THE GLOVER FARM

The Glover farm in Yaphank 1944. Pauline Glover and Grandchild sitting on the porch. Photo from the Glover family collection.

The Glover house was located where the Suffolk County Police Property Bureau on Yaphank Ave. is located.

William Glowicki working the farm with Queenie and Jack in 1938.

William and Pauline Glowicki moved to Yaphank from Port Jefferson in the 1920s. Both were born in Poland and came to America as teenagers. They had 14 children. 7 sons-William, Bruno, John, Edmund, Kenneth, Felix and Stanley, and 7 daughters-Pauline Zaweski, Rose Kalenowicz, Bertha Zaweski, Josephine Zamber, Anna Anton, Phyllis McDermott, and Estelle Backer. After coming to Yaphank the Glowicicki's changed their last name to Glover as it was hard for people to pronounce or spell their name.

There are 34 Grand children and an unknown number of great grandchildren. The list till this day keeps going and going. The original house they had bought on Yaphank Ave. burnt down to the ground in the late 20s along with everything they owned. the family built this house which stood until the county condemned it in early 70s.

The Glover Farm in 1972. Notice the new bridge built over

the railroad tracks on Yaphank Avenue. Photo from the Glover

Family collection.

The Glover's owned all the property on Yaphank Ave, south of the railroad tracks on the west side to where 194 Yaphank Ave is. To the east they owned all the land from the railroad tracks to Gerard Rd. After Williams death in 1944 Edmund, Kenneth, Felix, and Stanley continued running the farm with Pauline until the 1960s when the county decided that Yaphank would be the county seat of Suffolk being centrally located on the Island

The first condemnation was started in the late 60s with the land where police headquarters is located and the property in front of the Suffolk County Jail and probation department.

Knowing that the county would continue condemning their property, Pauline and her family decided to sell part of the farm to the Georgia-Pacific lumber yard, and the farm lot across from police headquarters which was at one time a sod farm. The last condemnation came in the early 70s with her house and farm, and barns, where the Suffolk County police property building and the Suffolk County police garage is located.

The Glover family barns.

The family fought long and hard to stop this condemnation, but the county prevailed. Mrs. Glover, in her 80s at that time, the family had asked the county to let her live out her last years there. They agreed and Mrs. glover passed away in 1979, but not before she saw the county build the bridge in the above picture. The bridge was built practically over the house and a road around her house to detour the traffic while the bridge was built.

In the early 80s the county named the roadway entering police headquarters on the south side "Glover Drive". In recognition of William, Pauline and their family, which is now the roadway leading to the John J Foley nursing facility.

Old homestead of the Glover's. This was the original home that burned down in the 1920s.

Written by,

Jon Backer

September, 2005