*Corn, potatoes, cauliflower, mulberry trees, even daffodils, you name it and Baiting Hollow farmers tried growing it; so much so that Baiting Hollow developed a reputation for experimental farming and drew agricultural specialists interested in studying plant diseases and pesky insects. In 1923, New York State bought the old Homan farm on Sound Avenue and established a research farm that is still operating.
*After visiting the Baiting Hollow mansion of Wall Street tycoon J.G. Robin in 1907, famous author Theodore Dreiser used the Long Island setting in a short story titled “Vanity, Vanity.” The manor, on the north side of Sound Avenue just east of Fresh Pond Avenue, was torn down in the 1980s and the property now is part of Wildwood State Park. The only remnants are the manor’s carriage house and a concrete boundary wall that still runs along a portion of Sound Avenue.
