Syosset (Images of America)

By: Tom Montalbano

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Synopsis: A bustling suburb that hosts a wide array of businesses and retail shops, a top-rated school system, and a largely affluent, ethnically diverse population, Syosset has become one of Long Island's most desirable places to live. Yet, as the years have passed, much of the community's early history has been lost. Syosset uses rare photographs, diaries, historical documents, and interviews to uncover fascinating information about the Syosset-Woodbury area's past, from its humble beginning in 1648 to its transformation into a booming residential suburb in the 1950s. For example, did you know that Native Americans once hunted in the area of Humphrey Drive or that the British army had an encampment in Syosset during the American Revolution? Can you guess when the Long Island Rail Road first chugged through Syosset? (Hint: Soldiers rode the train out of Syosset on their way to fight in the Civil War.) These and other captivating facts, including some surprising revelations about poet Walt Whitman's disastrous stint as a teacher in Woodbury, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Syosset, and the eccentric behavior of some of Syosset's most colorful Gatsby-era "estatespeople," are all documented in text and rare photographs collected over more than a decade.