An Early History Of Woodbury, Long Island, NY

Woodbury, Long Island, NY is about to have its day in the sun! After quietly residing in the shadow of its sister hamlet, Syosset, for a hundred years or more, this still-charming unincorporated village, located roughly thirty-five miles east of Manhattan, gets to shine on its own in this brand-new illustrated history by Tom Montalbano, author of three books on "that other hamlet."An Early History of Woodbury uses newly discovered documents, historical newspapers, family histories, diaries, and first-hand recollections to uncover fascinating details of the community's past, from its settlement in the 1600's to its transformation into a booming residential suburb in the 1950's and beyond. This fun, illustrated chronicle traces Woodbury's beginnings as Native American land, its stifling years under British occupation during the American Revolution, its centuries-long tradition of slave ownership, and its awkward flirtation with the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th Century. It also recalls poet Walt Whitman's disastrous 1840 stint as Woodbury's schoolmaster, William K. Vanderbilt's staging of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race on Woodbury Road and Jericho Turnpike, and the parade of world-renowned socialites who converted Woodbury's spacious farms into extravagant summer retreats during the Gold Coast Era. The author, a lifelong Syosset native who has spent the past thirty years researching local history, finally delves into the deep files of Woodbury historical information he has compiled over the decades to present this labor-of-love volume to all who enjoy local history, timeworn photos, and plain old nostalgia. Mostly, An Early History of Woodbury is aimed at demonstrating, once and for all, that Woodbury is much more than just a footnote in the history of Syosset.