While many are familiar with the South Shore community known as Shirley, not everyone knows it was named for the developer who put the area on the map–Walter T. Shirley.
Shirley catered to the middle-class customer, building close to 4,000 homes in an area previously called Mastic Acres. So many people took him up on his offer of affordable homes that the postal service created a new office on land he donated. Both the post office and the community were named in his honor.
Shirley started out as a song promoter but ended up as a successful real estate developer with the foresight to crisscross the vacant land with new roads. He had a large group of friends, including actors, sports figures, and politicians, and enlisted them to promote his homes. After he bought the Tolfree Estate on Manor Drive and found plans for the Hamlet of Tangiers drawn up by the previous owner, Fred Quimby, Shirley was determined to make his dream of creating a new community come true.
In the 1960s you could buy a Chalet Ranch House for $4,785, a Rambling New England Cape Cod Country Home for $7,895, or go upscale with the $10,990 Westminster, all approved for funding through the Federal Housing Administration. The growing community was kept informed by the developer's Shirley News, which featured the activities of the Shirley Taxpayers Association, the dance committee, and local political clubs. Shirley was a generous donor to local causes, including the Shirley Library and the local baseball team, which posed with him in front of his Ocean Gateway Property Office for a photo that appeared in the paper. He's also featured in an article about his donation of $11,800 to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital.
Outside of building homes, Shirley served as New York City's Commerce Commissioner in the early 1950s under Mayor Vincent R. Impellitter and maintained an office at 500 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The New York Digital Photo Collection has many pictures of him with celebrities such as singer Tony Bennett and Norwegian figure skater and film star Sonja Henie, as well as images of the Shirley News, which makes for fascinating reading about the community's early history. See the collection at www.nyheritage.org.
Legend has it that Shirley approached Eugenia Smith, the last surviving heir of William Tangier Smith, to inquire about buying the sprawling Manor of St. George property to expand his development empire. Peering from an upstairs window, Smith would not come down to see him. Shirley died in 1963 at the age of 67. Upon his death, his family sold off his holdings and moved to Virginia.
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