This article was published in Newsday and written by Arlene Gross.
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THE SCOOP Ronkonkoma is a bustling community with events that bring everyone together, said Michael DelRosso, president of the Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce, which hosts Memorial and Labor Day street fairs that attract thousands of people each year.
During the summer the Chamber hosts festive clambakes at the lake and plans to hold several summer concerts at Raynor Beach County Park.
“We also started doing a Fall Fest at Station Yards,” said DelRosso, noting that the transited-oriented development runs many of its own happenings throughout the year. When completed, the 53-acre mixed-use complex will have a total of 1,450 apartments, 360,000 square feet of office space and 195,000 square feet of retail.
Businesses are also gradually moving to Hawkins Avenue, the hamlet’s main thoroughfare, adding to Ronkonkoma’s renaissance.
“There’s lot of things going on every month over here,” DelRosso said.
Ronkonkoma’s convenient location makes it very sought after, said Edgar Iglesias, an agent with Serhant.
“It’s one of the towns that is the closest to the 495,” Iglesias said. “You’re right in the middle of Long Island: whether you’re going to Riverhead or Nassau.”
Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island’s largest freshwater lake, served as a boundary between four Native American communities and the hamlet’s name is derived from Raconkamuck, which meant “boundary fishing place” in Algonquin.
Purported to have healing powers, the lake has been the subject of many legends, one having it as bottomless; another purporting that there were secret underwater connections to Long Island Sound or the Great South Bay.
For years, the lake was a magnet for development, giving rise to a resort community in the late 19th century, which included William K. Vanderbilt II’s Petite Trianon Hotel, named for Marie Antoinette’s Versailles palace. From 1908 to 1910, Vanderbilt’s Motor Parkway was the site of 48-mile auto races, which terminated at the hotel. By the 1920s, beach pavilions dotted the lake’s shores.
Notable Ronkonkoma locals included Maude Adams, a Victorian-era Broadway actress, who bought a 700-acre farm, on which the high school and junior high were eventually built.
Homebuyers will find mostly ranches, high ranches and Colonials with home prices ranging the high $400,000s and to $1.3 million.