The Massapequa Observer began publication at a time of immense change in the Massapequas and indeed, throughout Long Island. The post-war movement to the suburbs had brought the disappearance of the Hempstead Plains, plowed under to build houses that became Levittown. Nearby communities such as Hicksville and Bethpage also expanded from small farm-centered communities to family-oriented suburbs. The movement continued along the South Shore, through Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford, and by the mid 50s, to the Massapequas. The area’s population swelled from 3,500 in 1948 to 48,000 in 1959. Massapequa Park went from 2,334 residents to 17,729.
What was it like to live here at that time and to ride the express train of changes that came roaring through?
Personal Recollections
Several trustees of the Historical Society of the Massapequas recalled their experiences in recent conversations.
Wilma Diehl had begun teaching in District 23 in 1948 at a salary of $2,400. By 1959, she was working in the Guidance Department, on her way to becoming the first female Assistant School Superintendent.
Paul (Gilly) was involved with his father in clearing ground and pouring foundations for hundreds of houses built in the ‘50s.
Lucille Guarascio remembers spending her summers swimming at the large and well-maintained Alhambra Beach, where the Red Cross gave swimming lessons.
Those who were students in 1959 remember attending school wherever there was room; a firehouse, churches, even a car dealership and going to religious services in an old restaurant or in Massapequa Park’s Village Hall.
What Was Here When The Observer Started?
All-American Burgers
Opened in 1955 on the site of a golf course, it quickly became a hugely popular place for lunch, snacks and social gatherings and serves that purpose to this day.
Libraries
Central Avenue Public Library opened in 1956, to replace the small and aging (1896) Delancey Floyd-Jones Free Library on Merrick Road. The Central Avenue building served the needs of residents throughout the area, but homeowners who bought houses south of Sunrise Highway expressed a need for a library closer to them. The result was the Bar Harbour Library, which opened in 1965.
Massapequa High School
Opened in 1955, with its first graduating class in 1956. Students no longer had to attend Amityville High or Baldwin High. The 1959 basketball team, coached by longtime faculty member Herb Pluschau, went undefeated.
Junior High School was opened in September 1958 (McKenna), and talks were continuing to open another high school to contain the growing student population. The result was Berner, which opened as a second high school in 1962. By 1959, the school system had expanded from one school to ten and from 800 students to 14,000.
Bar Harbour Shopping Center
Newly opened in 1958, with 30 stores, it was the largest shopping center in the vicinity at that time and one of the largest on Long Island. It was anchored by Saks 34th and contained a supermarket, pharmacy, several restaurants and specialty stores. It was far larger than the six-store shopping center on Merrick Road west of Hicksville Road that had opened in 1938 to serve the needs of far fewer residents. Directly behind Bar Harbour was Birch Lane Grammar School, opened in 1955, and beyond that—some houses, but a larger patch of vacant wetland, not yet filled in to allow houses to be built down to South Oyster Bay.
Grace Church
Built in 1844 and in the middle of a cemetery, it had become too small for the expanding congregation. Discussions led by the church’s leaders resulted in construction of a larger church, which opened across Merrick Road in 1960.
Other Worship Spaces
As with Grace Episcopal Church, there was a growing need for a large worship space for the Roman Catholic population living south of Sunrise Highway.
Worshippers were attending Mass at the former Wagon Wheel Restaurant, which had been a Floyd-Jones mansion built around 1900. As the Roman Catholic population grew throughout Long Island, the Vatican authorized creation of a Long Island diocese, headquartered in Rockville Center, and directed construction of several churches. One of these was St. Rose of Lima, opened along with a grammar school in 1960 at the former site of the Wagon Wheel. At the same time, Our Lady of Lourdes Church was established, in the far northeast corner of Massapequa Park. The diocese purchased an existing farm and used the three barns for a chapel, classroom and rectory until a school was built in 1965.
The Observer began publication one year after the completion of Temple Judea and Temple Sinai, two of 17 houses of worship built during the 1950s. Jewish families throughout the Massapequas were supported by the B’nai B’rith service organization, which had over 500 members. At the same time, church members laid the cornerstone for St. David’s Lutheran Church at the intersection of Clark Boulevard and Lakeshore Drive in September 1959. The congregation’s growth reflected the enormous development of the area, requiring construction of a much larger church only five years later.
Train stations
The Massapequa station had been elevated in 1953, but there was only a small shed, located near Grand Avenue, for Massapequa Park, requiring cars and pedestrians to stop when the crossing gates came down. The Long Island Railroad, owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad at the time, created a larger station at Park Boulevard in 1964, but kept it at ground level until 1981.
These are but a handful of developments that began to populate Massapequa in the 1950s.
A very happy 55th birthday to the Massapequa Observer.
