King's Dairy

Traveling along Jericho Turnpike, a motorist passes tons of strip malls, car dealerships, and national chain stores with huge parking lots.  There is however, a rather idyllic stretch of land just east of the Jericho Turnpike-Park Avenue intersection.  On the north side of the road is Mediavilla Orchards, and on the south side is a farmstand/pumpkin field/Christmas tree lot.  And although it is hard for us to imagine today, not so long ago, cows and other farm animals could be seen here from the road—for this is where King’s Dairy operated until the 1970s.

Delivering milk and eggs to all the Huntington residents, Albert King was known to many around town.  According to Long Island Dairies & Milk Dealers by Michael Katsar, “Albert King was a very good businessman from Switzerland.  He bought 50 acres and a bulldozer.  He cleared the land, put in the pastures and built two large barns with one other man from Switzerland and himself.  He had approximately 100 heads of cattle….When he first started, he milked, bottled, and delivered his milk all by himself.”

Albert King did not just run a business, but he opened his farm up to school children from all over Huntington who would visit the farm and learn about cows and milk as well as the bottling, pasteurizing and cooling machinery and process.  The dairy played host not just to school field trips, but later to horse shows and antiques shows. 

Unfortunately, not every noteworthy event at the farm was so positive. On September 15, 1955 the Long-Islander reported on a burglary at the dairy, “where $1,424 in cash and 342 checks for amounts totaling about $5,000 were taken…”  The culprit was a former employee of the dairy who was caught when the three moneybags were found in a trashcan by his home in Bayside. 

Then on September 10, 1970 the Long-Islander reported another unfortunate incident at the King’s Dairy.  “Albert King, police said, was coming back through his field last Wednesday afternoon after milking some cows at King’s Dairy… As he passed near a scaffold-type metal frame on his property, he saw what appeared to be a dummy hanging from it, and went over to cut it down. When he touched the ‘dummy’ police say his nightmare began for King discovered then that what was hanging was the body of a 36-year old East Northport woman, who had apparently committed suicide.”  The woman was reported missing by her husband, and was described as “disturbed.”

By 1967 speculation had begun as to what the future would hold for the King’s Dairy property.  The Long Islander reported on February 2, 1967 that “The Town’s Comprehensive Plan designates as desirable for development in the future two acres along Jericho Turnpike in the Elwood section… The parcels are known as the Mediavilla tract, Kings Dairy….”

In 1970 though the real battle began.  In the summer of that year, a resolution was placed before the Suffolk County Legislator to authorize the Public Works Department “to prepare for acquisition a 24-acre parcel fronting on Jericho Turnpike, commonly referred to as ‘King’s Dairy,’ As the sire of for the proposed Suffolk County Mini-Center for county and social services,” according to the August 13, 1970 Long Islander.  A hearing was scheduled for later that August to give the local residents a chance to voice their opinion.  Two other sites had previously been considered and rejected due to local residents opposition—a plot at Lake Road and Pulaski Road in Greenlawn, and a part of the urban renewal sites on New York Avenue in Huntington Station. 

The public meeting was scheduled for September 8, 1970 at 8 p.m. at Half Hollow Hills High School on Vanderbilt Parkway.  According to the August 27, 1970 Long Islander, “The centers are expected to contain a day care center, a social services office, a District Court, motor vehicle bureau, health and mental health clinics and a community assembly hall….”  The Huntington Town Planning Board unanimously recommended the plan.  The vast majority of residents and the Dix Hills Civic Association, however, spoke out against the plan at the public hearing. 

In a three-hour meeting, with the President of the Suffolk County Legislature, all four legislators form the Town of Huntington, the Executive Director of the Nassau-Suffolk Planning Board, Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Buildings and Grounds, and representatives of the Huntington Town Board all present, the two sides battled it out. 

It was argued that the Dix Hills site met “standard requirements; it is fairly central to all segments of the community; road access is as good as we could find; the property is suitable to meet the need sof the type of building the county contemplates,” according to the September 10, 1970 Long Islander.  The building would occupy 50,000 square feet of office space designed as a campus pin-wheel with pavilions connected to a central circulation area.  The Dix Hills residents on the other hand, argued that the Dix Hills sight was not practical because there were few people and no public transportation to the site. 

According to the same Long Islander article, “Those opposing gave as reasons school taxes, down-grading of surrounding property, and planning which Is ‘too loose,'" as reasons for refusal. 

Despite this, the December 3, 1970 Long Islander reported that the county was mapping and surveying the site.  On June 3, 1971, the Long Islander announced that the survey had been completed, a price was being worked out, and the architect had begun preliminary plans. Interestingly though the site had decreased in scope and now would only provide, “essential services to the people... [including] a district court, motor vehicle bureau, judges chambers… a passport office… a public auditorium and meeting rooms… a county informational service, and probably the offices of the Huntington county legislators.”  Effectively dropping the health and mental health care and the day care. 

The site never came to fruition, and the Proposed Open Space Index for Huntington done byu the Huntington Conservation Advisory Council and published on December 27, 1974 lists the King’s Dairy site as 91.1 acres.  The DiCanio Organization filed the subdivision known as King Meadows in three sections.  Section 1 was filed in 1983, Section 2 in 1986, and Section 3, which connects section 1 & 2, was filed in 1988. The subdivisions created the roads known as Jester Court, Majestic Drive, Royal Lane, Regency Lane and Majestic Court. 

New York State had purchased this property as part of their plans to build a Babylon- Northport Expressway according to October 15, 1985 Newsday. By this time the plans for the expressway had been scrapped and the state had decided to auction the land, at the time being rented to a Swiss couple who had farmed it for 11 years and sold vegetables at a roadside stand on Jericho Turnpike. 

A campaign was begun to “Save Our Farm” with the collection of 5,000 community signatures of support.  On December 11, 1985 Newsday reported, “The State Department of Transpiration yesterday postponed its scheduled auction of a 25-acre field in Elwood, just minutes before the start of bidding and only minutes after the Suffolk County Legislature voted to launch negotiations to buy and preserve the land.”  In 1986 the remaining 21.7-acre site was purchased by Suffolk County and it is leased for agricultural use.