By Mike Caputo
The property that houses what is now called the Five Towns Community Center was one of the many projects anchored by affluent Five Towns resident Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, at the time a widow and sole executrix of the famous millionaire Russell Sage's estate after he died in 1906. According to Roy Meserole, a lifelong resident of Inwood, who is recognized by numerous community members as the best historical source for the area, Margaret Sage distributed over $75 million of her late husband's estate to various philanthropic and personal projects across the globe.
Margaret Sage was also known in the Five Towns for building a small housing district in a section of Cedarhurst around Court, Clinton and Fifth Streets known as Sageville. The smaller houses were geared towards hard workers with lower incomes, said Meserole.
In the beginning stages, the property were the center is located today was known as the Margaret Sage Industrial School. The industrial school, also known as a trade school to many locals, was funded by the endowment provided by Sage, said Meserole. The school offered education for young people in areas such as cooking, sewing and carpentry.
For many years, the trade school continued to offer its array of human services, said Meserole: teaching young people in trades and attending to social service matters for members of the Five Towns. Up until the 1970s, it was also known as a settlement house, often compared to the Henry Street Settlement House on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
"It's a sad day to think this would not be controlled by the entire community and just one segment," Meserole said in reference to the possible sale of the center to a private organization.
In the '60s and '70s, there was a national initiative around the country started during President Lyndon Johnson's administration in 1964 as the "war on poverty." One of the contributions Nassau County made to that "war," headed by late former County Executive Ralph Caso at the time, was the decision to bring human services in the Inwood/North Lawrence area together under one roof, which in essence defined the Five Towns Community Center building (then known as the Inwood Community Center building.) The three main branches that were implemented into the complex at the time were the Inwood/North Lawrence Health Clinic, the Peninsula Counseling Center and the Five Towns Community Center.
"The idea was to bring all services in one building because they were all scattered on storefronts," said Peter Visconti, associate director of the center.
Not only does the center offer services for residents, it has also given opportunity for many to rise as leaders within the community and beyond, said Visconti. Currently, the center employs 54 full time and 84 part-time staff workers, along with about 100 volunteers.
"It has developed people in the community to be in leadership," he said.
One of those leaders who attributes many of his successes to the community center is Jonathan Davis, the executive director of the center since 1989. He explained the center's impact on the community outside of the building itself on Lawrence Avenue.
The center works out of Lynbrook, Hewlett and Lawrence School Districts, said Davis. At those schools, the center sponsors after school programs and social services to children. He emphasized that although the focus of the services are for children in need, it isn't limited tothem.
"That's for any kid, not just people in need," Davis said.
The importance of the after-school programs to the children in the community are what many members and center officials have been emphasizing. Currently, the center has 2,000 kids registered in programs within the individual communities.
The school was and still has what Meserole called a "full gamut" of youth recreation. Over the years, the youth of the Five Towns have participated in many activities on and off the grounds of the center. A recreation field primarily used for soccer was opened in the '90s.
Overall, the center serves over 16,000 people in the Five Towns. Inside and outside of the building, the center has many departments to offer its constituents, including: the Committee on Drug Abuse, the Youth Community Action Center, the AIDS Services Program, the Inwood Senior Center, the Aid to the Foreign Born Department and Five Towns Head Start. For more information on these programs, visit the center's Web site at www.fivetownscommunityctr.org.
The major funders for the programs the center's programs are: the Five Towns Community Center, Inc. Endowment Fund, the Five Towns Community Chest, Friends of the Five Towns Community Center and the Economic Opportunity Commission of Nassau County.
Throughout the years, the center has welcomed various public figures. One of the most notable visits occurred in the early 1990s when Rev. Al Sharpton spoke in front of a diverse group of kids and other community members. Sharpton soke shortly after the vicious beating of black former high school football star Jermaine Ewell on an Atlantic Beach boardwalk. That incident spawned many national headlines, and the nature of Sharpton's visit worried center officials. However, according to Visconti, Sharpton addressed the young audience "wonderfully," and it turned out to be a success.
While recounting some of the center's rich history, Meserole suggested that members of the community have not fully grasped the local importance of the center until recently.
"Now that we are threatened with the loss of it, you begin to realize the role of the community center," Meserole said. "We have had it there and took it for granted that it was there."
In 1974, the county agreed on a 50-year lease agreement to carry on the services in the center, which would expire in 2024. If a sale is made, the buyer is obligated to honor that lease until it ends. Even though the lease may be strong enough to keep the services intact until at least 2025, Meserole said he feels that any sale to a private organization would be an insult to what Sage originally built for the Five Towns community, specifically for those Inwood residents in need.
"Inwood is one of the poorest towns in Nassau County," said Meserole. "We would miss it greatly. We feel it was a gift to our community and feel it should remain."
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