To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Great Neck Estates, a Centennial Celebration will be held on Memorial Day at Great Neck Estates Park for residents with a current park membership card.
The all day event will feature children’s games and rides, food, nighttime concert and journal filled with anecdotes and memorabilia.
“Nothing particularly historical,” said Great Neck Estates Historian Ilse Kagan. “It’s just a party.”
On April 13 at 7:30 p.m., Kagan will give a Power Point presentation at the Great Neck Library on the history of the village. In an interview, Kagan shared some of that history.
What later became known as Great Neck Estates was for 240 years a farm owned by the Thorne family.
Hailing from England, in the 1600s the Thornes landed in Massachusetts, where they found a Puritan church that was as strict in its theological outlook one they had recently fled.
Known for their liberalism, the Thornes left for Flushing. Through a lottery they won a patent for land that became the Village of Great Neck Estates.
In 1911 the McKnights bought three-quarters of the farm and started a nine hole golf course along on the shore. Expanded to 18 holes in 1920, the golf course became the center of village party life.
“In the 1920s, Great Neck and this whole area was like the Hamptons of today,” Kagan said. “It was socially important for people to belong here, to come here, and they all did. Babe Ruth came here.”
Other Great Neck Estates noteworthies include F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Marx brothers.
A famous theater built by the Baron family featured pre-Broadway openings and movies.
“If you attended charitable functions, it was everybody who was everybody,” Kagan said. “The ‘20s are the highlight.”
The Great Depression hit Great Neck Estates hard.
The playhouse closed. The golf club went broke, eventually becoming semi-public- driving wealthier patrons to start a golf club in Glen Cove.
Since the 1980s, the population has remained steady while the demographics have changed.
“Africans came here in the 1980s, then Persians,” she said. “Asians have arrived, so the population is very different than it used to be.”
Mail memorabilia or first-hand impressions for possible inclusion in the journal by March 31 to Andrew Greene at 62 Maple Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021.
