Lynbrook Holds Centennial Dinner Dance

Nearly 150 people attended Saturday's Centennial Dinner Dance at the Elks Lodge in Lynbrook to celebrate the village's 100th anniversary of incorporation.

Residents, officials from Lynbrook clubs and organizations, members of the Chamber of Commerce, police and firefighters, and local elected officials were all on hand to celebrate 100 years of the village.

"We love the village," said Bridget Atkinson, whose son, Thomas, now serves on the Lynbrook village board. Atkinson was sitting with her husband and four friends, people she has known for over 40 years. "The people here [in Lynbrook] are middle-class, real Americans. I have really loved it here, just loved it. I wouldn't dream of moving out."

Village historian Art Mattson, dressed to the nines in an early 1900s outfit, said he graduated college as a young man who had difficulty writing five-page papers. But after being named historian by former Mayor Francis X. Becker, Mattson dug up so much history that he ended up writing two books of over 250 pages each.

"The subject is so compelling, and no one had looked at it before. People in Lynbrook thought the history started in 1911," Mattson said. It was incredible to find out how much history there was before that."

Village resident Eileen Voges has witnessed Lynbrook history firsthand — she's lived here for 90 years. She met her husband of 70 years in Lynbrook, raised two children, and even operated a business selling hay, grain and garden supplies on Sunrise Highway.

Recalling her early life, Voges said that there were no sidewalks on most of the village's side roads, and she would have to go to Merrick Road to find paved roads to travel to Atlantic Avenue for shopping. She even remembers her father going to village board meetings to protest the creation of apartment buildings, which at that time, did not exist in Lynbrook.

"I enjoyed all my years in Lynbrook," she said. "Our life was here."

Lynbrook Mayor Bill Hendrick and the rest of the village board also took the time to thank members of the Centennial Planning Committee, who spent countless hours organizing the event.