Ruth Nichols & the Long Island Aviation Country Club

 Ruth Nichols, a member of the Junior League gained notoriety in 1928 by making the first non-stop flight from New York to Miami. That same year, she planned to create the first flying country club with Fairchild Aviation. It became known as the Long Island Aviation Country Club and ran until 1948.

She was appointed to be Sales Manager for Fairchild Aviation in 1928.  Her job was to promote the idea of aviation to the people. Her plan was to make contact with other women to get them interested in aviation and the desire to purchase a plane. This made her the first woman executive of an aircraft company in the country. 

In 1930, she broke the transcontinental speed records in both directions. In 1931, she made the women's altitude record by reaching 28,743 feet. That same year, she beat Amelia Earhart's speed record. Earhart had reached 181 miles per hour. She reached 210. She hoped to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but those hopes were dashed when she crashed twice.  She became the first woman to pilot a twin-engine jet in 1955, and set new speed and altitude records in 1958 by flying a jet aircraft at more than 1,000 miles per hour at 51,000 feet

The club was formed with a group of mostly affluent flyers based on Long Island. Instead of a country club with a golf course, the club had a field for airplanes. Members of the club including the flying elite of Long Island. Their 1940 club membership book listed; Col. Charles Lindbergh, Sherman Fairchild, L.R. Grumman, and several DuPonts. Charles Lindbergh taught his wife how to fly at the Long Island Aviation Country Club.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, private flying was restricted for security concerns. After the war, the country club resumed activities, but eventually succumbed to other forces. It had fewer members, and demand for housing for young veterans was high. In March 1950, as mass-produced homes closed in, the country club was sold to Levitt & Sons for $175,000.

 

Source:

"Flying Country Club is Planned at Farmingdale." Nassau Daily Review. February 15, 1928

“Ruth Nichols.” Ruth Nichols | Pioneers of Flight, pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/ruth-nichols.

"Ruth Nichols: Her Career of Thrills." Nassau Daily Review. June 15, 1931

Striegel, Lawrence. “Hicksville Hosted Swanky Aviation Club before Suburbs Prevailed.” Newsday, Newsday, 15 Mar. 2021, www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/hicksville-long-island-aviation-country-club-1.50177503.

“Vanderbilt Cup Races.” Vanderbilt Cup Races - Blog - Then & Now: The Long Island Aviation Country Club on the Motor Parkway, www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/saturday_march_6_2010_then_and_now_the_long_island_aviation_club_on_the_mot.

“Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia.  Encyclopedia.com. 16 Apr. 2021.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, 5 May 2021, www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nichols-ruth-1901-1960.

Chin Chin Ranch

 One of the better known stars of the 1930s was Fred Stone, an actor whose comedic talents as well as singing and dancing activities earned him national and international renown. Stone had the distinction to be the first actor to play The Tin Man in "The Wizard of Oz," which opened in 1902. He appeared in many well-known plays of that era, including "Tip Top," "Chin Chin" and "The Red Mill." Many of his plays ran for several hundred performances and he became one of America's most sought-after stage performers.

In 1912 he bought a house on what is today Clocks Boulevard in Massapequa and purchased a parcel of property northwest of his house, where he built two cottages, a stable, a riding track and polo field.

His friends included many well-known entertainers, who were happy to join him. At various times in the years before, during and after World War I, he played host to Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Douglas Fairbanks, Leo Carillo, Tom Mix, Rex Beach, Irene and Vernon Castle and Will Rogers.

The ranch that Stone built was formally opened in 1915 as Chin Chin Ranch, named after the play in which he was performing at the time. It was, in fact, while he was in the Massapequas that Will Rogers suffered an injury that made him a star. He was swimming in Narraskatuck Creek one day and dove off the dock behind Stone's house. It was low tide and Rogers landed on his head, paralyzing his right side. To compensate, he learned to twirl a rope with his left hand and came to rely more on his storytelling abilities than his rope tricks. His knack for a well-turned phrase and for engaging his audiences soon brought him significant fame and fortune.

As for Stone, he sold Chin Chin Ranch in 1925 and divided his time between his house in Forest Hills and a home he purchased in Hollywood, where he expanded his fame through several movie appearances.

 

Sources:

Kirchmann, George. “A Rolling Stone.” Massapequa, NY Patch, Patch, 30 Nov. 2010, patch.com/new-york/massapequa/a-rolling-stone.

Bayard Cutting Arboretum

 Bayard Cutting Arboretum is a state park located in Great River, on the south shore of Long Island. The park consists of 691 acres and an arboretum, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1886. Olmsted created the design for William Bayard Cutting, who owned the land and a mansion on the property. Cutting and Olmsted wanted to focus on the landscape’s natural beauty, rather than changing the property for their own desires. Cutting also consulted with Charles Sprague Sargent, who was the director of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. Charles Sprague Sargent advised Cutting to develop a wide-ranging conifer collection, which he also advised to be placed north of the carriage house. Cutting also was assisted in the development of his property by Ernest Wilson. Wilson was sponsored by Harvard University to bring tree specimens to the United States from China, and some of these tree specimens were used in the creation of the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. Many of the original trees and plants on the grounds came from nurseries in England at the start of the 1900s. Over time, the Cutting family continued adding trees, which originated from Europe, Spain, Greece, Japan, China and Africa.

Cutting’s mansion was located in the heart of the grounds and was designed by Charles C. Haight. The mansion was named “Westbrook” and was modeled after Tudor-style English county houses. The mansion consists of 60-rooms and features large pieces of oak furniture, stained glass windows and imported fireplaces for the luxury of the Cutting family. Many of their heirlooms are still present in the home now, as part of a museum. The home was situated in the perfect location so that the family could view the Connetquot River from the back of the home across the open lawn.

After the early passing of William Bayard Cutting, the home was given to his widow, Olivia, as part of his estate. In 1936, Olivia Cutting and her daughter decided to make an extremely generous donation of the 200 acres of the property to the Long Island State Park Commission with the stipulation that they may both keep full use of the property as long as either is still living. They decided to gift both their home and property to the people of Long Island “to provide an oasis of beauty and quiet for the pleasure, rest, and refreshment of those who delight in outdoor beauty; and to bring about a greater appreciation and understanding of the value and important of informal planting”.

Alterations were made to the grounds for additional parking, bathrooms and a tearoom for the main house. Then, the park was officially opened to the public in 1954. To commit to the Cutting family’s desires for the grounds, patrons were not allowed to picnic, bathe in the waters, horseback ride, or create or use playgrounds. The sole purpose of the grounds was for the admiration of nature. Eventually, Bayard Cutting Arboretum was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as a “historic district”.

Sources:

Bayard cutting Arboretum State Park. (2021, March 23). Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Cutting_Arboretum_State_Park#cite_note-nrhpinv_ny-3

Biography of the Bayard cutting family. (2021, March 17). Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://bayardcuttingarboretum.com/about-bayard-cutting-arboretum/bayard-cutting-biography/

Westbrook, Suffolk County, New York. (2020, June 12). Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westbrook,_Suffolk_County,_New_York

 

Hal Fullerton

Harry Barry “Hal” Fullerton was born in Ohio on August 15, 1857.  Between 1877-1886, Fullerton worked in a variety of industrial and commercial businesses; from an oil company in western Pennsylvania to a cotton seed oil mill in Texas. In 1887, he began work for Seeger & Guernsey, a company that specialized in the trade of agricultural machinery. It was around this time he became interested in photography. From 1892-1893, he spent time working in Mexico City.

He met Edith Loring Jones and they began a five-year courtship. In 1894, Fullerton began working in New York. Due to an illness, he was advised to take up bicycling. He joined a Brooklyn-based bicycling club called the Whirling Dervishes in 1895. At the time, he also joined the Brooklyn Academy of Photography. He was its President from 1897-1899. 

In 1898, he began working for the Long Island Railroad. He and Edith married in 1898. In 1902, the couple bought a home in Huntington. They named their homestead Mira Flores. 

Since the 1870s, the Long Island Railroad sponsored illustrated promotional publications. In 1898, Unique Long Island was issued. This 96 page booklet contained 165 halftone reproductions of images taken by Fullerton. The railroad issued this publication annually for the next six years with Fullerton as the editor and designer. In his job as Special Agent for the railroad, he was encouraged to advance the interests of Long Island. One of his more well known was his promotion of Charles “Mile a Minute” Murphy’s notorious ride in1899. 

He continued to contribute to Unique Long Island and also began submitting photos with stories written by his wife for Country Life magazine. They even collaborated on a book about vegetable gardening.  In 1905, Ralph Peters was elected president of the Long Island Railroad. He quickly created an Agricultural Department and named Hal as its head. His mission was to create a farm out of nothing in Wading River. It did so well that he created another farm in Medford. He published the results of the success, which became a well regarded book. Public interest in the farms was great enough that a leaflet was created to update them on the progress of these two farms. This leaflet was published every two weeks until the end of 1909. In 1909, the Fullteron family left Mira Flores and settled into the farm at Medford. 

During World War I, Hal was key in creating Camp Upton and Camp Mills for the soldiers. In 1921, the Fullertons purchased a twenty-acre plot of land in East Setauket named Lorelope. Hal retired from the Long Island Railroad in1927. Hal died on January 11, 1935. 

Source:

Sachs, Charles L.  The Blessed Isle: Hal B. Fullerton and His Image of Long Island 1897-1927. Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1991

 

Pollock Krasner House

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center dates back to the late 19th century. The land was purchased in 1878 by James S. Corwin, a local fisherman, who built a house on the lot. In 1888, Mr. Corwin sold the property to Adeline H. King, who sold it two years later to David Howard, another fisherman. His son John Howard and his family lived in the house until 1926, when David Howard sold the property to John Quinn, who worked for the town highway department. His son Howard Quinn inherited it in 1933, and after his death in 1944, his estate put it on the market.   

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner were shown the property by Edward Cook. The couple moved in on November 5, 1945.  The deed was transferred the Pollocks on April 15, 1946. They later bought adjacent land, eventually owning five acres.  Lee had a studio area in the back parlor, and Jackson painted in an unheated upstairs bedroom. In June 1946, he had the barn moved from behind the house to the north side of the property and renovated it as his studio.

Lee continued to work in the house until after Jackson’s death, when she began using the barn studio.  Initially the house had no central heating or indoor plumbing. Over time the couple made many improvements—one of the earliest was a back porch extension that accommodated an indoor toilet. In December 1949, after Jackson’s very successful solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery, they had enough money to install full plumbing and central heating, and in the spring they had the house shingled.  After Jackson’s death in August 1956, Lee divided her time between Springs and New York City. She painted many of her major canvases in the barn studio between 1957 and 1982, after which ill health curtailed her productivity. 

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center was created under the terms of Lee Krasner Pollock’s will. She instructed her executors to deed the property to a charitable institution. She envisioned it as “a public museum and library,” to show the setting in which she and Jackson created many of their works, and as a place for the study of modern American art, especially the eastern Long Island art community.  In 1987 the property was deeded to the Stony Brook Foundation, a private, non-profit affiliate of Stony Brook University. 

In 1987-88, a team from New York Conservation Associates removed pressed wood squares that covered the floor, peeled up a layer of tar paper and revealed the floor surface on which Pollock painted from 1946-1952. The floor was then cleaned of tar paper residue.

When that covering was removed, the original floorboards were found to be intact, complete with the remnants of Jackson’s most famous poured paintings, including Autumn Rhythm, Convergence, Blue Poles, and Lavender Mist.  The painted surface was stabilized by a team of art conservators, and an exhibition of photographs and text panels chronicling the two artists’ careers was installed on the walls. The museum was opened to the public in June 1988. 

 

Source:

“Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.” History, www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/pkhouse/our-story/history.php

Ormston House

 John E. Aldred’s banking firm, Aldred & Co., financed an empire of public utilities. Aldred was a director of gas, water, power, and electric companies, and at one point chairman of the Gillette Safety Razor Co. 

In 1916, Mr. Aldred hired the fashionable architect Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924), seen below, to design his Long Island estate. Goodhue buildings have a reputation for ponderous magnificence, mostly of the Gothic Revival and Elizabethan Tudor persuasion. Henry W. Rowe was hired to design the stables and gate cottages, and recognized sculptors such as J. Selmer Larson designed fountains and statues.  The Olmsted Brothers (of Central Park fame) laid out the landscaping and gardens. A true Anglophile, Mr. Aldred made sure the estate had a touch of monastic ambience, popular among English gentry, and even imported English servants.  He named the estate the Ormston House.

The "Anti-Trust" laws passed by Congress, along with the federal and local property, capital gains, and income taxes,  in the 1940s made it impossible for many in Mr. Aldred's class to hold on to their vast possessions without severely depleting their wealth.

Since 1944, the Ormston estate has been a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery called St. Josaphats. A handful of novices lives and studies in the enormous former mansion, whose furniture was auctioned off in 1940, and labors mightily maintaining grounds that once required 35 full time gardeners.

Sources:

Foreman, John. A Secret World in Lattingtown, 1 Jan. 1970, bigoldhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-secret-world-in-lattingtown.html. 

“History of St. Josaphat's Monastery.” + ST. JOSAPHAT'S MONASTERY +, www.stjmny.org/history-of-st-josaphats-monastery.html.

Alvin Cohen

 Alvin Cohen was born on May 26, 1926 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Cohen attended Boston University, where he graduated in 1946 with a degree in Chemistry. Cohen intended to continue his education in medical school, but due to the death of his father, he had to take over the failing family appliance business.

In 1953, Cohen moved his family to Plainview, NY, so he could work for his uncle in Manhattan. His new job was as a shipping clerk for a dress manufacturing business in the Garment District. In 1960, he realized he was tired of a desk job, which he never truly wanted, and decided he was going to buy a six-acre chicken farm on Route 110. This six-acre parcel of land was going to allow him to create a family amusement park on Long Island.

Although Cohen’s vision was new and exciting for the area, the banks were not as excited about the idea and would not give Cohen a loan for $20,000. Cohen and an unnamed business partner decided to convince family members to give them small loans each that would amount to the total they needed, and they succeeded. After obtaining their loans, they purchased the land. Shortly after their purchase, New York State extended the Long Island Expressway to Route 110, which finally allowed for the boom of Suffolk County. This was big for their business due to its convenient location and close proximity to the expressway.

The park eventually opened in 1962 under the name: Adventureland 110 Playland. The park consisted of a restaurant, four rides, mini-golf course, and an indoor arcade. This park was a true family business with many members of the family pitching in to help run the park, including operating rides. With the success of the parks opening, Cohen was able to expand the park and had 16 rides.

Sometime in the early 1970s, Cohen became sole owner of the park. During this time, Cohen purchased 6 more acres of land that was attached to the property. This allowed him to expand the park even more, including an increase in the number of rides to 30. Following the success of his park, Cohen purchased another park in Rhode Island, and he also became a global consultant in the amusement park industry.

In 1977, Cohen decided to sell his park for an undisclosed amount of money and moved to Florida. After the move, he became a housing developer and philanthropist. Cohen was said to be a people person, which showed in his successful business, as well as becoming a philanthropist to help those he could. His success also allowed for his children and nephew (that he raised) to follow their dreams, as well as his dream, and all three of his children became doctors. Cohen lived out his the remainder of his life in Florida until his death in June of 2020, due to complications from COVID-19.

 

Source:

Barker, B. (2020, December 04). Alvin Cohen: Visionary founder of Adventureland. Retrieved December 21, 2020, from https://www.newsday.com/news/health/coronavirus/obituaries/adventureland-founder-alvin-cohen-obituary-1.46537685