Joseph Lloyd Manor

 Joseph Lloyd Manor was completed in 1767 in Lloyd Neck. It was a 3,000-acre provisioning plantation. The Manor supplied the Boston-based merchant family with cider, cordwood, and clay among other inventory. It wasn't until 1711 that the first Lloyd, Henry, took up residence. The interior elements of the house were designed by Connecticut born carpenter Abner Osborn.  He was recommended by Joseph's brother James and worked on the project with four apprentices.  They completed the exterior sheathing of the house as well as the doors, windows and interior paneling and molding

Jupiter Hammon, one of the first published African American writers, was one of the many people of African descent enslaved at the site. With the encouragement of the Lloyd family, Hammon learned to read and write and at the age of forty-nine, authored his first published poem in 1760. During his lifetime, Hammon authored numerous essays and poems that reflect his intelligence, deep Christian faith, and views concerning the social and moral conflicts of slavery and freedom in the early United States. The British occupied Joseph Lloyd Manor during the Revolutionary War and it is where Hammon authored his most significant works about the moral conflicts of slavery and freedom in the early United States.

Henry Lloyd IV would be the last member of the Lloyd family to own Joseph Lloyd Manor. He struggled financially, and in 1876, sold the house to James C. Townsend of Oyster Bay to pay off debts. In 1882, Anne Coleman Alden purchased the house. Alden's estate was sold in 1900 to William John Matheson. His daughter Anna and her husband Willis D. Wood moved into Joseph Lloyd Manor in 1905. Mrs. Wood rented the Joseph Lloyd Manor house to a number of tenants, among them Charles Lindbergh, who lived there with his family from February 1940 until August 1941. Finally, Mrs. Anna Matheson Wood gifted Joseph Lloyd Manor to the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in 1968. Today, the Society is known as Preservation Long Island and continues to steward the house. The house was recognized as a Literary Landmark in 2020.

Sources:

“Joseph Lloyd House.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 June 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lloyd_House

 “Joseph Lloyd Manor.” Preservation Long Island, 13 May 2022, https://preservationlongisland.org/joseph-lloyd-manor

O'Connor-Arena, Melissa. “A New View - Lloyd Family Series (The Joseph Lloyd Manor).” Huntington, NY Patch, Patch, 12 Apr. 2010, https://patch.com/new-york/huntington/a-new-view-lloyd-family-series-the-joseph-lloyd-manor

Fitzmaurice Flying Field

Fitzmaurice Flying Field was open from 1929 to 1953 in Massapequa. Brady, Cryan, and Colleran bought large tracts of land north and south of the Long Island Rail Road east of the preserve. They advertised throughout Irish neighborhoods in New York City, enticing customers with inexpensive land and houses, open spaces, and easy access to New York City. The airfield was an added enticement to purchase homes in that area.

They settled on a location for their airfield, relying on the recommendations of famous aviatrix Elinor Smith, who selected the area bounded by Second Avenue on the east, Roosevelt Avenue on the west, Spruce Street on the north, and Smith Street on the south. The 21-acre field had two runways, the longer one only 1800 feet in length, which made it one of the smallest fields on Long Island.

The airfield was named after James Fitzmaurice, who had achieved fame as the commander of the Irish Air Corps after World War I and as one of the three-man crew that crossed the Atlantic from east to west in 1928, the first to perform that arduous feat.

Sometime during World War II, Ken Tyler, a Hollywood stunt pilot, bought the field and operated Tyler Flying Services. He sold it in 1947 to Tom Murphy Jr., who ran the Skywriting Corporation of America.

Massapequa Park developed quickly after World War II and the proximity of houses to the airfield spurred concern among its new neighbors, who became fearful of crashes and felt inconvenienced by planes taking off and landing so close to their backyards. The School Board also needed to build schools and the Field was a perfect location. After several months of negotiation, they signed a contract with Murphy, who agreed in April 1953 to accept $600,000 in exchange for the property. The board built Hawthorn School in 1954 at the southeast end of the field and McKenna Junior High School at the north end in 1958.

The Historical Society of the Massapequas highlighted Fitzmaurice Flying Field's importance by erecting a marker on Spruce Street, just east of Roosevelt Avenue, in 1995.

Sources:

-, George Kirchmann, et al. “Fitzmaurice Flying Field: Pt. 2.” Massapequa Observer, 23 Sept. 2015, https://nassauobserver.com/fitzmaurice-flying-field-pt-2/

Kirchmann, George. “Fitzmaurice Flying Field.” Massapequa, NY Patch, Patch, 8 Aug. 2013, https://patch.com/new-york/massapequa/fitzmaurice-flying-field