Henry Waldinger Memorial Library history

In 1834, Robert Pagan, his wife Ellen, and their four children (Jane, Catherine, Sophia, James) emigrated from Scotland to Foster’s Meadow.

Valley Stream acquired its name from Robert Pagan who settled in the area in 1840.

When Merrick Road opened in 1853, it gave the village a shift to the south.

In 1868, Electus B. Litchfield, a financer from Babylon, purchased the Brush farm, a large tract of land comprised of over 85 acres.

In 1869, the Southside Railroad built a branch to the Rockaways.

A train depot was built in 1870.

In 1876, the South Side Railroad ceased to exist and ownership passed to the Long Island Railroad.

Tired of traveling the rough road to the Old Sand Hole Church in Lynbrook, and to the Fosters Meadow Methodist-Episcopolian Church (renamed St John's Methodist Church in 1885) in Elmont, Pagan started services in her home.

Their writings were later compiled into books, "Harking Back" and "Bethpage Bygones," which documents the history of the community from the time of the Bethpage Purchase by Thomas Powell on through the early 1900's.

William R. Gibson came to Valley Stream in 1922 when he purchased land from the Norumbega Real Estate Company and the Queens County Water Company.

Finally, in 1925, the vote to incorporate won with an overwhelming majority.

It ran from Jamaica to Freeport, and passed through Valley Stream along Jamaica Avenue. It, too, went out of business in 1926 when the Long Island Railroad electrified the line and established regular train service.

More acreage was bought in 1927, along with rows of attached residences and mews on Cochran Place and Dartmouth Street.

Dibble wrote the following article for the August 16, 1928 edition of the "Nassau Daily Star."

In 1929, the Long Island Railroad agreed to have morning and evening stops in Gibson, if Gibson erected his own train station.

Flying restrictions and zoning laws made running the airport very challenging, and in 1930, Curtiss Aircraft purchased the ill-fated airfield, turning it into the largest commercial airfield on Long Island.

In 1932, an indoor tennis court was built across from the station as well.

In 1933, Clarence Stein, a town planner, and Henry Wright, an architect, conceived of building an 18,000 home community on 350 acres of flat land, formerly Curtiss Field, just east of the New York City border.

In 1936, Irwin S. Chanin, an architectural engineer who had built NYC skyscrapers and theaters, announced plans to build Green Acres, a suburban development of 1,800 single-family homes and a large shopping center, on the very same 350-acre site included in Stein’s earlier plans.

In 1941, Columbia worked closely with Grumman Aircraft, undertaking the development and production of that company's military amphibian aircraft designs, including the J2F Duck.

In September 1946, the Gibson Civic Association was organized.

The Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in April 1955 by a prominent group of businessmen.

His first young adult novel "The Fields Breathe Sweet," (1963) tells the story of the day-to-day life of stoic Dutch homesteaders living on Long Island during the late 1600s.

The following article was also written by Gibbs for the May 1968 issue of the "Long Island Forum," of which he was an editor.

Mayor Ed Fare, the society’s board chair, said he is pleased the restoration is resuming operations. “The historical society has always been a great partner with the village, and it’s been a very steady force since 1974.