Seeking to tell village history

The Island Now

New Hyde Park was originally called Hyde Park, but its name was changed when the first local post office opened in 1871, to avoid being confused with the upstate Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park.

Up until the mid 19th century, cattle farming was among the primary occupations of the local gentry, and you could walk from Jericho Turnpike to Hillside Avenue and not see a single house.

That is anecdotal information about the origins of the town that New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri and members of the local history committee, currently functioning as the New Hyde Park Museum, are hoping will become more widely known in the near future.

To help educate residents of New Hyde Park’s history members of the committee, including village historian Carol Nowakowski, are trying to assemble a visual and oral history of the town.

“I hope to be a catalyst to keep this thing going,” Barbieri said. “We have neighbors here who remember when.”

A handful of current residents were here when the Village of New Hyde Park was officially established in 1927, according to Barbieri.

He said the history committee’s objective is to preserve their memories in an oral history that will reside in a museum in the basement of village hall and online.

The history committee already has a Facebook page – Facebook.com/New Hyde Park Museum – and it anticipates that page will become a Web site to make the village’s story accessible online. Residents can also contact the New Hyde Park Museum committee via e-mail at nhpmuseum@gmail.com

The committee is located in village hall, which is an appropriate locale, since it figures prominently in village history, first as a school in 1905 before later making a transition to its current use.

Barbieri is now seeking financial support from local organizations for the committee’s work. He said he had a “good response” from the Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce.

He said he would like to send volunteers equipped with iPads out among residents with stories to tell to record their recollections.

“Now is the time to talk to them. What we’re hoping to do is to organize teams to visit senior citizens who can’t get around easily, to speak with them,” Barbieri said. “We have an opportunity now utilizing this new technology to present, in the words of the people who lived it, the history of this community.”

The history committee has already collected three boxes of vintage photographs and artifacts that will become part of the village museum exhibits and the online counterpart of that museum.

The official kick-off of their campaign to collect information and objects of interest will take place at next month’s village street fair.

A booth will be set up in front of village hall to solicit volunteers to assist in the effort. An area will be set up in nearby Marcus Christ Hall to record residents ready to tell their stories on the spot that day.

Histories of all local organizations, such as the fire department, and local churches will be part of the picture, according to Barbieri, who wants to chronicle the history of the incorporated and unincorporated areas.

“The village will be part of it, but it won’t be all of it. We’re going to cover the greater New Hyde Park area,” he said.

When the New Hyde Park Memorial High School reopens this fall, Barbieri is planning to reach out for assistance from history and English teachers there, and hopes to enlist student volunteers who can help archive and scan historical materials that are collected.

“We need help,” Barbieri said. “I don’t think we need a million dollars to do it. Once you have an iPad, that’s all you need.”

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