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What has hardwood floors, a stone fireplace, three large bedrooms, a full basement, and two car paver-stone driveway?
No, it’s not a custom home in Southampton Village. It’s what some of my friends still call a “trailer”. These tin cans, as Dave Wilmott used to call them, are now custom built structures that rival any stick built home on Long Island. It would be safe to say my factories can build whatever you desire, you just have to have the dough.
To see these 60,000 lb. homes barrel down the LIE at 60 miles per hour in the middle of the night is impressive. By the way, please don’t tell the cops they go that fast. To see them being craned onto a full basement is more impressive. And to see the reaction of the uninitiated home buyers walk into a model home in the new Glenwood Oaks is priceless. But as in any business there is a story behind the story.
My father started bringing in trailers to Riverhead in 1959 at McCleods’ Mobile Home Park. When he and my uncle realized that this business was a pretty good gig they bought the land upon which Glenwood Village now sits and laid out the beginnings of what is now a 560 site community. The original homes had two small bedrooms with one bath, flat metal roofs and jalousie windows. The small recreation center was centrally located containing a kitchen, meeting room and library. As the sixties turned into the seventies trailers became mobile homes. Soon the enterprising brothers ran out of property and bought more to satisfy the demand from Long Island retirees flocking to the east end. Every year their builders would tweak the designs. The housing shows in Louisville and Harrisburg would push the envelope by offering more options for the end buyer. One box units soon became “double wides” and site built amenities grew. Flat roofs became shingled roofs and metal gave way to vinyl siding. In the new areas the end elevation layouts became ranch style lots. The tiny recreation hall got bigger, and Glenwood Village soon had the latest and greatest floor plans from the biggest factory-built companies in the country. The evolution of the product was impressive, but there would be more.
In 2003 the contiguous property became available and Stark Homes purchased 35 more acres. In spite of the tiger salamanders, we were able to lay out 81 more building sites. This area, called Glenwood Oaks, would be a showcase for our new high-end homes. Four foot crawl spaces were now standard. Custom-built cabinets and tile floors were common. Steeply pitched, hinged roofs were installed to give the homes a residential look. The large crane came in 2004 to set the first home and hasn’t left. These “double-wide” mobiles are now manufactured homes. The dirt underneath now has eight-foot walled basements instead of cinderblocks. The jalousie windows are gone forever, replaced by thermo pane ones that in some cases span eight feet across.
The looks on customers’ faces tell the story.
“I never knew these were so large,” is a common refrain.
“I can pick out my own floor plan?” Yes, you can.
“I can install solar power?" Yes.
“You have a large swimming pool too?" It’s one of the largest around.
“The community offers 24 hour maintenance?" Yes, again.
“But these are ...trailers, right?" For full disclosure, I say, they do come here on wheels.
The puzzlement sometimes persists. “But what do you call them?"
My reply: Why don’t you just call it a nice home?
I think Dad would be proud.
