Wyandanch New York NY Warrant Search

Wyandanch, New York Wyandanch is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 10,546 at the 2000 census. History This hamlet is named after Chief Wyandanch, a leader of the Montaukett Native American tribe during the 17th-century. Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park (1875), and Wyandance (1893), the area of scrub oak and pine barrens south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch in 1903 by the Long Island Rail Road to honor Chief Wyandanch and end confusion between travelers getting off at the West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. West Deer Park-Wyandanch were part of the Deer Park School District until 1923. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 10,546 people, 2,525 households, and 2,113 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 2,410.8 per square mile (931.8/km²). There were 2,776 housing units at an average density of 634.6/sq mi (245.3/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 3.9% White, 77.7% African American, 0.01% Native American, 0.01% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 6.26% from other races, and 4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.35% of the population.There were 2,525 households out of which 46.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 35.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16% were non-families. 11.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.14 and the average family size was 4.25.In the CDP the population was spread out with 35.6% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 18.2% from 45 to 64, and 6.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females there were 89 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83 males.The median income for a household in the CDP was $40,664, and the median income for a family was $41,857. Males had a median income of $29,344 versus $26,831 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $13,153. About 13.4% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.8% of those under age 18 and 19.5% of those age 65 or over. The 2005-2009 American Community Survey for the Wyandanch, New York CDP, was published December 14, 2010. It indicates there were 10,611 people (5,083 male and 5,528 female) in the Wyandanch CDP. There are 2,644 occupied housing units: 1,665 were owner-occupied homes and 989 were renter-occupied units. There were 261 unoccupied housing units, meaning 9% of the homes in Wyandanch were vacant. 10 % of the households in Wyandanch did not have telephone service and 12% 'did not have access to a car,truck, or van for private use.' The median value of the owner-occupied homes was reported as $298,300.The racial makeup of the CPD was reported as: 13.8% White (1,464), 71.9% (7,634) Black or African-American, 1.5% Asian (163), 7.3% (766) Some other Race, 5.4% and (574) Two or More Races. Hispanic or Latinos (of any race)are reported to be 21.9% (2,327)of the Wyandanch population of 10,611. It seems as if a high per centage of the Whites in Wyandanch are Hispanic or Latino. ACS figures indicate that there are only 144 Non Hispanic Whites living in Wyandanch. The per centage of Blacks or African-Americans living in Wyandanch rises to 77% when the statistic includes Blacks who are Hispanic/Latino, or are included in the Two or more race category.Of the population of 10,611: 8.5% were Under 5 years old; 21.5% were 5 to 18 years old, 11% were 18-24, 28% were 25-44, 23% were 45-64 and 7.2% were 65 years and older. The median age was 30.8 years. 21.7% (2,305) were Foreign born and 23.1% (2,238) 'speak a language other than English at home.' 62% of the residents of the Wyandanch CDP were born in the State of New York. 'Of those speaking a language othe than English at home, 74% spoke Spanish and 26% spoke some other language.' 61.6% (4,817) were 16 or over and in the labor force. The average household size was 4.01 and the average family size was 4.31. 8.8 percent of the residents were civilian veterans 18 years and older. The median family income(in 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars) was said to be $51, 108. 19% of the people in the Wyandanch CDC 'were in poverty. Twenty-five percent of the related children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 22 percent of people 65 and older.' The 2005-2009 ACS data showed that '73 percent of the workers in Wyandanch drove to work alone, 10 percent carpooled, 13 percent took public transportation, and 3 percent used other means. The remaining 1 percent worked at home.'For the actual ACS data go to the link below and click on Wyandanch, NY.Source: http://www.factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id+16000US368... Media In July 2009 The New York Times featured the Wyandanch community and real estate.In 1949, the trustees of the Community Presbyterian Church in Deer Park, began publishing the Deer Park News-Wyandanch News as an eight-page mimeo each Thursday. The paper later expanded into a tabloid size weekly The Deer Park-Wyandanch News under the editorship of noted writer, Verne Dyson. Unfortunately, almost all these newspapers have been lost. One volume of the Deer Park Wyandanch News exists in the Town of Babylon archives at Phelps Lane Park. Sources: Dyson: Deer Park Wyandanch History; Leroy Douglas recollections and archives.The Wyandanch Community Action Center published a short-lived 'Community Journal' newspaper in the 1970s.Wyandanch businessman, Delano Stewart's Coalition For Better Government, published the 'Mid Island News' in the 1980s. Mr. Stewart now publishes an Afro-centric monthly newspaper: 'Point of View.' Wyandanch gets its first polling place in 1932 The first polling place in Wyandanch was established in the Wyandanch Fire House for the 1932 presidential election. Before 1932, Wyandanch residents traveled to Deer Park to cast ballots. Previous to the Great Depression, Wyandanch trended Republican politically but the community was solidly Democratic after 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt outpolled Gov. Alf Landon in 1936 by a 318-200 vote.Source: Babylon Leader, November 7, 1932. Law enforcement in Wyandanch: Pre-1960 Law and order was maintained in Wyandanch by Troop 'L' of the New York State Police and by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office. The State troopers were originally headquartered in Bay Shore and later at Belmont Lake State Park. The State troopers had a Pistol Range on a hillside sandpit in what is now Wheatley Heights. Troop 'L' held its seventh annual Christmas Turkey Shoot at the State Troopers' Pistol Range on Sunday, December 25, 1940. It was reported that over 1,500 people had attended the troopers's turkey shoot in 1939. The participants did not actually shoot turkeys. They fired at rabbit-shaped targets with .22 rifles, and at turkey-shaped targets with 20-gauge shotguns and .38 calibre revolvers. The best marksmen were awarded turkeys for Christmas dinner. It cost 35 cents to enter the event. Guns were supplied to contestants who did not own weapons. After World War II, the Babylon Town Police patrolled Wyandanch, and on January 1, 1960, the Suffolk County Police Department took control of law enforcement in Wyandanch.Source: Raymond R. Camp, 'Wood, Field and Stream,' New York Times, December 20, 1940: 36. Wyandanch votes Republican in 1948 Wyandanch had voted predominately Democratic in the 1930s. But in the November 1948 presidential election residents, casting their ballots in the Wyandanch Fire House, voted almost 2-1 Republican. Governor Thomas E. Dewey (R) received 550 votes in while President Harry S Truman (D,L) received 315 votes. Republican candidates for Representative in Congress, State Senate, State Assembly, County Clerk and County Coroner did equally well. The return of prosperity, the patriotic effects of employment at the nearby Republic, Grumman, Sperry, Ranger and Liberty defense plants and the effectiveness of the Babylon Town Republican Party organization in the 1940s, account for this significant, if short term, political change.Source: Babylon Leader, November 4, 1948 Wyandanch becomes overwhelmingly Democratic: mid-1950s With the racial transformation of Wyandanch in the mid-1950s many white Republicans moved away and the newcomer African-Americans trended heavily Democratic, although some African-American businessmen and civic leaders in Wyandanch (such as realtor James Ellison, Robert Washington and Theodore Williams) were active in the Republican Party. Most Democrats in Wyandanch belonged to the Mid-Island Democratic club. Wyandanch residents discuss incorporating as a Village: 1955 The Wyandanch Civic Association (mostly white) and the Carver Park Citizens Association (African-American) met in the auditorium of the Wyandanch School in February 1955 to discuss the feasibility of Wyandanch incorporating as a village. Lindenhurst mayor, Alex Jaeger, briefed residents about the incorporation process and the possible benefits of Wyandanch having its own 'trustees, police department and all else that would befall an incorporated area.' Edwin S. Shanks, the chairman of the Babylon Township Taxpayers Association advised a mass meeting in Deer Park that both Deer Park and Wyandanch should incorporate as villages. He believed incorporation would mean 'the payment of less overall property taxes.' The incorporation process proved too complicated and cumbersome. It faced significant opposition from the Town of Babylon and did not succeed.Sources: 'Wyandanch Civic Clubs to Hear Talk On Incorporation,' Deer Park Wyandanch News, February 11, 1955: 1; 'Favor Incorporation Of Local Villages,' Deer Park Wyandanch News, February 11, 1955: 1. Wyandanch Residents Block Proposed Town of Babylon Highway Dept. Gravel Pit: May 1973 In the spring of 1973 the Babylon Town Highway Department sought to condemn 22 acres (89,000 m2) on the west side of Little East Neck Road south of Long Island Avenue for a 15' deep sand and gravel pit. Over 150 angry Wyandanch residents turned out at the Babylon Town Hall to vehmently criticize the sand pit plan. Highway Superintendent, Robert Hanington, told the Town Board that the department was no longer able to mine the 60,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel for its annual road work from the town incinerator property on the Wyandanch/West Babylon border. He believed the proposed Wyandanch pit would meet sand and gravel needs of the Town of Babylon for eight years.The controversial proposal united all shades of opinion in Wyandanch. Arthur Figliozzi, the District Principal of the Wyandanch Schools said the Wyandanch school board was 'shocked that such a proposal would be considered for in front of a school (the Milton L. Olive School) where children would ne endangered by passing trucks.' Figliozzi said he was 'continually amazed that Wyandanch is used as a scapegoat. Why does our town have to be the dumping ground for this sort of thing.' Hermann Griem, president of the Joint Civic and Taxpayers Association of the Town of Babylon proposed that the property be used as a park. Griem, who successfully fought strip sand mining in Wheatley Heights in the 1950s, told supervisor Aaron Barnett and the full board, 'everything gets dumped in Wyandanch. If a representative from Wyandanch was on the town board, this proposal would never be brought to the floor.'Rev. David Rooks, president of the Wyandanch Community Development Corporation, argued that the proposed sand pit was too close to the Wyandanch Memorial High School and the Milton L. Olive Middle School and noted that 'condemnation by the town would create another tax free piece of property in the poorest hamlet in the town.' Herbert Abramson, an attorney for the Pinelawn Cemetery said ''the foul, loathsome pit' would violate the sanctity of our dead who cannot speak from their graves.'Sources: 'Wyandanch Gravel Pit Causes Town Uproar,' May 24, 1973 Jesse Jackson Campaigns for President in Wyandanch: April 1988 The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the first African American to make a serious run for President of the United States, made a campaign stop to more than 600 black church members, community residents and elected Democratic officials in the gymnasium of the Wyandanch High School on April 8, 1988. Jackson entered the packed gym to repeated chants of 'Jesse, Jesse Jesse.' Rev. Jackson's stop was part of a whirlwind bus tour of Long Island to drum up votes in the April 19 New York primary. His main contenders were: Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen Al Gore. In his 20-minute speech, Rev. Jackson called for economic justice and ethnic harmony in America and urged the predominantely black student body of Wyandanch High School to 'resist drugs and take responsibility for their lives.''Many Wyandanch residents,' Roy Douglas wrote in the Babylon Beacon, 'said Rev. Jackson's visit was a historic day for the community which would be remembered for decades.' Martha Nash said: 'I think this is such a wonderful occasion. This is a fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. We've got a long way to go, but, we've come a long way. The message, not the color of one's skin is what's important. This election will tell if America is really democratic.' Khalid La Teef, the president of the Wyandanch School Board said: 'Rev. Jackson is a symbol of hope of the opportunity of the ability in America to achieve against all odds. Jesse Jackson is an African-American who is achieving positive things.' Rev. John Cervini, the pastor of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C. Church in Wyandanch said: 'Rev. Jackson's visit to Wyandanch is a wonderful experience for the community. He is so positive and so hopeful. He generates so much self-worth and self-dignity.'Jackson came in second in the New York primary with 37% of the vote statewide. Governor Dukakis won 51% and Senator Gore only 10%. Rev. Jackson won New York City by 6,000 votes, but Gov. Dukakis did very well in the New York City suburbs. Dukakis' victories in the New York Democratic primary, and shortly after in the Pennsylvania primary, effectively ended Rev. Jackson's historic presidential run.Sources: Michael Oreskes, 'Poll Finds Dukakis Extending Lead as the Candidates Stump New York,' New York Times, April 9, 1988; Roy Douglas, 'Presidential Candidate Visits Wyandanch As Supporters Cheer,' Babylon Beacon, April 14, 1988: 3; E.J. Dionne Jr., 'New York Gives Dukakis a Crucial Victory; Jackson Far Ahead of Gore, Who May Quit,' New York Times, April 20, 1988: 1. Wyandanch residents seek a referendum on incorporating as a village: 1989 In the summer of 1989, the Coalition for Better Government (CBG), an activist group in Wyandanch, lead by Wyandanch businessman, Delano Stewart, formed the Committee to Incorporate Wyandanch. They did this is the belief that the unincorporated, predominantly black hamlet had been ''dumped on,' neglected, overassesed' and denied a voice in government by the Town of Babylon.' The Committee to Incorporate Wyandanch sought to include Republic Airport in the proposed Village of Wyandanch. It also sought local zoning, taxing and planning powers. Their purpose was to better the lives of the 13,600 residents, whose median income was $35,000. As in the effort to incorporate Wyandanch in 1955, the CBG effort did not succeed.Sources: 'Wyandanch Needs Better Government-Not More,' Newsday editorial, March 1, 1989: 64; Dele Olojede, 'Wyandanch Incorporation Gets a Boost,' Newsday, July 15, 1989: 11; 'Don't Make Wyandanch the Soweto of Long Island,' Newsday editorial, July 21, 1989: Dele Olojede, 'Residents Petition for Local Control: Wyandanch Begins March to Incorporation,' Newsday, July 23, 1989: 1; 84; Delano H. Stewart, 'Wyandanch Needs a Voice of Its Own,' Newsday {Viewpoints} July 31, 1989: 45; Tom Morris, 'Wyandanch Incorporation Opposed: County Planners Cite Zoning Issue,' Newsday, August 3, 1989: 33; Michael Kornfeld, 'Wyandanch Seeks a Vote On Incorporation as Village,' New York Times, August 20, 1989, Section 12: 1,14; Dele Olojede, 'The Low Road to Incorporation? Babylon Highway Chief Spurns Group's Criticism,: August 30, 1989: 31. Wyandanch Residents Fight Back Against Influx of Crack, Prostitutes and Crime: 1991 Wyandanch, like all communities, has experienced crime and criminals. Earlier in the 20th Century it was mostly petty theft, vandalism, burglaries, auto theft, arson, the occasional shooting or stabbing, murder, suicide or fist-fight. This criminal behavior usually took place under the influence of alcohol near one of the several 'bars' in the community or in the isolated 'pine woods' or in 'the hills.' In the early 1950s, some teenagers , as was true nationally, became involved in unnamed neighborhood gangs. These pseudo-warriors-clad in garish black leather jackets and Garrison belts were more bluster than action. These patterns of behavior generally continued as Wyandanch became a predominately black community after 1958, although the amount of crime increased. Wyandanch in the 1960s, as was true throughout the US, saw a major growth in the use of drugs, and crime aand violence that are associated with drugs, drug dealing and addiction.Source: D.J.Hill,'In A Separate Suburbia, Proud But Often Powerless, Wyandanch Residents Try to Stabilize Their Community,' Newsday September 23, 1990. This section of the Newsday series: 'A World Apart: Segregation on Long Island' is one of most sensitive articles ever written about Wyandanch. It captures the social mood of Wyandanch in 1990 as middle class residents tried to survive amid the problems posed by the growing underclass in Wyandanch.Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, Wyandanch was adversely affected by the introduction of Crack. Crack was: 'A new more potent from of cocaine-cheaper, easier to use and more addictive than {cocaine} powder...' Crack was sold in small quantities 'costing from $10 to $50.' It was said to be 'fast becoming the drug of choice among cocaine users...' {especially among} 'street kids aged 18 to 25.' The rise of crack harmed neighborhoods in Wyandanch as 'crackheads' committed crimes to obtain money for the drug. Empty houses were taken over by users as 'crack houses,' where groups would smoke the narcotic together. Neighbors saw these numerous 'crack houses' as a menace to their children and themselves.The general public's awareness of crack in Wyandanch reached its peak between 1989 and 1991, when two events were highly publicized by the regional media. The first in 1989, involved the arrest of a 10-year-old in Wyandanch. The youngster was arrested for selling Crack from his bicycle. The other was the huge influx of prostitutes into Wyandanch who walked the sidewalks of Straight Path in search of 'johns,' The prostitutes even plyed their trade in front of the Wyandanch Public Library, the Straight Path school and on the steps of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal R.C Church. Most of the 'johns' were men who drove into the community seeking assiginations with the prostitutes. As a result of the increased crime associated with drugs-especially crack; some homeowners began erecting steel gates on the windows and doors of their home; others turned to belligrent guard dogs for protection.Source: Michael Winerip, 'Tears, Handcuffs for Boy, 10, Facing Judge in Crack Sale,' New York Times, January 21, 1989: 1.In a controversial move, the members of the Wyandanch Civic Association, as the New York Times wrote: 'Tired of the prostitutes on the corners and the men propositioning their daughters, and frustrated by police sweeps that have not solved the problem, the Wyandanch Civic Association took a drastic step this winter. Using a list provided by the police, it sent letters to the homes of 63 men arrested for soliciting prostitutes, with the words 'Patronizing a prostitute' written in bold red ink on the envelope and a copy of bthe police report with the accused man's name highlighted.' Muriel Simmons-Mc Cord said' 'This is to let people know that we do not want you to use our community as a playground.' Daria Cooper told the New York Times: 'This is Long Island; you're supposed to be able to enjoy your privacy, and its being invaded on a day-to-day basis.'Sources: Edna Negron and Michelle Slatella, 'CRACK: Smokable Cocaine-Cheap, Convenient and Powerfully Addictive- Is Ensnaring New Users at an Alarming Rate,' Newsday, April 6, 1986: 5; Michael Winerip, 'Our Towns; At Youth Center, Need and Crack Are the Enemies,' New York Times, January 24, 1989: B. 1; Sarah Lyall, 'Stung by Prostitution, Town shames Customers,' New York Times, July 18, 1991: B1; Pete Sheehan, 'Prostitutes on church steps a symbol of community ills,' Long Island Catholic, August 7, 1991: 12 Town of Babylon Community Help Center opens in Wyandanch: November 2009 The Town of Babylon opened a Community Help Center in a trailer at the southeast corner of Straight Path and Long Island Avenue in November 2009. The concept was to assist residents with job training and home ownership. The $100,000 Help Center is located on land the Town of Babylon purchased for $600,000 across from the Wyandanch LIRR station. This property was previously the site of an unsuccessful Mc Donald's franchise and before that the site of Harold S. Isham's Insurance office and Stephen Voit's law office. The Wyandanch Help Center is part of the Wyandanch Rising community revitalization plan. The opening was attended by Town of Babylon supervisor Steve Bellone, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, Suffolk County Legislator De Wayne Gregory and residents of Wyandanch. 'We have to get the community ready and get residents prepared for the revitalization,' supervisor Bellone told the people of Wyandanch, 'We're going to make sure we train people now so that when the development is going on, we can make sure thy're working.' The center is to be 'staffed by the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk County, First AME Church's Family Life Center/New Beginnings, Farmingdale State College's Small Business Development Center and the United Way of Long Island.' The center is being managed by Mannix Gordon of the Town of Babylon Downtown Revitalization Office. It will be operated for $30,000 a year.Source: Denise M. Bonilla, 'New Center Part of Plan to Revitalize,' Newsday, November 3, 2009: A.29; Leroy Douglas recollections. Early roads, Vanderbilt's Motor Parkway, and 'Castle' Estate The main roads in West Deer Park in the horse and carriage era were: Conklin Avenue, Burrs Lane, Little East Neck Road,Colonial Springs Road, Main Avenue, Nicolls Road, Straight Path, and Belmont Road North, now Mount Avenue. August Belmont used Mount Avenue to transport his famous thoroughbred horses to his Belmont Lake estate and horse breeding farm (1865) in North Babylon from the West Deer Park railroad station. These roads primarily provided estate owners access to the West Deer Park LIRR stattion. What we know today as Long Island Avenue in Wyandanch was originally known as Conklin Street when the Merritt brothers in Farmingdale had Conklin Street cut through from Farmingdale to Deer Park in 1895 so that the real estate lots they were selling in what then was called Wyandance could be more easily reached. Farmingdale residents considered this 'a great improvement as there has been no direct road form this village (Farmingdale) to Deer Park.' Straight Path was improved in 1937 (straighted between Portland Way and Brown Boulevard). It was widened and improved again from N. 11th Street to the Southern State Parkway in the mid-1950s to facilitate the hundreds of workers at the Fairchild Guided Missiles plant in Wyandanch who needed better access to the Southern State Parkway.Sources: Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957; Douglas, 'Pine Barren Pioneers,' 1982.A section of William K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP) toll road (1908)- introducing the automobile era to the area- ran through Wyandanch. LIMP had two concrete overpass bridges crossing hollows at Little East Neck Road and Colonial Springs Road (across from the Wheatley Heights Post Office). The parkway (abandoned in 1938) was dug up and the bridges demolished in the early 1960s to make room for the Westwood Village housing estate in Wheatley Heights. Parts of the asphalt on top of reinforced concrete Long Island Motor Parkway roadbed can still be seen in the woods behind the VFW Hall. The speed limit on the 16' wide LIMP was 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) up to Wyandanch and 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) beyond Wyandanch. William K. Vanderbilt's 'Castle' estate and mansion in Wheatley Heights- with its famous 'Black Tower'- between Burr's Lane and Bagatelle Road is now the campus of the Sisters of Good Shepard's Madonna Heights School (1963). Dr. Herman Baruch's widow, the Baroness Mac Kay-Baruch donated the estate to the Catholic Church after Dr. Baruch's death in 1953.. Dr. Herman Baruch, financier Bernard Baruch's brother, improved the Vanderbilt estate and named it 'Bagatelle.' Herman Baruch also developed the renowned Bagatelle Nursery Farm in Dix Hills. This is where the Koster Blue spruce tree was developed by Peter M. Koster, a Wyandanch resident, who died in 1944. The large and varied upscale nursery stock of the Bagetelle Nursery was shipped in and out by rail from a siding just west of the Wyandanch railroad station. Interestingly, there is a 'Wyandanch Pink' rhododendron. This hardy rhododendron hybrid was developed by Charles O. Dexter of Sandwich, Mass. in the 1920s or 1930's. Further research is required to discover if the 'Wyandanch Pink' was developed for Dr. Herman Baruch for growing at his Bagatelle Nursery Farm.Source for 'Wyandanch Pink,' http://www.learn2grow.comWorking class Wyandanch was sandwiched in between the wealthy estates of the: Belmonts, the Corbins and the Guggenhiems in North Babylon, and the Vanderbilts and the Baruchs in Wheatley Heights. What is now known as Wheatley Heights was mapped out as real estate sub-divisions of Wyandanch (including Wheatley Heights Estates, and Harlem Park) by Bellerose developer, William Geiger, (as in Geiger Lake park and pool) in 1913 following the development of the Long Island Motor Parkway. The filed lot sub-divisions south of the LIRR and east of Straight Path was known as the Colonial Springs Development Corp property. These lots ran from Straight Path to the Carll's River.Sources: Dyson, The Deer Park-Wyandanch Story, 1957. On Long Island Avenue see: 'Farmingdale,' The Long Islander (Huntington) June 1, 1895: 4 Wyandanch residents struggle for protection at dangerous LIRR Crossings: 1930s See also; Wyandanch (LIRR station) Numerous individuals were killed and seriously injured in horrific accidents involving cars and trucks being struck with high-speed Long Island Rail Road coal-burning steam locomotive trains at unprotected rail crossings in Wyandanch. This was especially true with the non-stop 'Cannonball' express trains from Greenport-which roared through at the unguarded grade-level rail crossings at Straight Path, 18th Street and Little East Neck Road in Wyandanch. In 1935, after repeated protests from the people of Wyandanch, the Public Service Commission (PSC) ordered the LIRR to provide crossing guards at the 18th Street and Straight Path crossings during school hours on school days. This allowed the school children living north of the LIRR to safely walk across the railroad on their way to the 1913 school house at South 20th Street and Straight Path. 'Residents of the village had complained that the railroad crossings were dangerous for school children, that the visibility was limited and that engine whistles were not always sounded as a warning of approaching trains.' Almost twenty years later, in 1951, the Public Service Commission ordered the LIRR to install crossing gates and safety lights at the three rail crossings in Wyandanch. The gates and lights were activated in 1952.Sources: 'Negro Hit By Train At Wyandanch: Instantly Killed At Unprotected Crossing...' Lindenhurst Star, August 3, 1928: 1; 'Wyandanch Scene of Another L.I. Grade Crossing Tragedy,' Lindenhurst Star, October 19, 1928; 'Wyandanch Folks Win Verdict,' Lindenhurst Star, October 25, 1929: 1; 'To Dedicate Quogue School Building, First Erected On L.I. with PWA Aid,' Suffolk County News (Sayville) January 18, 1935; 9; Dyson, Deer Park Wyandanch History: 119; Douglas: 'Pine Barren Pioneers.' 1941: Conklin Street is closed and the Southern State Parkway opens 1941 was a historic year for transportation in Wyandanch. On January 6, 1941 the main highway from Wyandanch to 'The City,' Route 24-Hempstead Turnpike was blocked at the rapidly expanding Republic Aviation factory at Broad Hollow Road (Route 110) and Conklin Street in East Farmingdale. This was done by the Suffolk County Highway Department, severing auto and truck traffic into Wyandanch via Long Island Avenue and limiting economic development along Long Island Avenue. Before and after the U.S. entered World War II, the Town of Babylon repeatedly tried, but failed, (including instituting legal actions) to pressure the U.S. Government to re-open Conklin Street. Long Island Avenue remains one of the least improved major roads in the Town of Babylon. Most of it still is a narrow two-lane road, which is mostly uncurbed and has very few sidewalks,and is dimly lit at night, although it is heavily traveled-especially by trucks. Conklin Street at Republic would not be reopened until 1965 (when Town of Babylon supervisor, Gilbert Hanse, convinced the new owners-Fairchild Republic to re-open Conklin Street to the public). The bothersome Conklin Street 'dogleg' near New Highway would not be straightened until the late 1990s.Sources: 'Barrier Against Sabotage At Long Island Plane Plants,' New York Times, January 5, 1941:9; 'Aviation Plant To Be Barricaded,' The Long Islander (Huntington) January 9, 1941: 7;'Protests Closing Farmingdale Road,' The Long Islander (Huntington)January 9, 1941: 2; 'Losing of Road At Farmingdale Taken to Court,' The Mid-Island Mail, March 12, 1941:2; 'Plane Company In Suit,' Suffolk County News (Sayville) March 21, 1941: 6; 'Closing Conklin Ave., Farmingdale In Court,' April 3, 1941: 7; 'Decision Reserved in Highway Closing Fight,' Suffolk County News (Sayville) April 4, 1941:8.Later in 1941, however, Robert Moses' ultra-modern Southern State Parkway was opened to Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. Wyandanch residents were able to enter and exit the parkway at Exit 36 at Straight Path in West Babylon. The opening of the Southern State Parkway made the African-American community in Little Farms section in southern Wyandanch less isolated and more accessible to future settlers. African Americans in Wyandanch had much social interaction with the older, more established, North Amityville African-American community (dating to at least the 1820s). African-Americans in Wyandanch attended church services and social events in North Amityville. The opening of the Southern State Parkway made interaction between African-Americans in Wyandanch and in North Amityville and in Breslau Gardens in East Famingdale easier. The opening of the Southern State Parkway also allowed the development of affordable housing tracts in West Babylon (such as Legion Park) after 1950.Sources: 'State To Extend Parkway,' Suffolk County News (Sayville) February 7, 1941: 9; Charles G. Bennett, 'Newest Link In Parkway: Three-Mile Extension of Southern State Artery To Open Soon,' New York Times, November 2, 1941; 'Southern State Parkway Extension to Belmont Lake State Park is Now Open,' Suffolk County News (Sayville) December 5, 1941: 9; George M. Ma