Museum

Taking in the history on Naple Avenue

Naple Avenue is not just another residential road in Franklin Square. It is the road of choice for bikers and joggers, alike. And it’s always been that way — at least since the time of Rath Park. The park is across the street from the Franklin Square Museum on Naple Avenue, the destination of Franklin Square’s many relics. Naple is more than just a road, but a flashback into the past. It is there that the museum sits, with its treasure trove of memorabilia that documents the community’s heritage. It opened in April 2021, after more than two decades of planning, building and collecting by the Franklin Square Historical Society.

A visitor can learn that one of America’s greatest poets, Walt Whitman, taught in the local public schools. In case you're curious, it was at the former District 17 schoolhouse on the intersection of Nassau Boulevard and Dogwood Avenue.

It is a large oil portrait that makes an impression on visitors entering the museum, where they also can learn about Arthur T. Roth, the influential leader of the Franklin Square National Bank that he turned into one of the largest banks in the United States. It also was the subject of one of the largest bank collapses in history at the time when it shut down in 1974 — four years after Roth left. Below the portrait is a cabinet with a $5 note and a credit card. Roth printed his own bills straight from a sheet, including this 1934 five-dollar bill.

The bank instituted many firsts, such as the walk-up window, the bank parking lot, the bank credit card, and the bank installment loan. These innovations led to Roth being considered one of the most influential figures in the history of American banking. The Roth bank card was used in hundreds of local businesses across Nassau and western Suffolk County.

On the other side of life’s ledger, the

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Continued from page 18 museum’s collection places a spotlight on pews from St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square that date back to 1926. The pews serve a useful function as the waiting area for students on school field trips.

The pews are not only a reminder of a more traditional, past but also a reflection of Franklin Square’s European heritage. The pews were made to match the English Gothic Revival style of the old church buildings.

Immigrants from southern and western Germany purchased the land to be named Franklin Square. Quickly it turned into a vegetable farm, remaining as a Germanspeaking village until the 1920s. It was an enclave for the Germans that developed its own distinctive traditions that endure to this day.

Another portrait, this one of Ludwig Schroeher in the back of the museum, harks back to the history of Franklin Square and the American dream, as the German immigrant settled in the community in the 1850s and his successful hotel was the focal point of local life then.

Learn more at FSHistoricalSociety.org. — Brian Pfail

Left top: Arthur Roth was the man responsible for making Franklin National Bank a powerhouse in its day, before it collapsed in 1974. Right top: Portrait of Ludwig Schroeher, a German settler from the 1850s, credited to helping to make Franklin Square what it is today. Bottom: Leading the Franklin Square museum, from left, are Nancy Youngfert, Bill Youngfert, Patricia Realmuto, Sergio Cortese and Jo-Ann Cortese.

Franklin Square is so full of history — evidenced by the number of exhibits acquired and displayed by the Franklin Square Historical Society at its Franklin Square Historical Museum on Naple Avenue.