The Long Island History Project

We continue our conversation with Long Island historian Christopher Verga, discussing his oral history interviews with Vietnam veterans from Long Island. Today we feature excerpts from Chris's interview with Joe Giannini. Joe was born in Brooklyn, moved to Massapequa and graduated from Hofstra University in 1966. Drafted soon after, he enlisted in the Marines, serving (and surfing) in country. Thr...

Born and raised in Oyster Bay, Jack Parente found himself drafted into the Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam from 1968-1970 as a member of a reconnaissance unit of the 1st Calvary Division. Today we hear his story courtesy of Christopher Verga, a Long Island historian who has been interviewing the area's veterans in order to document and preserve a generation of soldiers neglected in their own ti...

Elizabeth Letts has a knack for finding good stories and evoking a time and place. In her New York Times bestselling book The Eighty-Dollar Champion, she uncovers the secluded equestrian world of Long Island's North Shore in the 1950s. It's the story of a Dutch immigrant in St. James with a uniquely talented horse and their attempt to rise to the top of a sport reserved for the wealthy and well co...

Imagine you were a woman born at the height of the Gilded Age with a passion, not for fashion or society, but for sports. And you grew up riding bareback and driving massive horse-drawn carriages through the narrow streets of Chinatown. Your family's wealth meant you could also sail on the Lusitania and visit Paris every year while you also played on men's polo teams, marched with suffragists, dab...

Primo Fiore was born in Brooklyn but raised his family in Deer Park while working as a physical education instructor in West Islip. His gifted speaking voice, combined with a curriculum involving lessons in square dancing, led him on a path to a prolific side career that took him all over the Island. He wound up calling square dances at campgrounds, churches, and school halls and, most notably, at...

Thornhill's Pharmacy has overlooked the center of Sayville from the corner of Main Street and Gillette Avenue for over a century. This is actually the second location of Sewell Thornhill's establishment, opened in 1918. When architect Matthew La Piana and his wife were looking for an old building to restore and occupy, something about this thin slice of wood and stucco on its odd corner lot caught...

Mark Torres has uncovered a little-discussed chapter of Long Island history, the conditions under which many migrant farm workers labored on area farms from World War II into the early 1970s. His new book from the History Press details the social, economic, and historical factors that led to Long Island's migrant labor camps being the focus of much attention in their day. These camps, created out...

Since moving to New York from his native Canada, David Griffin has made it his mission to find and document the Revolutionary War-era forts that the British used to help control the length and breadth of the Island. Using primary sources including maps and letters , as well as his knowledge of architecture and British fortification techniques, he has uncovered many locations that are virtually und...

Joysetta Pearse, director of the African American Museum of Nassau County, joins us to discuss the mission and operations of the museum. She shares a number of inspiring stories, many on display at the musuem, from the outstanding Jennings family of 19th century New York to pre-teen millionaire Sarah Rector to the children of Birmingham who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Further Research...

A wall of ice dominated the landscape of Long Island thousands of years ago. During the Pleistocene Epoch, a large mass called the Laurentide ice sheet stretched across most of modern-day Canada and the northern United States. The melting of that glacier marked the birth of the island, with the geography from Brooklyn to Montauk taking shape under intense natural pressure. Miranda Maliszka and Ant...

We've got two segments for you today. The first is a conversation recorded online through the Brentwood Public Library during a podcast demonstration last year. Our participants recall some childhood memories of summer attractions on Long Island (so many drive-ins!). Next, Ithaca College journalism major Antonio Ferme sits down with us to discuss local media, local history, and local journalism. C...

It's the early 70s in West Islip and St John the Baptist High School is gearing up for a crucial game against St. Agnes of Rockville Centre. But for freshman Mickey Quinn and the rest of the class of '75, the events of that night will reverberate beyond the court for years to come. Today Mickey joins us to discuss Growing Up a Cougar, his account of that game, that night, and his years at SJB. Spe...

Over the span of a few short months in 1931, 19-year old Francis Crowley was on the minds of everyone from the Bronx to Long Island. Known for always packing an extra pistol and steeped in life on the streets, Crowley conducted a crime spree that culminated in North Merrick with the murder of Nassau County Patrolman Fred Hirsch. On today's episode, Jerry Aylward relates the whole story as detailed...

Mary Louise Booth wrote her own story. A single woman from Long Island, she rose to prominence in the world of New York publishing as an acclaimed author, translator, and founding editor of Harper's Bazaar . She was also a friend and champion of many prominent women, from Susan B. Anthony and Louisa May Alcott to Sarah Tuthill and Dr. Marie Zakrzewska. Tricia Foley, a designer and former magazine...

Allison McGovern has been digging history for a long time. Fascinated as a child with ancient Egypt and visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she went on to become a professional archaeologist, uncovering the past in her own backyard. On today's episode, you'll hear McGovern describe her work at a number of sites on the island, including the Pyrrhus Concer site in Southampton and Freetown in E...

Robert Ottone is no stranger to the strangeness on Long Island. An Islip native, he has been attuned to the Island's darker hues from an early age and has worked them into his fiction writing and his podcasting. Today we discuss his newest book:  Her Infernal Name & Other Nightmares . Rob graces us with readings of two of his stories and we dive deeper into the more haunted precincts of the South...

Anyone attempting to invade Long Island Sound at the turn of the last century would have faced a gantlet of artillery guns mounted in forts across the islands that stretch from Orient Point to the Rhode Island coast. With little actual chance of invasion, the men manning these forts had few diversions to choose from: baseball, drinking, or ruining a man's career. On today's episode, we speak with...

Plum Island is poised between its past and its future. Looking back, it contains evidence of its time as a coastal defense in the Spanish-American War, as well as a 19th-century, National Register-certified lighthouse. Looking ahead, it could become a publicly accessible nature preserve and cultural center, providing a haven for native flora and migrating animals. The pivot point is the Plum Islan...

Banks Smither oversees the publication of Long Island-related books from the History Press. As Acquisitions Editor, he has built up a catalog of the lost, abandoned, haunted, and forgotten corners of the Island from Montauk to Brooklyn. On today's episode he discusses the publication process at the History Press – form pitch to publication to promotion. He also explains what he looks for in a prop...

A July night at Riverhead Stadium in 1950. Two baseball legends face each other without even realizing it. Satchel Paige, fabled Negro League pitcher, is on the mound for the Philadelphia Stars. Young Carl Yastrzemski Jr. is in the stands, cheering for his dad on the Riverhead Falcons. The sellout crowd in a stadium barely a year old is a testamant to the long history and deep popularity of baseba...

Brad Kolodny spent four years documenting every synagogue in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that he could find. The result is his comprehensive coffee table book from Segula Publishing. On today's episode we discuss Seeking Sanctuary: 125 Years of Synagogues on Long Island . Brad discusses the genesis of the project and the complex history of this region's synagogues: the buildings that still exist,...

We're rebroadcasting our interview with Lillian, Cathy and Susan Barbash about their family and their fight to stop Robert Moses from driving a road down the middle of Fire Island.  We were saddened to hear of the recent pasing of Lillian and wanted to share this conversation in her memory.

Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society, joins us to discuss the organization's role in preserving and celebrating the history of Oakdale. Located in Islip on the south shore of Long Island, Oakdale has a storied past as a gem of the Gilded Age. For decades in the late 19th century, a string of mansions, most prominently William K. Vanderbilt's Idle Hour, lined the Great South B...

The Fordham Mill (also known as the Tuttle-Fordham Mill or the Brick Mill) in Remsenburg was a local landmark long before it caught the eye of John Kanas. Growing up on the East End, John would pass the brick building that sits across the Speonk River, little knowing that he would one day be the one to save it. Fast forward to 2017 when the John and Elaine Kanas Foundation purchased the property a...

Welcome back to the awards ceremony. Today we hit the beach to talk to Mary Cascone, Babylon Town Historian, about the Oak Beach Life-Saving Station. Perched between the Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the station withstood the ravages of wind, rain, and Superstorm Sandy. It has been moved a few times and gone through a number of uses but still retained much of its original details when th...