Its Charm Lingers

By Rhoda Amon | Staff Writer

BY THE 1900s, Farmingdale was a thriving metropolis with industry as well as agriculture -- enough commerce to warrant the Bank of Farmingdale opening in 1907 at the intersection of Main and Conklin Streets.

"There were at least six pickle works, a picture frame factory, brickworks, hotels," said Gary Hammond of the Nassau County Division of Museum Services and a reference librarian at the Farmingdale Public Library. More industries and the state Agricultural and Technical College came in the years after the postcard above was made by Sea Cliff photographer Henry Otto Korten, about 1910, Hammond said.

In 1930, with the village population at 3,373, Conklin Street was widened and the bank's brick building replaced with the sturdy cement one that still stands at the intersection. The Bank of Farmingdale merged in 1952 with Franklin National Bank, which was acquired by the European American Bank in 1974.

Brown's Hotel, which stood next to the bank, is gone, but the peaked roof building, identified in a 1906 map as belonging to a "Mrs. L. Ketcham," still can be seen just past the bank in the recent photo, Hammond said.

The dirt roads were paved in 1920, and the farming in the dale that lent the village its name gave way to housing developments after World War II. But Main Street reclaims its country village charm during this holiday season.