As educators are encouraged to make and teach local historical connections in the grade 4 social studies curriculum, Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School students are learning to make these connections through field trips to the Hallock Homestead, just minutes away from the school. Maintained by the Rocky Point Historical Society, each fourth grade class at JAE took a personal tour with an experienced docent through Rocky Point’s oldest standing house, which was listed in the New York and National registers in 2013. 

JAE Assistant Principal Benjamin Paquette and teachers Pat Alberti, Mara Lopez and Theresa O’Brien met with Historical Society members last year to tour the house and frame the field trips that took place in mid-October. This project was spearheaded by Ken Krapf, a retired JAE teacher and Rocky Point Historical Society board member.  

The students viewed the 15 rooms filled with furniture, artifacts and archival photographs of Rocky Point’s unique history. The Farm Room displays early tools and equipment from Rocky Point’s early farms and dairies. Exhibits illustrate vintage photographs, the one-room schoolhouse, an art gallery, the RCA Radio Central Transmitting Station and the historic 1902 Marconi wireless building, both remnants of Rocky Point’s early radio history. The Rain Garden, Butterfly Pollinator Garden and sandstone blocks from the former Long Island Railroad Bridge over Hallock Landing Road are outdoor highlights. 

“Students and staff were in awe of all the history that exists within Rocky Point,” said Mr. Paquette, who is a graduate of Rocky Point High School. “Growing up here, I heard bits and pieces of Rocky Point’s history, which has been fascinating to put the everything together. Each time I visit the Hallock House, I leave with new information.”  

The teachers witnessed how students connected with the local history, as the staff helped to bring the social studies curriculum to life, right in their own neighborhood. Students have been sharing historical facts with staff throughout JAE, asking if they knew that Joseph A. Edgar was a teacher in the one-room schoolhouse, that Cow Palace was once a barn for a farm and the trail by Rocketship Park once had a bridge for a train to cross the road. While in the RCA room, one student even made the connection to the District’s K-2 Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School, where The Marconi Radio Shack – used from 1902 to 1905 for ship-to-shore wireless transmission and as a training school for radio operators – stands. The student was amazed that the little white building sent the first radio signal. 

Mr. Paquette and Principal Mrs. Linda Greening are grateful for the working relationship with the Historical Society, and both look forward to making this an annual JAE tradition.  

Visit the Hallock Homestead website for more on events and tours:

Click here to visit http://rockypointhistoricalsociety.org/