The Glover farm in Yaphank 1944. Pauline Glover and Grandchild sitting on the porch. Photo from the Glover family collection.
The Glover house was located where the Suffolk County Police Property Bureau on Yaphank Ave. is located.
William Glowicki working the farm with Queenie and Jack in 1938.
William
and Pauline Glowicki moved to Yaphank from Port Jefferson in the
1920s. Both were born in Poland and came to America as
teenagers. They had 14 children. 7 sons-William, Bruno, John,
Edmund, Kenneth, Felix and Stanley, and 7 daughters-Pauline Zaweski,
Rose Kalenowicz, Bertha Zaweski, Josephine Zamber, Anna Anton, Phyllis
McDermott, and Estelle Backer. After coming to Yaphank the
Glowicicki's changed their last name to Glover as it was hard for people to
pronounce or spell their name.
There are 34 Grand children and
an unknown number of great grandchildren. The list till this day
keeps going and going. The original house they had bought on
Yaphank Ave. burnt down to the ground in the late 20s along with
everything they owned. the family built this house which stood
until the county condemned it in early 70s.
The Glover Farm in 1972. Notice the new bridge built over
the railroad tracks on Yaphank Avenue. Photo from the Glover
Family collection.
The Glover's owned all the property on Yaphank Ave, south
of the railroad tracks on the west side to where 194 Yaphank Ave is. To
the east they owned all the land from the railroad tracks to Gerard Rd.
After Williams
death in 1944 Edmund, Kenneth, Felix, and Stanley
continued running the farm with Pauline until the 1960s when the county decided
that Yaphank would be the county seat of
Suffolk being centrally located on the Island
The first
condemnation was started in the late 60s with the land where police headquarters
is located and the property in front of the Suffolk
County Jail and probation department.
Knowing that the county would
continue condemning their property, Pauline and her family
decided to sell part of the farm to the Georgia-Pacific lumber yard, and the farm lot across
from police headquarters which was at one time a sod farm. The
last condemnation came in the early 70s with her house and farm,
and barns, where the Suffolk County police property building
and the Suffolk County police garage is located.
The Glover family barns.
The family fought long and hard to stop this condemnation,
but the county prevailed. Mrs. Glover, in her 80s at that time, the family had
asked the county to let her live out her last years there. They agreed and Mrs.
glover passed away in 1979, but not before she saw the county build the bridge
in the above picture. The bridge was
built practically over the house and a road around her house to detour
the traffic while the bridge was built.
In the early 80s the
county named the roadway entering police headquarters on the
south side "Glover Drive". In recognition of William,
Pauline and their family, which is now the roadway leading to the John J Foley
nursing facility.
Old homestead of the Glover's. This was the original home that burned down in
the 1920s.
Written by,
Jon Backer
September, 2005
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