Mark Rothenberg, Author at Patchogue-Medford Library

Shoe Designer Beth Levine of Patchogue

April 5, 2018 By Mark Rothenberg

On display in the showcase next to the Library’s reference desk are shoes by famed shoe designer Beth Levine of Patchogue,

Shoe designer Beth (Katz) Levine spent her early years on her family’s cattle and dairy farm in Holtsville. The Katz family later lived on West Avenue in the 1920’s and 1930’s and Beth graduated from Patchogue-Medford High School.

In 1949, Beth and her husband Herbert opened a shoe business and factory in New York City. Women’s black or brown platform shoes were worn during the World War II. The young Levines responded with their “Femme Fatale” shoe with a V-cut closed toe and a narrow ankle strap produced in a variety of colors considered vulgar at the time. The “Femme Fatale” was a huge hit and their first bestselling shoe. [Read more…]

Downtown Patchogue Walking Tour

December 12, 2017 By Mark Rothenberg

A Patchogue Downtown Walking Tour is available at the Reference Desk and via free cellphone app with audio, text and images at http://history.pmlib.org/patchoguewalkingtour or above on the Local History drop-down menu.

Patchogue is over 250 years old, named for the Pochaug Indians and divided and sold in a 1758 lottery. Over the next 130 years, mills built on creeks along today’s Montauk Highway were centers of commercial activity. By 1900, large mills employ many inhabitants and others work in the shipbuilding and seafood industries. The railroad’s arrival in 1869 revolutionizes travel to and from Patchogue. Hotels and boarding houses accommodate vacationers escaping city summer heat from 1880 to 1930. The resort industry spawns theaters with vaudeville acts, concerts, plays and lectures.

From the 1920’s to the 1960’s, Patchogue’s downtown area becomes a popular regional shopping center. In the 1960’s, shopping malls pull shoppers away leading to a few decades of decline. Patchogue’s current resurgence is due to determined Village officials, businesses and organizations. The renovated Patchogue Theater, new restaurants, music venues, shops and condominiums change Patchogue’s landscape once again.

The Patchogue Downtown Walking Tour describes architecture and history on South Ocean Avenue and East and West Main Street. The text and audio versions have numerous photographs and historic images, covering one era when hotels and a tavern occupied Main Street and another when vacationers took over, enjoying Patchogue’s streets and summer fun. Patchogue’s crowded days as a regional shopping center are reconstructed in stories about particular buildings. Patchogue’s industrial past is also covered in the walking tour.

Today, Patchogue’s vibrancy is reflected in new architecture and modern building facades. The beauty of older buildings decorated with masonry reliefs, Tiffany windows, Greek columns and marble facades is also on display.

The term ‘a sense of place’ describes a collection of visual, cultural and social qualities that provide meaning to a location. The historic fabric of older buildings adds much to a ‘sense of place’ in the built environment. This is what makes Patchogue ‘Patchogue’ and different from other towns or villages.

On the tour are two magnificent churches built four years apart: one Gothic and the other Romanesque. Two banks along the route are covered in white marble. A particular favorite of the tour’s author is the Furman Building, built 82 years ago during the Great Depression.

Once again, the tour is available at http://history.pmlib.org/patchoguewalkingtour.

TURNing Washington’s Spies from Dramatics Back into History: L.I. in the American Revolution

August 11, 2017 By Mark Rothenberg

TURN TV SERIES LOGO

Saturday, August 12th at 9 P.M. the final episode will air of the AMC dramatic series, TURN: Washington’s Spies – about Long Island’s own Culper Spy Ring, the United States’ first organized espionage ring, during the American Revolution. TURN gets its name from the word “turncoat,” which is another term for a traitor, and can also imply undercover operations. For many people on Long Island, around the country, and beyond its borders, news that Long Island has a history, much less a Revolutionary War spy ring operating at great personal risk behind British lines, came as a shock. The series is well-acted and directed, but the emphasis is largely on dramatics, too frequently at the expense of history, and of personal and family reputations. But, before the screenwriters’ view becomes too firmly embedded as what actually happened, or because it is likely to be so, it’s been time, over the past 4 years, to clear away some of the Ring Baloney.

[Read more…]