Throughout the time I attended Bicycle Path Elementary School in Selden, from 3rd to 6th grade, my school bus would pass by a well-worn, two-story greying farmhouse with a front porch and bay window, and a massive old tree stretching its limbs wide, nearly covering the entire yard.
Each day I would scrutinize the home as my bus lumbered by, and look for life in the darkened windows, wondering who had lived there, where did they go, and how old the house really was. I guessed hundreds of years. It looked like a house that had seen a lot of love and a lot of life. I imagined the fields once lush with corn or wheat. I swore I saw a swing hanging from the oak tree limb. I pictured children running and shrieking in the front yard, playing tag or jump rope, or whatever games they played back in their day.
It was one of the last large parcels of land on that part of the main road. It was bordered by Dare Road on the west side, and a huge lot on the east side.
Today the house is gone. The massive tree is gone, and a Walgreens and parking lot has sprouted where the field once grew wild. But the property where the house stood is untouched, a green lawn and trees and bushes neatly maintained, according to a Google Maps image.
I’ve been looking for photos of this house for a long time. I didn’t remember that it had a name. I was just searching “vintage photos old Selden buildings,” or similar wordings. I even took a screen shot of the Google map image of the parcel about two weeks ago.
Then the other night a photo and post popped up in my Facebook newsfeed of an old house in Selden. THE VERY SAME HOUSE I’d been searching for all these years.
This is a big deal to me. As my husband David said, it’s like the Universe is lining everything up for me.
On April 24, my book Ten Bucks and a Wish will be released on Amazon.com. The story tells a tale of letting go of the past to make way for the future, and at the core of this tale is this very house that once stood on the corner of Dare Road and Middle Country Road, the Norton-Dare House. In the book, it is called Drake’s Farm. And it is located in the fictitious town of Olde Westfield, not Selden, in the Town of Brookville, not Brookhaven.
And (in the book) the adjacent acreage known as the property belonging to the McCords, honors the memory of a parcel of land that once stood thick with trees and vegetation on the corner of Boyle Road and Middle Country Road. That parcel actually had a burial ground on it, and an old house and well that I explored in my younger days. Today it is a huge shopping center that the community fought hard against. But with the plaza came jobs and progress and entertainment, and new memories for people living there.
At one point in its history, Selden was named Westfield. But that changed in the mid-1800s with the arrival of an official post office, and in honor of the then Lieutenant Governor, Henry Selden. When I was younger, I’d heard of an effort to change the name back to something similar to Westfield. I guess that never happened. At least not in real life. But in Ten Bucks and a Wish, Westfield comes alive again as Olde Westfield.
I grew up in Selden, moving there from the Bronx with my family when I was seven years old, and finally leaving when I got married at 23 years old. I attended Bicycle Path Elementary, Selden Jr. High, Newfield High School, and Suffolk Community College. I worked at the local drugstore, hung out at the local bar.
I went to church faithfully at St. Margaret’s of Scotland, where I made my communion and confirmation, and where I was married. We celebrated this union at the Andrea Doria Manor. All in Selden.
The schools and church are still there. The drugstore has changed name and is now flanked by newer strip malls and shopping complexes, and anchor stores. But many of the landmarks I thought would last forever are gone, and the landscape is so different it is difficult to drive through and remember tales to share.
But this is life. This is progress. And these stores and landmarks will be changed when the youth of today come back in 30 years, trying to find the buildings they passed every day on the way to school.
So, even though Selden has succumbed to modern development in the name of progress, I’m happy that I have been able to forever preserve Selden as Olde Westfield in Ten Bucks and a Wish.
And just as Deanna Drake has the opportunity to revisit the past, and recapture her youth, so have I through Facebook. There is a group on Facebook called “You Know You are From Selden If…” and this is where I found the image of the Norton Dare House. Well, it found me. I’ve also been able to reconnect to old friends, and reminisce about the “good old days.
So here is to old times, old friends, new friends, and letting go of the past to make way for tomorrow.
Janina Grey 
I was born and raised in Selden from 1938 to 1962, living on Boyle Rd, the first house on the left from Jericho Turnpike (Rte 25) at the time. The Suffolk PD had a small substation on the corner. The property on the west side of Boyle Rd contained a number of deep, bricklined holes. Maybe cisterns. Supposedly a hotel was once there that was visited by George Washington. The school contained 4 classrooms, each room was for 2 classes. I attended there from 1944 to 1952. In 1949 an addition was added so that each class had it own classroom, and an auditorium was included. Mr Koslick was the principal. Ms Clark taught 1-2, Mrs. Holt 3-4, Mrs. Thorne 5-6, Mr. Ball 7-8 when I started. Across from the school was the Foster’s house, where my father boarded as a young carpenter from Aberdeen, Scotland. There was a great candy store that bordered the school grounds on the west side.
Ronald
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Hi Ronald, thanks for writing! Back in the 90s I was a reporter with Suffolk Life. I was given a tip that there was a two grave cemetery on that plot of land. I went exploring and found a well and what I thought was an old foundation to a house, and the two graves. At one point before they built the shopping plaze, the graves were fenced off and protected. I’ve since moved away so I don’t know what’s happened to them now.
Thanks for sharing your info! I had no idea there had been a school on that site.I grew up down the road, on Strauss Ave, back in the 70s.
Take care!
Still looking for the “bungalow”…now we’re thinking Oxhead Road. Without an address, it’s very difficult. How are ya Janina?
Doing okay! Thanks for writing. There were lots of bungalows in Selden when I was growing up in the 70s. Magnolia Drive had a bungalow that had been destroyed by fire. We kids use to go and explore the property. We thought it was haunted. I’m surprised none of us ever got hurt!
Michael Matteo- I never knew that about Newfield! Thank you! I used to live off N. Evergreen when I was attending Selden Jr. High and Newfield. I lived on Strauss Ave and went to Bicycle Path 3-6.
Thank you also for the info on the Davis House.
Do you remember seeing the Norton-Dare house on your way to BPS.
That house was the inspiration for Ten Bucks and a Wish. I’d always wished I could live in it as a child.
Wasn’t the Norton-Dare House moved to a new location in Coram in the late 1990’s? At that time, it was a Youth Center.
Someone told me that. I remember the youth center! as an adult I would go there to teach poetry classes.
I think the old brick school building with the cemetery behind it that an earlier commenter is refering to is Jericho Elementary school. The cemetery is still there. It is off to the side closest to Nichols Rd. and it has a small fence around it.
Nichols road! Totally forgot about Nichols Road. I don’t ever remember seeing a cemetery near there. The only cemetery I remember seeing in the area was the one on Middle Country Road in the heart of Selden, near the Fire Department.
I was just telling my mom about this (she lived in Selden from 1967 to now) and she said that house is now in Coram!? It’s just past the firehouse on the left, at the light, and across the street from Advance Auto Parts. They didn’t destroy it because it’s an historical building. She doesn’t know why they moved it!
Could she take a picture of it? This is so wonderful! Is it open to tours?
I will go tomorrow to take a picture of it….if I can find it!
Did you ever find the building you were talking about? Sorry about my delay in response.
My Mom has been in Selden since 1939 and lives on North Evergreen Dr still today. I was born in 1965 and continue to live in Selden with my family. I also attended Selden Elementary for K-1, Bicycle Path for 2-6, Selden Jr High for 7-9 and Newfield (named after New Village and Westfield) High School for grades 10-12.
Unfortunately, the Norton-Dare house did not survive progress. The house in Coram is the Davis house and that has been under restoration for some time now.
As far as the cemeteries is Selden, you are correct, there is one behind Westfield Shopping Center, a second one just west of Adirondack Dr and a third behind Starbucks west of Boyle Rd. Of course there is the Union Cemetery immediately in front of the Selden Fire Department.
Selden was a great place to grow up. Hopefully it will continue into the future.
I grew up in selden from 1952 to 1978, I lived on magnolia drive, loved growing up in selden, I went to all the schools mentioned and remember all what you talked about. Middle country road, the hero shop, farm store,evergreen market. Lots candy store, kanes drug store, j& f lumber. And huff feld. I use to ride my bike all over selden. Those were the years.
My dad owned Kanes pharmacy. We’ve been trying to find pictures and/or any other old images of the drugstore.
Did you used to say that you were going “downtown” when you went to Middle Country Road?
We never said “downtown.” We would just say where we were going whether it was Campus Heroes or the library or Genovese or Friendly’s. I think because we came from The Bronx, and downtown in there was very different than Middle Country Rd.!
haha.
I lived in Selden from 1957 until 1963. Many great memories of playing in the woods that are now housing developments. I remember there being a stone store on Middle Country Road, maybe a block east of the Selden Library. I bought my Mars Attacks cards and baseball cards there. I have been looking for a picture of it for years. Anyone know where I can find one? I remember there were 1700 era graves behind (east) the older brick elementary school. Anyone know if those graves were relocated when that parcel was developed?
Thanks for those memories. The stone store, was it on the corner of Evergreen and Middle Country Road? I remember that being Campus Heroes.
I don’t remember the graves behind the little elementary school. I remember them across from it.
Grow up in Selden from 1951 – 1968. I couldn’t think of a better place to have lived. I could go on for a week and still not cover the all of my memories. The Huff family who had a grass airport next to the elementary school. We would hide in the woods next to the runway and watch the plane come in. What a wonderful time for a kid.
I grew up in selden, i wouldn’t have traded that for all the tea in china, man if those trees could talk, we lived at 386 dare rd. Every time i have a dream IT’S ALWAYS IN OR AROUND THAT HOUSE, man what ride!
Thanks for sharing that memory. I have the same experience with Selden dreams!
I too attended BPS 11 and remember so much of Selden. Moved away in ’67. Man, that place was so cool as a kid growing up.
We moved there in 1970. It was so very different from the school I went to in the Bronx.
Thanks for checking out my site. We moved to Selden in 70. It was a great place to grow up.
I have worked in Bicycle Path School since 2008. It is now a Pre-K/Kindergarten center.
That makes me so happy! I have many fond memories of that school. It’s difficult to believe there are that many kindergartners and pre-k students that you need a school that big! Wow! Times have changed.
I’m happy to hear it’s being used as a school again. I remember when we went to register my sister and I there shortly after moving out from The Bronx. The gymnasium was across from the Main Office, it was in August and they were getting the school ready for opening day. The floors were all shiny and smelled freshly waxed. The gymnasium door had a sign that said “GYM.” I thought it was pronounced GIME hehehehe. I didn’t know what a gymnasium was. I was 7 and we didn’t have that at our school in the city.
That’s sad, but in a way, this is life. Humankind has been paving over the old ways forever – and not just with asphalt and supercenters.
This is what happened to the house I grew up in, too. The land is covered by a large supermarket and a parking lot. The only way to orient to the location is the Rice County Courthouse directly across the street.