Asylums on Mount Misery

[urethra franklin]

WEST HILLS MIGHT VERY WELL BE A HAMLET BUT I DON'T THINK IT HAS IT'S OWN ZIP CODE. I THINK IT SHARES IT WITH SOUTH HUNT OR HUNT STA? NOT SURE REALLY. TO ME WEST HILLS WAS JUST A PART OF THE LOWER SOUTH HUNTINGTON AND MELVILLE AREA (WHERE I GREW UP). THERE IS AN ODD CONCRETE FOUNDATION IN THE HILLS JUST NORTH OF OLD COUNTRY ROAD, WEST OF SWEET HOLLOW ROAD. I THINK IT MAY'VE BEEN THE BASE FOR AN OLD WATER TOWER SINCE IT'S ROUND.

http://www.longislandexchange.com/towns/westhills.html

I just looked it up, there was a West Hills P.O. between 1826-1859. A note on the page I found those dates on says "mail to Woodbury, Town of Oyster Bay, Queens County" so maybe after the West Hills office closed, mail for the area was addressed to Woodbury.....or perhaps West Hills was a subset of Woodbury, like (which I don't think that many people know) Dix Hills' post office is a subset of Huntington Station's.

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/...ffolk.P.O.html

West Hills the hamlet is still on official Suffolk County maps and is included in the census, even though the name is not used that often anymore, like many other places on LI.

Well technically the township is of course Huntington. And looking at the 1933 and 1946 maps, it shows the whole area north of Northern State and south of Jericho Turnpike as West Hills, not just the populated area. In fact, the label on the map is in an unpopulated area. And we know that this name was in use all the way back to the late 17th century, even before Sweet Hollow was Ketcham's Hollow, and of course before it was Melville. The 33/46 maps also label the hills south of Northern Parkway as being a part of Manetto Hills.

The 1903 map shows how unpopulated the area was. The corridor along what is now 110 had about 18 parcels of farmland, stretching south to Melville, including the Whitman boyhood home, which has always been known as West Hills as well. The area around the Chichester Inn had quite a few parcels as well, including the West Hills Park which was just north of there. But all of the land, including the hills just west of 110, Sweet Hollow Road, the highlands to the west of that stretching to the county line, was owned by Robert W. DeForest and a handful of others, including the former secretary of war H.L. Stimson. In fact, DeForest's estate stretched from Jericho Turnpike all the way down to Old Country Road.

So if the northernmost part was called West Hills from the earliest days (and we know it is stretching back to the 1600s from the Huntington Town Records), and the southern part was Manetto Hills, that's what got me to wondering if Mount Misery was considered just a single feature in those hills, the same as Jayne's or Oakley's Hill and a couple of others.

I'm pretty sure the name would be written in that area because that would have been the geographic center of West Hills, much as it is today. The current day southern border is the Northern State Parkway, but I'm willing to bet it was Old Country Road, or closer to it, before the construction of the parkway. Any chance you could post a scan of those maps? Is the "WEST HILLS" font in the same font as "HUNTINGTON" or "MELVILLE" on it? Without a time machine or better documentation from back then, there's no way to tell but I'm fairly confident saying that "West Hills" only ever referred to a georgraphic area and not a topographical feature, and also that it's 19th century borders were much what they are today - which includes the area labeled as West Hills on those 1933/1946 maps.

I can't imagine why anything in Suffolk is labeled Manetto Hills, as that's what Plainview was known as since white people started living there. If that ridge of moraine below the parkway is labeled as such, I'm guessing it was an error by the map maker, possibly caused by old maps bearing both the names Plainview and Manetto Hills in that area.

I could be wrong about all of this, of course.....but that's my take on it.

I do think you're right that Mount Misery is a singular feature, however I'd bet that the name of the road predates the hill it crosses being called that. Like I said, everyone I know (myself included) incorrectly refers to this whole entire area (bordered ROUGHLY by Round Swamp Road, Jericho Turnpike, Route 110 and Old Country Road) to be called Mount Misery.

[Curly]

From what I understand, Mt Misery was named simply because it was a crappy piece of land. The farmers moved their livestock through the area because it was a short cut but was a pain to transverse, hence the name.

[urethra franklin]

From what I understand, Mt Misery was named simply because it was a crappy piece of land. The farmers moved their livestock through the area because it was a short cut but was a pain to transverse, hence the name.

I'm sure there was a lot less red tape that went into putting a street sign up in the 19th century......under the same circumstances today it might be known as "Piece of Shit Fuckin Hill Boulevard"

[Long Island Gothic]

Here's the link to the Huntington Town Planners map from the 1930s-40s:
http://www.mikesussman.com/Huntington_map.php

The other maps I found on the New York Public Library site and they aren't downloadable. There's also one on a site called Historic Maps which I haven't been able to run down again tonight, and unfortunately, it's turned into a pay site the last time I looked.

West Hills is certainly a geographic area, as opposed to a single feature, hence the plural "hills." I found a reference to Mount Misery from John Keel, who says it is an actual hill, and that the summit is the location where Secretary of State Stimson had his home. Which is where the open area is now to the west of the paved section of Mt. Misery Road. Which makes sense, as when you look at the 19th century maps, that's the only section of Mt. Misery Road shown. Where the pavement ends now, it hooks up with the trail which extends to Gwynne Road. It's possible that it connected it some form with Old Country Road as well, but it must have just been a path or track. Also, when Stimson needed to commute into the city (this was in the early part of the twentieth century, he rode his horse north to Cold Spring Harbor, rather than south to Old Country Road.

I know that area of Old Country Road was originally Sweet Hollow, not necessarily the area which Sweet Hollow Rd. runs through today. So just where West Hills ends and Sweet Hollow began I couldn't say. The hills south of Northern Parkway have been called Manetto Hills though at least since the 1930s, as is pointed out on the town planners map. Also, the water plant on Mt. Misery Rd. is listed as being in Manetto Hills as well, on official documents.



I'm pretty sure the name would be written in that area because that would have been the geographic center of West Hills, much as it is today. The current day southern border is the Northern State Parkway, but I'm willing to bet it was Old Country Road, or closer to it, before the construction of the parkway. Any chance you could post a scan of those maps? Is the "WEST HILLS" font in the same font as "HUNTINGTON" or "MELVILLE" on it? Without a time machine or better documentation from back then, there's no way to tell but I'm fairly confident saying that "West Hills" only ever referred to a georgraphic area and not a topographical feature, and also that it's 19th century borders were much what they are today - which includes the area labeled as West Hills on those 1933/1946 maps.

I can't imagine why anything in Suffolk is labeled Manetto Hills, as that's what Plainview was known as since white people started living there. If that ridge of moraine below the parkway is labeled as such, I'm guessing it was an error by the map maker, possibly caused by old maps bearing both the names Plainview and Manetto Hills in that area.

I could be wrong about all of this, of course.....but that's my take on it.

I do think you're right that Mount Misery is a singular feature, however I'd bet that the name of the road predates the hill it crosses being called that. Like I said, everyone I know (myself included) incorrectly refers to this whole entire area (bordered ROUGHLY by Round Swamp Road, Jericho Turnpike, Route 110 and Old Country Road) to be called Mount Misery.

[Curly]

This might make for a good HIT mission over the summer. Some of our members are familiar with the area.