Massapequa Park's Newest Memorials Share a Street Triangle With a Medal of Honor Earned in 1898

On June 2, 1898, a U.S. Navy coxswain named Claus K. Clausen was aboard the USS Merrimac as it was sunk in the harbor at Santiago de Cuba under Spanish fire. That action earned him the Medal of Honor. His marker sits in the small triangle where Lakeshore Drive meets Park Boulevard. Since late October, it has shared that triangle with two granite memorials for operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

More than a century of American service now meets at one corner. The new stones also finish a remembrance of September 11 that Massapequa Park has been building across three village sites since 2002. The first of those sites is the Christmas tree that will be lit in Village Square on November 28.

What went up at Lakeshore Drive and Park Boulevard

The Village of Massapequa Park's memorials page dates the Global War on Terror memorials to October 24, 2026. The two stones honor service members who fought after the September 11 attacks in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve.

According to the village's account of the unveiling, Mayor Daniel Pearl and Trustee Todd Svec joined members of the Sgt. Peter F. Colleran, Jr. VFW Post 7763 and the community for the ceremony. The mayor thanked Post Commander Vic Crespo and past commanders Bill Gorman and Bill Colfer for taking the project from a vision to reality. Quartermaster Artie Krumm also appears in the event photo. The village credits the post's membership, community purchases of memorial bricks and donations for paying for the memorials.

The location is part of the story. Clausen's marker was already in that triangle. Its inscription says Massapequa Lodge No. 2162 of the B.P.O. Elks dedicated it on November 11, 1964, and records that his medal was awarded on November 2, 1899. Two stones honoring the most recent wars now stand next to a marker for one of the oldest wars the village commemorates.

Lakeshore Drive carries three wars

Head along Lakeshore Drive from Park Boulevard and you reach another triangle at Mayflower Avenue, where the Korean War memorial stands. The village lists its dedication as October 24, 1992. That is 34 years to the day before the Global War on Terror memorials were dedicated, according to the same village page.

So one residential road now holds the Spanish-American War, the Korean War and the post-9/11 operations. The village's other memorials sit on similar small triangles and corners across the street grid. The full list, taken from the village memorials page:

The names on the stones are also on the street signs

Massapequa Park doesn't keep all of its memorials in stone. The World War II memorial, dedicated in 1946 and now in Brady Park, honors five residents killed in the war: George Cashaw, Peter F. Colleran Jr., William G. Hoffman, John R. Martin and Earle Williams. The village says each of them has a village street named in his honor.

Colleran's name shows up more often than the others. A Fold3 memorial record identifies him as a U.S. Army sergeant killed in action in France on February 21, 1945. More than eight decades later, the VFW post that carries his name led the project for the newest memorials. One resident's name is on a street, a 1946 memorial and the veterans' post that commissioned the village's 2026 memorials.

William Mansfield's name appears in two places. The Vietnam memorial at Cartwright Boulevard and Abbey Street carries his inscription, "Who gave his life in Vietnam for the freedom of all the people of the world." Mansfield Park on Walker Street is also named for him. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall of Faces lists William G. Mansfield as an Army service member with Massapequa Park as his home of record. He was born September 12, 1945, and his casualty date is October 29, 1966, which made him 21. His name is on Panel 11E, Line 126 of the Wall in Washington. The Virtual Wall lists him as a Specialist Four with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

A family heading to Mansfield Park on Walker Street, or a driver turning onto one of the five World War II streets, passes through this remembrance on an ordinary errand.

The September 11 remembrance runs through three corners

The new memorials link to two older village sites. Together the three tell one story, each added in a different decade:

1. Village Square, November 2002. The square at Front Street and Park Boulevard has engraved brick walkways ordered by residents, plus dedicated trees and benches. Its living Christmas tree was dedicated to all the lives forever affected by September 11, 2001.
2. Village Hall, September 11, 2021. On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the village dedicated a 9/11 memorial in front of Village Hall honoring those lost at the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
3. Lakeshore Drive and Park Boulevard, October 2026. The new granite memorials honor the people who served in the wars that followed the attacks.

The order follows the event itself, from the day of the attacks to the service that came after. Park Boulevard connects the first and third, running from Front Street at Village Square down to the Lakeshore Drive triangle.

The village's founding is honored on Front Street too. At the triangle formed by Clark Boulevard and Front Street, Heerlein-Rumfield Memorial Park, dedicated October 7, 1989, honors the village's founding families. It is named for Lillian Dessart Heerlein and Charlotte Heerlein Rumfield, the daughter and granddaughter of Louis and Clara Dessart. Around 1870, the Dessarts built the Woodcastle Hotel on Front Street, facing wooded land between First and Second streets and Clark and Front. Front Street holds both the village's earliest history and its September 11 tree.

November 28 is a memorial lighting

Every November, residents gather to light Village Square for the Christmas and Hanukkah season, according to the village's memorials page. Because the tree at the center of that tradition is the September 11 tree, the annual lighting takes place at a memorial.

This year's Tree and Menorah Lighting is on the village calendar for Saturday, November 28, 2026, at 5 p.m. in Village Square. The event listing says the Massapequa High School cheerleaders and kickline will perform and that Santa is expected. Check the village site before heading out in case details change.

Anyone coming early can walk south on Park Boulevard to the Lakeshore Drive triangle, where the newest stones and Clausen's 1964 marker stand together, and then walk back up to the square before 5 p.m. That covers the two ends of the September 11 remembrance and the marker for the oldest war the village commemorates.

At Kimberly Holland, we grew up with Massapequa Park's triangles and corners and still learn something new about them. If you have a story about one of these memorials, or a family name on a brick in Village Square, we would love to hear it. Get In Touch, and we'll see you under the tree on November 28.