Town of Hempstead history

Shell fishing was important to the economy of Port Washington and Roslyn as early as 1832 when Henry Cocks, owner of a Manhasset Bay tidal mill, planted oysters in a salt water pond.

The completion of the Long Island Rail Road to Greenport in 1844 enabled the island to become a major market-gardening centre whose produce could be shipped to New York City.

At one time, there were three railroad companies with terminals within the village. It is also the oldest Incorporated Village in New York State, having incorporated in 1853, as well as the seat of government for the Town of Hempstead, the largest township in the nation with over seven hundred thousand people.

In 1855, a group of Staten Island businessmen invested in planting oysters in Cow Bay (Manhasset Bay), leading the development of commercial oyster farming in Manhasset Bay and Hempstead Harbor.

North Shore Railroad extended their Flushing line to Great Neck in 1866.

In 1880, a United States Fish Commission study referred to Port Washington as “the seat of a very large oyster industry.” During this time, 200 of the 320 registered Port Washington registered voters listed their occupations as oystermen.

In 1885, Theodore Roosevelt built Sagamore Hill at Oyster Bay.

The Onderdonk House and Law Office, Manhasset circa 1890 The Growth of North Hempstead The Town of North Hempstead continues to evolve and change on a daily basis.

1, comp. & ed. by Samuel Hooper, Town Clerk (1896) (Internet Archive) Records of the Towns f North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.

2, ed. by Benjamin D. Hicks (1897) (Internet Archive) Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.

On January 1st, 1898, all the western towns in Queens County became part of New York City.

After a bitter battle in Albany, the law creating the new county was signed by Governor Frank S. Black on April 27th, to take effect on January 1st of 1899.

In 1900, Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay Towns, having voted not to become part of greater New York City, joined to form the new County of Nassau.

Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.5, ed. by Benjamin D. Hicks (1901) (Internet Archive)

Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.6, ed. by Benjamin D. Hicks (1902) (Internet Archive)

Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.7, ed. by Benjamin D. Hicks (1903) (Internet Archive)

Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., v.8, ed. by Benjamin D. Hicks (1904) (Internet Archive)

On May 23, 1905, after five ballots, a Plandome Road site in Manhasset was selected over Roslyn and Mineola for the New Town Hall.

Town Hall Dedication, October 16, 1907 Work in North Hempstead For over 200 years, the harbors and bays of North Hempstead and the Long Island Sound supported a thriving maritime economy of fisherman, boat-builders and sail makers.

With the completion of the railroad tunnel in 1910, the Great Neck commute became even more attractive.

Oyster House, Port Washington, July 1911 (Courtesy of The Witmer Photograph Collection, Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society.) Pasturing cattle in North Hempstead began soon after the initial settlement was established by Foreman and Carmen in 1643.

Charles A. Lindbergh, the world's most famous aviator, spent quite a bit of time in Hempstead both before and after his epoch solo flight from nearby Roosevelt Field to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France on May 20,1927.

The economic impact of the estate construction and real estate development of south shore railroad villages began to create a unique suburban county, its growth straining the old rural government system in the 1930's.

Hofstra University was founded in Hempstead village in 1935.

The Nassau County Charter of 1936 preserved the rights of existing incorporated villages but denied unincorporated communities the right to incorporate.

County voters approved a new modernized charter, to take effect on January 1, 1938, the first of its type in New York, to establish a County Executive directing departments to administer county government with a Board of Supervisors remaining as a purely legislative body.

On June 28, 1939, the first commercial passenger transatlantic flight was made by a Pan Am Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper, carrying 22 passengers from Port Washington to Lisbon, Portugal with one stop in the Azores.

An advertisement in Newsday on May 7th, 1947, offered 2,000 homes for $60 a month in a new development built on the open Hempstead plains.

With the extension of the Long Island Rail Road, availability of affordable automobiles and improved roads and parkways, the town became a commuter haven by 1950 with a population of 142,613.

A&S, Hempstead, was the largest grossing suburban department store in the country during the late 1960's.

The advent of regional shopping malls such as the one at nearby Roosevelt Field and the demise of nearby Mitchel Air Force Base in 1961 put the retail trade in the village on a downward spiral that it was unable to recover from during the recessions of the 70's and 80's.

In the subsequent decades of the 1980's and '90's, population growth ceased but the county's economic base and business/educational/recreational infrastructure changed dramatically as every aspect matured within the changes affecting all of America.

Replica of Adriaen Block’s Ship Onrust in 2009 (Courtesy of Don Rittner.) English Control of Long Island The British ousted the Dutch from New Amsterdam in 1664 and established New York colony.