Toyandgadgetguy

Long Island has such a wide variety of street names, and some of them are downright unusual. Now, I’d read of a few unusual street name origins in this post: http://www.bygoneli.com/forums/showt...ghlight=street .

So, I got to thinking about some of the more unusual street names, and I decided to post about it on Facebook. One of the replies I got back was from local author, Tom Gahan, mentioning a road that I’d never heard of before. My curiosity was piqued, indeed. I simply had to know the origin of this street name. What’s that you say? So do you? Well read on my friends, and I’ll be glad to share what I found out with you.

It’s funny, but this story isn’t as much about how the road got its name, but rather about how it kept its name. Like a good many Long Island names, Skunks Misery Road got its name through a misunderstanding, or a misinterpretation of sorts. It gets its name from the distortion of two Native American words. Neither one had anything to do with skunks, nor misery. It was merely mispronounced over time, and through a process similar to the children’s game of telephone, it eventually became known as Skunks Misery Road.

Skunks Misery Road begins at the intersection of Forest Avenue in Glen Cove, and continues north and east until it reaches Weirs Lane in Lattingtown. In the middle of the two terminuses lies the sleepy little town of Locust Valley. All of the above mentioned fall under the Town of Oyster Bay, which is responsible for the official names of the roads within its borders. Sometime in the 1930’s, some folks living on the western end of the road petitioned the town to change the name from Skunks Misery Road to Lattingtown Road. This bothered the folks living on the east end of the road, as they wished to keep Skunks Misery Road for they felt the name had character and originality. Over the years, they had come to cherish the unusual name. It became a bit of a battle of wills.

The town accepted the name of the street as Lattingtown Road, but many of the older and more affluent members refused to. They still addressed their mail to the Skunks Misery address, rather than the Lattingtown one. Some of the street signs changed over time, and some did not. The town of Oyster Bay had been petitioned by a group of well-meaning, but perhaps somewhat stuffy men for the name change, but in the end, the wealthy folks at the east end of the road just plain refused to give up on their special street name.

At one point during WWII, there was a factory located on the land at the west end of Skunks Misery Road. The actual address was on Forest Avenue, but the owner of the company became rather enamored with the unusual street name, and proceeded to use the Skunks Misery Road address on all of their advertising, letterhead, and equipment manuals. They even went so far as to create a cartoon skunk and had it printed on the bomber sights and other equipment that they manufactured. Today, you can see street signs and sign posts of both names all along the road. It really is quite an unusual name.
Please feel free to post about any other unusual street names on Long Island. If I find them unique enough… I may just research them and post my findings.