Executive Director's Note | |
It is here - the 43rd Pickle Festival!!! I am so excited to see the Hay Ride, Lollipop Train, Arts and Craft Markets, Music, and PICKLES, PICKLES, PICKLES!! We are working hard to get ready for the Pickle Festival.
Thank you so much to our sponsors! We cannot express enough gratitude for your generosity! Your sponsorship and partnership has been an incredible benefit to our team and the entire organization and we are so grateful.
I am also excited about the new Dine and Discover program happening at the Mill Pond Restaurant, presented by Dave Clemens, author of the book Centerport. I started the Lunch and Learn series over at the Huntington Historical Society about 12 years ago. I missed learning about the great town's history while I was recovering from my stroke for the last 6 years. Upon my return, I brought the style of the lecture series over to the Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association, and I am fascinated to learn more about Centerport’s rich history. I hope you will join us!
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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors!
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Vaudevillians in Greenlawn and Centerport | |
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“Vaudevillians of Centerport and Greenlawn”
Presented by: Toby Kissam, a Historian
Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 2pm
Harborfields Library
About a hundred years ago, Greenlawn and Centerport were filled with Vaudeville actors, directors, and producers. Deanne Rathke, Director Emeritus of Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association, researched a little-known fact about the Vaudevillians of Greenlawn and Centerport. In this exciting lecture, we show many original pictures in the GCHA collection. In July of 1906, the theatrical colony made a significant addition to the Centerport community. The entertainers founded the first Centerport Yacht Club. The Greenlawn map of 1909 shows that the Greenlawn theater colony had an impressive group of managers and actors, as well as the President of Columbia Amusement Company, J. Herbert Mack. Please attend this free event, and learn more about the Vaudevillians.
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Historical Article: The Pickle Industry in Greenlawn | |
A Painting of Pickle Works
At the turn of the century, passengers arriving by Long Island Railroad to vacation at the popular summer resorts and boarding houses of Centerport were welcomed into Greenlawn Station by redolent odors from the local pickle works. At that time, "pickles" (ie- cucumber under 4" in length) and cabbages were lucrative cash crops for raw local farmers, and several processing plants were located along the railroad tracks in Greenlawn. Although suburban development has replaced the pickle and cabbage fields, and the pickle works have been long demolished, the industry is still vividly remembered by many local people. Their recollections provide a fascinating chapter of local history.
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The Long-Islander, October 2, 1903, page 1 | |
Before the railroad was extended through Greenlawn in 1868, the pickle and cabbage farmers of this area had to cart their produce to Hicksville or further west. It was probably in the 1870's that processing plants were opened in Huntington Station (then called Fairgrounds). In the early 1880's, Mr. Alexander Gardiner, whose farmhouse was on Park Avenue near Lake Road, built several buildings on his property along the south side of the railroad just east of Lake Road. In these, he rented space to several processors of pickles and cabbage. Among these were Captain Post, the Demain Bros., and several others. These processors would, in some cases, contract with the farmers in the Spring for purchase of their crops at a set price. Those farmers not wishing to contract in advance would sell their produce at the price in effect at time of delivery.
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Pickle Works, c. 1900, Lake Rd & LIRR, owned by Alex Gardiner
In Greenlawn Village, the pickle works was operated by Alart and McGuire, who also had a plant in Riverhead. Later, Abraham Golden came here from Brooklyn, and for a short time operated at Lake Road and then took over the Greenlawn Village operation. This was enlarged, and after Golden's death, his son Hyman continued the business.
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The pickles were picked in mid-July through late August and were delivered to the processing plants by the farmers. They were sold at a fixed price per thousand, and while the farmers made an actual count before delivery (in large wooden barrels), the full wagons were weighed at the pickle works and weighed again after unloading to determine the net weight of the pickles. In this way, the dealers could determine the net weight of the pickles. In this way, the dealers could determine the approximate numbers of pickles in each load. In the early 1900's, the price paid the farmer varied from $1.50 to $2.75 per thousand in most years. The pickles were put through different brining processes depending on whether they were to be made into dill pickles, sweet pickles, sour pickles, etc.. Then, they shipped to New York and Brooklyn in heavy wooden casks.
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The pickles were picked in mid-July through late August and were delivered to the processing plants by the farmers. They were sold at a fixed price-per-thousand, and while the farmers made an actual count before delivery (in large wooden barrels), the full wagons were weighed at the pickle works and weighed again after unloading to determine the net weight of the pickles. In this way, the dealers could determine the net weight of the pickles. In this way, the dealers could determine the approximate numbers of pickles in each load. In the early 1900's, the price paid the farmer varied from $1.50 to $2.75 per thousand in most years. The pickles were put through different brining processes depending on whether they were to be made into dill pickles, sweet pickles, sour pickles, etc.. Then they shipped to New York and Brooklyn in heavy wooden casks. | | |
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Making the Sauerkraut
The cabbage season came later, and the cutting of the heads of cabbage in the fields started in late September and continued into October. The farmer carted the cabbage to the plants in farm wagons fitted with special cabbage racks. Heads of cabbage were sold by the hundred and also by weight. In the early 1900's, the price paid to the farmer ranger from $2.00 per 100 head and up, occasionally going as high as $6.00. At the plant, the cabbage was cored, sliced, and put into large wooden vats where it was brined, and trampled by workers into sauerkraut.
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In the 1920's, a disease called "white pickle" afflicted the Long Island crop. The pickle would grow to only about 2 1/2 inches in length, then turn white and become very hard. Since no remedy could be found, the farmers had to top plating, and that marked the end of the pickle growing in this area. Although the processing plants continued to make sauerkraut for a few years, this operation was discontinued in the 1930's, and the local processing plants were abandoned. | | |
Join and Rejoin the GCHA!
Please renew your membership or join because your annual dues give the future of Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association a steady foundation to maintain its two historic properties, the John Gardiner Farmhouse, and the Suydam homestead, and the preservation of paintings, photographs, documents, and ephemera at the Russell B. Brush Research Center. As members, you get a discounted admission rate on every one of our programs. We thank you for your continued interest in helping us to preserve your history for the future.
Click here to join!
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Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association Mug
$12.00
Click here!
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Centerport
Discover the Deco estates, summer camp spots, and stunning landscapes that Long Island's North Shore coastal community of Centerport has to offer.
Once known as Little Cow Harbor, the coastal community of Centerport on Long Island's north shore is rich in natural resources, including a beautiful harbor with several freshwater streams surrounded by wooded hills. Centerport was originally the site of several important mills, but in the late 19th century, it became a summer retreat for both the rich and the not so rich. Youth camps, most notably the Franciscan Brothers' Camp Alvernia; guesthouses; and resorts as well as popular restaurants dotted the shoreline. In the early 20th century, large estates were established by the Vanderbilt, Van Iderstine, Burling, Morse, DeBrabant, Whitney, and Corbin families on the Little Neck peninsula. As the 20th century progressed, modest and generously sized houses replaced the small farms and many of the large estates. The unspoiled natural beauty and rich history has for centuries drawn residents whose love of Centerport continue to make our village a great place to live.
$20.00
Click here!
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Greenlawn: A Long Island Hamlet
From the archives of the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association comes this striking visual history of the north shore Long Island hamlet of Greenlawn.
Originally known as Oldfields, the area was settled in the early 1800s by farmers. The extension of the Long Island Railroad through the farmlands in 1867-1868 provided the impetus for the development of a profitable pickle and cabbage industry, the growth of the community, and the arrival of vacationers, many of whom soon became year-round residents. Greenlawn includes stories of the Halloween eve conflagration, the Adirondack-style vacation retreat, the opera house, the farmhouse murders, the vaudevillians, and the Pickle King, among others. Today, houses cover the old farmlands; yet Greenlawnwith -one main street of small shops, a railroad crossing that halts traffic throughout the day, and many historical buildings-still retains its small-town charm.
$20.00
Click here!
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