newlweds began looking for homes.
Another factor that contributed to Commack's population explosion was the availability of farmland.
Commack's farmers were ready to sell their land. One rea-
wasn't home, so they went
across the street to their
aunt's house where they
waited for their mother. No
one understood why the
kids had all been sent
home. Later on, they
would discover that the
reason they were sent
home and school was
cancelled was because a report had been received that
German airplanes were approaching New York City.
Commack’s residents did their part to support the
war effort: young men enlisted, others were drafted, and
women filled in for their menfolk where they could, or went
to work in L.I.'s war industries. Anne Goldsmith worked in
Bayshore making Dzus Fasteners for which she was paid
40¢ an hour, taking home $16 a week. Many people carpooled to Grumman's in Bethpage.
Everyone seemed to be working in war
industries.
Many young men from Commack
contributed to the war effort directly by
serving in the armed forces. Hanging on
the wall of the little Methodist Church in
Commack is a "Service Roll" that includes
many members of the community who
served their country during World War
II. It is apparent from the list that some
Commack families had more than one
son serving in the war. Not all of these
men returned at the end of the war.
The last two men on the list, Carl B.
McDowell and Horace F. Burr, have
gold stars next to their names indicating that they died in the service of their
country.
On the homefront, people
pitched in to do their part.
(30)
The Hoyt’s Legacy to Commack....
If you wander along the nature trails of Hoyt
MR. AND MRS. HOYT,
C. 1945
making things grow. As he expanded the commercial operation of his
farm, he experimented with crops
that would give him the best return
on his time and money. Initially he
planted potatoes, melons, corn,
timothy, clover and other vegetables. He purchased cows and
bred milk cows, purchased a sow
and raised pigs, purchased chicks
and raised egg-laying hens. But
as time went by, Mr. Hoyt began
to make a long range investment
in fruit trees and he became more
and more committed to making his farm into an
orchard.
About half of the 350 acre farm was woodland, and at the time the
Hoyts purchased the farm, only 40 acres of the farm were under active cultivation. Mr. Hoyt immediately began to expand the acreage he had committed to orchard by planting peach trees and apple trees. Each year he added
trees to his orchard so that by 1920 there were some five thousand apple
trees and fifteen thousand peach trees producing fruit. The orchard supplied
fruit to both local and New York City markets.
Mr. Hoyt's patience, experimentation, determination, and persistence
paid off handsomely and the Hoyts' gamble in 1910 proved to be a very
worthwhile one for the Hoyt family. Although the farm and orchards reached
the peak of production during the late 1920’s, the Hoyts continued to work their farm for almost forty years. During World
War II, the Hoyts stepped up production of farm produce to
meet the demands of the war effort, but following the war,
Mr. Hoyt retired from professional farming.
The Hoyts continued to live in Commack and made
their beloved “Crooked Hill Farm” their retirement home.
Mr. Hoyt lived out his life on the farm and died in October of
1954. He was eighty-one. Mrs. Hoyt continued to live at the
farm in Commack after her husband's death. In 1965,
Smithtown Supervisor John V.N. Klein approached Mrs.
Hoyt to see if the Town of Smithtown might be able to purchase the Hoyt farm property. An agreement was reached,
and in November of 1965, a proposition appeared on the
general election ballot to authorize the purchase of the
Hoyt property of 133 acres, with its farmhouse and associated outbuildings. All of this was to be purchased for
$200,000, a fraction of the market value of the land at the
time. The proposition was approved by Smithtown residents and, on June 15, 1966, the Town of Smithtown purchased Crooked Hill Farm from the Hoyts.
Hoyt Farm Park is a unique survival of open land in
the Commack area. It is a wildlife haven in the midst of a
vastly altered suburban landscape. Today the park contains a nature center, a nature preserve and an active
recreation area. Hoyt Farm remains Smithtown's largest,
most intensively used park. It is truly an amazing
resource for the people of Commack to have and enjoy
for generations to come, and we have the Hoyt family to
thank for it all.
Farm Park in the early spring and come upon
the fallen trunk of a tree that has new green
shoots springing to life from the dead trunk, you
may be pleasantly surprised to discover a beautiful display of pink or white blossoms. Upon
closer inspection, you will find that you are looking at the remains of an old apple tree or peach
tree that is still struggling to survive and bear
fruit. These remnants of trees that once were
are a vivid reminder of the fact that Hoyt Farm
Park was once the site of a large and productive apple and peach orchard.
The 136 acre tract of land in Commack
known as Hoyt Farm Park has a very interesting history. The acreage was part of the original
land grant known as the Winnecomac Patent. In fact, the park is located on land that
once was owned by the Wickes family and the Tredwell family, two of the earliest families to homestead in the Commack area.
The Winnecomac Patent was first granted by the Royal Governor of the Province
of New York in the year 1703 to a man named Charles Congreve. Congreve sold off
his interest in the land to others and by 1740, this land came into the possession of
Elnathan Wickes. The Wickes family then moved into the area and built the original
Wickes homestead.
The association of the Hoyt family name with the former Wicks homestead began
in the year 1910. In that year, a young couple living in New York City jointly purchased
the 300 acre Wicks family farm. The names of the couple were Edwin Chase Hoyt and
Maria Louisa Moran Hoyt. With this transaction, the property which had been held by
the Wicks family for almost 200 years, passed out of the family's ownership.
The Hoyts purchased the Wicks farm as a vacation home in 1910. They were
newlyweds living in New York City on East 53rd Street, where they were comfortably
established in their own home. Edwin Chase Hoyt was a successful New York City
lawyer.
At first, the Hoyts divided their time between their home in the city and vacations
on the farm in Commack. But in 1913, after two children had been born, Edwin Hoyt's
dislike of the life of a city lawyer and his longing for the country, led him to give up his
successful career and begin life anew as a gentleman farmer.
The farmhouse that stood on the property proved to be too small for the growing
Hoyt family and so they had it enlarged. In 19l2-1913, a second story was built and an
east wing was added to the original building. In 1915-1916, a third floor with dormer
windows was constructed and a west wing was added to the house. Slowly the house
that stands on the property today began to take its present shape.
When the Hoyts purchased the former Wicks farm, they gambled they could
make the farm profitable. The soil on the farm was exhausted, the fruit trees were old
and diseased, and the house, barn and outbuildings needed extensive repairs. All of
these problems had to be addressed before the farm would become profitable. What
made the venture even more risky was the fact that Edwin Hoyt knew very little about
farming.
In letters to others, Edwin Hoyt described himself as a "novice.'' The fact that he
knew little about farming makes his change of career in mid-life even more surprising.
But fortunately, Edwin Hoyt was an avid reader and a prolific letter writer. He read
every farming journal, magazine, and bulletin that he could find. And when he encountered a problem, he consulted with farmers in the area and then wrote to farming
experts all over the country to seek advice.
Mr. Hoyt experimented with fertilizers, with seeds, with crops, with apple trees,
with fruit trees, and animals He always sought to find a better way of doing things and
(31)
The Hoyt House as it looks
today. The central core of
this house was built in
1770. The Hoyt,s added
the second and third stories to the original house
built on east and west
wings. Photos courtesy of
the Smithtown Historical
Society.
Rows of peach trees
planted by Mr. Hoyt.
The Johnson brothers plow their
potato fields with new Oliver
tractors. Photo courtesy of the
Johnson family.
in the Commack area,
the Johnsons farmed
1500 acres of potatoes. Potatoes were
their cash crop and
had been since the
1920's.
Back in the 30's
and 40's, it required a
lot of hard work to
bring potatoes to the
markets in New York
City. This was especially true when it
came to harvesting
the crop. Tractors
plowed up the potatoes, but they had to be picked out of the soil by hand, placed in
bushel baskets, and then transferred into burlap sacks. The 100
lb. sacks of potatoes then had to be lifted and packed on flatbed
trucks. This incredibly hard, back-breaking labor, was done every
year by all the members of the Johnson family. Migrant farm
workers were brought in to help out with the task. Howard
Johnson remembered that his father used to house these workers in a dwelling that stood to the east of his own home, a house
that once was owned by the artist Edward Lange. Once the
trucks were packed by ''the King of the Overload," as Henry
Johnson was known, they were driven into New York City markets and sold. The Johnsons usually got a fair price for their potatoes since they had a reputation for consistent packaging and
didn't try to cheat their buyers. In this way, the Johnsons made a
living from their farms, but it all came to a screeching halt in the
1950's.
In the early 50's, USDA agricultural agents identified the
cysts of the dreaded golden nematode in the Commack’s potato
fields and put farmers out of the potato business. Since they
could no longer grow potatoes, the Johnsons switched to growing
wheat, rye and sweet corn. Initially, the Johnsons had difficulty in
marketing these crops, but eventually opened their own vegetable
son for this
was the price
that developers were offering for undeveloped farmland. If a
farmer had a
100 acres of
land and a
developer was prepared to offer him $1000 an acre, a man
could make a quick $100,000 profit on his land and walk
away from farming forever.
A second reason that led farmers to sell their land
was the threat posed by an insect pest known as the golden
nematode. The golden nematode was a grub that attacked
potato plants with devasting results. Once this insect
became established in a farmer’s fields, it proved to be
almost impossible to eradicate. Fear of this nasty little grub
led to the confiscation and destruction of a farmer's crops.
Identification of this grub in a farmer's fields meant financial
ruin and Commack's farmers were fearfully watching the
gradual infestation of this pest. Some farmers had their land
condemned by the Department of Agriculture and were
forced to give up the raising of potatoes. Bill Linstadt
remembered that the farmers along Larkfield Road began to
raise wheat as an alternative crop. But most farmers were
discouraged by the possibility of financial ruin and this fear
led them to sell their land.
One farming family that was directly impacted by the
infestation of the golden nematode in their potato fields was
the Johnson family of Commack. Henry Johnson, who
owned a farm on Cedar Road, had potatoes planted in the
surrounding fields that stretched away from his home as far
the eye could see. Together with brothers, Frank Oscar,
Johan Arvid, Gustaf Adolph, Carl Albert, and Alfred, the
Johnsons farmed 600-700 acres on property that ran from
Clay Pitts Road to Jericho Turnpike, and from Larkfield
Avenue to Tamarack Street. With the other lands they leased
(32)
One hundred pound
sacks of potatoes on
Johnson farm property await pick-up for
delivery to New York
City markets. Photo
courtesy of the
Johnson family.
In 1954 this barn stood on the Caleb Smith property
to the east of Ruth Blvd. Across Jericho Turnpike,
the roof of a small model ranch house can be seen.
A sign on top of the model advertises the house for
the incredible price $3,995. This ranch was unfinished inside and did not come with property. But a
complete home could be built for less than $10,000
in Commack. Photo courtesy of the Smithtown
Planning Department.
The Johnson family clan swimming
in their backyard pool around 1956:
It is interesting to note the
encroaching housing development
on the potato fields to the north of
their property. Notice the potato
barn also on the horizon. Photo
courtesy of the Johnson family.
News, Feb. 4, 1965, p.23)
Tess and Frank Falcetta
moved to Commack in 1957. They
were married in 1950 and had been
living in Queens. But they wanted a
home of their own and began to
look for a house in Suffolk County.
The further east they went, the
cheaper the houses proved to be.
In Commack, they found houses
they could afford. The home they
bought was a brick, split-level in
the Valmont development on a 1/4 acre plot and it cost them
$16,990. Their old neighbors in
Queens said they were crazy for having moved so far out into the country.
When they moved into their new
home in Commack, the Falcettas
began to think that their old neighbors
might have been right. "There was
nothing in Commack.” There was no
place to food shop until the A & P
opened in 1959. The Falcettas
shopped in North Babylon. There were
no convenience stores, no department
stores. There was no place to eat out
and the Falcettas travelled to
Centerport to dine at Linck's Log Cabin
and the Thatched Cottage. There was
no Catholic Church. There was no mail
delivery. All of these things contributed
to a feeling of being isolated and lost in
the sticks. Many newcomers to
Commack experienced this feeling, but
within a few short years everything
began to change.
Mary Minutillo, who works as a
secretary in the Commack School
District’s Personnel Office, came to
stand and developed a local market. In addition, the Johnsons
began to supply the Yellow Top
Farmstand in Smithtown with fresh
corn that was picked in their fields
in the morning and sold from the
farmstand in the afternoon. Soon
the Johnsons had 40 acres of
farmland devoted to growing sweet
corn, but they had many acres of
fallow fields. They were ready to
sell off some of their acreage.
Real estate developers recognized an opportunity
to make a profit and scrambled to snap up the available
farmland. According to Howard Moreland, the first real
estate developer came to Commack in 1951 looking to
buy farms that might be converted into housing subdivisons. By 1954 developers were swarming all over
Commack buying up farmland for development. One after
another, the farmers of Commack sold out. Almost
overnight, it seemed, the pasture lands and cultivated
fields of Commack simply disappeared to be replaced by
one housing development after another. So many homes
were being built so quickly that Commack became known
as the “Levittown of Suffolk County.”
Developers moved quickly to submit their subdivision
plans to town agencies for review. In the 1950’s, developers did not have to meet the stringent requirements placed
upon builders today and their applications for development
rapidly received approval. By 1955 developers had built
model homes and were offering homes for sale in places
with names like Mayfair Estates, Parkview Estates, and
Valmont Park. Homes were constructed as they were sold
and they sold quickly. As the demand increased for
homes, the prices began to rise. By 1960, homes on 1/4
acre plots were selling for $12,000, and by 1965, the Carll
S. Burr, Jr. Realty was advertising a four bedroom home,
on a 1/2 acre lot for $15,990. A two story home could be
purchased for $16,800. (Advertisement in the Smithtown
(33)
An advertising brochure for the Burford Homes development, a 33 home subdivision off Burr Road, begun in 1955.
Brochure courtesy of Marie and Paul Walter.
1932
Mr. Joseph Heinlein’s 7th
grade homeroom in 1957.
Mr. Heinlein was 21 years of
age and was teaching his
first year in what was soon to
be named the Marion Carll
School. He spent eight years
in the classroom and eventually became the Director of
Personnel for the District.
The students in his classroom came from local farm
families and from families
that had recently moved to
Commack from the city. This
created an interesting mix of
students with little in common - the city kids knew
nothing about farming and
the farm kids knew nothing
about the city.
Commack in the
midst of the housing boom. Mary
and her husband,
Charlie, moved
from Queens to
Commack in
1960. They purchased their
home in
Commack before
they were married in May of
1959, got married in September of
1959, lived with her parents until May of 1960, and then
moved into their new home in Commack. They chose
Commack because it was what they “could afford” and houses were more affordable than in Nassau County and
Huntington. The Minutillos purchased their home, on a 1/4
acre, in Parkview Estates for $15,500. This development is
on the south side of Veteran’s Highway, to the east of
Harned Road. Mary remembers visiting the site when they
purchased their house, and she was surprised to discover
that their plot was in the middle of a potato field and there
were absolutely no trees. It was a long time before the open
fields disappeared in Commack, because Mary remembers
that when her kids were growing up, they were always playing softball in potato fields.
It was a shock for a city girl to live in Commack in
1960. There were no stores along Jericho Turnpike then.
When she needed groceries, Mary shopped at the bakery
and the A&P at Commack Corners. The Post Office was
also located here. The Commack Inn was still standing on
the southwest corner of the intersection as was the
Commack General Store on the northwest corner. A Mobil
service station occupied the northeast corner, just to the
south of the Commack Methodist Church. But there really
wasn’t much else in town in 1960.
This aerial view shows that
much of the area was
woodland. The white
patches are cultivated
fields. Commack
Road/Townline Road runs
north and south on the left
side of the photograph.
Jericho runs east to west
across the center. The
Commack Spur is clearly
visible running from Jeicho
Turnpike south to Long
Island Motor Parkway.
The large circle highlights
the one-mile racetrack that
was owned by the Burr
family and is now the site
of Commack High School.
The smaller circle emcompasses the racetrack that
was behind the Burr family
mansion on Burr Road
(see page 13). Photos
courtesy of the Smithtown
Planning Department.
1962
This aerial view shows
how much the same
area had changed in 30
years. The cloverleaf
interesection of Sunken
Meadow Parkway and
Jericho Turnpike can
clearly be seen in the
center. By 1962 housing
developments crowd the
surrounding terrain and
the open fields and
woodlands have vanished. The large circle
shows where Commack
High School was then
under construction. The
smaller circle surrounds
the Commack Arena
which opened in 1959.
To the left of this circle is
the Commack Drive-in
movie theater, a favorite
entertainment spot for
local families.
(34)
The Long Island Arena in Commack....
N
On November 6,
1960, on the eve of
his election to the
Presidency, John F.
Kennedy addressed
a crowd of 15,000
people at the
Commack Arena.
He was invited to
speak in Commack
by the Rosano
brothers, local
builders active in
local Democratic
politics. Photo courtesy of the Rosano
Brothers of Valmont
Homes.
ot long ago, the Long Island Arena was a fixture in the midst of the Commack business area. Somehow this building, which loomed above the surrounding buildings like
some sort of huge aircraft hanger left over from World War II, seemed to be an integral part of the downtown Commack community. And for a long time, the Long Island
Arena truly was a magnet that was drawing people together in the heart of downtown
Commack. That was when the arena was the site of ice hockey matches, basketball
games, wrestling matches, rock concerts, political rallies, and a whole host of other
forms of entertainment. That was when the arena truly was "a center of sports -- for
all the family."
The Long Island arena was the pipe dream of Thomas P. Lockhart. In the early
1950's, Thomas Lockhart was the President of the Amateur Hockey Association of the
United States and President of the Eastern Amateur Hockey League. He felt there
was a need for an indoor sports arena on Long Island and felt that Commack was just
the right spot for such a facility. The fact that Commack was almost in the geographical center of Long Island, and was fairly easy to travel to by way of Jericho Turnpike,
Veterans Highway, or the Northern State Parkway, made Commack the ideal location
for a sports complex.
Mr. Lockhart's pipe dream began to become reality in 1954 with the construction of the arena on the 22 acre site off Veterans Highway in Commack. Although the
construction started then, it took another five years before the Long Island Arena
opened its doors to the public. The arena itself was "205 feet wide, 330 feet long and
65 feet high" with a floor area of 18,700 square feet. The building was designed so
that it had no interior posts or pillars to obstruct the view and every seat in the house
had an unobstructed view of the floor. By the time the arena opened in 1959, the
seating capacity had been increased to 6700 with parking spaces for 2500 cars.
When it opened, the Arena's Board of Directors announced that they planned
"to present sports events such as Ice Hockey, Basketball, Boxing, Wrestling, both
amateur and professional. In the entertainment field - Ice Shows, Circus, Rodeo,
Horse Shows, Dog Shows, Flower and Nursery Shows, Name Band Dancing,
Dramatic Performances, Public Ice Skating, etc.” The Board of Directors planned to
sponsor "Civic and Commercial Conventions, Industrial Exhibitions, Trade Shows,
Sales and Political Meetings, Civic and Organizational Group Activities, or any other
event that can be held indoors." These were the dreams of the Board of Directors.
Commack would have a sports arena that would be a mecca for sports fans from all
over the island who would flock to see their favorite teams compete, and when the
arena wasn't being used for a sporting event, then it would become the site for family
entertainment.
Mr. Lockhart's dreams went beyond the idea of just an indoor sports arena; he
had visions of building an outdoor stadium where football games, automobile, motorcycle, and bicycle racing could be held.
Although the outdoor sports complex never materialized, the indoor sports
arena thrived throughout the 1960's and 70's. The hockey team known as the Long
Island Ducks made the sports arena their home and they brought the excitement of
professional hockey to Commack. Circuses, ice shows, basketball games, professional wrestling, rock concerts all added to the excitement generated by the arena.
Perhaps the most memorable events staged at the Long Island Arena were the two
rock shows staged by Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath and the political rally that
was held for Richard Nixon. In 1960, when Vice President Nixon was running for
President, he came to Commack for a Republican rally, as did John Kennedy, that
drew a crowd of 15,000 supporters. 9,000 specators crowded inside the arena to hear
the Vice President speak while another 6000 waited outside for a glimpse of the
Presidential candidate. This was the size of the crowd that Mr. Lockhart dreamed of
drawing to Commack, and his wishful thinking had really become reality.
Over the last 20 years, the role that Commack's Arena played as Long Island's
sports center was largely supplanted by the Nassau Coliseum. It became harder and
harder to draw crowds to sporting events at the Commack Arena. Eventually, the interior of the arena was converted into a huge indoor flea market. When the entire site
was developed into the huge shopping center that it is today, the flea market was
closed,and the building and its adjacent roller rink were torn down.
(New York Herald Tribune on February 27, 1966.)
Commack Union Free School District #10
To say that the Commack School District is a union free school district does not mean that the district is free of labor unions. The term
“union free” is a designation N.Y. State has for a school system which
was “formed from one or more common school districts for the
express purpose of operating a high school program, which common
school districts cannot do.” The Commack Common School District
#10 became the Commack Union Free School District #10 on October
28, 1948. The minutes of the Board of Education indicate that on that
date, a special school meeting was convened for the purpose of considering a change in the classification of Commack from Common to
Union Free. The District Superintendent, A.M. Jones, whose office
was located at 355 New York Avenue in Huntington, was in attendance at the meeting. The minutes indicate that they talked about the
classification and what it would mean if Commack became such a district. He must have encouraged the voters in favor of the designation
because after the vote, 38 out of 39 property owners who were present voted “yes” on the question and Commack became a Union Free
School District. Mr. Jones once again addressed the meeting and
pointed out that the new district could be administered by a school
board of between three and nine members. Mr. Jones spoke in favor
of five members and on a motion by Mr. George James, seconded
and carried, a Board of Education with five members was created.
The voters nominated and elected Herman Jurgens, Alfred Johnson,
Francis Lauer, Jack Fredentough, and James Cowie. Commack now
had a new five member Board of Education, just as it has today. But,
it would take another fifteen years before the State of New York would
permit the District to open its own high school.
(35)
The Marion Carll
School faculty in the
1958-59 school year.
Miss Mildred Beck’s 5th grade
class in the Turnpike School,
the soon to be named Marion
Carll School, and previously
known as the Commack
Grammar School. The photo
was taken in 1958
That same year, the Mayfair Shopping
Center opened and Grand Union and
Woolworth’s moved in. Mary Minutillo
remembered attending Catholic services in
the Mayfair Movie Theater and then later in
the basement of Gimbel’s, long before a
Catholic church was built. Grand Union,
Food Fair, Grant’s and the Chinese
Restaurant would open up in 1963 and 1964
as the commercial property along Veteran’s
Highway and Jericho Turnpike began to
develop. In the 60’s and 70’s this commercial
development would intensify and include
Commack Road. The houses that fronted
these main arteries slowly disappeared
before the onslaught of commercial development that followed on the heels of an incredible housing boom. The impact of all this
upon the surrounding area can be most
readily appreciated by comparing the aerial
photographs of Commack in the 1932 and 1962 as
seen on the previous page. In a little over a decade
the rural village of Commack with its open farm
fields and woodlands had been obliterated by the
sprawl of housing developments. The sudden creation of a suburban community in the midst of rural
Suffolk County was to have a dramatic impact upon
the Commack School District. Some of this impact
upon the community can be gleaned from the fourth
annual report of the District Principal in December
of 1963. Entitled “Commack, A School District
Under Explosive Growth,” the report opens with
these words:
"Few school districts in the United States have
experienced the fantastic growth seen in Commack
during the last four years. Within this period the
school district has moved from a small semi-rural
community with two and one-half buildings, thirtythree hundred pupils, and forty-six classrooms to Suffolk's County's
third largest school district with thirteen schools, nine thousand
pupils, and three hundred and forty-one
classrooms."
The 1963 report is interesting
because it highlights what happened in
four short years from 1959 to 1963. The
report notes that:
''In December 1959, the Commack
School District housed 3,052 children in
crowded and only partially adequate facilities. Only part-time education was available to each child in the fifteen room Marion Carll
School, the four rented classrooms in the Commack Methodist
Church building; and in the Kindergarten, first, and second grades of
Smiths Lane School. Only the 551 youngsters in grades seven and
eight at Smiths Lane School had a full time program of education."
Four years later, the Commack School District had 13 schools
and 9000 students who were all receiving a full time educational program. Starting with just the Marion Carll and Smith's Lane Schools,
the School District began a remarkable building program that was to
see the addition of eleven new schools in five years.
By the end of 1963, the School District was keeping pace with the
population growth in the community and had three more schools
under construction with another two in the planning stages.
With the opening of Commack High School in 1962, Commack
finally had its own high school. The lack of a high school in
Commmack had become more of an acute problem in the 1950’s as
the number of high school aged youngsters increased. Surrounding
school districts with high
schools increased their
School
Year Opened
Winnecomac (K-6)
1958
tuition and finally ran out
Cedar Road (K-6)
1960
of room. The need for a
Green Fields (K-6)
1961
high school of its own
Wood Park (K-6)
1961
finally forced the New York
North Ridge (K-6)
1962
State Educational officials
Commack H.S. (7-12)
1962
into
granting permission to
Circle Hill (K-6)
1963
the
Commack
School
Long Acres (K-6)
1963
District to establish its own
South Ridge (K-6)
1963
high school. Starting with
Old Farms (K-6)
1963
the school year of 1959Green Meadows J.H.S. (&-9) 1963
1960, the State allowed
(36)
Mrs. Ketcham’s fourthgrade class in the
Townline School. In
1958 the District was
renting classroom
space in the Commack
Methodist Church building on Townline Road
(the present-day site of
Pumpkin Patch
Nursery). Through the
windows of the classroom can be seen the
house that once served
as the Methodist
Church’s parsonage.
The house was torn
down when the modern
Methodist Church was
constructed.
Commack High School
South opened its doors in
September, 1968 to meet
the demands of the mushrooming secondary student
population. Twenty years
later, with the secondary student population plummeting
as fast as it had mushroomed, it became
Commack Middle School.
the School District to create
ninth grade classes. Tenth
grade classes were created
the next year. By the fall of
1962, when Commack High
School opened its doors, 9th,
10th, and 11th grade classes
were enrolled. In the school
year of 1963-64, Commack
High School proudly graduated its first class of 12th
graders. It doesn’t seem possible, but the Commack
School District has only had a
high school for 36 years.
Some of those first Commack
graduates of the class of 1964 are teachers in the
school district today.
The building of all these schools had a tremendous impact
upon the Commack community and the District Principal
addressed many of these problems in his report. He discussed
the growth in staff and the search to find competent, qualified
teachers and the need to set commensurate pay scales. He also
pointed out that the costs associated with building new schools
and hiring staff would continue to cause annual school budgets to
rise and the corresponding tax rates to increase. In addition, he
predicted that the opening of new neighborhood schools would
reduce the need to bus children from one
area to another.
Many Commack residents recall having their child transferred from one school
to another while the district was in a state
of flux. Marian Raccuglia who works as a
secretary in the Commack School District's
Personnel Office remembered the experience that her son Richard had with busing.
The Raccuglias moved to Commack in
1964 purchasing a high ranch in the Pine
Cone development near Hoyt Farm. Their
home was already built, but the development was still being completed. Sidewalks
were in place, the streets were still being
paved, and there were no street lights. Wood Park Elementary
School was just two blocks away. Yet when her son Richard started
school, he attended kindergarden at Indian Hollow School. Then he
was bused to Sagtikos for 1st grade and then Rolling Hills from the
2nd through 6th grades. His daily ride to Rolling Hills took 25 min- Physical Education high
utes. In the 7th grade, he was
jinks in the 1960’s.
sent first to Greens Meadows Jr.
High School and then Saw Mill
Jr. High School. He attended
Commack High School South
during his last four years.
Richard's experience may be
atypical, but his experience certainly illustrates one of the problems that the community residents experienced because of
explosive growth.
As the Commack community continued to grow in the
1960's, more schools were
added. In 1964, Indian Hollow
(K-6), Grace L. Hubbs (K-6),
and John F. Kennedy Jr. High
School (7-9) all opened. In
1965, Rolling Ridge (K-6) and
Sagtikos (K-6) opened. Finally in
1968, Commack High School South
opened its doors.
With the opening of so many schools
in Commack throughout the 1960's,
the district personnel office was hard
pressed to find competent, qualified
teachers to fill the schools. No one
remembers this more vividly than Joe
Heinlein who became Commack's
Director of Personnel in 1966. The
next few years were frenetic ones for
Joe's office.
The peak year came in 1968 when
the District hired 183 teachers and
Mrs. Jane Mealy with her first
class, a fourth-grade class at
Smith’s Lane School in 1966.
(37)
The safety patrol for Cedar
Road School, April 1961.
staff for the newly
built Commack High
School South.
Recruitment teams
were organized and
dispatched to find
teachers throughout
New York City, New
York State, the eastern seaboard, and
the middle West.
Joe travelled with
the teams, and
offered positions
and salary agreements to prospective candidates. The
Board of Education
would subsequently
approve these agreements. The District still needed more teachers
so job fairs were organized in the gymnasium of Green Meadows
JHS. Buses were sent to New York City colleges and universities to
bring college graduates to Commack where they were interviewed
and offered jobs on the spot. In this way, the Commack School
District found the 183
teachers that were needed.
By the end of the
1960's, the Commack
School District had
become the 2nd largest
school district in Suffolk
County with more students, schools and teachers than any other district
except Brentwood.
A composite of
images taken from
a 1967 Commack
District publication.
Nurse-teacher Mary-Jon
McWhirter measures and
weighs students at Cedar
Road School.
(38)
1975-85
ENROLLMENT PROJECTIONS
John J. Mandracchia,
1928-1979...
8,000
1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
1985
7,500
Hard times in
Commack...
John J. Mandracchia was the principal of Sawmill
John Mandracchia’s
contributions to the
Commack Schools
resulted in his
recognition as one
of only three educators to have a
school building
named in their
honor.
Junior High School from 1972-1979. He was a
man who had a genuine concern for others and in
the short span of seven years that he was in
Commack, he won the respect of his colleagues,
his staff, and his students.
Mr. Mandracchia was born in Brooklyn in 1928.
He was educated in New York City schools and
then attended Columbia University. He graduated
with a B.A. in History in 1957. He taught school in
Brooklyn and pursued an administrator’s certificate
at New York University. In 1967, he became an
assistant principal in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of
Brooklyn and then was appointed acting principal. In 1969, Mr.
Mandracchia moved to Westbury where he became the principal
of Westbury Junior High School. In March of 1972, he was recruited by the Commack School District to become the founding principal of Sawmill Junior High School.
As principal of Sawmill JHS, John Mandracchia was a charismatic leader who inspired his staff and students to do their best.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. John J. Battles described him as
"an active participant in community, school and cultural, affairs."
He was committed to developing art, music and cultural programs
for the Commack school district. This interest led to his involvement in the Smithtown Arts Council and cultural affairs in
Commack. He was a likeable, friendly man who took a sincere
interest in those he met and he was just really beginning to make
his mark upon Commack's schools and community when he
passed away.
Mr. Mandracchia was on a trip with his wife, Viola, to San
Francisco, California, during the mid-winter vacation in February of
1979, when he was struck down by a heart attack. His body was
flown back to New York and he was buried at St. Charles
Cemetery in Farmingdale. At the age of 51, John J. Mandracchia
was gone.
As a way of showing their respect for John Mandracchia, the
School Board changed the name of Sawmill Junior High School to
the Mandracchia / Sawmill Junior High School.
7,000
6,500
*
*
6,000
As the decade of the 1970's
5,500
began, the Commack community
continued to grow until its popula5,000
tion approached 40,000 residents
with over 15,000 school-aged
4,500
children. It seemed as if there
4,000
was no end in sight to the mushrooming population growth of the 3,500
district. In 1971, in response to
3,000
the surging increase in the number of junior high school age chil- 2,500
Secondary
Elementary
dren, the school district voters
2,000
authorized the construction of
two new junior high schools. In
1972, Saw Mill Junior High
School and Burr Junior High School opened. The district
now had a total of 21 schools -- 15 elementary schools, 4
junior high schools, and 2 high schools. The Commack
School District was ready for the anticipated crush of students -- but it never came.
Incredibly, the enrollment in Commack schools
began to decline. This happened for a number of unforeseen reasons. 1973 brought the end of the Vietnam War
and this led to an immediate cut in the military and
defense spending throughout the nation. This meant that
the defense industries that had thrived on Long Island during the war begin to reduce their payrolls and cut back on
their staffing. Unemployment rose on Long Island and jobs
became difficult to find. This hit Commack particularly hard
where many engineers and skilled laborers lived. Houses
went on the market but buyers couldn't be found. The con-
(39)
*
*
*
*
These enrollment projections which were made in
1976 were actually pretty
accurate. This was the
first year that the New
York State Department of
Education required all
school systems to establish a five year projection
of enrollment. Commack
predicted that the District
would have 5500 students in1985, and ten
years later the District
actually had 6100 students.
struction of new homes and new developments ceased and this
threw more men out of work. Rampant inflation only compounded
everyone's difficulties and to make matters worse, property taxes
kept going up and up. Nobody wanted to buy a home in
Commack.
With few families moving in and others unable to move out,
the number of children in the school district fell off precipitously
especially in the primary grades. It soon became apparent that
the elementary schools were underutilized. The neighborhood
school concept was a great idea as long as there were enough
children in the neighborhood. Initially the concept worked well
and the families that moved into the new developments of
Commack had plenty of kids to fill the classrooms. But as these
children grew up and graduated there were no new families moving in. "Empty nesters" occupied many of the homes. So the
neighborhood schools in the district, that were located in the
older developments, experienced a decline in their enrollments.
With empty classrooms, too many teachers, and too many
schools, something had to be done.
In 1974, the Board of Education decided to close the
Marion Carll School. It seemed impossible, but just two years
after opening two brand new schools, the school district was now
boarding up a school. And two years later, the district was ready
to close two more schools. Public hearings were held and residents came out in droves to protest the closing of their neighborhood schools. They objected to the busing of their children and
the problems they would have in picking up and dropping off their
children for school. They also voiced their concerns over the
staffing and crowding that would result in the new school. Over
these objections, the Board of Education and the district administrators had to consider the escalating costs of maintaining and
(40)
staffing so many buildings. They had to consider the impact
that cuts in state aid would have upon local taxes. In the end,
they had to make a decision that would benefit all the taxpayers of the school district, not just the people within the immediate area of the neighborhood school being closed. In the end,
the Board of Education chose to close schools as district enrollment declined further.
As the years went by, one school after another was
closed as the district enrollment dropped. The closing of
schools throughout the 70's and 80's was accompanied by a
reduction of the professional staff. Teachers were excessed
and told that they were losing their jobs. Operating under the
premise that the last hired would be the first fired, seniority lists
were drawn up and teachers were made aware of their number
on the list. The difficulty of telling who would stay and who
would go was compounded by an individual's certification status and the needs of the district. As the Director of Personnel,
Joe Heinlein went through agony everytime he had to call in a
teacher who had been recently hired only to tell him that he
was losing his job. As the years went by and the schools continued to close, more and more people were excessed. Tenure
didn't count for much and there were many people who had
over 15 years of teaching in the district who lost their positions.
In 1972, there were over 900 people on the Commack staff.
Twenty years later, the numbers had dropped to 500. It was a
terribly difficult time for all concerned and many gifted teachers
left Commack. The one thing that the Commack School District
did attempt to do for its teachers whose positions were threatened was to offer them an opportunity for cross-training and
recertification. The District actually paid for teachers to go back
to school and get the training they needed to become an ele-
mentary school teacher, or become a science teacher. In this
way, some 40 teachers found continued employment in the district, but there were many who received their pink slips and left.
The list of schools that closed is incredibly long. By 1983 eleven
schools had closed and it seemed as if the decline in enrollment
would never stop.
SCHOOL:
OPEN YEARS:
1923-1974
Marion Carll
1963-1976
South Ridge
Grace L. Hubbs 1963-1976
1957-1979
Smiths Lane
Green Meadows 1963-1979
Jr. H.S
1962-1980
Long Acres
1962-1981
Circle Hill
John F. Kennedy 1964-1981
Jr. H.S
1965-1981
Sagtikos
1961-1982
Green Fields
Winnicomac
1958-1983
DISPOSITION OF THE BUILDING:
Sold to N.Y. Tech. Institute
Burned, demolished
Became Administrative Bldg.
Leased to U.C.P.
Sold to YM/YWHA
Leased to a Day Care Center
Sold, demolished
Sold, demolished
Leased to AHRC
Sold to YM/YWHA
Sold to Hebrew School
By September of 1986, the Commack School District enrollment dropped to 6100 from its high of over 15,000 students in
1972. The District had lost over 9000 students in fourteen
years. Since enrollment in the two high schools was now also
falling, the Superintendent of Schools, Dr.Joseph Del Rosso,
became concerned that the cost of maintaining two high schools
would soon become more than the overburdened taxpayers of
the Commack School District could stand. So Dr. Del Rosso
convened an ad hoc
advisory committee,
consisting of community members, staff,
and the Board of
Education, to study
future enrollment
trends and to determine whether a reorganization of the K-6,
7-8, 9-12 grade level grouping was necessary. The committee
was known as the “Citizens Advisory Committee on Redistricting
Elementary Attendance Boundaries and Elementary School
Reorganization,” and it was chaired by recently retired Assistant
Superintendent Forrest McMullen.
The committee met throughout the year. They reviewed
enrollment trends and considered dozens of different grade level
structures. They reviewed class sizes and investigated the pros
and cons of an all-day kindergarten program. Finally, in
September of 1987, the committee released its findings and presented the taxpayers with four choices that could be made in
reorganizing the district. All of the options involved the restructuring of grade levels and the closing of still more schools. A series
of four public meetings was held to recieve community input and
the public
responded. By
the fourth
meeting, over
800 people
showed up to
tell the Board
of Education
why they did-
(41)
Circle Hill
Elementary
School (above)
and John F.
Kennedy Jr.
H.S. (below)
stood side by
side on the
north side of
Scholar Lane.
Both were torn
down to make
way for a housing development.
Commack
High School
9-12
THE NEW SCHOOL
ORGANIZATION
AT A GLANCE...
Commack
Middle School
6-8
MandracchiaSawmill Intermediate
School 3-5
Rolling Hills
K-2
Wood Park
K-2
closed. Eventually the Cedar Roads School was leased by the
Association for the Help of Retarded Children and the Old Farms
School was leased to a day care agency and the Ohman School of
Ballet.
Throughout the 1987-88 school year, meetings continued to
be held with the public to assure them that the plan would be carried
out faithfully. Weekly meetings were held with administrators and
staff to review what was needed to implement the reorganization.
Plans were made to move over 90% of the district's equipment and
furniture from one building to another. Blueprints were drawn to
show what modifications would be needed in each and every classroom to assure a smooth opening of school in September. Vacations
were cancelled as staff labored over the summer months to move
over 10,000 boxes of supplies, materials and equipment. School bus
routes were carefully planned and trial runs were made to see if the
30 minute time constraint could be achieved. An appeal to the
Commissioner of Education was filed asking for a stay of the implementation of the reorganization plan, but the request was ultimately
denied. Opening day approached, and it seemed that there was no
way the schools would ever be ready. Yet right on schedule, opening
day came and eight totally reorganized schools opened to 5,807 students. Another school year had begun.
One of the most remarkable accomplishments of the reorganization plan was the combining of Commack High School North and
Commack High School South. It was remarkable because these two
high schools had been fierce rivals throughout much of their existence. Athletic teams battled one another. Bands, kicklines, and
cheerleaders tried to outdo each other. Each school worked hard to
have the best school newspaper, the best yearbook, the best musical production. They were constantly competing against one another and the achievements and accomplishments of one school were
always compared to the other. The children from the different
schools rarely sociallzed with each other, and when they did
encounter one another, fights would sometimes erupt. So it was
quite astonishing when the two schools were joined, and the students buried their animosities and became classmates and friends. It
n't like the proposals and to voice
their concerns about losing their
neighborhood schools. The meeting lasted until 1:35 a.m. It was
clear that the community was fearful of any change in the organization of the district. The members
of the School Board were split on
the issue. But on November 19,
1987, the School Board voted by a
3-2 margin to adopt the current
organizational structure that the
Burr-Intermediate Commack School
School 3-5
District follows
today.
The adopted
North Ridge
K-2
Indian Hollow
K-2
plan called for four Primary Schools (K-2), one in each
quadrant of the school district, two Intermediate Schools (35), one Middle School (6-8) and one High School (9-12).
The plan incorporated many of the features that Commack
schools operate under now: full-day kindergarten, reduced
class sizes at the elementary levels, science labs in each
school and computer labs in each school. The Board also
addressed parental concerns over the length of time their
children would be riding a bus by guaranteeing that no child
would have more than a 30 minute bus ride to school. The
adopted plan called for the closing of Cedar Road and Old
Farms Elementary Schools, and in June of 1988 they were
(42)
was probably easier for the students to do this than it was
for the teachers of the respective schools, and for years
after the merger took place, teachers still referred to each
other as a "North teacher” or a ''South teacher."
Before long, teachers, staff, administrators, parents,
and the Commack community began to look with wonder
at what had been accomplished. Full-day kindergartens
were a great success; computer labs and science labs
were greeted with enthusiasm, and most residents began
to talk favorably about the advantages of the new grade
level organization. What had emerged was a vastly different
school system from that which had preceded it. Gone was the little neighborhood school, and in its place stood a larger regional
school that was much better staffed and equipped to meet the
needs of Commack children in the 21st century. With this
change, the Commack taxpayer was getting the “best bang” out
of his hard-earned tax dollars since money was not being spent
to staff and maintain half-empty schools.
As the 1990-91 school year began, the national economy
had begun to weaken. Inflation was high, tax revenues had fallen
off, deficit spending was reaching epidemic proportions. New
York State began to talk about "belt tightening'' and slashing
spending. In January of 1991, New York State did what it had
never done before -- it slashed State Aid to Education in the middle of the school year. Most school districts were hard hit, as
budgets had already been adopted, staff members were already
working, taxes had already been levied and spending plans were
already in place. Commack was especially hard hit because it
was considered a relatively wealthy district by the State and lost
over 1/3 of its aid, a total of $7.9 million. The Board of Education
convened an emergency meeting to decide how to deal with this
crisis. Having no way to obtain such a large sum in a short time,
the Board had no choice but to reduce spending by cutting staff.
After reviewing several plans, the Board determined that l00 fulltime staff members had to be cut from its payroll.
Administrators, teachers, secretaries, custodians, and
teacher aides were all impacted. By the end of June, 1991, the Board
reduced its staff by 100 full-time positions, using attrition when possible and pink slips when necessary. One thing was clear to everybody.
Had it not been for the reorganization of the schools in 1988 and the
streamlining and honing down of spending in that year, the
fiscal crisis of 1991 would have been an absolute disaster.
As it was, the fiscal crunch hurt, but the school district was
able to survive and continue the business of educating the
young people of Commack.
As the State Legislature agonized over what to do to
reduce State spending, the cry to consolidate schools
became a clarion call. As a result, Cornell University was
selected by the Legislature and the New York State
Education Department to review organization in all school
districts having 5000 or fewer students. Commack was
included in this study because its enrollment had declined
by over 60% since 1970 and because it was believed that
our enrollment might fall below 5000. Cornell sent several
researchers during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 school years
to look carefully at the School District's organization, spending patterns, and enrollment trends. After a lengthy study, it
was determined that the Commack School District was not a good
candidate for consolidation with any of the surrounding school districts.
In each case, little savings could be realized because no school closings would result. In other words, the Commack School District had
already maximized its use of tax dollars by consolidating schools within its own district.
Looking back over the turbulent years of the 1970's and 1980's,
when the School District's enrollment was constantly shrinking and
schools were closing, it is amazing to discover what an incredibly
strong and unified school community emerged from all the turmoil. In
all, 13 schools out of the 21 schools that had been built, were closed.
Decisions were made and steps taken that divided people and caused
disappointment, but in the end, everyone pulled together to make the
schools successful. Dr. Del Rosso, who was Superintendent for many
of these years, was fond of saying, "Schools are not made of brick
and mortar. Instead, they consist of the sweat, hard work, and caring
of their many constituents. We are the schools and our success can
only be mirrored in the success of those who attend."
(43)
A Decade of Excellence....
In the l990's, student enrollments in the Commack School District once
again began to rise. Although from 1990 to 1993, the student population actually dropped to a low point of 5,426, it has risen steadily since
then. In the later l990's, enrollment increased by 4% annually. The current enrollment of 6,570 students in 1999-2000 school year is projected
to rise through the 2008-09 school year to more than 8,100 students.
This growth trend is primarily due to
the increase in the size of kindergarten
classes which have exceeded 530 students every year. This is an indication
that more and more families with
young children have moved into the
district. These families have purchased the homes of "empty nesters”
in the older developments, or they
have found homes in the new developments such as Country Woods and
Country Estates. Commack has once
again become a desirable place to
own a home and bring up children,
and the reputation of the excellence of
the Commack School District is largely
responsible.
As the district experiences growth, facilities have been expanded, especially at the primary school level where Indian Hollow Primary
School and the North Ridge Primary School have received classroom
additions during the 1999-2000 school year. Further study is currently
under way to determine what educational facilities and programs will
be needed in the foreseeable future. The current elementary students
will most likely require additional classroom space in both intermediate
schools, Commack Middle School, and Commack High School.
Buildings and grounds have been upgraded during the decade of
the 90's with two major bond issues to improve and repair facilities and
to provide for additions where needed to the primary schools. The most
recent bond issue provided
funding for additional computers and for the upgrading of
computers to enhance teaching and learning. Most classrooms now contain upgraded
computers for direct student use. In addition computer laboratories
that are fully equipped can be used by an entire class at one time.
Libraries and school offices have also benefitted from the addition of
new computer technology which provide access to the internet for educational research. The district foresees the growth of web site information along with an eventual home-school connection that will provide
interactive links between students, teachers and parents.
The Commack School District, along with other districts in New
York State, has most recently been impacted by the New York State
Education Department mandate of higher learning standards for all students. These uniform requirements have
raised the bar for minimum achievement and have required
student mastery of prescribed subject matter in order to
receive a Regents Honor Diploma. All students graduating
in the class of 2005 and thereafter, will be required to
achieve a Regents diploma. This requirement has
increased the number of academic credits and subject
sequences that a student must take to graduate. These
higher academic standards have led to the need for more
academic support and skills development classes within
the entire school system. In addition, special programs
have been created to support the diversity of student
needs. The district currently functions within a 183-day student school year and has recently increased the student
learning time in school to seven hours per day. In order to
help students achieve higher academic standards, a large
part of the instructional budget has been increased to provide the necessary staff development and training.
The increased enrollment and the higher academic
(44)
standards have created a need for
more professional staff. The addition of staffing to meet these challenges has been further extended
by the large number of career
teacher retirements during the last
five years. This happened because
so many teachers were hired during the explosive growth of the district during the 1960's. As a result,
the school district now has more than 550 full-time teachers, yet
more than 50% of these teachers have less than five years in the
district. The recruitment, training and development of these new
teachers remains one of the challenges that the district faces in the
21st century.
The support of traditional family values has always been the
cornerstone of Commack Schools and community. A nurturing atmosphere that was first fostered by the neighborhood school concept,
continues to receive ongoing support from the staff within each of the
eight schools of the district. A strong academic commitment to excellence, demonstrated through challenging courses and daily workloads, is balanced by the promotion of an intrinsic joy of learning
through participation in classroom activities and school events. An
effort is made by teachers and staff to make the students feel at
home and comfortable in
their school environment
- to get them to feel a
part of their class, their
school, and their community. Service to others
has remained at the forefront of the schools' values with a true sense of
altruism permeating the
daily life of students, K12. Celebration of
Commack's centennial
(45)
year as "A Caring
Community" with emphasis upon personal growth
and development has
been universally supported within the community
and schools. Students
participate in community service organizations through various
clubs and activities. They learn to care and share with others.
They also demonstrate their commitment to cooperative efforts
and teamwork through althletic competition at all levels. This cooperative effort is reflected in the awards that have been garnered by
our athletic teams who have won county and state championships
and by an exceptional kickline/danceline which has earned national awards. The cooperative spirit is also reflected in the high level
of student involvement in music, drama and art. The district provides comprehensive diversified opportunities for personal leadership experiences accentuating positive growth through achievement and participation.
One measure of how well the Commack schools are doing
in comparsion to other schools is the New York State Report Card.
Commack students have done very well on the New York State
testing on all grade levels, and the results compare favorably with
surrounding districts. Another method of assessing the achievement of Commack’s schools is to look at the number of students
who graduate and then continue on to a college or university. More
than 95% of Commack High School graduates during the late
l990's enrolled in college or university study. This is a very clear
indication that the academic program has continued to grow in
quality and stature in order to service the needs of its highly-motivated college bound students. A further indication that Commack
schools prepare their students for college is the fact that an
extremely large number of Commack graduates have been
accepted into highly-competitive colleges.
For the past four years the
Commack Cougarettes have
won a National Kickline,
Danceline, or Pom team
championship and have
remained undefeated in Long
island competition.
Thumbs up for Commack
Middle School as Principal
Pamela Travis-Moore (with
bow) is joined by School
Superintendent Dr. James
Hunderfund, administrators, and staff members in
a hardy congratulation to
all that helped make this
nationally recognized
honor a reality.
Another measure
of the quality of
Commack's educational program is the number of students graduating with a Regents
diploma. Recent graduates of Commack High
School had a 70%
Regents diploma rate
which compares very
favorably to Long
Island and New York State averages for Regents diplomas. In addition, the
class of 1999 had a record number of Advanced Placement Scholars based
upon their Advanced Placement test scores. Seventy-five percent of these
students received a 3 or higher score on their Advancement Placement exams
which entitled them to college credit. With the largest number of AP national
scholars in Suffolk County and a lion's share of scholar recognition awards,
Commack students have continued to excel beyond New York State and
national standards. And this year, Commack High School became the second
school on Long Island to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate program for students who wish to excel at an international university level of
achievement.
Much of the ongoing work toward the improvement of educational programs and challenges for a better world have been met through the establishment of joint committee work. More than twenty-five district committees currently work on annual tasks to improve the educational program of Commack
schools. Cooperative efforts through Site Based Management teams at each
school have resulted in improvements to the daily life of students and staff.
And a highly organized and energetic PTA organization, which has continued
to grow with enthusiasm and support, has helped to sustain and improve the
educational program of Commack schools.
During the later 90's, the Commack School District was recognized for
its Excellence in Education by the New York State Education Department
naming Commack High School and Commack Middle School as Blue Ribbon
Schools. The school district has also received annual awards from the nationally-recognized School Match Program based upon ''what parents want" for
their children in
education K12. Other honors have been
received by
each of the
eight
Commack
schools including the Suffolk Reading Council
Honor School Award. The district continues to garner accolades,
awards, and accomplishments of special recognition from a wide
array of sources as students continue to perform at an exemplary
level of achievement.
So as the 21st century begins, the Commack school district
has emerged as one of the premier school districts on Long Island.
The educational program has come a long way from the days
when school was conducted in the Frame School, with two classrooms and two teachers where the highest level of schooling one
could obtain was an eighth grade education. The community of
Commack has evolved as well from a little farming village into a
modern, densely populated, suburban community. The glue that
continues to bind the Commack community together is the school
system and its record of achievement in preparing Commack's children for life in the 21st century.
(46)
Seventy-nine
students from
the class of 1999
and 2000 were
named National
AP Scholars.
Commack High School Principal Ron Vale is joined by the School
Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund and the committee of administrators, teachers and parents who prepared the application that helped
Commack High School succeed in becoming a Blue Ribbon School.
Mary Jane Budde
COMMACK PUBLIC SCHOOLS
UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT #10
District Clerk
Rachel Gentile
BOARD OF EDUCATION
President of the Commack Teachers Aides Association
Jane P. Mealy
Mr. John Pelan
Mr.Peter Wunsch
Vice President
President Board of Education
Mrs. Joan S. Bosinius
Trustee
President of Commack
the
Teachers Association
Frank Pagnotta, Jr.
Mrs. Mary Jo Masciello
Shop Steward - Local #74, L.I. Division
Service Employees International Union AFL/CIO
Trustee
Mr. Thomas L. Tornee
Trustee
Dr. Douglas J. Prato
President of the Administrative and Supervisory Assocation
Dr. James H. Hunderfund
Marian Raccuglia
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
President of the Commack Schools Secretarial Association
James A. Feltman
George T. Baer
Associate Superintendent of Schools
Wood Park Primary School
Dr. John J. Koster
Gertrude Fishman
Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Principal - Rolling Hills Primary School
William Damato
Assistant to the Superintendent for Personnel
Toby Goldberg
Dr. Elizabeth Gittman
Director of Instructional Services/Computer Education
Marsha Pacernick
Principal - North Ridge Primary School
Charles N. Heppeler Jr.
Principal - Burr Intermediate School
Director of Special Education
Judy Pace
Dr. Douglas J. Prato
Director of Health, Physical Education and Recreation
Dr. Annette Shideler
Principal - Indian Hollow Primary School
Pamela J. Travis-Moore
Principal - Commack Middle School
Director of Educational Technology
Ronald C. Vale
Peter Brasch
Principal - Commack High School
Coordinator of Music
Marilyn Wunder
Kevin Carpenter
Principal - Mandracchia Sawmill Intermediate School
Operation of facilities Administrator
(47)
SUPERINTENDENTS - District Principals
Commack Public Schools
Board of Trustees
Carll L. Burr, 1899
Herbert J. Harned, 1899, 1900,02,03,04, 17,18
John C. Hubbs, 1899
John A. Gates, 1900
Charles W. Selleck, 1900
Robert B. Smith, 8/21/1900 (Appt.)
John Carll, 8/21/1900 (Appt.) 1929,30,31
David H. Ketcham, 1902,03,04
D.E. Hubbs, 1902,03
Fred E. Haddon, 1904
John Moreland, 1907,08,09 1911
George G. Barret, 1907,08,09
Fred Goldsmith, 1907,08,09, 1917,18
Frank Otten, 09
Oscar Nott, 1917,18 1924,25,26,27
William C. Seaman, 1923
Fred Jaeggi, 1922,23,24,25,26,27,28
William H. Gartelman, 1922,23,24,25,26,27
Louise Otten, 1922,23
Alice Cavallaro, 1929,30,31
George M. Curran, 1929,33,34,35,36,37,38
John Nott, Appointed 1/29/30, 1931,32,33
Herman Jurgens, 1931,32,33,34, 1937, 1948
Anders Lauersen, 1932,33,34,35,36,37,38
Leo Kreigh, 1937,38,39,40,41,42,43,44
Arthur Carson, 1939,40,41,42,43,44
Albert Eucher, 1941,42,43
James Cowie, 1943,44,45,46,47,48
Earle Moss, Sr., 1945,46,47
Alfred Johnson, 1946,47,48,49,50,51,52,53
Jack Fredentough, 1948,49,50,51
Frances Lauer, 1948,49,50,51,52,53,54
Frank Phillip Johnson, 1949,50,51.52,53
Robert Moreland, 1951,52,53
Joseph Hallaran, 1951,52,53,54,55
Lynn Rankin, 1952,53,54,55
Thomas Zabski, 1953,54,55
Joseph Moreland, 1954,55,56,57,58,59
Joseph Marino, 1954,55,56,57
Bertha Heberer, 1954,55,56,57
William Brandesma, 1955,56
DISTRICT PRINCIPALS OF COMMACK
UNION FREE DISTRICT #1O:
John W. Nott, 1955,56
Walter Dalleinne, 1956,57,58,59,60
ErnestCunningham,1956,57,58,59,60,61,62.63,64,
65,66, 67,68,69,70
Charles Russillo, 1957,58,59,60,61,62
L.. Albert Edwards, 1957,58,59,60,61,62,63
Hilliard Steele, 1959,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67
Howard E. Pachman, 1960,61,62,63
John E. McPartlin, 1962,63,64,65
Michael Sheehan, 1963,64,65,66
Donald A. Doyle, 1963,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,
72, 73,74,75,76,77,78
John Fagan, 1965,66,67,68
Theordore Spedalle, 1967,68
Peter Rubinton, 1966,67,68
Robert G.Rennie,1968,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,
76,77,78, 79,80,81,82,83
Simon V. Kerstiens, Jr.,
1968,69,70,71,72,73,74,75, 76,77,78,79, 80,81,82
Stephen J. Harran, Jr., 1968,69,70,71,72,73
,74,75,76
Estelle Fliegler, 1970,71,72,73,74,75,76
James L O'Donnell, 1976,77,78,79
John J. O'Neil, 1976,77
Mary M. Scott, 1977,78,79, 1982,83, 84,85,
86,87,88
Rochelle Masters, 1978,79,80,81,82,83,84
Herbert Charnes, 1979,8Q81,82
Betty Polly,1980,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89
Carolyn Gehlbach, 1982,83,84,85
Joy Todino, 1983,84,85,86,87,88,89
Brian T. Patterson, 1984,85,86,87,88,89,90
,91,92,93,94,95, 96,97,98
Daniel J. LaBianca, 1986, 87, 88, 89, 90,91,
92,93, 94,95, 96, 97, 98
Harvey V. Gasn, 1988,89,90,91,92,94
Diane H. Lerner,
1989,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99
Joy Willens, 1990,91,92,93,94,95,96
John J. Pelan, 1994,95,96,97,98,99
Larry Shulman, 1996,97,98,99
Mary Jo Masciello, 98,99,2000,01,02
Peter R. Wunsch, 98,99,2000,01
Joan S. Bosinius, 98,99,2000,01
Thomas L Tornee, 99,2000,01,0
Mr. Douglas Morey 1956-1959
Dr. Thomas Shaheen 1959-1965
Mr. Franklin Denbesten 1965 (Acting
District Principal)
SUPERINTENDENTS OF COMMACK
UNION FREE DISTRICT #10:
Dr. Paul Mitchell
Dr. Ross Headley
Dr. William Kochnower
Dr. John Battles
Mr. Joseph Heinlein
Dr. Joseph Del Rosso
Dr. James H. Hunderfund
1965-1968
1968-1970
1970-1976
1976-1979
1979-1980
1980-1994
1994-present
Centennial Omnibus Committee
Chairperson Dr. James H. Hunderfund
Carol Bertolotti
Joan Bosinius
William Damato
Hilda Haas
James Feltman
Mary Jo Masciello
Marian Raccuglia
Russell Stewart
Bernie Townes
Ron Vale
Debbie Virga
Terri Williams
Kay Zak
Ken Zweibel
(48)
Commack Historical
Committee
Chairperson
Former Members
Hilda Haas
Terry Chalder
Faith Groody
Nancy Hadland
Julie Hayes
Jane Keller
Barbara Kimmel
Carol Krais
James Montel
Joan Schimatz
Jane Smith
Maria Tripia
Joy Willens
Active Members
George Baer
Carolyn Gehlbach
Regina Goldrick
Nicolina Muolo
Judith Quarry
Caryle Sampson
Catherine Semente
Ronald Vale
Inactive Members
Daniel LaBianca
Sal Sinito
Commack Union Free School
District #10 Principals
Minnie Van Brunt, The Frame School
Anna W. Green, The Frame School
Mary P. Kilts, The Frame School/ Grammar School
William Schoonmaker, Commack Grammar School
Emma Lounsberry, Commack Grammar School
Violete E. Bass, Commack Grammar School
W. C. Mansfield, Commack Grammar School
J. H. Bronson, Commack Grammar School
Douglas Morey, Winnicomac
James Montel, Marion Carll , Old Farms, Sagtikos
James Hunt, Cedar Road, Winnicomac
Arthur Kelly, Winnicomac, Marion Carll, Wood Park
Samuel Gulino, Green Fields, Rolling Hills
Peter Gannon, Wood Park
Martin Sokolsky, Circle Hill Elementary
Michael Mirey, Commack High School
William Kochnower, Commack HS
Perry Bendicksen, Indian Hollow, Marion Carll,
CedarRoad, North R;dge, North Ridge Primary
Volunteers for the Centennial
John Heslin, John F. Kennedy Junior High, Burr Junior High
Louis Orazio, Old Farms School
Allan Carlson, Smiths Lane Elementary, Old Farms
William Mackelin. Green Meadows JHS
Hugh Schulman, South Ridge, North Ridge
Charles Tumrninello, Green Meadows JHS, M-Sawmill JHS
Franklin Den Besten, Long Acres
Charles Robinson, Grace L. Hubbs School
Donald Goldstein, Rolling Hills
Paul Olander, South Ridge
Fred Horowitz, Indian Hollow, Indian Hollow Primary
Jesse Mould, Principal, Commack High School South
Harold Cassidy, Sagtikos, Circle Hill
Anthony Ruocco, North Ridge
John McWhirter, Cedar Road, North Ridge
Walter Boeri, Principal, Commack High School North
Jane O'Reilly (O'Connell), Grace L Hubbs
James Coonan, Commack High School South
John Mandracchia, Sawmill Junior High
Aspasia (Andy) Argis, Sawmill JHS
Ernest Tovo, Burr JHS, Commack High School South
John J. McCarthy, Commack High School South
Peter Flanagan, Long Acres, Old Farms, Wood Park , MSawmill Intermediate School
Jay Niles, Mandracchia - Sawmill Junior HighSchool
David Rosenstein, Principal, M-Sawmill Junior High
Fred McGee, Commack High School North
Pamela Travis-Moore, Commack H.S. South, Commack M.S.
Ronald Vale, Burr Junior High , Commack High School
George Baer, Old Farms, Wood Park, Wood Park Primary l
Gertrude Fishman, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Primary
Charles Heppeler, Jr., North Ridge, Burr Intermediate
Toby Goldberg, North Ridge Primary
Marilyn Wunder, Mandracchia-Sawmill Intermediate
Judy Pace, Indian Hollow Prirnary School
(49)
George Baer
Grace Barrett
Alan Baum
Carol Bertolotti
Linda Beyel
Sharon Blatt
Cathy Bongo
Joan Bosinious
Pete Brasch
Don Burke
Ron Burr
Tina Capogna
Gerard Cairns
Sherman Carll
Renne Csajko
Jayne Cascino
Gertrude Conglario
William Damato
Jim Del Guidice
Sebastian DiRubba
Janet Ellner
Marjorie Esposito
Dee Fabian
James Feltman
Karen Flaim
Bill Gehrhardt
Carolyn Gelbach
Barbara Geller
Susan Glaser
Stan Goldfeder
Regina Goldrick
Jennifer Grabow
Judy Gregory
Bill Gulick
Jim Hall
Betty Hand
David Harned
Brad Harris
Hilda Haas
James Hunderfund
Kathy Hynes
Steve Iannone
Rose Illari
Kitty Jonke
Matt Keltos
Louise Kiley
Annette Kosar
Stacey Kravette
Mark Kutch
Laura Krummenacker
Donna Lund
mary Jo Masciello
Eric Manno
Chris Mattison
Patricia McDonald
Fred McGee
Jack McGrath
Carolyn Milano
Lita Smith-Mines
Mary Ellen Minton
Tracie Morenberg
Emily Moss
Nicki Muolo
Doreen Murphy
Frank Musto
Gail Oliveri
Richard Oliveri
Donna Peguillan
John Pelan
Judy Quarry
Marion Raccuglia
Carol Rizzo
Cathy Roe
Caryle Sampson
Mary Ann Scott
Cathy Schwartz
Cathy Semente
Sal Sinito
Russell Stewart
Ed Storch
Paul Thurman
Thomas Tornee
Bernie Townes
Ronald Vale
Donna Vigliotti
Debbie Virga
Terry Williams
Peter Wunsch
Terry Yoel
Kay Zak
Ken Zweibel
Businesses and Organizations
Boys Leaders Corps
Girls Leaders Corps
Commack High School
JV Cheerleaders
Freshman Football
Sam Ash Music
Lindsay Music
Group Discount Attractions
Bagel Chalet
First Class Bagels
U.S.A. Poly
Outback Restaurant
Commack Ambulance
Commack Fire Department
US Post Office 11725
Optimum Design Group, Inc.
On Saturday, October 30, 1999,
the Commack community spent
the day commemorating and celebrating the Commack School
District’s 100th anniversary. The
day started with a 5 kilometer foot
race and a grand Centennial
parade. The parade was followed
by Homecoming activities, by an
Alumni Hall of Fame induction, by
a magic show and by a soccer
game that was open to alumni and
school district employees. More
than 3,000 residents and friends
took part in the day. On these
pages are some of the highlights
of the day’s events.
Two longtime Commack legends, recently retired District Clerk, Tess
Falcetta (L), and School District activist, Hilda Hass (R), were named
Grand Marshalls of the Centennial parade. At a recent Board of
Education meeting, rooms at Hubbs Center were named in their honor.
More than 100 Commack residents, students , teachers , administrators, and local
running aficionados took to the streets surrounding the High School in the First
Commack Homecoming 5K Race. The foot
race was initiated this year as part of the
100th anniversary commemoration of the
Commack Public Schools. Medals were
awarded for first through third place finishes,
in six different age groups, for both male
and female participants. Plans are afoot to
make the race an annual event.
(50)
Outback Steakhouse of
Commack provided food, with
profits going to Dollars for
Scholars.
Centennial Alumni Soccer teams
High School principal Ron Vale and
coach John Foley give pep talk to
the football team prior to their 20-14
victory over Smithtown.
Almost 300 Commack residents visited the
High School football field during the
Centennial Homecoming celebration, not to
see the football game but to acquire a unique
collector’s item. The Commack Post Office
arranged to place a special postal tent at the
event and provide patrons, at the cost of a
stamp, with an envelope featuring a special
first day cancellation commemorating the
100th anniversary of the Commack Schools
complete with the Centennial logo.
(51)
The “Great Infantino” treated Commack
youngsters to a magic show in the
High School auditorium.
CENTENNIAL BANNER SPONSORS
EDWARD ALAN - BIG AND TALL
THE ALEXANDER FAMILY
BAGEL BOSS
BAGEL CHALET OF COMMACK
BALESTRAS FAMILY AND FINE HOST CORPORATION
BALLOONS AND BASKETS
BANK OF NEW YORK
LUCY AND MEL BARUCH AND FAMILY
THE BIONDO FAMILY
THE BONWIT INN
THE BROOMFIELD FAMILY
SUSAN BROWN - LIC. BROKER ASSOC.
BROWN’S JEEP CHRYSLER
BURR INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL STAFF
BURR PTA
CHATEL CONTRACTING COMPANY
CHRIST THE KING - CYO
CITICORP INVESTMENT SERVICES
COMMACK ABBEY INC. - A HOME FOR FUNERALS
COMMACK ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISORY ASSOCIATION
COMMACK CORNERS HAIR STYLISTS
COMMACK FIRE DEPARTTMENT
OMMACK HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS CABINET
COMMACK HIGH SCHOOL PTA
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERS CLUB
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL NATIONAL JR. HONOR SOCIETY
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL PTA
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL STAFF
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT COUNCIL
COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL TRI-M MUSIC HONOR SOCIETY
COMMACK NORTH LITTLE LEAGUE
COMMACK PTA COUNCIL
COMMACK SCHOOLS HUBBS ADMINISTRATION STAFF
COMMACK SCHOOLS LIBRARY STAFF
COMMACK SCHOOLS MAINTENANCE STAFF
COMMACK SCHOOLS SECRETARIAL ASSOCIATION
COMMACK SEPTA
COMMACK SOCCER LEAGUE
COMMACK SOUTH LITTLE LEAGUE
COMMACK TEACHER AIDE ASSOCIATION
COMMACK TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
COMMACK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
COMMACK YOUTH LEAGUE
CONNOR AND D’ACONTI C.P.A.’s, P.C.
CUB SCOUTS PACK 403
CRYSTAL MATERIAL LTD.
ELLEN AND BILL DAMATO
LAW OFFICE OF AUDRA E. DEHAN
THE DURGANA FAMILY
SERENA EISENBERG SCHOLARSHIP
FIRST CLASS BAGELS
FELBERBAUM, HALBRIDGE AND WIRTH -ATTORNEYS AT LAW
THE FELTMAN’S
GASOLINE HEAVEN
THE GREGORY FAMILY
HAAS, ROE, PATRICK HARRINGTON, CARILLO FAMILY
HABBERSTAD BMW
HARRIET AND SEYMOUR SMITH - IN LOVING MEMORY
HASSEL VOLVO
THE HELFNER FAMILY
BONNIE HELFNER, DDS - FAMILY DENTISTRY
THE HIRSCH FAMILY
HSBC BANK
JAMES AND ANNA HUNDERFUND
THE ILLARI FAMILY - JOE -‘88, SCOTT -‘90, STEVE -‘94, MIKE -‘99
INDIAN HOLLOW PTA
THE INDIAN HOLLOW STAFF
INDUSTRIAL MATERIAL HANDLING OF N.Y. INC.
INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES - DR. GITTMAN AND DR. KOSTER
JO-ANN’S 1/2 OFF CARDS COMMACK
JOHNSON FARM, CEDAR ROAD - EST. 1902
THE KARCH FAMILY
KINGS PARK ASPHALT CORP.
THE LANCEY FAMILY
THE LEADERSHIP TEAM OF COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL
LERNER AND ESPOSITO -COLLEGE AID CONSULTANTS
LI’L SMITTY BAGEL AND DELI
LONG ISLAND AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, INC.
LONG ISLAND BULLS
LUND FAMILY
M.A.P. CUSTON TEE SHIRTS
MACE’S
MANDRACCHIA SAWMILL PTA
MANDRACCHIA SAWMILL STAFF
THE MASCIELLO FAMILY
THE MASTER’S FAMILY
MOHAWK SIDING AND ROOFING
NEW YORK SAINTS
NORTHPORT FORD
NORTHRIDGE PTA
NORTHRIDGE STAFF
THE NOTO FAMILY
GAIL AND RICKY OLIVERI AND FAMILY
LUCY-PAT-PETER-ROSANNE OLIVETO-TERESA-RON AND BABY
(52)
SILVERS
ORIGINAL BROOKLYN PIZZA
OUTBACK STEAK HOUSE OF COMMACK
PASTRAMI “N” FRIENDS
PETRILLOS PRIME MEATS - SINCE 1913
PET SUPPLIES “PLUS
THE PENNACCHIO FAMILY
RICHARD, ANTHONY AND VALERIE RACCUGLIA
THE REBECCHI FAMILY
ROLLING HILLS FACULTY AND STAFF
ROLLING HILLS PTA
CAROL AND FRANK RIZZO AND FAMILY
SHALOM DEHAN CONTRACTING
SHORT STOP PRINTING
SMITHTOWN PRESCRIPTION CENTER
SOLITRO’s DELI AND CATERER’S
SUNSHINE ORTHOPEDIC AND SPORTS PHYSICAL THERAPY
ELIOT AND BONNIE SCHWARTZ AND FAMILY
TEMPLE BETH DAVID
TRIM-A-TREE, INC., ARBORIST TIMOTHY WRAY
UNITED STUDIOS OF SELF DEFENSE
R. VARELLO LANDSCAPING, INC.
THE VIRGA FAMILY
THE VOGEL FAMILY
THE WOLTMANN FAMILY
WOOD PARK PTA
WOOD PARK STAFF
WINE WAVE INC. - CACCIATO FAMILY
PETER AND JANET WUNSCH
THE ZIPFEL FAMILY
THE ZWEIBEL FAMILY