Robert L Smith, Early Real Estate Broker to WH and Cathedral Gardens

The following article appeared in the Winter 2014 edition of the West Hempstead Community Support Association newsletter.

Robert L Smith Realty office when it stood at 30 Hempstead Turnpike

Among the objectives of this blog is to shed light on some of the bygone members of our community and pay tribute to their efforts in shaping West Hempstead into what it is today.  One such resident was a man who ran one of West Hempstead’s most notable and successful real estate agencies, Robert L Smith.  (Parenthetically, Smith’s son Willard recently passed away this past fall at the age of 86.  A lifelong local resident himself, Bill ran a successful insurance agency and, among other civic functions, served as president of the WH Lions and the Nassau County Independent Insurance Agents Association, and as the first ever President of the Friends of the West Hempstead Library).

Robert Leroy Smith was born in Brooklyn in 1902 to a family that traced back its roots to John “Rock” Smith, one of the pioneer settlers of Hempstead who crossed over LI Sound in 1644.  (In an effort to distinguish the identities of the multiple John Smiths settling on LI at the time, each was provided a unique nickname to go along with his given name.  “Rock” Smith purportedly acquired his name after the plot of earth that the Stamford Colony elders assigned him to build his home, sat upon a giant, immovable rock, which he proceeded to hew into the structure of his home, part of which he formed as the backdrop to his fireplace).  As a young teen during WWI, Smith tried to enlist in the Army despite being well underage.  The Army discovered his true age and so rather than being shipped overseas, he served out the war as a farm cadet on LI attached to Troop C of the 101^st Cavalry Squadron.  

After the War, he finished high school and enrolled in Columbia University, but quit after two years to pursue a career as a shoe salesman (imagine that!).  His ultimate calling, though, came a couple years later when he became an agent in a real estate brokerage which at the time was engaged in a rather extensive development in the nascent community of Babylon, LI.  Along the way, he married Miriam Fradenburgh, daughter of the Dean of Brooklyn College, Albert G. Fradenburgh.  Eventually, he staked out on his own in 1924, opening a realty office in Jamaica, Queens, from where he arranged sales of properties throughout western Long Island.  But the bulk of his business would eventually come a couple years later from a new, up-and-coming neighborhood in West Hempstead called Cathedral Gardens.  

The genesis of Cathedral Gardens came amidst the din of track work being done on the LIRR to convert the WH line from steam to electric, and news of a new controlled-access highway that would ferry cars from Brooklyn out to Hempstead and beyond, to be known as the Southern State Parkway.  These two factors alone had caused local land values to skyrocket. But nobody really realized just how high prices would go until February 4, 1926, when someone agreed to pay an unprecedented $8,000 per acre for the 70 acre estate of the late Hannah K. Van Vranken, heiress to the planner of Garden City, John Kellum.  This community was named Cathedral Gardens on account of being located under the shadow of the tall spire of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City.  (Edwin C. Duryea, a farmer who lived his entire adult life in West Hempstead, once remarked in the 1940s that he had lived to see the day when the same price paid for a square foot of WH land, had the purchase power for an entire acre only sixty years earlier).  Robert L Smith was so enamored by the young development that he was among its original buyers for his own family, a home built at 11 Andover Place, and soon thereafter he moved his office to 30 Hempstead Turnpike, at the entrance to Cathedral Gardens.

From there, Smith’s business boomed as he became the primary realtor for buyers in Cathedral Gardens.  When Adelphi College opened in 1929, Smith marketed the “Gardens” as the choice residence for its professors and staff, in an effort to establish a “Faculty Row” for the college.  Already by its opening, it was reported that some 18 professors had moved out to the neighborhood, including nine from Adelphi alone.  Even his father-in-law was persuaded to leave Brooklyn College and relocate to join the Adelphi Faculty.  All told, of the 200+ homes built at Cathedral Gardens by 1941, Smith was reportedly responsible for arranging the sale of 80% of the properties. 

But it was Robert L Smith’s involvement in civic causes that left its indelible mark on West Hempstead.  Among other functions, he founded the West Hempstead Board of Trade, forerunner of the WH Chamber of Commerce (of which he was later a member), helped found the Hempstead Kiwanis Club, and served as President of the Cathedral Gardens Civic Association.

One of Smith’s greatest contributions came at the outbreak of WWII, when local residents were urged to contribute to the War Bond drive.  The first drive in Hempstead, with a quota of $600K, commenced on Dec. 7, 1942, on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  Schools, businesses, banks, boy scouts, and movie theaters -especially theaters, since they enjoyed the benefit of some strong war bond appeals via newsreel, sprang into action to solicit buyers. (In December, moviegoers at the Rivoli in Hempstead went to see the comedy George Washington Slept Here starring Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan, while the State Theatre was showing Somewhere I’ll Find You featuring Clark Gable and Lana Turner.  It was Gable’s last feature film before enlisting in WWII.) A giant thermometer was erected on Fulton Ave to display its progress, and in just two weeks, that thermometer blew its top.  The monies raised from the drive were earmarked to purchase two B-17 “Flying Fortresses”, costing $300K each.  But when it was realized that such a large percentage of that total was generated in West Hempstead alone as a result of the efforts of a special committee chaired by Robert L Smith, the decision was made to christen the second bomber “Spirit of West Hempstead” in tribute to the unswerving patriotism of local residents at the time. 

B-17 Flying Fortress with the name "Spirit of West Hempstead" emblazoned on its fuselage, rolls off the assembly line at Boeing Field, Seattle Wa, during WWII

Thereafter, the WH committee spearheaded its own war bond drives in coordination with the Red Cross unit associated with St. Thomas the Apostle.  Its third bond drive targeted a quota of $100K. By its October 1943 deadline, WH doubled that number.  In early 1944, it commenced a fourth drive of the war, this time enlisting women of the neighborhood to go door-to-door to solicit small contributions from residents.  Aside from being a red-blooded American patriot, Robert L Smith had personal reasons for helping in the war effort – both his sons, Robert L Jr. and Willard had been serving in the US Navy.

After WWII, with Cathedral Gardens almost fully developed, Smith turned south toward another promising local neighborhood called the “Presidential Section”, after the presidential names of its streets.  In November 1947, Smith loaded his small office onto a flatbed truck and moved it to the corner of Hempstead Ave and Coolidge St., where it can still be seen today as the small, lime-green building on the NW corner at 417 Hempstead Ave.

The former R L Smith Realty office (same building as pictured above) after it moved to 417 Hempstead Ave in 1947

Robert L Smith continued his business and involvement in his community until his untimely death in 1961 at the young age of 59 after a long illness, but not before leaving his beloved West Hempstead with a legacy of civic duty and pride.

The First International Auto Race in America – in West Hempstead

The following originally appeared in the Winter 2008 edition of the West Hempstead Civic Association News & Views newsletter -

Here’s a pop question. Name the first ever professional sports event to take place in West Hempstead. If you answered the home opener of the ABA New York Nets 1969-70 season at the old Island Garden, you would be wrong. You’d have to go back another 65 years before that when contestants in the Vanderbilt Cup, the first ever major international auto race in America, zoomed past the West Hempstead farms that lined the Hempstead & Jamaica Plank Road on what is now Hempstead Turnpike. The 300-mile race was the first of its kind in this country and it has an intriguing tie-in to West Hempstead history. Here is the story:

In 1904, heir extraordinaire and sports car aficionado William K. Vanderbilt II organized an auto race on Long Island for the purpose of what he claimed was to stimulate the advancement of the American automobile which lagged behind the innovation and performance of its European counterpart. The contest would be modeled after popular European auto races that were held for a few years since, and would be as much a measure of sturdiness and endurance of these early machines as it would be of performance and speed.

The plotted course would run clockwise along Jericho Turnpike, Route 106, and Hempstead Turnpike, forming a virtual triangle though parts of North Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Hempstead and Queens, and the driver who completed ten circuits around the course in the shortest time would be declared winner. To deal with the risk of running through the highly populated areas, two ‘control’ sections were designated where drivers were required to slow down to under 20mph - a three-minute control at Hicksville and a six-minute control through Hempstead Village. (The western end of the Hempstead control was located in West Hempstead, around where the IHOP is now situated on the Turnpike).

But not everyone was convinced of Vanderbilt’s altruistic motives. Many Long Island farmers viewed the race as a needless form of entertainment for the wealthy and thought of the race car as nothing more than a rich kid’s toy. The disruptions caused by using public roads for an event of this type were obvious, as the affected rail lines and roadways, the primary means through which farmers delivered their goods to market, would essentially have to be shut down for the day. The perils to locals and their livestock that might inadvertently wander onto the course presented a serious risk. The filth created by the 90,000 gallons of oil that was to be spread over the roads as an anti-dusting agent, the belching exhaust from the cars, and the profusion of fuel turned Hempstead into what the NY Evening World called a ‘gasoline village’ and left it ‘smelling like Hunter’s Point’.[1] During the trial runs, well-bred ladies who kept fine homes along Fulton Avenue in Hempstead were so incensed about their rugs being soiled by people dragging in oil from the street that they considered suing the promoters of the race for damages.[2]

One West Hempstead farmer, Edwin C. Duryea, was so vehemently against the race that he was determined to prevent it from taking place. (Duryea, along with his brother Frank, tended a farm that was bounded by Hempstead Ave and Woodfield Rd., between Woodlawn Ave to the north and Chestnut St. to the south.) Together with fellow West Hempstead locals William Stringham and George Langdon, he formed the People’s Protective Association of Nassau County and appealed to the County Board of Supervisors to block the event. They retained another West Hempsteader, Francis B. Taylor, as their legal counsel, and circulated a petition that garnered hundreds of signatures in opposition to the race.[3] When the Board of Supervisors rebuffed their appeal on the grounds that, dangers notwithstanding, the Cup was good for commerce in the County, they filed an 11th hour injunction in court the day before the race to declare the race illegal. The judge refused to intercede and so the stage was set for an event the next morning, October 8th, the magnitude of which was never before witnessed on Long Island.

Cartoon depicting Long Island farmers' protest of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup. Photo Courtesy of The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum (via the Vanderbilt Cup races website)

Throngs of people came out to see the big show. The NY Times claimed that 50,000 fans were at hand[4] while the NY Sun estimated a much more conservative 20,000 at the course at any one time[5]. While the true number was probably somewhere in between, it’s certain that not a vacant hotel room nearby was to be found the night before the race. As one observer put it, “every hotel within three miles of the highways concerned [was] sold out at Waldorf-Astoria prices”[6]. The Sun reported that even the barbers’ chairs in Garden City had been rented for the night[7]. In West Hempstead, it’s doubtless that Henry Woest, keeper of the Munson House, had all his 5 rooms quickly booked for the event.[8] His little inn was located at the intersection of Nassau Blvd and Hempstead Turnpike, where it’s likely that guests could have opted to merely lean out of their beds to have a front row seat of the race from their windows.

Perhaps Woest's guests may have just as well stayed in bed, for despite all the hype generated prior to the event, newspaper accounts described the affair as a real snoozer. There was only so much excitement produced by watching a loud machine whiz by in a flash, only to have to wait another five to ten minutes for the next five second thrill. Bored spectators who had motored out from New York City that morning hopped back into their touring cars while the race was far from over and used – what else? – the Hempstead & Jamaica Plank Road to get back home, creating a veritable obstacle course for horrified contestants who still had laps to finish. (Think of that next time you see a speeding car zig-zagging in and out of traffic along the Turnpike).

To the chagrin of the home crowd, a French car won the race, though as a small measure of consolation, it was an American-born who was at the helm. Overall, the competition was enough of a success as to warrant its establishment as an annual event. A couple years later, a spectator fatality finally convinced the organizers of the recklessness of hosting auto races on public roads, so as a result, the famed Long Island Motor Parkway was built. The LIMP was one of the first concrete roadways in the nation built specifically for the automobile and the first auto road to utilize bridges and overpasses to eliminate crossings. The LIMP was the archetype for the second oldest controlled-access highway on Long Island, the Southern State Parkway which, when completed in 1927, contributed more than any other factor to the housing boom in West Hempstead during the roaring 20’s.

Recognizing the realities of the demands in the local housing market brought on by the construction of the Southern State, the Duryeas sold their 35 acre farm in December, 1926 to a developer who built the “Plymouth Colony”, the name chosen for the cluster of homes and businesses that now occupy that site[9]. Soon after the sale, Hempstead Avenue then quickly transformed from a dusty country road that fronted Ed Duryea’s former property into a budding business corridor. For the erstwhile farmer, after watching his crops grow year after year, the 1927 growing season yielded a different sort of crop – in the form of the brick and stucco homes that sprouted up over his old farm.

By then, West Hempstead had bigger problems like finding more space for its school district that was experiencing an explosion in its student population. Ed Duryea sat on the Board of Education that presided over the expansion of the Chestnut St. School and the construction of the George Washington School in 1930. (You can find his name on the dedication plaque in the foyer of the GW School).

This June 6th marks the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Long Island Motor Parkway, a road that literally paved the way for the proliferation of the modern controlled-access highway, and by extension, for the development of West Hempstead.

To learn more about the Vanderbilt Cup, see the recently published Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island by Howard Kroplick or visit his wonderfully informative website http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/.
[1] NY Evening World, Oct. 8 1904, pg. 6
[2] NYT, Oct. 3, 1904, pg. 1
[3] NYT Sept. 29, 1904, pg. 7
[4] NYT Oct 9, 1904, pg. 1
[5] The Sun Oct. 9, 1904 pg. 2
[6] NYT Oct. 8, 1904 pg. 1
[7] ibid.
[8] Long Island, 1905, (A Lodging Guide Published by the Long Island Railroad Co.), pg. 134
[9] NYT Dec. 5, 1926 sec. 11 pg. 1

Howard B Hutcheson

Previously, we focused on fruit magnate Aubrey G. Hutcheson who owned a 100 acre farm that now comprises the Presidential Section. As mentioned in that post, shortly after Hutcheson sold his farm in 1910, three houses were built across the street for two of his sons, Ralph Everard and Howard Brownell Hutcheson, and one for his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. & Mrs. Walton and Violet Blackford. Judging by the 1914 Belcher-Hyde property map shown below, the Dutch colonial currently occupied by China Connection is the one at left-center of the image and was built for H. B. Hutcheson. (The original school house for SD27, which can be seen in red on the top right corner, was built only two years earlier in 1912. Though additions and modifications were made to the school over the years, the original building still stands and is distinguished by the bell tower atop of it).

Here is a recent photo of China Connection -

H. B. Hutcheson was evidently some kind of a sportsman who raced horses that were raised at his father's stable in West Hempstead - horses with names like Lottie and Princess. When automobiles became the fashion in the 1900s, he turned to racing autos. On June 18th, 1905, he was arrested in Hempstead for driving a vehicle in excess of the village's "10 mph" speed limit. The Village of Hempstead that summer started an initiative to crack down on speeders and bicyclists who rode on the sidewalk, (though by the middle of the summer the effort peetered out since officers found it too hot to sit and wait at the speed traps and also because the Automobile Association of America posted warnings on the outskirts of town about speeding through the village). After appearing before the judge, he was fined $25, a hefty sum in 1905 considering that in today's dollars (using the inflation calculator), that would translate to $592. Perhaps he recovered at least some of that money that November when he won an auto race at the Empire City Race Track in Yonkers. The race was part on an event that showcased the Oldsmobile Runabout or "Curved Dash", which is considered the first mass produced automobile ever made (photo below from the Curved Dash Wiki entry).

Hutcheson won the one-mile race on his Oldsmobile in a whopping 2 minutes. (That's an average of 30 mph for the mathematically challenged).

It was at H. B. Hutcheson's home in West Hempstead that his father, Aubrey died in 1924, across the street from what used to be his magnificent estate. H. B Hutcheson did not survive much longer after that, as he died in 1927 at the age of 50.

Langley Ave and Halsey Ave

Mystery question of the day (as a follow up to the previous post). Most of the streets in the presidential section are aptly named after presidents (i.e. Adams, Madison, Jackson, Harding, Grant(land), McKinley, Roosevelt, Coolidge, Wilson, Tyler Pl.). The two noted exceptions are Langley Ave. and Halsey Ave. Older street maps of WH show that these two streets were originally called Lincoln Ave and Harrison Ave, respectively. When zip codes were later introduced and the postal system became formalized, the people in charge assumedly didn't want there to be confusion with other streets of the same name within one zip code. Since a street named Lincoln already existed in the Hempstead Gardens section, and another named Harrison south of Eagle Ave, they chose different names for those two streets. But who are Langley and Halsey after whom the two streets are now named?

Aubrey G Hutcheson

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide a sense of what West Hempstead used to look like 100 years ago. Though most people wouldn't know it, there's a good chance that what is now a dilapidated gas station or a nail salon was once the site of a wealthy merchant's country estate (see previous post). Such is the case with the estate of Aubrey G. Hutcheson, located at what is now commonly known as the presidential section - a property that stretches from Nassau Blvd to the west to Hempstead Ave to the east, and from Walnut St north down to McKinley St to the south. A G Hutcheson made a fortune as an importer of fruit from the West Indies, whose firm, according to Peter Ross' History of Long Island, was the largest of any such business in NYC at the time.

In 1890, he purchased a large farm in WH from Alanson Abrams, a prominent Hempsteader who went on to become TOH Receiver of Taxes. Thereupon he built the magnificent home you see pictured below (taken from the book linked above).


About this home, Peter Ross writes:

His home at Hempstead is one of the finest residences in that pretty little town, the grounds being beautifully laid out and adorned with ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers. Everything about the place testifies to the culture and fine tastes of the owner, and while there are many indications of wealth, there is nothing of display in this beautiful and attractive home. In 1910, Hutcheson sold his 99 1/2 acre farm and the property then was platted and developed as the presidential section, after the 'presidential' names of its streets. Hutcheson later retired to the Bahamas, but his legacy in WH still lives on in two buildings now located across Hempstead Ave. from where his old house once stood. Hutcheson had nine children, two of whom, Ralph E and Howard B Hutcheson, built the twin houses now occupied by China Connection and Congregation Anshei Shalom. Their stories will be the subject of another post.

To line up the 'now' shot, I had to resort to the E. Belcher Hyde map of 1906 (which incorrectly labeled our subject as 'A. Hutchinson'). The house appears just below center -

From the position of his house relative to Hempstead Ave. just north of the corner of Locust St., the picture below approximates the location.