Welcome to the Farmingdale Public Library's Local History Guide. This guide provides links to various topics on Farmingdale's History. Included in this is the Farmingdale Local History Encyclopedia.
Share Your Stuff!
If you have any pictures or items that you feel would benefit Farmingdale Public Library’s local history collection, please consider donating them to the library. You can also contribute by granting us the digital rights to your scanned photographs, slides, or negatives. With digital images, you would retain physical ownership of the items while sharing the image with the community.
Examples of Artifacts
Postcards or correspondence
Business information (e.g. bank calendars, menus, business cards)
Commemorative giveaways (e.g. matchbooks, coasters, napkins)
Journals, diaries, ledgers
Programs from concerts or other Farmingdale events
Pennants, buttons, posters, etc.
Maps and telephone directories
We would be delighted and honored to receive your historical items when you are ready to donate them. We will ensure that they are properly preserved and available to future generations. Please contact the local history department at fdalelocalhistory@yahoo.com or call the library and ask for Natalie.
Natalie Korsavidis & ToniAnn Contarino
516-249-9090
fdalelocalhistory@yahoo.com
Thomas Powell was born in Barbados in 1641. He came to New York as a passenger on a trade ship at twelve years old. He boarded with lawyer Thomas Matthew and it is said he was his apprentice. He would become an important citizen in Huntington, Long Island, first becoming a Recorder in 1663 and a Trustee in 1688.
In 1687, Thomas Powell bought land from the Marsapeaque, Sacatogue, and Matineoc Indians. Maume, William Chopy, Sacenin, Rumppass, Seuruckung, Wamassum were the names of the Native Americans that signed the deed. He paid 140 pounds sterling for the land. It was a tract 3 ½ miles wide and 5 miles deep. The land included what today is Bethpage, Farmingdale, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, and parts of Melville and Plainview. This would become known as the Bethpage Purchase. The deed for the land was not executed until 1695. In 1699, Powell bought more land in the Rim of the Woods Purchase.
Ambrose George opened a general store in Farmingdale. He also was in the real estate business. At that time, Farmingdale was named Hardscrabble. Anticipating construction of the Long Island Rail Road, he purchased a large tract of land between a community known as Bethpage and an area in Suffolk County called Hardscrabble.
In order to enhance the status of his property and to make it more attractive to prospective purchasers, George renamed the area "Farmingdale," for it was still very much a farming area, and in a dale south of the glacial sandhills. He divided the acres he purchased into lots and two streets in Farmingdale are named after his family. Cornelia Street is named for his wife and Elizabeth Street is named for his daughter.
In 1841, the Long Island Railroad came to Farmingdale. There were no trips at that time to New York City; if you wanted to travel there, you had to go to Brooklyn first and then take a ferry across. In the early 1900s, the Cross-Island Trolley ran along a track down Conklin and Main Streets. It operated from 1909 – 1919.
Telephone service arrived in 1899 with dial service added in 1955. Lights were added in the streets in 1906 and a water system was brought in. In the mid-1800s, the Hook, Ladder, and Hose Company No. 1 was founded. The Police Department would be organized in 1925. The first Post Office was opened in 1845 in a private home.
As for schools, Farmingdale became an official school district in 1892. In 1912, SUNY Farmingdale and Main Street school opened. Howitt was originally the high school and it opened in 1952. It remained that way until Farmingdale High was built ten years later. Woodward Parkway and the original East memorial opened in 1955. Albany Avenue opened in 1957 and Northside in 1961.
The first Farmingdale free library opened in 1923 in the Kolkebeck House. In 1961, the library on Main & Conklin was dedicated and the South branch opened in 1962. Both branches operated until 1994 when this building was opened.
Source:
Farmingdale Junior Honor Society. Farmingdale’s Story: Farms to Flight. The Society, 1956.