The famous people behind some old LI roads

If you've ever traveled a Long Island roadway and wondered who the person was behind the street name, you're not alone.

In Nassau and Suffolk, the object of that curiosity is just one of many people who have been honored with byways on Long Island because they once made some contribution to the life of their communities.

As time passes, however, personal biographies tend to become lost in history.

Here are a few thoroughfares and their namesakes -- some roads well-traveled, some more obscure, some tinged with time's layers of fact, folklore or legend.

Payne Whitney LaneMANHASSET

In the heart of Long Island's posh Gold Coast, Payne Whitney Lane in Manhasset pays fitting tribute to William Payne Whitney (1876-1927), a man of great wealth, a man to-the-manor-born who went by his middle name, and a man who shared large chunks of his fortune with institutions that fostered education, medicine and sports.

After attending the Groton School and Yale University (where he captained the rowing team Skull and Bones and later financed a dormitory for the team), he earned his law degree at the Harvard Law School in 1901.

Whitney's philanthropic largesse benefitted many causes, including the New York Public Library and New York Hospital. His son, John Hay Whitney, was an ambassador to the United Kingdom, and his daughter, Joan, was the first owner of the New York Mets baseball team.

Payne Whitney Lane snakes past old-money estates, not the least of which is Greentree, an idyllic 400-acre retreat that Whitney cobbled together from the purchase of five neighboring farms at the turn of the last century. Married to Helen Hay, daughter of then-Secretary of State John Hay, he built a manor house and assorted outbuildings, including several large stables for the thoroughbred horses he raced and bred.

The estate passed to his heirs at his death, and in 1982 it was converted into a conference center as the headquarters for The Greentree Foundation. As the setting for high-level diplomatic meetings for United Nations delegates and other political leaders, The Greentree Foundation was established in the hope that it would contribute to the furtherance of peace, human rights and international cooperation.

I. U. Willets Road

WESTBURY

If you're driving in certain sections of western Nassau, you could be traveling over Isaac Underhill Willets' cornfield or other portions of the 216-acre farm he once owned.

Known as Plattsdale, it was one of the largest farms in the area, but he still complained when the road that now bears his name was cut through his land in 1850, grumbling there were already too many roads on Long Island. The road that reaches through parts of Westbury was first known as Westbury Road and was paved in 1901.

Willets, (1819-1899) was born in Westbury, a descendant of settlers from Wales who first came to Long Island in 1650 and became prominent figures in local Quaker affairs.

Walt Whitman/Old Walt Whitman Road

HUNTINGTON STATION

Commercializing the image of an iconic Long Island poet like Walt Whitman by naming a shopping mall after him has long been a sore point for Catherine Ball, supervising librarian in the Long Island Room for the Smithtown Special Library District.

"The poet Walt Whitman holds a place in American literature that is unrivaled by any other writer," according to Ball. "His 'Leaves of Grass' [1855] made him the voice of America. That many Long Islanders think of his name as the label for a shopping mall is a very sad thing."

Whitman (1819-1892) was born in a house built by his carpenter father on what is now Old Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station. The Walt Whitman Birthplace, a fine example of native Long Island craftsmanship, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite having parents who were mostly illiterate, Whitman taught himself to worship words. Early in his life he became a teacher in Long Island one-room schoolhouses and editor of several newspapers, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

His lyrical poetry captured the attention of his peers, who called him "the American Shakespeare." Whitman's famous poetry, besides ''Leaves of Grass,'' includes ''O Captain, My Captain,'' literary gems that are taught to schoolchildren everywhere.

Robert Townsend Road

SETAUKET

Robert Townsend (1753-1836) was an Oyster Bay resident, but the road named for him is in Setauket, which was the headquarters for the Culper Spy Ring, an intelligence-gathering network that aided Gen. George Washington during the American Revolution.

Townsend was a major player from 1778 to 1781 in the spy ring, a group of Long Island patriots who transmitted vital information about British forces in the New York area to Washington. In private life he was a purchasing agent for his father, Samuel, a prosperous merchant. The Townsend family home in Oyster Bay, Raynham Hall, is now a museum.