History, Natural History & the Arts
Thomas M. Stark served as a judge in Suffolk County and New York State beginning in the early 1960s.
During his career he presided over a number of important cases but the one that loomed largest was the murder of the DeFeo family at their home in Amityville by their son Ronald in 1974. Stark’s daughter Ellen remembers hearing about the case over dinner while the rest of the world remembers it as the Amityville Horror case. [Read more…] about Horrific Homicides & Long Island Judge Thomas Stark
Glenn Durlacher looks back over his family’s legacy of square dance calling on Long Island with deserved pride. His grandfather Ed pioneered square dancing in the New York City area starting in the 1930s.
At the urging of his friends in the Top Hands band, Ed Durlacher made a name for himself calling dances and traveling to promote the use of his records and square dancing to phys ed teachers across the country. [Read more…] about Square Dance History on Long Island
In 2020 we marked the centennial of woman suffrage and the passing of the 19th amendment. Although the intervening 102 years can make that struggle feel like the distant past, the story of the many people who fought and marched and pushed for the right to vote is very much alive.
Marguerite Kearns keeps one such story before our eyes in her book An Unfinished Revolution (SUNY Press, 2021). [Read more…] about Women’s Rights: An Unfinished Revolution
The Long Island History Project is ending its podcasting year with a closer look at the Southold Indian Museum, an institution founded by archaeologically-minded residents of the North Fork of Long Island whose activities date back to the 1920s.
Jay Levenson, the museum’s incoming executive director, discusses the importance of Native American history on Long Island and how he hopes the institution can help others tell their story. He also discusses his own Mohawk ancestry and the interconnected native inhabitants along the east coast. [Read more…] about The Southold Indian Museum (Podcast)
In her first book, The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind (Gallery Books, 2021), journalist Amanda Fairbanks documents the story of the Wind Blown and the men who lost their lives aboard it in 1984 off the east end of Long Island.
Piecing the story together over years of interviews and research, she unraveled a history of close-knit communities, from the working class east end to the wealthy upper east side. She also found a complicated tale of relationships and personalities that still absorbs people in the community to this day. [Read more…] about 1984 Wreck of the Wind Blown Off Long Island
We finish out our special three-part series on Long Island’s Vietnam veterans by looking at a second battle they faced in the years after the war: the effects of Agent Orange. By the late 1970s the effects of this chemical defoliant were becoming known and veterans began to mobilize. [Read more…] about The Agent Orange Trial: Long Island Legal History
On the next few episodes of the Long Island History Project, we are revisiting the Vietnam War through the eyes of three local residents, each with their own perspective on the conflict and its devastating aftermath. Today we hear from Oyster Bay resident Jack Parente who was drafted out of college and served in the Army’s 1st Calvary Division. These stories come to us through the work of historian Christopher Verga, who has been recording oral histories with veterans throughout the region. Chris walks us through Jack’s life as well as the process of conducting this type of historical research. [Read more…] about Vietnam War Oral History Subject of Long Island History Project
Marion Hollins was born into a wealthy family in East Islip, Long Island at the height of the Gilded Age. Although an adept equestrian, polo player, and proud member of the Ladies’ Four in Hand Club, she devoted most of her life to the world of golf.
She won the US Women’s National Championship in 1921 and went on to develop and help design a number of prominent golf courses, mostly in California. Forgotten for most of the past century, she is now being recognized for her success and perseverance as a designer, athlete, and real estate developer. In 2022 she will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. [Read more…] about Marion Hollins: Long Island’s Golf Hall of Famer
An immigrant’s son from Brooklyn, Primo Fiore created a life for himself and his family as a physical education teacher on Long Island in the 1960s. He became involved in square dancing through gym class but wound up calling dances at Jones Beach for over twenty-five years. He and his son Mario describe that journey, including the intricacies and challenges of calling a square dance, on the most recent episode of the Long Island History Project. [Read more…] about Square Dancing on Long Island: An Insider’s Look
The local drug store used to be a fixture on many a small town main street. For Sayville, Long Island it was Thornhill’s on the corner of Gillette and Main, featuring a marble soda fountain, an iconic neon sign, and the first telephone number in the area.
Preservation architect Matthew La Piana purchased the vacant property in 2018 and spent the next few years bringing it back to life. You’ll hear how on this most recent episode of the Long Island History Project. [Read more…] about Restoring an Iconic Long Island Landmark