Tiny Town in North Merrick, NY - Debunking the Myths

Why are there these tiny houses in concentric circles? Was this a community for Keebler elves? Curious for the truth of why this Tiny Town exists? Step right up as we land in North Merrick on Long Island in New York to tell you the truth behind why these tiny houses exists. The truth will surprise you. This is an interesting piece of Long Island history and we are happy to share it with you and document it before it is gone.

[PhilNY]

We used to ride our bikes in Tiny Town during the 80's. The story then was that they were circus folk who used to work with Barnum. But if you can read then that dispels that. But my great aunt owned a big property on Merrick Avenue that still looked farm-like, I am sure by now it has been developed. But she would be on the way to Tiny Town and she would tell us different histories of Merrick like how when Tiny Town was new what is now South Merrick was under water and the water used to come up to what is now Sunrise Highway.

[John-qlhj]

Lived in Merrick almost 59 years and I still do . I'm only 2 or 3 blocks away . when I was a kid I use to ride my bike thru the Camp Grounds. It's a great place to ride a bike with all the narrow short streets, we use to go around and around in a circle playing games.When I was a kid I started to play there about 1972, as soon as I learned how to ride a bike. Camp Avenue was the road to the Camp Grounds, many newcomers to Merrick probably don't know that. And believe it or not, there was a large property on the South Side of Camp Ave. that was owned by somebody named Johnson . He had a house that dated back to the 19th Century, it was White and Black, and his property was about 3 or 4 acres. We called him old Man Johnson. He held on right to the end with his large property and after he died they put a restaurant there called Serindipity . That was there for a few years and then eventually they carved up the property and developed the last big property in Merrick. 3 or 4 acres in Merrick owned by a private resident into the 1970's, amazing !!!! You drive past Old Man Johnson's land today and it's all new houses . And it wasn't only Old Man Johnson's land, all the homes along Brookside over to Alice Ave. had very deep Properties like 400 feet deep. It was almost like a nature preserve with all the open space/woods. As soon as they developed Old Man Johnson's all those deep properties got cut up. That old Man Johnson's property was loved by the area kids including myself, Johnson never chased the kids away. I remember there was a round track in the middle, maybe he had horses there at one time. and then the stream thru the Brookside Properties down thru Old Man Johnsons. You'd never know there was a stream there with all the new homes. To me, Old Man Johnson's property and the Camp Grounds is all the same. So many memories from the early 1970's.

[livebythegoldenrule]

This was a beautiful, country-like, middle-class place when I was a kid in the 50s/60s. It was called "The Camp Grounds" at the time. Lots of open space and trees. It had a brook and a pond where we fed ducks. It was a joy to bike ride through all the little streets. The pond was drained around 1962. Too bad Merrick didn't enact zoning laws to protect the historical small houses and the atmosphere that's now long gone due to greed and over-development. My favorite tiny, triangle-like house was on Third Avenue - perhaps the tiniest of them all. I returned to Merrick for a visit only to find it gone and replaced with a McMansion. Ah, progress - NOT. You can't ever go home again.

[richardhenrickson]

There is at least one instance of a "little person" (please forgive me if this is not current, acceptable nomenclature) living in one of those homes, as I've seen the individual on a few occasions walking around inside on the phone. Not sure if he is still there. A very interesting geographical area, to be sure. Thank you for the informative video!

[KnowoneHFRC]

I used to deliver pizzas for the North bellmore Pizza Hut in the 90s and back then a lot of the original cottages were still standing.