New Hyde Park history revealed through personal keepsakes, mementos

Personal keepsakes can reveal public histories.

Each box of family memorabilia arriving at New Hyde Park Village Hall gives Carol Nowakowski and Mildred Tassone more insight into the village's past.

Nowakowski and Tassone, the president and vice president of the New Hyde Park Museum, have spent the past five years soliciting residents for family keepsakes and memorabilia. They have collected enough to fill  the large second-floor room  in Village Hall where the museum is based. The personal photographs, documents and other items tell the collective story of how New Hyde Park came to be. 

Two tobacco pipes donated by the family of Marcus G. Christ help tell the story of the community's origins.

"He was one of the original founders of the village," Tassone said of Christ. "He was a [state] Supreme Court judge; he was huge."

Then there is the firefighter's suit donated by the wife of David Moseson , who served as the New Hyde Park Fire Department chaplain in the 1960s.

"He was very honored to be the rabbi," Nowakowski said. "And he had saved all his firefighting equipment for all those years." 

Nowakowski and Tassone are working on acquiring a wooden, double-seated rocking horse used in the 1950s in Esther Squire's kindergarten class. 

"She was an unbelievable kindergarten teacher," Tassone said. "It was a big treat to be on this rocking horse. If you were in kindergarten, it was a big deal."

Former village trustee Donald Barbieri , who died in February, launched the idea of gathering residents' items. In early 2012, Barbieri pitched the idea to then-village historian Florence Lisanti.

"It started off with just taking pictures and doing videos to record some of the stories of the people who had lived here for a long time and had seen the changes," Tassone said. 

Since then, village residents have donated a wide range of items: land deeds, tax roll books, an autograph book from 1904 that someone found in the floorboards of their attic. 

"This is a great idea and the first time I've ever heard of it," said Howard Kroplick, North Hempstead Town historian. "And getting the cooperation from the residents makes this fantastic." 

Nowakowski and Tassone have made copies of the photos and documents, placed them in albums books, and divided the books into topics such as the Girls Scouts, original churches, the fire department, and old buildings. They have created more than a dozen books and have put them on display regularly at the Hillside Public Library. 

Using copies gives the public access to the items, but protects the originals, Tassone said.

"One thing we thought was that when you go to a museum, you can't touch anything and you can't do anything, so we made the books with plastic folders so people can actually look through," she said.