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| The country home of William E. Hawkins, c. 1925, formerly located near east from the intersection of Montauk Highway and Great Neck Road, Copiague. (From the collections of the Town of Babylon, Office of Historic Services.) |
Situated
between the two incorporated villages of Amityville and Lindenhurst, Copiague’s
history has often been blended with its neighboring communities. Its distinctive growth was spurred by several
early 20th century housing developments. Today, many of those early
developments still define the Copiague community, including American Venice,
Amity Harbor, Deauville Gardens, Marconiville, and Hawkins Estate.
The
Hawkins Estate neighborhood came about in the mid-1920s, around the same time as
Amity Harbor and American Venice. The Hawkins
Estate community was once the private family property of William E. Hawkins.
An
advertisement for the suburban development depicted a Roaring Twenties bathing beauty with the
headline, “Would you like to Spend the Day on a Millionaire’s Estate?”. The advertisement boasted “Salt Water Bathing
and Boating!”, “Fresh Water Lake!”, Mile-Long Trout Stream!”, and “Beautiful
Gardens and Shady Nooks.” As was typical
of that time, the property developers extended an invitation to spend a day on
the property, even offering to pay their fare on the Long Island Rail Road, so
that people might be enticed to purchase building lots.
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| Hawkins Estate advertisement, New York Times, July 9, 1926. |
Collected
smatterings of information found in 1920s newspaper articles offer a cursory
account of Copiague’s elusive millionaire, William E. Hawkins. Hawkins was
acknowledged for his business and for his real estate, but was more widely
reported for his philately – stamp collecting. His collection started in
childhood and he gradually sold off the collection, starting around 1931. He
reportedly spent $600,000 amassing his collection and sold to a variety of
other collectors, including King George V of England, for over $1,000,000.[i]
In the spring
of 1909, the construction of Mr. Hawkin’s home was reported. “Work was begun on
Monday on the new $30,000 summer residence of W.E. Hawkins on the South Road [a
reference to Montauk Highway]. The building will be 78x138 feet in dimensions
and of wooden construction. Arthur S. Austin has the contract for the carpentry
work and A.A. Pearsall that for the masonry.”[ii]
A 1928
article discussing the potential expansion of Sunrise Highway east of
Amityville, and the south shore housing boom, offered this glimpse of estate
owner: “William E. Hawkins, President of the American Brass and Copper Company,
had until two years ago a 300-acre [sic] estate, with palatial home and
outbuildings, trout lake and winding stream to Great South Bay, situated on
Montauk Highway, at Copiague. He loved the environment and intended to spend
his retired years there. Influx of population surrounded him … too many
all-year small homes adjoined him; the din of traffic annoyed him. He sold the
entire estate to land developers who have built attractive all-year homes thereon.”[iii]
While the
name of the housing development is attributed to Hawkins, alone, the acres were
not all owned by Mr. Hawkins. He owned the majority, 176 acres. The remaining
36 acres were acquired from Joshua P. Jarvis and George Scudder Jarvis. One
report, around the time of the sale to real estate developers, indicated that
the property had been in the Jarvis family since 1818.
The Hawkins
Estate development offered most of its real estate on the north side of Montauk
Highway, with just a few acres on the south side. A 1926 advertising broadside for
the real estate development did not include specific street names, but a good
estimate of the present streets included in the original Hawkins Estate
development are: Abbington Court – Audley Court – Beach Avenue – Bergen Court – Brookside Court – Cedar Court – Ferndale Court – Greenlawn Terrace – Hawkins Boulevard – Howard Avenue – Kensington Court – Maple Court – Parkside Court – Pinelawn Avenue – Pleasantview Court – St. Ann’s Avenue; along
with parts of present-day Copiague Place, Great Neck Road, South Great Neck
Road, Scudder Avenue, Strong Avenue and Montauk Highway.
The
advertisement billed as the “Estate of William E. Hawkins,” described it being
“in the highest state of cultivation,” “really a beautiful park, having a
magnificent mansion, … stables, garages and all manner of out-buildings.” The
new community was highly promoted for its proximity to the American Venice
development, “probably the largest development of its kind anywhere in the
East,” and its refined natural beauty: “A beautiful trout-stream … runs through
the property emptying into ‘Lake Hawkins’ which is directly on Merrick Road. This
steam is crossed by rustic bridges, with beautiful walks … surrounding this
stream. The orchards, the flower beds, the vineyards, the asparagus beds,
strawberries, raspberries … are the last word on a modern up-to-the-minute
estate.”
News reports
of the property development in the spring of 1926 indicated that the Hawkins residence
would be used as administrative offices for a real estate company, and was
intended to be used as a community center, along with the lake and park areas
surrounding the mansion.
While the
mansion was a community focal point, it appears that several builders began
construction of the single-family homes that would come to dominate the
park-like acres. Among the developers was the home-building division of the New York Herald-Tribune newspaper
company. On Sunday, October 3, 1926, a “Herald-Tribune” model house was
unveiled to a crowd of over 300. The following week, a local newspaper offered
this account of the grand opening.[iv]
“Herald-Tribune houses have been built in a dozen or more places in suburban New York – New Jersey, Westchester and father west on Long Island. The home-building department of that New York newspaper launched the idea away [sic] back. The scheme was to provide substantial construction, individual architecture, distinctive facilities, and modern housekeeping facilities. Some of the houses have cost much more than the one in Copiague. Some have been built for considerably less. The plan has been to meet purses of different sizes.”
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| Amityville Record, October 8, 1926 |
“The house on the Hawkins Estate stands on a plot of ground 162x129 feet in size. Its dimensions are 27x28 feet. Common red brick composes its exterior and standard materials of advertised brands were employed exclusively. It contains six rooms, a bathroom and an attic. A living room, running across the full width of the front, has an open fireplace. French doors open upon a porch. The dining room is 13 feet square. All floors are of oak, but the kitchen floor, as the house is now furnished, is covered with linoleum.”
Additionally, the article described the kitchen as being “equipped with three cabinets, an ice box and various smaller compartments concealing or revealing the utilities of the housewife. On the second floor are one large bedroom, two smaller ones and the bathroom, tiled on the floor and the side walls. In it is a closet with a stair leading to the attic.”
Promoted as an ideal home with modern conveniences (e.g., an ice box), the model house was reported offered for sale at $17,000, furnishing not included. The house was designed by architect Robert A. Arnold, a former assistant of Amityville’s Lewis Inglee, the architect of the Babylon’s 1918 Town Hall and the 1926 and 1931 brick extensions to the Copiague School on Great Neck Road and Scudder Avenue.
As is the case with many of the other local real estate developments that sprang forth in the mid to late 1920s, reports of Hawkins Estates’ growth in the 1930s are very few. Most real estate developments lost steam after the crush of the 1929 economic depression.
By the end of the 1930s, the former Hawkins mansion became the Nassau-Suffolk General Hospital. Later renamed Lakeside Hospital, the hospital operated in Copiague until the 1970s. (A few times a year, people call the historian's office wondering about the old hospital, after finding it listed on their birth certificates.) The palatial home turned medical center was eventually torn down and was replaced with the Lakeside Manor Apartments complex.
[i] “King George V Buys Rare Colonial Stamps; Hopes for Best and Biggest British Collection,” New York Times, June 12, 1931, p. 10. “William Hawkins, A Philatelist, Dies,” New York Times, April 15, 1951, p. 92.
[ii] “W.E. Hawkins’ House Started,” Amityville Record, April 23, 1909, p. 3.