My History House #8- 175 Nassau Boulevard

Some houses have a unique history the homeowners are not aware of. This is true of 175 Nassau Boulevard; it is one of a handful of homes in Garden City to be a church for a short time. The current owners were curious about their house after their neighbor told them about the religious connection.

The three-bedroom center hall colonial was built in 1925. It is located between Newmarket Road and Somerset Avenue. The approximately 2,800 square foot home sits on a 100 by 150 foot property. It has a distinctive look with large round river stones on the façade of the house and garage. One story is that the original owners were of Irish decent and had the stones on the front façade brought here from Ireland.

On the first floor, all the rooms have coffered ceilings and cast iron radiators. The central foyer opens up to the living room, dining room and kitchen. The living room features a fireplace with a Victorian mantel mirror. The living room leads to the library in the south wing. It has custom, built-in shelving that curves with the lines of the ceiling. In the front of the library there is a window seat to relax with a book. The TV room in the north wing is approached through the dining room and is a mirror image of the library, minus the bookcases.

As seen in a few other Garden City homes as a vestige from long ago, there is a button on the floor that signaled the maid in the dining room. Behind the dining room is the kitchen. The pine cabinets were removed by the current homeowners and now are light cherry cabinets with granite countertops. Next to the kitchen is a mudroom area in the back of the house. Finishing out the first floor, there is an enclosed porch that has been turned into a sunroom with two walls of windows, a stained wood ceiling and a "Tennessee Crab Orchard" sandstone floor.

The second floor has three large bedrooms. Each bedroom has a working pair of globe-shaped sconces on the wall, original to the house. There are two hall ceiling fixtures from the same time period. The third floor has two large rooms for storage.

The first to live at 175 Nassau Boulevard were the Ketcham/McEwen families, who were related. Edwin Melville Ketcham (1871- 1935) and Anna M. Kerkkamp Ketcham (b. 1870) bought the home originally. Later, their daughter, Ruth Marie Ketcham McEwen (1899-1991) and Ellsworth Shaw McEwen (1897- 1981) continued to live there.

E. Melville Ketcham, as he was known, was born in Brooklyn. He married Anna M. Kerkkamp, who had immigrated from Holland with her family in 1873. They married in 1895 in Brooklyn. In short order, son Melville Kerkkamp Ketcham was born in 1896 and sister Ruth Marie Ketcham in 1899. They rented an apartment with her family in Brooklyn, where E. Melville was a clerk.

Sometime after 1907 the Ketcham family moved to Rockville Centre where Mr. Ketcham worked in the book trade. In 1917 his son, Melville Kerkkamp Ketcham enlisted in the United States Navy as an ensign. He remained there for four years. Melville had stints as a coxswain and boat swain's mate on the USS Wiwoka, a patrol boat. He graduated Columbia University.

The Ketchams' daughter, Ruth, married Ellsworth McEwen of New York City and New Bedford, Massachusetts sometime before 1929. He was a banker. McEwen joined the Ketchams in their Nassau Boulevard house.

Around the time of Ruth and Ellsworth's marriage, a new church congregation was being formed in town. According to the History of the Garden City Community Church, "The first acting pastor" of the Garden City Community Church was the Reverend John Gallagher Snyder, who started in September 1929. The following month the "first public Sunday morning worship service was held on Oct. 20, 1929 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. Melville Ketcham at 175 Nassau Boulevard" with the Meyer, Parker, Brown, Germann, Hofer and Foster families attending.

That auspicious first service was held the week before the stock market crashed. This caused a number of homes in Garden City to be seized for back taxes. Some homes were rented out in order to hold onto them. Rev. Snyder then rented a separate home at 66 Wellington Road for the little congregation and for living quarters for he and his wife. The addition of a pulpit and folding chairs turned the former living room into a chapel. The first service at the Wellington Road location was held with 35 parishioners on Dec. 15, 1929. This was only two months after the little church's debut at 175 Nassau Boulevard.

The Ketchams were very involved with their new church in other ways. Mr. Ketcham was the chairman of the trustees, with son-in-law Ellsworth McEwen as one of the trustees. Mr. and Mrs. Ketcham were also on the pulpit committee to call a new pastor and the committee hired the Reverend Dr. John Gardner in 1931. James K. Foster, a member of the GCCC wrote, "Both Mr. and Mrs. Ketcham were deeply interested in the church until their respective deaths."

By 1930 E. Melville Ketcham was a general manager in the book business. Despite the Depression, business was good. They added a porch to the home, which is now the sunroom.

Mr. Ketcham died in 1935. Anna Ketcham, daughter Ruth and her husband, Ellsworth continued to live in the house. Anna passed away in approximately 1953.

Ruth and Ellsworth McEwen lived at 175 Nassau Boulevard for another nine years. The Ketcham/McEwen families were there for a total of 37 years. The McEwens retired to Massachusetts. Melville Kerkkamp Ketcham and Ellsworth McEwen both passed away in 1981, within months of each other. Ruth remained in Massachusetts and died in 1991.

The second family at 175 Nassau Boulevard was there longer than the Ketchams. Elsa and Robert Langfelder spent a total of 39 years at the house, from 1962 to 2001.

Robert Langfelder was an electrical engineer for the FT & R Corporation in New Jersey during the 1950s. The Langfelders lived in Passaic and Montclair.

While living at the Nassau Boulevard home, Elsa Langfelder owned the Toy Box on Franklin Avenue in town. It was about three doors north of Ninth Street, around where Calagero's is located.

Dottie Franz, now of Hendersonville, North Carolina, used to work part-time at the Toy Box with Elsa, from 1971 until it closed. She said, "It was a fun, happy place to work. We sold great things in that store like handmade rocking horses, Madame Alexander dolls, handmade doll houses, giant Tinkertoys and a lot of beautiful things. Elsa and her partner, Joan Weitzner, had a good eye...Elsa was a quiet lady. Joan was the gregarious one..."

"My mom...bought our Christmas presents with her discount! I remember playing there all the time. I remember getting my Raggedy Ann there..." added her daughter, Pamela Franz Ellis.

In addition, Mrs. Langfelder played the recorder in the Long Island Baroque Ensemble. Robert Langfelder enjoyed playing chess for over 60 years in amateur championships.

During their tenure, the Langfelders added to the mudroom area and put in a closet and powder room. As the years went by, they spent half their time in Garden City and the other half in Delray Beach, Florida. In 2001 they retired permanently to Florida.

The third, current homeowners moved to Garden City in 1999 when their two children were in college. They lived on Merillon Avenue for three years before moving to 175 Nassau Boulevard. He is in the real estate business and they both manage several properties. They renovated the kitchen, sunroom and two and a half baths. The timing was perfect since they had upcoming weddings.

"Both of my children married from this home. It was a beautiful backdrop for memorable pictures, especially my daughter coming down our staircase on her wedding day. Now, just seeing my grandchildren enjoying our home with us is priceless," the current homeowner said.

The new homeowners spent time improving their backyard as well. It was crowded with growth. They had 10 pine trees removed over the years, under the watchful eye of an arborist. They discovered more stones like those applied to the façade. The large stones created continuity of the house façade when they replaced the old garage with a two-car garage in 2004.

In the backyard a beautiful maple tree remains, along with an umbrella pine. It now features two sitting areas, as well as a small pond with a waterfall that was built by their daughter and son-in-law.

"We knew from the first step in the front door...that we found 'our' home...This home has truly been a dream...My husband and I hope we will never have to leave our most lovely home!" the owner added.

If anyone has any old books, photos, phone books or papers relating to anything in Garden City, please contact village historian Suzie Alvey at suziealvey@gmail.com or historian@gardencityny.net or call 326-1720. She can scan or photograph the items, while you keep the original, or you can donate it. This will be extremely helpful to the archives at the Garden City Public Library and the Garden City Historical Society.

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