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Everything you wanted to know about Irving Place

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Fall has arrived, and with it comes our exciting lineup of fall programs. We kicked off the season with a virtual workshop on Sept. 25, focused on uncovering the history behind Rockville Centre homes.

The research and techniques displayed in the workshop continue to reveal fascinating details about the village’s history, including stories about Irving Place.

Irving Place had a lot of activity at the turn of the 20th century. No. 28 was the first house built on Irving Place, circa 1903. By 1914, however, there were eight other new homes on the block.

When it was built, No. 28 was originally No. 15, but it was changed after the village renumbering mess in 1919. (Please visit our website for the story!) The likely original owner was S.M. Willetts, who was highly involved with the Methodist Church. Willetts was also very friendly with Henry DeMott, who lived just down the block, on the corner of Roosevelt Place.

Originally, 28 Irving was on a larger property, but it was subdivided around 1919, when No. 24 was built next door. In 1920, the village trustees voted to pave Irving Place with gravel, because it was considered one of the more heavily used streets in the village. By the 1920s, the house was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hitzigrath. He was an inventor, and patented a new hair curler in 1925. It must have been a success: The Hitzigraths had a live-in housekeeper and a summer home in Sayville. Irving Place has many beautiful homes, but No. 28 represents a notable example of the American Foursquare design so popular in the early 20th century.

Frank B. Gardner and his wife, Virginia, moved to Rockville Centre around 1911 from Alabama. They were tired of the South, and were looking for a better opportunity. Frank was self-starter who excelled in business, politics and golf. While living in New York City, he bought an old garage at the corner of Merrick Road and what is now Sunrise Highway, and founded the Gardner Garage & Motor Company.

Starting as a dealer of Maxwell automobiles, Gardner expanded to Packards, Hudsons and a range of other makes. He soon moved to town and purchased a beautiful home at 77 Hempstead Ave. This property, at the corner of Irving Place, was built around 1907 by E.R. Van Tassel. The house number was later changed to 80. The home stood for over 70 years, but was demolished in 1973, when the B’nai Sholom Temple bought the property and built a new home for its rabbi.

Aside from his car business, Gardner was a trustee for the village from 1918 to 1921. And, while he was not a founding member of the First National Bank of Rockville Centre, which opened in 1907, he served on its board in the 1920s, and was its president from 1929 to 1931. An avid golfer, Gardner served on the board of the Rockville Links Country Club (then called the Rockville Centre Country Club) and the Lido and Hempstead golf clubs. He died in July 1957, but he greatly contributed to the village’s early development.

Please visit the museum (by appointment) or join us for our upcoming programs:

Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m., at the Phillips House Museum: The Nuts and Bolts of Historic Preservation. Join us for a lecture by Tara Cubie, Director of Preservation Long Island, as she leads a discussion on preserving historic resources on Long Island.

Thursday, Nov. 7, time TBD, at Phillips House: Long Island Author Series. Dr. Paul van Wie, history professor at Molloy University and editor of The Natural and Human History of the Hempstead Plains, will speak about ecology and historic events that occurred on the Plains, an area that encompassed 40,000 acres in Nassau County.

Visit our website, rvchs.org, email us at rvchistoricalsociety@gmail.com, or call (516) 670-5737 for more information about these and other upcoming events.

Jim Belling is a member of the board of trustees of the Phillips House Museum and the Rockville Centre Historical Society.