Five Corners, Two Views

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THIS OLD PHOTOGRAPH, taken about 1925 and in the files of the Nassau County Museum Collection of the Long Island Studies Institute, shows traffic at the Five Corners in downtown Lynbrook. Hempstead Avenue, looking north, is to the left; Merrick Road, looking east, is to the right. In the center is the appropriately named Five Corners Building, which contained offices and stores.

The intersection -- which also involves Atlantic Avenue and Broadway -- was originally called Pearsall's Corners and featured a general store owned by Wright Pearsall, according to Arthur Mattson, the Lynbrook village historian.

One feature of the intersection is the police booth, which was manned for many years by Frank Short, and officer known, according to Mattson, as "Shorty the cop."

"He served at that intersection for about 20, 25 years," Mattson said. "If you were in Jamaica and asking for directions to East Rockaway, they'd tell you, 'Go down Merrick Road until you see Shorty the cop, and turn right.' " A recent photograph shows a radically realigned intersection, with the Jamaica Savings Bank headquarters standing in the place formerly occupied by the Five Corners Building.