Commerdinger Mark in Suffolk History

Members of the Commerdinger Family have left their mark on the Smithtown community, having served as town assessor, postmaster, and operators of the Nesconset General Store and Post Office. Their memory will forever be preserved through Suffolk’s Walter S. Commerdinger, Jr. County Park.

Commerdinger settled in Nesconset in the early 1900s when his father purchased a parcel of land on Lake Avenue. Walter Senior was active in community affairs and served as the Smithtown Town Assessor in the 1920s and 1930s. Walter's mother was a member of the Crolius Family, who were one of the first potters in New York City in the early 1700s.

After serving in France during World War I, the junior Commerdinger returned home and purchased the Nesconset General Store and Post Office. He became the second Nesconset Postmaster from 1926 to 1933 and then again from 1946 through 1959.

Like his father before him, Commerdinger was active in local government and community affairs, having served as a charter member of various organizations that had a major impact on local affairs.

File Photo

For generations, the Commerdinger Family owned all of the property north of Lake Ronkonkoma. That land today is known as the 90-acre Lily Ponds Park & Nature Preserve. It will remain natural and preserved forever, thanks to the generosity and foresight of the Commerdinger Family. Until 2006, the family lived in a historic home on a 5.7-acre parcel within the preserve. Developers targeted it for housing, but through the coordinated efforts of the Suffolk officials and the Commerdinger Family, the land was preserved as a county park.

Sadly, the home, with portions dating back to 1810, was neglected during the last 12 years of former county Executive Steve Bellone’s administration and is in dilapidated condition. His successor, Edward Romaine, a former history teacher, said he supports the rehabilitation of the historic homes owned by the county, which include properties at Swan River and Robert Cushman Murphy Park in Manorville, Avery Homestead in East Patchogue, and the Hawkins House in Moriches.

Legislator Leslie Kennedy noted that the former Commerdinger home features a 1960s World’s Fair kitchen, and when she toured it with other county officials, she said they found Civil War discharge papers belonging to a previous owner. According to Kennedy, funds have been approved to repair the basement of the home, which she said she would like to be made into a community center.

The Commerdinger estate boasts a diversity of wildlife and wooded trails winding down to Lake Ronkonkoma. Much of the land has been untouched since the last ice age 10,000 years ago when a huge piece of ice left behind by a receding glacier created the “kettlehole” lake. A headwater to the lake, the park hosts a vast ecosystem of wetlands and marshes vital to keeping Suffolk’s water clean. A smaller waterway, Lily Pond, is filled with the floating vegetation that is its namesake.