Farmingdale's Main Street Then & Now: Photos

FARMINGDALE, NY — Dalers can take a stroll down memory lane or get a sense of their history thanks to a then-and-now photograph display of Main Street, Farmingdale, put together by the Farmingdale Public Library.

Toniann Contarino and Natalie Korsavidis, a pair of local history librarians, began drafting up the proposal for locations in September 2021 for the previous library director, Debbie Podolski. Farmingdale's full history guide can be found online.

The above slideshow offers a taste of what the library worked on. People can visit the physical display for the full experience at the Farmingdale Public Library.

The two put together a list of any business they could prove had a location on Main Street. From there, the duo came up with mini-histories for the locations they could provide photographs of.

The librarians and Podolski met with Chris Leonardi and Claudia Castro of Blumlein Associates, Inc. at the end of November, where they started the official drafts of what the panels currently hold. The display officially went up on March 25, and a ribbon cutting was held on March 30.

Contarino said she and Korsavidis received many requests from people to find out what stores used to be on Main Street.

"Once COVID-19 hit, we began doing Throwback Thursdays on Instagram and saw that our patrons loved the old photographs of Farmingdale," Contarino said. "We decided that it would be a great idea to combine the interests of patrons and create this display. Sharing local history with the community has allowed Natalie and I to connect people with what made Farmingdale what it is today. The people and places of Farmingdale are what makes Farmingdale so amazing and sharing its history allows us to help the community continue to grow and learn."

The library also added a glass display case near the new books featuring items from some of the businesses on the display.