YAPHANK
The Depression Years
written by,
Gustave Neuss
March, 2001
Yaphank in this time period was primarily
a farming community. Good times or bad, working of farms
was a must. Prices for farm produce was variable as they
were controlled by supply and demand Farmers were insured
of constant employment home grown food and an uncertain
ready money supply determined by the whims of Nature and
the market value of the crops. Farm families usually had
a sufficient number of members to plant, cultivate and
harvest. At harvest time when shorthanded, outside help
would be hired. I, during those years, helped with
picking peppers, potatoes, lima beans, etc. and assembled
crates for cauliflower. Others did the same. It was a
job.
The few young people who graduated from
high school [Patchogue] had no local job options. Most
left town for work in the New York metropolitan area and
in some instances to obtain further education if it could
be afforded. My brother, Bill, paid for his education at
Pratt Institute and at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute by
working days and attending classes at night. It took
several years to get his degree.
Adults, other than farmers, included some
building trade craftsmen. These were carpenters,
painters, electricians and masons. Work for trades people
was scarce as there was little construction, either new
or remodeling. Some small jobs at the time included home
additions at Old Field and Belle Terre, the addition of
sound equipment booths at the Rialto theater at Patchogue
and the redecking of the bridge over the Long Island
railroad on what is now Sills Road. At this time the old
octagon shaped school was moved from its original site to
a new location a short distance to the east on the south
side of Main Street. This was converted into the Yaphank
Fire District's first firehouse. The school was replaced
by a new two-room structure at the old site. This was one
major new construction project. Leslie Marchant, a
Yaphank building contractor, I believe, erected this new
school. He would have used local craftspersons where
possible.
One other building project was the
erection of the Van Rector residence. This is a Sears,
Roebuck home. It arrived in town by railroad in pieces,
all of which were individually numbered. The barn east of
the Stroud house was used for storage of the parts of the
house. The assembly of this building was done by only
three people, James Scott, Harold Powers and Gus Neuss.
Brookhaven Township, in which Yaphank is
located, is the largest township in New York State. At
this time period it contained about one thousand miles of
highways for which the township had maintenance
responsibility. The township was divided into several
areas to provide local road servicing. Yaphank was one of
these districts. The township highway superintendent was
an elected official. Harold Davis of Coram was the
superintendent in the early 1930's. Adam Scesny was the
local foreman. As help was needed for pothole repair,
road resurfacing, roadside drainage improvement, snow
removal or other related work Scesny would put local
unemployed people to work as necessary. With a change in
highway superintendents in the mid-thirties Scesny was
replaced by one of the Lewin family.
In the 1920's the first concrete highway
paving was completed. This provided hard pavement for
Yaphank Avenue, Main Street and Middle Island Road from
the entrance of the County Farm to the Shannon residence.
In 1931 the Edward Hughes Company from Nassau County had
the contract to pave Middle Island Road from the Shannon
start to north of Middle Country Road in Middle Island.
This project did hire local young people for common labor
jobs at fifty cents an hour. Work consisted of sub-grade
preparation, form setting, placing of reinforcing steel,
burlapping and wetting down the finished concrete and
form removal after the concrete had set. Most difficult
of the work was the puddling of the concrete as it was
dropped from the bucket of the paver. Another job, hard
on the hands, was the emptying of bags of portland cement
at the batching plant. Final work was the grading of
shoulders and embankments.
In 1932, a contract was let to Johnson,
Drake and Piper to pave with concrete the unfinished
portion of Yaphank Avenue from the County Farm to South
Country Road in Brookhaven. Local young people were hired
for the common labor jobs as mentioned in the previous
paragraph.
Another project employing local young
people was the refurbishing of the Long Island Railroad
Bridge over the Carmens River. The Cement Gun Company of
Allentown, Pa. was the contractor. This brick arch bridge
was originally built in 1848. Work included the
sandblasting of all the original masonry and then coating
the entire brick masonry surface with an inch and one
half of a cement, sand and water mixture known as
"Gunite". After this was completed, two
reinforced concrete slabs were poured. After curing these
were slid into place, one under the north rail and one
under the south rail. I am preparing a detailed
description of this project separately.
W. R. Grace owned a sizeable piece of
ground at Manorville, N.Y. Grace decided to enclose the
property with a seven foot high chain link fence topped
with three strands of barbed wire. Several of us Yaphank
natives worked on the erection of at least six miles of
this private estate enclosure.
In order to get the unemployed, primarily
young people, doing useful work the Civilian Conservation
Corp was authorized in 1933 by the Federal
administration. Its purpose was to place those in need
primarily in forest locations to establish fire trails,
clean out underbrush and in general make wooded areas
safer and more favorable for tree growth. Former Camp
Upton was selected as a site for a CCC operation in the
Yaphank area. As the barracks and other buildings at the
camp had been razed at the end of World War One to
accommodate the new CCC personnel new barracks, mess hall
and latrine facilities were required. Box car loads of
building material were brought in to the former army camp
and a rush program of building erection was undertaken.
Many local Yaphank trades people and laborers were put to
work. The WWI sanitary sewer piping was located and
utilized for waste disposal. Upon completion of the
construction an all Negro CCC battalion was moved in to
rehabilitate the old Camp Upton reservation. When the CCC
group left in the late 1930's, the vacated buildings were
used by the Maryland National Guard.
In 1935 the Federal government
established the Work Progress Administration, later known
as the Work Projects Administration. This agency was set
up to provide useful employment to those unemployed and
those who were work capable who were on welfare. The
majority of the work provided was in new construction and
in building rehabilitation. Projects included the four
golf courses and the polo field at Bethpage State Park,
the comprehensive storm drainage system for Nassau
County, a sewage disposal plant complete with sanitary
sewer lines for the Village of Greenport The curbs and
gutters and sidewalks in Yaphank today were a WPA
project. Federal money paid for most of the material and
labor costs. Sponsors paid for engineering and equipment
rental. Some of our local people were employed by this
program on projects not limited to Yaphank but
countywide.
There was little in the way of permanent
employment, however you will note from the foregoing that
the Yaphank area was not without gainful employment if
one chose to work.