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Health & Fitness

THE FARM DISTRICT

The Massapequas experienced significant changes in the second half of the nineteenth century as waves of German immigrants settled the area. One group put down roots in Stadt Wurttemberg, later to become Massapequa Park north of the railroad. The other settled in the northwestern part of the area and became farmers, raising a wide variety of crops for local consumption and, more importantly, for the growing New York City population. Aiding distribution of farn produce was the newly-completed (1867) South Side Railway, today the Babylon branch of the Long Island Railroad, which carried freight as well as passengers for many years.

HOW DID THE FARM DISTRICT START?

Most farming residents came from one of the several states that made up what became a united Germany in 1871. They were doubtless concerned with the continuing upheavals within their home territories (for example, the 1848 revolutions, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 - 71) and thought conditions in the United States might be more favorable, especially after the Civil War.

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Many other families settled in the area between Jerusalem Avenue and Boundary Avenue east and west of Hicksville Road. Most farmers were German, but there was an Italian family (Mandra), an eastern European family (Mysliwiecs) and even a Chinese family, whose laborers wore large straw hats and long pants.

Most farms were about five to ten acres, but the Meyer farm near Suffolk Avenue was larger than thirty acres.  The farmers recruited youngsters to help with the planting and harvesting, with the result that farm families developed a strong sense of community, held regular social events and attended Grace Church on Merrick Road, at that time the only church in the Massapequas. Their presence strained the church's capacity. It was, after all, built in 1844 as a family church for the Floyd-Jones family and could accommodate no more than about 100 people. By the late 1800s it had become too small for the local population. The Church Wardens decided to build a local chapel in the farm district to provide a worship space for that community. The result was St. Christopher's Chapel, completed in 1895 on Hicksville Road just north of Bayberry Lane. That became the center of social and religious activity for local farmers for half a century.

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Massapequa’s farmers sold a wide variety of produce: strawberries, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, carrots, rhubarb, corn, apples. Some families grew asters and dahlias for the New York City flower market and there was at least one poultry farm, selling eggs and chickens. There was also a butcher in the area. Produce was sold locally, to the Jones and Floyd-Jones estates as well as to other residents of the sparsely settled area, or trucked either to the Westbury auction market or directly into New York City.

WHY THE CHANGE?

Quite simply, the Massapequas developed into a suburban community after World War II and land that was valuable for farming became even more valuable as housing sites. Property south of the Farm District was developed in the 1910 - 1940 period by Queens Land and Title Company, but their development plans were stalled by the Great Depression and by the War. Returning servicemen looking for private houses after 1945 settled in Levittown and Hicksville, prompting real estate companies to look eastward. They came to the Massapequas and saw an area ripe for development.  For farmers who had spent their lives doing the hard, unrelenting and unpredictable work associated with living off the land, offers of cold cash proved irresistible and the farms that had existed for almost a century disappeared within one generation after the war. The United States Agricultural Census provides striking confirmation of the change: the number of farms in Nassau County declined from 658 in 1945 to 83 in 1969 and the acreage under cultivation from 32,122 to 2,437.

Remnants are still there:  St. Christopher's Chapel, now St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, Paddy's Loft Restaurant, two barns on the east side of Hicksville Road south of the Parkway and several houses that have been remodeled. Additionally, several descendants of the original farmers remain in the area and are still active in preserving Massapequa's history. Mention must be made of John Meyer and Paul (Gilly) Kicherer, who provided background material for this blog. The neighborhood where they lived was memorialized by a historical marker raised in front of St. Gregory's Church in 1994, with William Elio as President of the Historical Society of the Massapequas.

WHY ARE THE STREETS LAID OUT SO UNEVENLY?

Anybody who lives in the farming district, who has driven through it, or who simply views it on a map knows the streets do not follow a logical pattern. Areas to the east and south are rectangular, as platted by Queens Land and Title Company when it set out to develop the area in the early 1900s. The farm district streets follow the tracks of roads set out by farmers to demarcate their property, or to provide easy access. Some streets are very narrow, or very short, or meander in no apparent pattern. They met the needs of the farming community and were followed by developers as they bought individual farms and built private houses after World War II.

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