Junard Homes Development on the Lindner Farm

The "then" shot above looks east on Colonade Rd. toward its curve northward toward Knollwood Dr., and shows a collection of freshly built houses in 1951 that were part of the 147-unit Junard Homes development.  The property was originally a 34-acre farm owned by Henry Lindner, older brother of Paul W. F. Lindner, that extended from Nassau Blvd. to the east to Dogwood Ave. to the west, with Hawthorne St. as the southern border of the farm. Henry was born in Germany in 1866 and at age 4, came to America with his family where they settled in Washington Square (West Hempstead). Henry continued in his father George's footsteps and engaged in farming. In 1947, Henry's wife Anna died and in 1951, like so many other local landowners, the old farmer accepted an offer that was probably too good to pass up and sold his farm to a home developer.

The developer, Brooklyn native Saul Z. Sokolov, president of the Junard Construction Corp., had a proven track record accross Long Island and eventually established himself as one of the more prolific home builders in the region. His first major home project was a pre-war development on Lakeview Ave in Rockville Centre called Knollwood. Saul was a director of the prestigious LI Home Builders Institute. The Sokolovs were also West Hempstead residents for a time before later moving to Kings Point on the North Shore. After WWII, he went on to build many developments in and around West Hempstead: Garden City South (Nassau Blvd & 8th St., in 1947), Mayfair Section of WH (Concord & Hamilton Aves, between Broadway and Mayfair, and later Groton Pl. in 1948), Franklin Square (Franklin Ave & Polk St, in 1948), Garden City South (Nassau Blvd & Princeton Rd., in 1949).

For the Junard Homes development in WH, Saul brought in his son Richard, a recent Syracuse University graduate with a degree in engineering, as a principle of the company. In fact, the name "Junard" comes from a fusion of the names of Saul's daughter and son, June and Richard. (Now the names of the street in that section start to make sense - Junard Blvd., Knollwood Dr., June Ct., Lindner Pl. The meaning behind the name Colonade is still a mystery to me.)

The homes were marketed as 4 1/2 to 7 room capes and ranches with a price range of $14,900 - $20,900. The first of these homes, the ones you see pictured above, were ready for occupancy by September 1, 1951 and the remainder were quickly sold.

Saul Sokolov Died in 1977 and Richard went on to serve in the Kings Point Village government for over 30 years, first as a member of the the planning board commission, then as deputy mayor. He stepped down this year at age 85, having served as a village trustee.

A Look into Paul Lindner's Association with the KKK

Below is a follow-up to the previous post, and discusses in more detail the activities of Paul W. F Lindner, a man who was instrumental in the founding of Malverne.

The issue of race relations on Long Island in the 1920s is a complex topic, one which deserves a separate and more extensive study. On its surface, there was undoubtedly a large contingent of White Long Islanders in the '20s who were racists, though historians continue to debate how widespread this racism actually was. What is clear is that the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan was gaining popularity across the Island.

1924 was a volatile year in the history of race relations in America. Eugenics and White Supremacy were widely-held and normative beliefs. The Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted the number of foreigners who were allowed to immigrate to the US. Here on Long Island that summer, the Ku Klux Klan was riding a wave of momentum that had been building over the previous year or two, and they made their presence felt with their cross-burnings and parades throughout the area. It is estimated that 1 out of every 8 Long Islanders in the 1920s belonged to the KKK. If that statistic seems hard to believe, consider that in 1923 the population of LI at the time hovered just above 200,000, while the KKK comfortably counted 20,000 among their ranks. Add to this their claim that year that they had been recruiting 800 people per week and the 1 in 8 statistic becomes easier to comprehend.

To be sure, the Western Long Island version of the KKK movement of the 1920s did not seem to possess the same kind of firebranded and violent fervor as it did in the deep South. A common refrain of local KKK members in press interviews of that time was, "We are not anti-Black or anti-Jew, but rather pro-America". Nevertheless, if nothing else, the movement did have the effect of scaring the daylights out of Blacks, Jews, Catholics and other minorities. The Klan's recruitment efforts on LI was indeed impressive, and the person most responsible for that recruiting success was none other than Paul W. F. Lindner, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan (pictured in the photo above, as indicated by the caption).

Locally, KKK activities in Malverne can be traced back to March 1924 and is tied-in to the very beginnings of village government. In 1922 a son of Irish Catholic immigrants and WWI veteran named Geoffrey J. O'Flynn ran against E. J. Christopher for Malverne Village President (back then the office of Mayor was referred to as President). Christopher had been elected in Dec. 1920 as Malverne's first ever president of the village. The 1922 election resulted in the closest vote in the history of the village, with 69 votes for O'Flynn and 69 votes for Christopher. The tie-breaking decision was then sent to the village trustees who chose the challenger over the incumbent, much to the chagrin of his opponents, particularly those who would go on to join the KKK. Two years later, when O'Flynn was soundly defeated by a 30% margin by George McIntosh, KKK members planted two 15-foot tall burning crosses in celebration, one at the Malverne railroad station, and the second at the Paul Lindner farm, a half-mile north on Hempstead Avenue. At Lindner's place they also set off a large explosion of dynamite that blew a hole in the ground "big enough to hold an automobile truck", and in the process, almost killed six of Norwood Hook & Ladder's bravest who rushed to the scene to extinguish the burning cross. When legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell made his off-the-cuff remark during the summer of 1977 that "the Bronx is burning", he seemed to encapsulate the tumultuous convergence of events that transpired in New York City that summer. Perhaps we can similarly refer to the turbulent year of 1924 as a time when "Malverne was burning". For the KKK that year, things were just getting started.

In July, A Jewish druggist named Ernest S. Louis was accused of improperly touching a 13 year-old girl while she was shopping in his Freeport drugstore for perfume. An inquest was made but no charges were filed for lack of evidence. Late on the night of August 15th, the KKK decided to take matters into their own hands by barging into Louis' store and threatening him, giving him ten days to move his family out of Freeport. Louis defied the Klan's order and sure enough, on August 26th, a group of Klansmen kidnapped the druggist. (No doubt, fresh in people's minds was the kidnapping and lynching of Leo Frank by the KKK in Georgia a decade earlier. That incident garnered national attention and spurred the creation of the Anti-Defamation League). The story was a sensation in the press and had many people on edge, wondering about the fate of Louis. The following day Louis turned up in a Mineola hotel, unharmed, but rattled. One of the perpetrators was later identified and arrested, but charges were eventually dropped. As a local Klan leader, Paul Lindner forswore any knowledge of the planning involved in the kidnapping.

One would think that notoriety from that incident might have put a damper on Klan activities. However, if anything, the opposite was true. The following month, on Saturday Sept. 20, Lindner organized in Freeport perhaps the largest Klan parade to ever take place on Long Island. Though Lindner had hoped to see 5,000 march at the event, the New York Times estimated that a total of 2,000 marched in the parade while 30,000 spectators came to watch. Following the parade, a women's KKK rally was held where 8,000 faithful turned up.

Lindner's open leadership in the Klan did not seem to negatively affect his standing in the local community. In 1926 he founded the Malverne Bank and served as its president for the next five years, until he moved to Suffolk County. During his presidency, in 1927, he paid $27,000 for the lot on the corner of Hempstead Ave. and Nottingham Rd. for the future location of the bank, an astonishing amount at that time. He has a street in Malverne named after him and, by extension, an elementary school. But then again, the '20s was a completely different era wherein its historical realities cannot be understood through the lenses of today's sensibilities. Some have argued that given Lindner's nefarious past, serious consideration should be given to changing the name of his namesake school and street. Time will tell whether this will eventually happen.

The Lindner Estate and the Limits of Early Local Firefighting

The subjects of this blog don't usually veer beyond the borders of West Hempstead. In the case of the present subject, however, the magnificent home of Paul W. F. Lindner (shown above) I made an exception because, a) it lied just beyond WH's border, b) Lindner was born and raised in West Hempstead proper and his older brother, Henry, owned a large farm in WH just to the south of the future site of WH middle and high schools. The home was located in a familiar spot along Hempstead Avenue, just SW of the Grossmann Farm, where Grace Lutheran Church of Malverne currently stands.

Paul Lindner's father George, came over from Germany some time in early 1870s and, like so many other local Bavarian pioneers, he purchased a farm on Long Island, located in Washington Square (West Hempstead). Paul was born in 1877, the seventh of eight children. In 1898 he attended Princeton Theological Seminary and entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. He then went on to graduate from Princeton University. In the first decade of the 20th century, Lindner purchased a large farm on Hempstead Avenue, in what was then called Norwood, and his farming business brought him a modest degree of success. Soon thereafter he built the grand home pictured above.

He went on to become President of the Norwood school board (district 12) and held that position for over a decade. It was Lindner who sold most of the land purchased by the Amsterdam Development Co. to create what would become the Village of Malverne. Together with Alfred H. Wagg, he was heavily involved in the early development of Malverne and served as president of the Malverne Club. Lindner Place in Malverne is named after him. More information about Lindner will follow in a future post. For now, let's just say he was a pretty important local figure.

On a blustery Tuesday afternoon, January 18th, 1921, a fire started in the Attic of Lindner's home and quickly spread throughout the house. The Norwood Hook & Ladder Co. was called but then quickly needed additional help. They then called on the Lynbrook, Rockville Centre and Hempstead Fire departments for assistance. The trucks rolled in and the massive assemblage of firefighters provided plenty of manpower but was soon confronted with a major problem - water supply. There was none. The wells on the farm were pumped dry and the nearest water supply was almost a half-mile away. The bucket brigade that was formed did little to battle the wind-swept flames. Rockville Centre FD did manage to lay the half-mile long hose but turned it on just it time to watch the home completely engulfed in flames. At least they managed to save the adjacent outhouses and neighboring properties. (Those of us who enjoy turning back the clock by visiting the Grossmann farm probably have those men of the RCFD to thank for ensuring that the fire didn't spread there).

The aftermath of this fire forced locals to take a long hard look at improving firefighting capabilities in the rural sections between Hempstead and Lynbrook. Two and a half years later, on July 26, 1924, Malverne taxpayers voted to lay water mains throughout the village, thus ensuring a supply of water for any future fire emergencies. The incident also generated a firestorm of protest in Lynbrook. The following Monday at a Village Board meeting, 55 taxpaying citizens of that village drafted a letter outlining their outrage at Village President George Wright, who had ordered every available piece of apparatus to fight the fire at the Lindner home. Wright acted apparently without consent of the Fire Chief, leaving his village totally exposed for lack of backup coverage. This despite the fact that the hose wagon and fire engine were completely useless in the fire for lack of a water hookup.

Paul Lindner rebuilt his home and lived there for over a decade before he moved further out on the Island, settling in Smithtown Branch. In 1948 the property was sold to Grace Lutheran Church and in 1952, the edifice shown in the "now" shot was dedicated.