Lonelyville, San Remo, Munsey Park: Inside lesser-known communities on Long Island

A collection of grand homes in Nassau County, lined up on streets named after painters and sculptors.

A sleepy Fire Island enclave where sandy boardwalks turn into bike paths and the posted speed limit is 8 mph.

A North Shore neighborhood reminiscent of a coastal city in northern Italy.

Even the most thorough Long Islander may not be familiar with these places: Munsey Park, Lonelyville and San Remo, all filled with unusual history and close-knit communities.

"I usually have to explain it to people, because not a lot of people know about it," said Samantha Raimond, who works in Lonelyville on Fire Island, and lives there during the summer.

Several residents of these little-known Long Island gems appreciate that their homes fly under the radar. But in the meantime, historians have worked hard to preserve their storied pasts.

A slice of San Remo history

This charming neighborhood on the Nissequogue River has a history rooted in newspaper sales, said Richard Smith, a Smithtown Town historian and mayor of Nissequogue. In the early 1920s, what was once farmland became modestly sized lots, subdivided by developers from New York City.

"They created about 5,000 of these 25-foot-wide-by-100-foot-deep lots, and they weren't selling all that great," Smith said. "They weren't getting the publicity."

At the time, there was an Italian-language newspaper trying to increase subscriptions. Ultimately, the real estate developers and newspaper publisher came up with a plan to attract the Italian community of New York City. First, they named the area after a coastal city in northern Italy: Sanremo, near the French border, known for its thriving flower market and annual music festival.

Then, "the publisher of the newspaper came up with this offer that if you take out a year's subscription, you’ll get the chance to buy a lot in San Remo on Long Island for I think, $250," Smith said.

City dwellers bought property as "summer retreats," he added. But when the Depression hit, some of the buyers started to live off their land in San Remo, even fishing and clamming there.

"After World War II, a lot of the summer residents began to convert their summer cottages, and the area began to build up with full-time residents there," Smith said.

San Remo is a part of Kings Park, within the Smithtown township. Many of its current residents were children around the time it was built into a flourishing community of full-timers, and have inherited their family homes, Smith said.

"There are very deep roots in that community," he said. "You can just picture kids in the '50s and '60s growing up, getting to know a lot of other kids, and now they're probably grandparents at this point. There is a strong continuity."

There are no cottages left in San Remo: Expansive homes with pointy roofs and manicured lawns now make up the hamlet. The community is known for its dazzling Fourth of July celebrations, Smith said.

But the origins of this area are completely one of a kind.

"The fact that so many of the descendants still call it home is the real story of San Remo," Smith said.

Honoring art in Munsey Park

Homes with stone, shingle and brick facades sit side by side on tree-lined roads, acorn streetlamps dotting the paths. Tan signs with curvy ironwork beneath each street name guide the way through Munsey Park, a village rooted in art and style.

"It is a community that stands out on its own as this exceptional, truly unified development," said Andrew Cronson, a historian of Munsey Park and the point of contact for all history inquiries for the Great Neck Historical Society.

The story of Munsey Park starts with Frank Munsey, a successful newspaper publisher. He had purchased land throughout the area with intentions of building a summer home, but died in 1925 before its completion.

"In his will, he bequeathed his property and much of his estate to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with a $17 million financial bequest," Cronson said. "And when the museum received this land and this money, my understanding is that they were a bit confused on what to do with it. It’s a museum, not a real estate developer."

With help, the museum chose to redevelop the land, and, in artistic fashion, got creative in its approach.

"They decided that based on the time period of the early 1920s — when looking back to Colonial America was in such popularity — and to coincide with their American wing, they would create it as a model community in the manner of Colonial America; to be authentic and true to that period as much as possible," Cronson said.

The half-hour Long Island Rail Road ride from New York City "drew executives and families in droves from largely Flushing, Queens, and Brooklyn, to what was then a really rural area," Cronson said. After stepping off the train and taking a walk from the Manhasset station, citygoers were greeted by houses surrounded by empty fields, Cronson said.

"It was kind of jarring," he added, "but the community took off immediately. Their first days and weeks of opening exhibitions drew crowds in the thousands to see this truly American, truly unique area that was unlike anything that [has] been made on Long Island since."

The streets were named after artists, and in its first year, 28 homes were built, ranging from $13,000 to $18,000 to purchase. The price was "not overburdening" at the time, Cronson said, adding that it was common for builders to fall in love with the area while on the job, and construct homes for themselves.

Much like Munsey Park's first residents, house-hunters scouring this area today are enticed by the short train ride into the city. Lisa Meyer has lived in Munsey Park for 31 years, citing the convenience to and from Manhattan as one of the reasons she and her husband ended up there.

Plus, "I think it was the small-town feel of it," she said. "The hills and the winding streets; it was just different."

No two houses in Munsey Park are exactly alike, Meyer said. Hers was original to the neighborhood.

"It was just the perfect location for us," she said. So instead of moving as her children grew up, "we stayed and renovated it, which a lot of people do in Munsey Park."

Ann Gray Graf lived in Munsey Park for 21 years, before moving to East Hampton. After her daughter graduated from high school a few years ago, she "felt it was the right time" for a change of scene. But the communities have a similar charm, she said.

"I just felt like whenever I drove through it, I was in the 1950s," she said, remembering how children would play in the street and knock on each other’s doors.

"Everybody knows each other," she said. "If you run into a friend while walking your dog, you could be there for an extra hour."

While living in Munsey Park, Graf kept the spirit of the arts alive by starting The Actors Garage. She taught acting and improvisation lessons out of her home. After putting up a poster in Louie’s, a diner in Manhasset, she found her first two students. Within a year, Graf said she was teaching about 70 young actors.

"It became the secret garden for the kids in the neighborhood," she said. "And I really and truly believe that would never have happened anyplace else. That was unique to Munsey Park and Manhasset. I feel proud that it opened the door to acting there."

The biggest indicator of Munsey Park's artistic history, Cronson said, is the protection of its architecture and landscape, as though it's been frozen behind glass. Since its founding, the village has been deeded with restrictions on the size, styles and features of the homes built there, he said.

"Munsey Park is one of the few villages that has maintained that," Cronson said. "And that has been a draw for residents: To be in a place where they know there's predictability."

The 'not so lonely' Lonelyville 

"Everyone’s barefoot, as you’ve noticed, I’m sure," Raimond said while walking toward the beach in Lonelyville on a recent summer afternoon. A mix of modest bungalows and modern builds sit comfortably spread out from one another.

An American flag with a peace sign in place of its stars flaps in the breeze over a nearly empty shore. A sign signaling a "butterfly crossing" sits on a quiet corner. Shady trees surround narrow walkways to the water, and the few passersby all seem to know each other.

Lonelyville consists of just a few blocks. There is no direct ferry access there, but the hamlet is a short walk from the Dunewood docks, which service ferries to and from Bay Shore.

"The beaches are a lot quieter," said Raimond, 26, a real estate agent with Fire Island Sales & Rentals. "It’s a good location also because it’s a close trip to Ocean Beach. You can take a water taxi there in less than 30 minutes. So you get the peaceful aspect and you’re not in the middle of all the action."

The community was once a retreat for Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft: The comedy legend and leading lady owned property in Lonelyville for years until they settled in the Hamptons.

"It is one of the oldest communities on Fire Island," said Susan Barbash, whose father was the developer of Dunewood. "It might be the second oldest, preceded only by Point O'Woods."

A 1983 book, "Fire Island: 1650s-1980s" (published by Shoreland Press), by Madeleine C. Johnson, details the history of the barrier island. Lonelyville’s origins date to 1905, when the South Shore Realty Co. started to sell land in the area. One of the earliest houses to be built there was destroyed by a hurricane in 1938.

The community is also known for having had a 400-foot pier out toward the ocean constructed in the 1880s (which was also taken by the hurricane), and a railroad track alongside it and into the bay to "transport fish to the mainland," Johnson wrote.

By the 1950s, there were 23 houses in the community, according to Johnson's book. Now, there are about 69 homes, said Lee Rolontz, president of the Taxpayers Association of Lonelyville. That includes homes that predate the hurricane of 1938, and newer homes that were floated to the area by barge through the 1970s, she said. 

Rolontz's father helped build the first house in Lonelyville's post-hurricane era of development, in 1957. He was the first president of Lonelyville's taxpayers association, she said, and Rolontz is its first female president.

"It's an eclectic community," she said. "It was created not to be like a Saltaire or Dunewood, with a lot of rules. And we don't have any real amenities: We just have the beach and the bay."

Growing up in Dunewood, Barbash remembers what Lonelyville was like during the late '50s and early '60s.

"Lonelyville is not so lonely anymore," she said. "When I was young, there weren't many houses. It was mostly settled on the west side of Lonelyville, and now there are several more streets and many more houses extended east toward Atlantique."

The closest businesses are in Fair Harbor, Atlantique and Saltaire, some of the surrounding communities. Lonelyville, however, is purely residential. 

"It was a place to get away and just enjoy the natural beauty of Fire Island, and the houses were few and far between," Barbash said.

On Labor Day weekend each year, Lonelyvillers sponsor a sailboat race around the island, Barbash said. "Whoever comes in last becomes the commodore, and has to host the party after the race the following year, and also make the trophies." People of all ages around Fire Island participate, and it has become a "great piece of a Lonelyville culture," she said.

Vanessa Neithardt, of Roxbury, Connecticut, has a seasonal rental. She used to summer in Fair Harbor, then Dunewood, and finally discovered Lonelyville. She’s been here since, "mainly because of its name," Neithardt said. "It sells it all."

Neithardt has been visiting Fire Island for 20 years, and Lonelyville is now at the top of her list.

"This is our favorite spot," she said, "because there are less and less people."