When All This Was Farms: Part 2

Editor's Note: Last week, we ran Part 1 of a two-part column from historical columnist Paul Manton. Below is Part 2.

Popular though the cucumber was, the potato was king from the 1850s or so onwards and that popularity circumscribes the fact that so many people today, sum-up Levittown's pre-1947 history as little but nondescript potato fields.

The potato survived the famous Colorado potato beetle infestation so of the 1870's and occasional flare-ups of the potato aphid, to become the principal agricultural product of the Levittown area before World War II.

The Seligman and Stiehler farms on Hempstead Turnpike grew potatoes as did the Rowehl farm and Gellweiler farm on Bloomingdale Road, the Bartel farm on Newbridge Road and the Hohorst farm on Wantagh Avenue.

Indeed, the first parcel of land where Levitt & Sons began building, between Sherwood and Old Farm roads, was on acreage rented by the Loudens' to grow potatoes.

The golden nematode blight, which began in 1934, sounded the death knell of King Potato. By then the real estate developers, slowed only by the Great Depression, were beginning to acquire land in Nassau County and in 1943 William Levitt purchased his first two hundred acres from George Hubbell, the Merillon Company's chief agent, which included the Louden spread.    

Sheep and dairy farming were also major agricultural pursuits, although the former became less significant by the heart of the 19th century. In fact, whilst the English farmers of the 17th century created their little agricultural villages at Hempstead, Bethpage, Jericho and Jerusalem, much of the wind-swept Hempstead Plains that encompasses the land between these villages was purchased from local Indian tribes for the purposes of grazing livestock and that former land usage is recalled today in names like Meadowbook and East Meadow.

The arrival of the LIRR at Hicksville in 1837, Wantagh in 1867 and Island Trees in 1873, provided opportunities to sell-off pasturage for farming but milch-cows were still profitable until the turn-of-the-century. In the winter of 1880-81, for example, nearly 2000 quarts were being shipped daily to New York City out of Wantagh.    

Some hog farming was done in our area but it was never a large commercial operation. The only hog farm I know about in Levittown was one that operated briefly on Hempstead Turnpike right next door to the old Island Trees schoolhouse on land later occupied by Toys R Us and now DSW Shoes. 

Today agriculture is restricted to vegetable gardens in resident's backyards and the occasional resident who keeps, albeit illegally, an egg-hen or two. But as the fossil fuel ore protractedly declines and dislocations wrought by the globalization process affect the manufacture, supply-chain and retailing of agricultural products, we can't rule out the possibility that suburban land not occupied by buildings might come under cultivation again someday.    

Want to learn more about the history of Levittown and the surrounding communities? Visit www.levittownhistoricalsociety.org