It’s 1910 and the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Middle Neck Road is tree-lined and narrow. Where there are now six lanes of traffic, gas stations and the glass-fronted Seven Seas diner, there are two crossing dirt roads and wooden slat fences.
The photograph is one of hundreds in “Great Neck,” Arcadia Publishing’s latest entry in its series of local history books Images of America.
Written by Great Neck Historical Society members Alice Kasten and Leila Mattson, the book tracks Great Necks history through photos and captions, from its 19th century agricultural roots to its post-World War II suburban heydey.
“The goals are kind of the same as those of the historical society, in that we want people to be aware of the history of the community,” said Mattson, who also serves as the Village of Thomaston historian. “To have recognition for it and respect for it.”
Kasten, who is the president of the Great Neck Historical Society, said the project began in earnest last fall, when after discussing the idea for the book with the historical society she and Mattson began to work on it independently.
Arcadia’s local history series has thousands of entries, but none had been written about Great Neck – a state of affairs that Kasten found intolerable.
“Everything has a book, but there was no book for Great Neck,” Kasten said. “I said, this is crazy.”
Like all Images of America books, the volume is centered on photographs, with captions explaining their historical context.
Kasten and Mattson pored over the Great Neck Library’s image archives, historical New York Times articles and Kasten’s own collection of historic Great Neck images to curate photos for the book.
“The Great Neck Library was very gracious and they allow us to use their photo collection,” Kasten said. “”We went through all the normal research sources. A lot of online research, a lot of book research.”
The resulting images, organized into topics like “The Nine Villages” and “The Grand Estates,” track Great Neck’s development, from the farms and wooden storefronts of the 1800s to the Jazz Age home where F. Scott Fitzgerald lived, and on through the middle of the 20th century.
Some of their research tied into issues currently facing Great Neck.
Mattson said one image in the collection shows two people buried in the Allen family cemetery – a historic graveyard whose restoration is currently being discussed by the Village of Great Neck Plaza, the Town of North Hempstead and adjacent property owners after years of disuse.
“We have a photograph of the Cutter Mill, and the owners and operators of the Cutter Mill, named Elijah and Daniel K. Allen, father and son, are buried in that cemetery,” Mattson said.
Kasten said one of her favorite discoveries was a story of Broadway actress Lillian Russell bolstering Great Neck’s patriotic spirit.
“My favorite story is that Lillian Russell, who rented here for several years at the turn of the century, and the community – the peninsula – they wanted to have a fireworks show and they wouldn’t contribute. So she paid for the whole fireworks show,” Kasten said.
According to an 1895 New York Times article, Russell funded Great Neck’s Fourth of July celebration with a $150 contribution.
The book will be available Aug. 19 at Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble book stores.
