How some Long Island roads got there names.........................

[Nasus]

Lattingtown's Skunks Misery Road makes a Top 10 list

BY JOHN VALENTI | john.valenti@newsday.com
10:53 PM EDT, May 27, 2009


We can't mention the two, er, unmentionable streets in England that top the list of "Most Unique Street Names" featured Wednesday on the Internet site WalletPop.

But we can tell you the one Long Island street that made the Top 10: Skunks Misery Road in the Town of Oyster Bay, which popped up at No. 7 on the list on the personal finance Web site.

At least one longtime resident of the street found the news amusing.

"When some people hear it they say, 'Oh, my God. How could they name it that?' " said Joann Vucetich, who has lived on Skunks Misery in the Village of Lattingtown since 1973.

"I know a lot of people don't like using it," she said. "But I think it's a fun name. It's memorable. And people never forget it. We had the option years ago of using Lattingtown Road instead. Some people did. But I actually enjoy Skunks Misery."

No one is certain of the origins of the name. Some historians believe it was because skunks once inhabited the area. Others say it might be named for skunk cabbage - a low-growing, foul-smelling plant also known as polecat cabbage, swamp cabbage and the more palatable meadow cabbage.

Whatever the case, Skunks Misery Road made the list - though it was beaten out by the two unmentionables from England, as well as Quite A Road in Lovell, Maine, Where O Where Drive in Nantucket, Mass., Pickle Dog Lane in Deer Lodge, Mont., and No Name Uno in Gilroy, Calif.

[Toyandgadgetguy]

Mechanicsville Road and Pennataquit Ave. in Bay Shore are both former names of the town of Bay Shore. Mechanicsville... imagine that.

[Nasus]

Granny Rd: Named for an older woman ,who traveled this road on horse in the late 1800's . She made house calls to care for the sick and delivered babies in the Farmingville (Bald hills) , Coram and medford area.

Found a lil more on this.......

Granny Road is a very old road that runs from Farmingville to Yaphank. Have you ever wondered why it's called Granny Road?

According to tradition Granny Penny was a midwife or doctress. She delivered babies, fixed broken bones and made her own medicines. It was a common sight to see Granny in a red cloak, on a white horse racing down the road to help a neighbor.

There are many tales of Granny helping people in need. In one case a woman had a felon (a very painful infection) on her finger near the nail. Granny took some wool from a black sheep and made a smudge out of it. Holding the finger over the smoke greatly relieved the pain.

Another tale was that of a frantic man coming to get Granny to come help his friend who had cut his leg and might bleed to death. The man had arrived on his horse and brought a half- broken colt, which he had intended to ride back. Instead of Granny using the man'' tired horse, she jumped on the colt and raced to the man's house in time to save his life.
Granny's maiden name was Dickerson. Her first husband was a Mr. Case whom "simply disappeared" according to a local historian. Later she married Jonah Halsey and had two children, Jonah Jr. and Phoebe. Phoebe married and moved to Wading River.

After Mr. Halsey died Granny married a Mr. Penny and moved to Orange County. When Mr. Penny died Granny moved to Phoebe's house in Wading River. In poor health Granny died at the Wading River home of her daughter.

At the Suffolk County Historical Society museum in Riverhead there is a tool called a surgeon's lancet. The card next to it reads "once the property of Granny Penny for whom Granny Road is named".