Book to document Valley Stream history

Valley Stream’s history has been well documented over the years, and soon, that history will be recorded in a well-known book series.

Village resident Billy Florio is working on a Valley Stream edition for Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series, which has already featured many towns on Long Island including Franklin Square, Long Beach, the Five Towns and East Rockaway. “I was wondering why there wasn’t a Valley Stream one,” said Florio, who has an extensive collection of books from the series.

Florio, an admitted local history buff, is collecting photos for his book and is seeking the public’s help. He already has hundreds of pictures from the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra, the Nassau County archives, the Library of Congress, and neighbors, businesses and community organizations. He also soon plans to tap into the Valley Stream Historical Society’s collection. So far, he has about 90 photos in his “maybe” pile.

But Florio says while he has a lot of great pictures already, he wants to find and publish images that haven’t ever been public. His hope is to show “the Valley Stream that people haven’t seen before.”

The book requires a minimum of 180 photos, but Florio said he expects to have more than 200 when he is done with the project. There is so much history in Valley Stream to document, he said, that he expects no shortage of pictures to choose from.

Florio has not yet determined the chapters his book will have, and said that will depend on the submissions he receives. He said he would like a majority of the book to focus on the history of Valley Stream since it became a village in 1925.

And not all the book will be rosy, he said. Even local history has its dark moments, Florio explained, and those should be included in the book as well. “There’s a lot that happened in Valley Stream that people don’t know about,” he said.

His goal for the book is for people to make connections to modern day Valley Stream through the photos, and understand how the community has changed over the years. Maybe residents can learn something about a building they pass every day, he said.

Mayor Ed Fare, who serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for the Historical Society, said he is excited to see Florio’s completed project. Fare noted that there are already published history books on Valley Stream, including from the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the village, but he expects the Arcadia book to have a much broader audience because of the popularity of the “Images of America” series. “People collect them,” he said. “I’d like Valley Stream to be included in that.”

Fare added that he hopes the Historical Society can make a significant contribution to the book, but admitted that the real treasures are the photos people have in their basements and attics.

Florio, 29, attended the William L. Buck School and graduated from South High School in 2002. He majored in history and political science at Hofstra University, and now works for the special projects team for Nassau County, managing the website and social media.

On his own Facebook page, he likes to put up historical photos, and enjoys following many of the other pages where native Valley Streamers post their old pictures and share memories.

Florio’s deadline for submissions is July, and then the publishing process would take about six months. He hopes to have the book released by early next year. “I think it’s going to be popular with a lot of people in the area,” he said.

Send in your photos

Florio is looking for pictures for his Valley Stream “Images of America” books. It could be a photograph of people, a building, or any depiction of life in the community. To contact Florio or to submit a photo, email valleystreambook@gmail.com.