GORDON HEIGHTS FUTURE

Dedicated to leaders of our past, looking to leaders of our future....

The History of Gordon Heights

 

Over eighty years ago, a group of pioneers settled a community later to be known as Gordon Heights.  These pioneers left the metropolitan city of New York for many reasons and migrated to Eastern Long Island to settle with their families, possessions, and dreams.  These dreams were very simple.  The visions of these early settlers were of a home to raise their families; land to plant and watch God’s wonders grow; peace and quiet to share with their neighbors; opportunity to breathe God’s fresh air and an opportunity to give their children more educationally.  These pioneers were Black Americans who were seeking a better way of life in “God’s Country” – Gordon Heights.

The community had its beginning in the 1920’s when a man by the name of Mr. Louis Fife went to the black communities and churches of New York City in search of presenting a dream to a group of Black Americans. As Mr. Fife knocked on the doors of these people in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, he stirred p their hopes and desires.  Financially, this proposition would mean sacrifice, but these early pioneers knew it would be worth it for their families.  Land was offered as low as $10 down and $10 monthly or $10 weekly.  Building on that land would have to come later.  They  worked in factories, private homes, office buildings, and whatever jobs were available.  Louis Fife’s thoughts were “When I decided to offer Gordon Heights as a community of small farms to the public, it filled a need.  I was a lone pilgrim in those days.  There were other projects, but they belonged rather to the fly-by-night, get-rich quick variety.  From the very start, we began to develop to build homesteads, and lay the foundation for a solid, well-knit community of small farms.  Bankers, both in the city and on Long Island, would not extend any mortgage credit, however small.  ‘It will not last,’ they said.  So I had to do it myself, and make it last.  In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a call, “Back to the Land,” and followed it through till the end of his days.  He wrote, “A nation of home owners, of people who own a real share in their land, is unconquerable.’  The ‘Back to the Land’ movement caught on, and the public turned to Gordon Heights, which showed promise of becoming a real community of homesteads.

 

For more on the history of Gordon Heights, visit www.gordonheights.net