The Town Historian’s office receives a wide variety of local history questions related to genealogy, buildings and sites. Recently I was asked about the name origin of Surdi Place, in the Village of Babylon. The search for one street led to the discovery of much more …
Surdi Place is a dead-end
street on the north side of Southards Lane. On a street map from around 1941
street map (below), published by Hagstrom, there were no streets between
Lakeland Avenue and Southard’s Lane.
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| Hagstrom map, c. 1941. |
Map are an
invaluable tool in local history research. They are not infallible – for there
are many mistakes on old maps and it would have been difficult for publishers
to keep up with changes during periods of rapid development – but they are good
starting point for research.
Finding that Surdi
Place was not on the early 1940s street map, it was a good indication that the
street was part of the post-World War II housing boom. From a research point of
view, a unique word or name can be helpful as keywords for searching databases
and digitized documents.
One of the first
items found was an advertisement for “Surdi’s Economy Homes” in West Babylon.
It was not the location or street that I was looking for but immediately revealed
that the street name in Babylon village was likely the surname of this West
Babylon home builder.
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| Advertisement for Surdi Homes in West Babylon, Newsday, April 15, 1950 |
A search for “Surdi”
in New York City and Long Island newspapers resulted in various construction projects.
In addition to Surdi Homes, in West Babylon, the Surdi Development Corporation
built Surdi Stores in West Babylon and Lindenhurst, Red Mill Estate in North Babylon,
and Surdi Park in Babylon village.
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| Advertisement for Red Mill Estates, just north of Sunrise Highway in North Babylon, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 20, 1952. |
Getting back to the
original question …
Babylon village’s Surdi Place has just five homes, which were built in the early 1950s. They appear to have been part of a residential development known as Surdi Park.
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| Surdi Park advertisement, New York Times, April 6, 1952. |
The Surdi
Development Corporation was managed by John Surdi, president, and Vincent
Surdi, who appear to have been father and son, respectively. Home builders have long had the advantage of
naming the streets in their developments. Despite building several housing
projects within the Town of Babylon, the corporation only assigned their name
to one street – Surdi Place.