Wyandanch, New York

Wyandanch (/ˈwaɪənˌdæntʃ/, WHY-ən-DANCH) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 11,647 at the 2010 census.

History

Native settlement

This hamlet is named after Chief Wyandanch, a leader of the Montaukett Native American tribe during the 17th century. Formerly known as Half Way Hollow Hills, West Deer Park (1875), and Wyandance (1893), the area of scrub oak and pine barrens south of the southern slope of Half Hollow terminal moraine was named Wyandanch in 1903 by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to honor Chief Wyandanch and end confusion between travelers getting off at the West Deer Park and Deer Park railroad stations. The history of the hamlet has been shaped by waves of immigrants.

No archaeological evidence of permanent Native American settlements in Wyandanch has been discovered. Native Americans hunted and gathered fruits and berries in what is now Wyandanch/Wheatley Heights.

Wyandanch (sachem)

Birth 1615 • Montauk Village, Paum man ak e, New York, USA ....Death 1658 • Long Island City, Queens, New York, United States

was a sachem of the Montaukett Indians in the mid-17th century on eastern Long Island. Initially he was a minor chief among the Montaukett, but due to his skillful manipulation of various alliances and his accommodating stance towards the European colonists who gave him substantial military and economic support, he eventually became an influential "alliance chief" (a sachem who was responsible for maintaining friendly relations between his tribe and the settlers).

Early life

Wyandanch (sometimes spelled as Wyandance) was born on Long Island roughly at the time of the pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. While still young, in the second half of the 1630s Wyandanch heard about the almost total destruction of the Pequot in the Pequot War. He concluded that it was best to come to an understanding with the English colonists in southern New England and on Long Island.

Wyandanch (LIRR station)

Wyandanch is a station along the Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch) of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Straight Path (Suffolk CR 2) and Long Island Avenue, off Acorn Avenue in Wyandanch, New York. All parking near the station is free, and maintained either by Suffolk County or the Town of Babylon.

First station

Wyandanch station was originally built in May 1875 as "West Deer Park". The station and tracks have always been at ground level. During the 1920s and 1930s, the vicinity of the station became the site of numerous horrific accidents involving crashes with trains at the unguarded grade-level rail crossings at Straight Path, 18th Street and Little East Neck Road. In 1935, after repeated protests from the people of Wyandanch, the Public Service Commission (PSC) ordered the LIRR to provide crossing guards at the 18th Street and Straight Path crossings during school hours on school days, so that school children living north of the LIRR to safely walk across the railroad on their way to the schoolhouse at South 20th Street and Straight Path on the south side.