Update 7-22-08

Hi,

Mail, democratically in the order it arrived.

From Linda Cohen Greenseid:  Did Golden Crust Pizza serve only square-shaped slices?  I remember my dad taking us to a pizza place in the Green Acres Shopping Center that served square slices, which I found very strange.
   
    From Donald Faber:  A little something more, courtesy of the Internet, for those interested in Lord's Woods:
        Lord's Woods, named after the first white owner of the land, occupied about a two-mile stretch along the area now carrying Peninsula Boulevard west-southwest to east-northeast through Woodmere and Hewlett due east of JFK and north of the bays.  It was dense, original growth with giant trees stretching to the skies and rather marshy.  It was all torn down for housing in the1950s after the boulevard was cut through the middle.
        I played there as a pre-teen, especially biking a dirt path down the center, and my sister went to a girls day camp there, Peninsula Girls, which they called "Pigs' Garbage."  The original old Lord house still existed some 10 to 20 years ago, but I couldn't find it on 04 November 00.  I found my copy of Robert Arbib's lovely book, The Lord's Woods -- The Passing of an American Woodland, 1971, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, SBN (sic) 393 08639 9, LoC 73-139373, with an endpaper map, a good history, and one of the most evocative ecological pictures of an American paradise I've ever read.  In my copy of the book, I found a forgotten letter from the previous homeowner, who bought the house in 1961.  The letter was dated 20 June 1989, happily with their family name, and they were the parents of a young draftsman working for me at the time.  I found the former owner and was advised where to find the house.  It turned out I'd only been a house away on 04 November 00.
        Suffice it to say that Lord was an early muckety-muck with the Borden Milk Company, and the house was part of a very large estate with four houses built circa 1814.  I wonder if the Lee Mansion, recently demolished, was one of them.  In the late 1920s-early 1930s, the house was owned by Harold Minsky and was drastically reduced in size -- two wings were removed -- when the property was broken up.  Being in the area on 26 August 2007, I took two pictures with a cell phone, looking northwest and north.  The house has been heavily modified, apparently without much regard for historicity, and is at 855 Briar Place.  This is on the south side, one house in from Longacre Avenue, between Bryant and Dickens Streets in Woodmere.  It is also only one block west of Woodmere Boulevard, halfway between Peninsula Boulevard and West Broadway.
        Arbib's book mentions Ben Berliner as a tireless champion of the Lord's Woods, but he is not William Berliner's brother, alluded to as the "Yale medical dean" and noted on my Long Island Berliners list.  He is almost certainly B.C. Berliner, a doctor who lived on East Rockaway Road in Hewlett or East Rockaway circa 1950. The book has no photos, but the endpapers are a delightful map: "The Lord's Woods -- a reconstruction of their state about 1930", by Arbib and Richard Edes Harrison.  As of 05 March 2002, the Nassau County Library System's ALIS (Automated Library Information System) shows that nine Nassau County libraries still have thirteen copies of the book available for loan or reference.
   
    From Amy Miller:  No need to publish this trivial correction, but the book by Robert Arbib on the passing of an American woodland is titled The Lord's Woods not The  Lords'  Woods.  The apostrophe on the book title is after the d, even though after names, if my memory of Miss Dillback's lessons is correct, one can do either d's or ds' for the possessive.
        This you can publish:  After receiving a scan of Stu Borman's Green Acres advertising brochure, I did a weeding through my father's very fat Green Acres house folder in which I found a goldmine of receipts, documents, and other historical data starting  from 1951.  This was a task that might have fallen to my descendents who likely will never recognize the name "Green Acres."  So from all of them, I thank you all for your wonderful contributions to this newsletter, which -- as I've mentioned before -- I receive with the same anticipation each week as I did My Weekly Reader at Forest Road School.
   
    [Rich -- As I wrote Amy:  Actually, I've been meaning to go online and puzzle out the name of the book.  If the family was named Lord, then the plural would be Lords, and their woods would be Lords' woods.  But everyone who's written me about the book has used the spelling Lord's woods, which could go to the Lord family's woods or, in short, the Lord's woods.  But that seems more like God's woods, which the author of the book might have been punning on, and that might be why the book title had that punctuation.  Or he may just have been wrong, like the company name Lands' End, which they knew was wrong but couldn't afford to correct when they were getting started.  In any case, your notation isn't a correction; it's a question I've been meaning to ask some of the English teachers in the combined classes that get the newsletter.  Maybe one of them will have an answer.]
   
    Amy again:  Well -- which is a hole in the ground according to Miss Dillback -- we know that for possessives of last names either use of the apostrophe is correct.  I thought Arbib's using Lord's Woods showed his spiritual nature before I read that the family who owned the land was named Lord, but it may still be Arbib's "joke."  It's been a while since I read the book, and I think he's pretty reverential towards nature, so I would not be surprised if he meant us to be worshipful.
        Two things that make me suffer like listening to fingernails scratching across the surface of a blackboard:  using an apostrophe when it isn't needed and using the word I instead of me for the indirect object.  I once overheard someone saying I's house instead of my house.  This misuse is so widespread that I wouldn't be surprised if someday no one will be alive who knows the correct use of I and me.  I recently heard Hillary Clinton say "to I" in a speech and others who should know better misuse the pronouns, too.
        Of course, there is another possibility:  Maybe Mr. Lord didn't have a family, in which case, it would be Lord's woods.
   
    [Rich, to Amy -- You read the book.  Did Lord have a family?  You'd be the one to know, not me.  Not I?  Hmmm.]
   
    And from Amy:  Arbib had a family, for sure.  I'll have to walk downstairs and get out the book again to see if Lord was referred to as a person or a family.  Arbib knew the woods, the flora and fauna -- what is fauna anyhow? -- pretty well, but I don't remember if he knew much about the Lord family.
   
    From Irene Augustin Wehn:  I've been thinking about the stories of Mill Creek.  I remember that so well.  Even when I was a young child, my family took us for walks there, through "the woods" or what they sometimes referred to as the "water works."  The area had the most beautiful trees and paths and the clearest brook.  The water in it had a sand-and-pebble bottom and was just crystal clear. 
        As I read the stories of Valley Stream long ago, I think of my ancestors.  My grandparents came to Valley Stream in the 1800s, and they owned the land that William L. Buck School is now on.  My parents had a farm next to it, on the corner of Rockaway Avenue and Horton Avenue.  They sold vegetables and flowers.  I was born on that farm and lived there until I was four.  Then we moved just across the street.
        So anyway I love reading the stories of Valley Stream long ago.  Thanks for those who write them.  I also want to mention that my e-mail address has been changed .  It's now:  sunnieami@yahoo.com
   
    From Andy Dolich:  Since we are doing a Green Acres memory lane thing, I want to see if anyone remembers the name of the airfield that became Green Acres Shopping Center and the watch company that had a manufacturing plant next to it.  Also, I just looked at the class web site to check an e-mail address, and I notice mine hasn't been updated.  As I've mentioned, it's: andy.dolich@niners.nfl.net   No more Grizzlies.
   
    Coincidentally, from Tom McPartland: I remember the Green Acres Shopping Center.  Amazing how many stores were there and gone:  Gimbels, JJ Newberry’s, Walgreens, and Sam Goody’s, where I went at lunch to buy 45s. I thought there was a Times Square Store at the opposite end from Gimbels, and I'm trying to remember more. I believe there was a Finest Super Market in the area towards the Drive-Inn Movie. Floyd Bennett opened a store on Sunrise Highway, and it was open on Sundays.  Since the shopping center was not a mall as we know them today, there was not a roof over the center.  Also there were the remains of Curtiss Airfield in the back of the shopping center.  Home Depot now sits where the airstrip was.
   
    [Rich -- So Tom clairvoyantly answered Andy, but no one's answered Steve Gootzeit's possibly rhetorical question of several weeks back, wondering who sang "Yesterday, When I Was Young."  And I'll answer Andy, too:  I update the web site address list irregularly, especially in the lazy summer.  But thanks for the reminder.
        I knew the answer to Andy's question before Tom's e-mail came because my parents were in aviation, and I knew some of the following information.  But some things are new to me.  The link to the full article is:
    http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/NY/Airfields_NY_LongIsC.htm   There are also some great photos, which, unfortunately, can't be included here.]
   

    Rogers Airport / Curtiss Airport / Columbia Aircraft Company Airfield, Valley Stream, New York.
    The history of this obscure little airport is somewhat convoluted, and involves two obscure aircraft manufacturers which made their home at Valley Stream.  In 1928, Rogers Airport was opened on the southwest border of Valley Stream.  About a year later, Curtiss-Wright purchased the Rogers Airport and the Reisert Farm adjoining it.  Several millions dollars were invested before the Curtiss Airport became operational.  Hundreds of planes used the facility daily, along with famous aviators like Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post.  The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots, was established on November 2, 1929, when 26 licensed women pilots met at Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream.  In 1931, Amelia Earhart was elected as their first president.  The group was named for the 99 charter members.
    The Columbia Aircraft Company was formed in Valley Stream in 1929 by Charles Levine, Giuseppe Bellanca, and Clarence Chamberlain to acquire the rights to a Wright Aircraft designed by Bellanca -- the W.B.2.  Three examples of the Columbia CAL-1 Triad were produced in 1929.  The Triad was a 6-passenger amphibian, which converted to a land plane via a detachable hull or to a full seaplane by removal of the wheels.  It was powered by a 220hp Wright J-5.  A sole prototype of the Columbia Uncle Sam was built in 1929, reportedly costing a total of $250,000.  It was planned as a 50-passenger transoceanic transport.
The Uncle Sam was powered by a 450hp Packard 2A, and had a span of 60'.  It was test-flown into 1930, but production of the plane, seriously underpowered, was canceled.
    Curtiss Airport was the largest commercial airport on Long Island for three years starting in 1930.  The Valley Stream Airport was also the location of Naval Reserve Aviation Base Valley Stream, according to the 12/50 issue of the Naval Aviation News, courtesy of John Voss.  As of 1930, the naval aircraft assigned to NRAB Valley Stream were:  6 Consolidated NY-2's, 1 Vought O2U-2, and 3 Curtiss Fledgings.  Training was given to 3 squadrons, and during the summer, elimination flight training was provided to 35 student flight officers.  At some point after 1930, Valley Stream's Naval Aviation activities were transferred to Floyd Bennet Field.  The first two Columbia Triads were destroyed in a hangar fire in 1931.  It is not known what became of the 3rd and last Triad.  The sole prototype of the Columbia Uncle Sam was auctioned in 1931 for only $750,
but it was destroyed in hangar fire two weeks later.  Leroy Grumman moved his fledgling aircraft company to the Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream in 1931, but then moved on to Farmingdale the very next year.
    In 1933, only three years after the Curtiss Airport had opened in Valley Stream, the worsening conditions of the Depression reportedly led to the airport's closure.  However, the Columbia Aircraft Company evidently continued their operations at Valley Stream,and the "closure" only referred to the operations of the public airport.  The airfield consisted of 3 asphalt runways in a triangular layout in the middle of a large grass field.
A row of 6 substantial hangars lined the west side of the field.  In 1940 Jim Freyler noted, “There were still 5 aircraft parked there although the field had been "closed" for many years.”  During WW2, the Grumman Aircraft Company in nearby Bethpage developed the J2F Duck floatplane.  However, under pressure of growing demand for its more urgently needed fighters and dive-bombers, Grumman had to farm out the Duck and other projects.  After the last J2F-5 Duck rolled off the Grumman assembly line, production of the Duck was shifted to the Columbia Aircraft Corporation, which built the J2F-6 at their Valley Stream, Long Island factory from early 1942 until the end of WW2.  The J2F-6 was identical to the -5 except for the more powerful Wright 1820 Cyclone engine (with 1,050 hp).  The J2F-6 was the most numerous version of the Duck, with 330 having been built for the Navy and Coast Guard.  Lee Englund recalled, "As a kid I lived in Valley Stream in the 1940s.  It was great fun to watch the Grumman Ducks flying around."
    The Columbia Aircraft Company airfield was not depicted at all on the 1943 New York Sectional Chart, according to Chris Kennedy.  According to John Voss, the Columbia airfield was listed in the 1944 Directory of Airfields, with a 2,900 foot runway.  The earliest aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of the Columbia Aircraft Airfield was on the 1945 New York Sectional Chart, courtesy of Robert Bown.  It depicted Columbia as an auxiliary airfield.
    An even more obscure product of this relationship was the XJL-1.  During the early WW2 years Grumman commenced a project to marry the best features of the Duck with a more modern monoplane configuration, an all-metal structure, and fully retractable tricycle landing gear.  This resulted in the XJL-1, which was also farmed out to Columbia Aircraft Company.  Columbia built 3 prototypes of the XJL-1.  One prototype was tested structurally to destruction, while the first to fly took to the air in late 1946.  The specific outcome of the XJL project is unknown, but it evidently was canceled as part of the post-WW2 military cutbacks.
    Columbia Aircraft Company was acquired by Commonwealth Aircraft in 1946.  Commonwealth transferred production of their Skyranger, a light single engine general aviation aircraft, from Kansas City's Fairfax Airport to the former Columbia Aircraft factory in Valley Stream.  Commonwealth went on to manufacture 276 of their Skyrangers before production ceased after less than one year, in late 1946.  Commonwealth went bankrupt in 1947, as the anticipated post-war boom in civil aviation never occurred.  It is not known if the Columbia Airfield was ever used again after the bankruptcy of Commonwealth Aircraft in 1947.  It was apparently abandoned by 1949, as it was not depicted on the 1949 New York Sectional Chart, according to Chris Kennedy.
    In 1956, the Green Acres Shopping Center, one of Long Island's first shopping centers, opened on the north side of the former airport property.  However, the former hangars were spared and remained standing for another three decades.  Greg Dito reported, “I was employed by the defense firm Bulova Technologies that used the two hangars since razed to build the Home Depot.  Bulova’s expertise in watches and general timing devices migrated to weapons fusing and safe/arm devices starting the 1950s.  At some point, possibly in the late 1950s or early 1960s, Bulova moved its growing defense business from the watch company site in Jackson Heights, Queens, to the Valley Stream location.  A single-story structure was built between the two hangars, joining them and serving as the company’s full-service cafeteria.  Other added structures included an adjoining shipping warehouse and a below-ground bunker for storage of the small detonators used in the devices.”
    The 1969 USGS topographical map still depicted the former hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company on the west side of the property, but the airfield area in the center had been covered by residential streets.  Greg Dito recalled, “I joined Bulova in 1980 and stayed until its closing in May 1991, when it relocated to Lancaster Pennsylvania, after purchasing Hamilton Technologies from Olin Corp.  Olin purchased Hamilton’s parent company for its large-caliber munitions business and had no interest in fusing.  There were just under 1,000 employees during Bulova’s peak in the 1980s.  Bulova designed and manufactured fusing devices for Sidewinder, Maverick, and Sparrow missiles and also made artillery and mortar fuses, ICBM security key locks, and M1A1 Abrams HEAT ammunition.  I believe Bulova was one of the largest defense firms on Long Island after the big aircraft companies.”  Greg continued, “Layoffs began in 1989 although several employees including me were there until the very last day in 1991.  I took a number of photos of the buildings, looking pretty much overgrown and abandoned by May 1991.  The parking lot used the original concrete tarmac, and it was very easy to see how the hangars were arranged.  Their original facades had a bas relief of a single prop plane making its way through the clouds.  Even though the large hangar door openings were long ago "bricked over," one could still see how immense and cavernous the hangars were.”
    Lee Englund recalled in 2003, "I had occasion to visit Valley Stream about eight years ago and found Curtiss airport, its great hangars still standing with the airplane emblem at the peak of each end.  At that time, some company was using the hangars as a manufacturing facility."   In 1993, two hangars, formerly the home of Columbia Aircraft, were demolished to make way for a Home Depot, which presently occupies the site.  Two hangar emblems were located at each hangar.  Gabriel Parrish, a volunteer at the Restoration and the Cradle of Aviation at Mitchell Field, was instrumental in salvaging the last remaining emblem and arranging it to be moved to the grounds of the Valley Stream Historical Society.  A circa 2006 aerial photo showed that four of the 1930-era hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company still remained standing on the west side of the property.  The site of the Columbia Aircraft Company is located southwest of the present-day Green Acres Mall, on the south side of Green Acres Road.