Town of North Hempstead archivist Jack Binder is set for his next town display. The displays change very couple of months, always on view at the Town Hall annex building at 200 Plandome Road and on the second floor of the main Town Hall building at 220 Plandome Road. Binder is proud that each display is of great interest to the general public.
In honor of Archives Month, there is a display of the 200th anniversary of the creation of school districts in North Hempstead, in October 1813. The next display will tell the history of the Indian on the town’s logo.
Binder was a practicing dentist in Howard Beach until 1997. After retiring, he became interested in local history after auditing courses on the subject at Adelphi University. “This led to my being appointed the historian of Lake Success by then Mayor Robert Bernstein,” he told the Great Neck Record.
From there, he interest grew and grew, and he then asked to speak before the North Hempstead board to preserve the Schumacher House. This house was originally in Lake Success but was moved to Clinton Martin Park in New Hyde Park. Today this building sits waiting for a benefactor to restore it. It was once used as a guesthouse for the Sperry Company and later as a nursery for the United Nations.
And at that meeting Michelle Schimel, then town clerk, approached Binder about become the next town archivist. “And here I am,” said Binder.
The first day on the job he was presented with over 100 boxes of papers, papers that were not wanted by other departments of the town. “From these boxes I condensed what was historically relevant into the 27 boxes I now have on the history of the area of North Hempstead,” Binder explained.
Today Binder works for Town Clerk Leslie Gross. “She has been a great help in what I do,” he said.
Jack Binder told the Record that his job as an archivist “is to aid people who have historical questions about North Hempstead, work with the town historian, attend meetings of historical societies and present my material to the general public in the form of displays at Town Hall which change every few months.”
Binder tries to include the town archives in his town displays. Future displays might be village halls of North Hempstead, The Mackay Estate, hospitals of the town, “old Plandome Road” and many town objects of interest.
