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The First Settlements
The first settlement of Gordon Heights extended west from Gordon Avenue and Baldwin Court, east to West Barlett, south to Granny, and north to Seymore. Most of the early building took place within sections 1-4 (south from Granny to Park Lane North and Central Parkway West to Bartlett Road.)
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. Little did he know that these black people had already dreamed of a place in the country to plant families, crops, and a future for themselves.
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. This meant more sacrificing and saving.
Who were these people? They were workers in factories, private homes, office buildings, and whatever jobs were available. They were sincere and hardworking family people. In many cases, both parents worked. They were participants in community functions and organizations to better their families. They were concerned about the quality of education of their children. They were concerned about hours away from home and their children’s well being as a result of the overcrowded situations in the city.
From where did these people migrate?
They came from the West Indies and the South. They came from strong cultural background that knew the importance of land and ownership. They knew what it meant to have and build a homestead and lay foundations for a solid well-knit community. Many of them had come from such communities. They had come to the big city with their past experiences, and had to defer their dreams. The opportunity to buy land on Long Island revived a dream deferred.
And so the pilgrimage to Long Island began in 1927 when Louis Fife sold five one hundred-by-one hundred acre plots to these black pilgrims. His son, Herzl, some years later, offered this explanation of his father’s land transactions: “It was an ordinary commercial venture. But it also happened that my father was able to place people from the slums of Harlem in a rural and wholesome atmosphere. On the whole, it was a moderately profitable venture.”
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.
“There followed hard years for our country, years of depressions, years of W.P.A., of bare subsistence. People were willing, but they did not have the means for a homestead. Many developments, some of the fly-by-night variety, and some honestly planned, could not stand the strain, and they went under, causing heavy losses to their investors.
“In those trying years, I gave all I could. Every purchaser of land had his chance to continue and to hold on. I nursed the young settlement with all the care and resources I could command, until it outroad the hard years, until it grew up into a community that could be on its own.”
The early settlers in Gordon Heights wanted elbow room, a feel of the soil, and a chance to grow things and live. Harlem was a small area. The area called Sugar Hill was forbidden territory, as was the East Bronx. The East River became the River Jordon for the residents. The city was overcrowded.
The settlers heeded the call of the Gordon Heights Development Corporation. They began their purchasing of land and slowly moving their families and properties – come as summer dwellers at first and some week-enders. They found it hard and very much a struggle to survive.
However, they became true homesteaders almost immediately. They raised vegetables, canned their produce, raised chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and pigs. They made roads where there was only wilderness. They built their homes and secured all necessary utilities. They eventually had their churches, civic associations, fire department, and sports and social clubs.
Banks opened their doors to the black residents for loans and repairs, additions, and new homes eventually.
Jobs in the early days were not available to the new black residents. Many of the residents traveled back and forth to the city daily and some stayed over during the week in order to afford their place in the country. Later, jobs opened for these residents.
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