Friday, January 28, 2011

West Broadway, Seaford, in 1910

More of the 1910 census of Seaford:
These are the family names listed for West Broadway, wherever in Seaford that street was:
Smith, Mongomery, Mack, Seaman, Condit, Jung, Eldert, Verity, Albro, Rhodes, Stable, Custis, Ketcham, James, Wilson, Duryea, Weiner.  Many of these family names are repeated on other streets of Seaford.
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A count of the occupations listed in the census of West Broadway shows six farmers, two painters, two pond keepers at the city works, two carpenters, two laborers, one foreman at the railroad station, one machinist (locomotive), one grocery clerk, one bayman, one author, one chicken raiser, one retail dealer of fish.  This catalog of one street's inhabitants could be misleading, as the Seaford population topped six hundred, and other streets had more baymen.  I would have to do a full analysis of the census.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

U. S. Census, Seaford in 1910

I spent a few minutes in the Central Avenue, Massapequa Library, today looking at the 1910 U. S. Census of the Village of Seaford, "not incorporated."  The census carries the heading "22 and 23 April 1910, Hempstead District 1, [enumeration] district 1103.  There are twelve pages or so, fifty on each, giving Seaford a population of about 615.  My tabulation may be inexact.  These are the streets, listed by population:


176 residents of Washington Avenue
159 residents of Merrick Road
75 residents of Seamans Neck Road
61 residents of West Broadway
61 residents of A Lane
41 residents of Jackson Avenue.
20 residents of Waverly Avenue
10 residents of Hickory Avenue
10 residents of Lane
2 residents of Railroad Avenue
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More than 90% of the residents were born in the state of New York of a father born in the state of New York.  There are a few from Germany, Scotland, England, Italy (9 residents of "Lane"), and one family from Norway.
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I wonder where the street called West Broadway was.  Maybe the two lanes are among the present lanes south of Merrick Road.  Waverly Avenue was not extended west until the 1920's, I believe.
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Some of the Merrick Road families in 1910 were Verity, Pettit, Updike, Bryant, Mahon, Baldwin, Van Nostrand, Wilson, Smith, Valentine, Morgan (William 28, wife 26), Southard (John, retired wheelwright, Catherine, Mary, 32, law clerk, perhaps the 1930 proprietor of the funeral home), Rhineslat, Magnus, Baxter, Radloff, Einstein, Norman, Hewitt, Rohr, Morgan (another William), Powell, Reigle, McHugh.  (Again, corrections are welcome.)
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Seaford alumni have put together in guestbook format a series of posts, memories of growing up in Seaford.  Much of it describes the stores on Merrick Road and their proprietors.  The link is broken. There are forty pages of marvelous posts.  Is there another such memory collection with photographs about Seaford?
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The main page for Seaford alumni is here.  It is a great presentation!
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Often house numbers were introduced simultaneously with house-to-house delivery of mail.  However, the four-digit numbers prevalent in Seaford, I suspect, were introduced by the Town of Hempstead in the late 1940's.  They march along at the rate of 2 numbers every 20 feet.  Maybe they are based on the eastward progress of numbers from the center of Hempstead on the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike (NY 24).  Would anyone know in what year these four-digit numbers were introduced in Seaford?
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An aside: In Bellmore, on Oak Street one can observe the mingling of westward three-digit numbers (presumably the original ones) and eastward four-digit house numbers.



Friday, January 21, 2011

Seaford station in snow, 1.21.2011

Because the community now known as Seaford was along Merrick Road when the LIRR came through in the 1860's, we gained a park, courtesy of the Town of Hempstead.  The Seaford Wellness Council added a gazebo.


 Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Photos from the 20th century may be found here.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Memories of Merrick Road and Seaford, N.Y.

Seaford alumni have put together in guestbook format a series of posts, memories of growing up in Seaford.  The link is here, and there are forty pages of marvelous posts.  Is there another such memory collection with photographs about Seaford?
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The main page for Seaford alumni is here.  It is a great presentation!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Snow on Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The skies cleared at dawn, and we found about nine inches of snow on the lawn.