Recreation Center – Freeport History Timeline

Daniel Raynor purchases the saw and grist mills on Mill Road from Joseph Swezey

kip — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:05:17 +0000

c 1829

For $5,500, this purchase also includes the pond to the north to become known as Horsefall Pond, later the site of the Freeport Recreation Center. The Raynor homestead, located opposite the mills on South Main Street, becomes a grocery store and stage coach stop as well as considered a community center.

South Shore Millers of Hempstead Town – The Indispensable Few by Clinton E Metz

All Freeport After a Ghost

kip — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:42:00 +0000

Harpo Marx is a piano player at the Happy Times Tavern

kip — Fri, 03 May 2013 02:10:26 +0000

c Summer 1907

The Schang Hotel includes the Happy Times Tavern which is a brothel catering to men hired to dig canals in Coes’ Neck and Freeport. It’s operated by the Schang family gang. Marx is fired when he contracts the measles. Soon after the Schangs are convicted of burglary and suspected of murder. Chico Marx later reveals that he also worked at the Happy Times Tavern sometime previously.

The hotel is located north of the future site of the Freeport Recreation Center, on the south side of Merrick Road.

Harpo Speaks