Gregory Dean of Seaford New York class of 1999.

NY Post: If You're Thinking of Living In/Seaford, N.Y.; A Certain Chemistry on the South Shore

May 1999, I remember it like it was yesterday.

LAST fall Seaford High School's football team topped off a winning season
with a 23-to-12 victory over Babylon to take the Long Island Class 4
championship.
The victory, said head coach Rich Schaub, ''left an indelible imprint on all of us.''
''The team had great chemistry and a never-give-up attitude,'' he added, ''and that reflects the people in this community.''
The hamlet's chemistry, said Mr. Schaub and others, combines good schools,
involved parents, family-centered living and a choice coastal setting.
''The parents here are so very involved in the schools,'' said Edward P.
Mavragis, the Seaford Schools Superintendent. ''The booster club is
always raising money. We don't even have to ask.''

Continue reading the main story

An area of single-family houses -- many of the more expensive ones
bordering canals, waterways and wetlands -- Seaford is situated on
Nassau County's South Shore.

Representative Peter T. King, the Republican incumbent in Long Island's Third
Congressional District, moved to Seaford from Queens in 1967 and sent
two children through Seaford schools.
''We've lived in the same house for 28 years and never had a bad moment,'' Mr.
King said. ''It's a very solid place, very family-oriented, very safe,
good schools, good community spirit.''
Mr. King said that while there were some complaints about higher school
taxes than in some nearby districts, even this had an upside. ''It's
because we have no industry,'' he said. ''And in a place like Seaford,
if the trade-off for lower taxes is more industry, I'd rather see no
industry.''

As recently as the 40's, Seaford, linked historically to the adjoining
hamlet of Wantagh -- with which is once shared the name Jerusalem -- was
a marsh and farm area with few houses. The 1940 census put the
population at 2,216. By 1960, after Long Island's postwar building boom,
the census recorded 14,718 residents, just about 1,000 fewer than
today.
Water has always been central to Seaford. Houses along canals with backyard
docks or along Seamans Creek, Seaford Creek or the James River are
considered waterfront and cost more than houses on the inland, or north
side, of the hamlet.

The southside canals lead past salt marsh islands into South Oyster Bay,
part of Great South Bay. ''The closer you get to the bay, the more
expensive your house gets,'' said Donna Pasquale, office manager at
Cruse Real Estate and Development in Seaford.
Mrs. Pasquale said home prices in Seaford ranged from $130,000 ''for
something that needs total renovation'' up to $600,000 on the water.

At times, lower-priced waterfront homes appear on the market. Barbara
Shane, the broker and owner of Shane's Anchor Realty in Seaford, said a
two-bedroom, one-bath riverfront Swiss chalet was in contract for
$225,000.

Housing styles in Seaford include summer bungalows converted to year-round
dwellings, ranches, colonials, Cape Cods, eclectics and contemporaries.
Most were built in the 50's and 60's.

There is some new construction. Crescent Cove, a 57-home development planned
at the former Marina Del Mar, will include three- or four-bedroom,
two-and-a-half bath, two-story colonials and traditional-style,
single-family homes starting at $459,000.
PRICES will be about $100,000 higher for homes on the water, said Barbara
Adamo, vice president and director of sales and marketing for Realty
Group Marketing of Smithtown. She said 22 homes had been reserved from
blueprints and are now under contract. The development is expected to be
completed by next spring.

Seaford's rental market is very limited. Two-bedroom apartments rent for about
$1,200 when available. There are also rentals in a few small buildings,
the largest with 25 units, and in a few two-family houses. Other rentals
are illegal ones in single-family homes.
There are about 200 co-op apartments, including 71 for the elderly citizens
at the Cedar Cove co-op. Average prices are $150,000 for two-bedrooms
and $120,000 for a one-bedroom. One-bedroom units for the elderly are
about $90,000. Buyers of these units must be at least 62 years of age
and have an annual income of no more than $35,000. Mrs. Shane said there
were no condominiums in Seaford.
Seaford has no beaches or public boat ramps. But there are a number of private
marinas and Jones Beach State Park is about seven miles away.

The 77-acre Seamans Neck Park, a Town of Hempstead park, has three
playgrounds, six playing fields and courts for basketball, tennis,
volley ball, handball and paddleball.
Cedar Creek Park, a 265-acre Nassau County park, has five playing fields and
courts for handball and tennis plus picnic areas, a roller rink and
hills for sledding. The county's 84-acre Tackapausha Preserve is a
five-mile nature trail popular with birdwatchers.

Local shopping is along Merrick Road, the main east-to-west thoroughfare. The
1.2-million-square-foot Sunrise Mall is less than five miles away.

At Seaford High School, 72 percent of the 143 graduates in the class of
1998 earned Regents diplomas. The state average was 43 percent. About 90
percent went on to higher education. Average S.A.T. scores last year
were 516 in verbal and 526 in math. State averages were 495 in verbal
and 503 in math; national scores were 505 and 512, respectively.

The Seaford High School Marching Band performs in the annual St. Patrick's
Day Parade in Manhattan, and performed in events in Phoenix and Los
Angeles last year.
A Regents tutorial program in the high school spans the academic year and
continues in summer sessions. In the elementary and middle school, many
students enroll in special reading and math programs to meet tougher
state standards.

There are four computer labs in the high school, one in the middle school and
one in each of the two elementary schools. Every classroom in the
district has at least one computer. All computers are connected to the
Internet and each student has an e-mail address.
Pupils in the first three grades are placed together in what the school refers
to as learning communities, where they are encouraged to advance to the
limits of their abilities, regardless of age.
A school-to-career program exposes elementary and middle-school students
to future career choices at an early age. And high school students are
eligible for internship programs at local businesses.
The high school offers advanced placement classes and participates in a
Syracuse University program in which students can earn college credits
in economics and history. A districtwide inclusion model integrates
special education students into regular classes.

District
elementary schools are for grades K through 5 and the middle school is
for grades 6 through 8. The district has 2,534 students.

A former schoolhouse closed in 1921 and, for a time, headquarters of the
Seaford Fire Department is now a Hempstead landmark, housing the
Seaford Historical Museum, where memorabilia from the hamlet's maritime
and farming past is on display. The museum is open by appointment only.
Call (516) 826-1150.
Joshua Soren, president of the Seaford Historical Society and the museum, said
that many an older home had been torn down to make way for two or three
new houses on the property. Each year, he said, there is less to show
schoolchildren he takes on historic tours. ''It's more like this was
there than this is there,'' he explained.
AMONG English settlers of Hempstead in the 1640's was Capt. John Seaman, who
built a home in what came to be known as Jerusalem, now Seaford and
Wantagh. One legend is that the captain, who died in 1695, was from
Seaford, England. But another maintains that it got its name because a
horse stolen in the 1860's was found in Seaford, Del.

Mr. Soren said that Seaford was variously known as Jerusalem South,
Hempstead South, Atlanticville and Verity Town -- after a large local
family -- until the name Seaford was finally adopted in 1868.
By then the area had a post office, a schoolhouse and a Methodist church.
The Long Island Rail Road arrived that same year, but Seaford didn't get
a station until 1899. By 1909 the population was 850, up from 350 in
1888. By 1926, when the Seaford National Bank opened, there were 1,200
residents. Then came the transformation following World War II, when
home construction soared and city residents, many from Brooklyn, flocked
in.
In 1967, residents managed to get the name of the just opened
Wantagh-Oyster Bay Expressway changed to the Seaford-Oyster Bay
Expressway, arguing that the southern terminus was really in Seaford.
The expressway links Seaford to the Long Island Expressway and to the
Northern and Southern State Parkways.

Mrs. Shane said long-term residency was the rule in Seaford. ''Most people who come here stay here until they die,'' she said.