The Great Neck Historical Society, which holds its annual meeting June 21 at the Great Neck Park District’s new 5 Beach Road offices, has become our leading advocate for preservation and conservation of our community’s heritage. (And here I note that I have been a member of the board since the society’s founding but this column reflects my own views.)
The society’s advocacy is vital in the wake of politicians’ apathy, even hostility, to preservation.
They see preservation as a liability, an expense, instead of a responsibility.
The fact that historic and environmental preservation, just as promotion of arts and culture, are actually engines for economic growth and a lifeline for supporting revitalization of communities that would otherwise spiral into decline, is not appreciated.
Take Saddle Rock, for example, which happens to have one of the few remaining tidal grist mills left in existence. Ours dates from the 1600s — it probably was a key spur to the growth of settlement on the peninsula and the earliest engine of economic growth — but has been horrendously neglected by Nassau County, which is the ostensible owner responsible for it. (Nassau Legislator Ellen Birnbaum has periodically prodded the county but so far to little avail in a county struggling under financial mismanagement that even shortchanges funding to preserve the Old Village Restoration at Bethpage living history museum, a national treasure.)
Mayor Dan Levy, to his credit, appealed to Nassau County for the keys to the Grist Mill, to take it over and pursue its own funding for restoration. Nassau County refused. That was more than a year ago.
But instead of being an aggressive advocate to steer funding for maintenance and restoration, let alone actually resume the legendary operations that enchanted generations of Great Neck elementary students, Mayor Levy notes that this is a volunteer position and says his priorities are elsewhere.
“What would you have me do?” he exclaims. He should be enlisting the support of the entire Great Neck Village Officials Association (he is the president) in lobbying for support and attention from Nassau County.
(We have just learned from Nassau County, according to a spokesperson, that “an engineering evaluation was completed with specific recommendations on repairs.
We have a FEMA commitment for funding in the amount of $375,000 to pay for said repairs.
We needed a construction mechanism in place to make these repairs. E&A Restoration is DPW’s buildings Requirements Contractor but the contract is not yet in place.
We were hoping to have the contract filed and ready for the next Rules Meeting on 6/26.
Once the contract is approved, we can encumber funds to actually make the repairs and seek reimbursement from FEMA.” This apparently was not known to Mayor Levy nor Legislator Birnbaum.)
The Great Neck Historical Society has taken up this fight, but has exerted its greatest efforts to the awesome task of raising some $4 million that will be necessary to repair and restore the Stepping Stones Lighthouse, which dates from 1876. Here, the society has had willing and helpful partners in the Town of North Hempstead which acquired stewardship of the lighthouse in 2008, the Great Neck Park District and the City Island Historical Society. Their efforts include sitting for hours gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble, hosting boat tours, and square dances and selling T-shirts to raise funds and hopefully attract the attention of a major donor.
Without their efforts, the lighthouse will be replaced by an unsightly metal pole with an automated light and Great Neck Peninsula will lose an architectural and historic gem.
The historical society’s efforts go beyond — they have become the singular missionaries protecting our heritage against obliteration.
Villages used to have Landmark Commissions and village historians who served as a conscience and counterweight to unrestrained wrecking balls — now, there are few village historians who are even on the society’s board of directors. Even the Great Neck Library whose past presidents including Mischa Schwartz and Linda Cohen, along with its former reference librarian Leila Mattson, have been actively engaged, is no longer the partner that every other library is with its historical society in the common cause of preserving a community’s history, culture and heritage, indeed, providing a repository of its archives.
Instead, the Great Neck Library has been dismissive of the historical society.
The renovation of the Main Library allocated only tight space for a history room and even less allocation for the society to store historical records, and the Library is no longer waiving its $60 fee to hold meetings there (the historical society has no money besides small membership dues.)
The historical society is no threat to local government or even private ownership — it has no real authority, beyond inculcating awareness and appreciation of our community’s past through education and outreach, which includes giving talks in schools and organizations, hosting marvelous lectures and even trolley and boat tours.
Its Plaque Program encourages homeowners to appreciate their home’s history, architecture or cultural significance — but does not impose any restrictions of official landmarking. Joan Wheeler and Leila Mattson do an amazing amount of research to help the homeowner learn their property’s past.
This year’s restoration award will be bestowed on 17 Beverly Road, Kensington, a home that now is owned by a Great Neck South High School alum.
She had no idea of its illustrious background — that it was once owned by an important playwright and librettist who created musicals with Cole Porter and Jerome Kern, married to an opera singer, and once (we hear) hosted Caruso (there is reportedly a photo of Caruso sitting with his wife.)
Why preserve, why conserve, especially at a time when progress is prized above all else, when new technologies are demanded to meet challenges of sustainability and climate change?
Because some things are worth preserving, restoring, refitting or repurposing. It is an important exercise in humility, to realize you are but a link in a chain, that you didn’t “build it” yourself, but stand on the shoulders of others. What happens if we obliterate that chain?
In a community which has seen waves of immigrants, going back to the original European settlers, and who today come from places where heritage is marked by millennia rather than centuries, nonetheless, we all share the role of stewards.
It is part of being a citizen. We take up this mantle of responsibility when we take up residence in a community, recognizing that what we do today becomes the legacy of all those who come after.
That’s what it means to become part of a community.
Come June 21 at 7:30 p.m. to hear firsthand all that the Society has accomplished this past year and is working to accomplish next and what you can do to save Great Neck’s heritage.
Even better, join the Great Neck Historical Society and be a part.
Visit the website, greatneckhistorical.org, or e-mail greatneckhistorical@gmail.com.
