The image above comes from the September 20, 1896 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle and is a rare sketch of Halls Pond in the 19th Century, perhaps the earliest known image of the pond in existence. Back then, it was called Wood's Pond and was but one of a series of ponds that formed along Pine Stream which eventually emptied into Smith's Pond in Rockville Centre, one of the storage reservoirs of the Brooklyn Water Works. The 1896 article as well as a follow-up article from June 25, 1899 focused on the water quality of the Brooklyn water system, about which some argued that the growth of vegetation in the tributary ponds was contributing to the foul odor and taste and questionable healthfulness of the water. The picture above, showing the pond blanketed in lilies, was presented as evidence of the typical type of vegetation prevalent in many of the ponds of the South Shore. (If you wish to see a similar example of a local pond carpeted in water lilies, go to Hempstead Lake State Park and hike down to Schodack Pond, a small body of water tucked away in a wooded area of the park). But, as a sanitary engineer interviewed in the 1899 piece correctly pointed out, the lilies and other vegetation, rather than polluting the water, actually worked as a purification system by aerating and filtering the water as it flowed down to the storage reservoir.
Now, a little about the name. The pond was originally called Wood's Pond after it's original owner, former Town of Hempstead supervisor Martin V. Wood. Wood willed the property to his daughter and son-in-law, William S. and Jeanette Hall. Their son, Martin V. W. Hall, president of the Hempstead Bank, became the eventual owner. In the 1920's, the Halls' beautiful Mansard style home across the street was sold to Charles S. and Eva Wall (Eva was the granddaughter of President John Tyler) and thereafter, it seems, the pond became known as Walls Pond. In the 50's the home fell vacant and eventually burned down.
Toward the end of that decade, Nassau County began buying up the pond and surrounding land to create a new park. By that time, the Wood/ Hall sole surviving heir, Martin Hall's son Bruce, had moved to Syosset while one of Wall's sons, Charles Jr., remained local. When the County dedicated the park in 1961, they chose the name Halls Pond. Evidently, Bruce Hall's prominent standing in the county (he continued for years as president of the Hempstead Bank until his retirement in the 80's) was enough to persuade the County to use the park name to pay tribute to his family. Charles Wall Jr. promptly fired off an irate letter to the County stating that for the previous three decades the pond was called "Walls Pond", and demanded to know why it was being changed now. Further, he alleged that the Halls were not worthy of the tribute anyway, since they were snobbish and wealthy elitists who fit in more in the exclusive North Shore estates where Bruce eventually moved than among the average, middle-class folk of the South Shore. Wall's argument fell on deaf ears at the County and ever since, the name Halls Pond has stuck. The Walls did get a token local tribute in the naming of West Hempstead's "Wall St.", a small avenue off Nassau Blvd. near where their home once stood.
Below is a "now" shot of Woods-Halls-Walls-Halls Pond , approximating the location of the "then" shot above. Photo is taken from Tara Conry's wonderful, new local online news publication Malverne/West Hempstead Patch.
10 comments:
When I was a kid, Mr Wall (didn't know his name was charles) lived in a small log cabin on Nassau Blvd across from Hall's Pond ... he was a cranky old man and had all sorts of rusted junk laid out all over his front lawn in a perpetual tag sale ... in the mid 1970's I remember paying a few dollars for a cement bird bath that I carried home in my little red wagon and gave to my mom as a mothers day gift ... Mr Wall used to tell my friends and me that Hall's Pond was really Wall's Pond but we never believe him lol ... I still have a photo of his old cabin that I took before Mr Logoteta bought the property and had the cabin rebuilt into the the updated log cabin antique store that exists there now ... I will try to find that photo and scan it in one day for you ... thanks for the great article !
I would love to see that picture. I am a resident of WH.
I attended Eagle Ave. School in the late 1940s and Charles Walls was a classmate. Fred Limbachowin
I well remember old Charlie Wall and the old log cabin he lived in on Nassau Blvd. across from the pond back in the 1960's he got a burro from my uncle Arnold 'Whitey'Carlson and used to carry it in the back of his vehicle to political meetings. DPL
And I remember Whitey Carlson..he was the mythical figure when we were kids who owned Island Garden, home of the Nets. We used to cut through his driveway to visit friends in Garden City South. It was rumored that he had a large dog and wold chase you away with his rifle if he caught you. Obviously that was all a false rumor. Like there was a witch who lived next to the library. Then one day I saw her grand daughter paying her a visit, so I figured she couldn't be a witch.
I remember Halls Pond well. My father taught math for many years from the 1940s to the late 1960s at both Eagle Avenue School and West Hempstead Jr-Sr HS. We lived in Franklin Square and my father walked to Eagle Avenue from Gabriel Street for two years after someone demolished our 1934 Dodge in a crash on Benris Ave.
I also remember White Carlson. He was rumored to have won the Island Garden in a poker game. Or was it that he lost it in a poker game? LOL memories fade.
I grew up in West Hempstead during 1950's-60's. I didn't go to camp because everyday consisted of playing in the woods, going down to the creek that led to Johnson Lane pond and then to Hall's pond. We would fish in Hall's pond, catch water turtles and frogs in the Johnson Lane pond. At one time I had four Box turtles. They enjoyed me hand feeding them both ham and bologna. Before West Hempstead HS expanded there was an old farmer who once shot a shotgun at my friends and I because we were messing around with his pigeons in his coop. My recollection of Whitey Carlson was when he was playing a poker game in a store on Hempstead Turnpike. I was watching and he gave me a dollar to buy cigarettes. When I gave them to him he said to keep the change. The cigarettes were something like a quarter a pack back then. Whitey Carlson built many buildings around the area and Hempstead. He bought steel stairs and everything else when something was going to be torn down. When Dugan's Bakery closed he bought all of the trailer trucks and parked them behind his house. I don't know what he did with them. Many pieces of the 1963 Worlds fair are still being used in various buildings today. As a matter of fact, the west Hempstead shopping Center by Cherry Valley Ave has a large steel arch that is now used for store signage. Originally it was as famous as the Unisphere. It had the Worlds Fair theme below it. It said "Peace Through Understanding". These are words that are aas appropriate today as they were 60 years ago. I heard that Whitey Carlson got into a war with Hempstead Town involving the high taxes. He even built a small monument about his gripes off Peninsula Ave in Hempstead. Unfortunately it is no longer there. He finally left Long Island and from what I remember he bought an old brewery in California and sold the equipment and metal for scrap and made a tidy sum. Lastly, thanks to Gardner's Village's pet shop (in the rear of the store) we now have Italian wall Lizards all around the area for miles because of a shipment box that broke open in the mid 60's. The lizards escaped and thrived. These are only some of my fond memories of old West Hempstead.
No it all to well when I was a kid cut through there to go to Aurora cars see trailers filled with models good memories
Wow caught them there
Post a Comment