Hempstead, New York, United States

🇺🇸 The Town of Hempstead is one of the three towns in Nassau County in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the south-western part of the county, on the western half of Long Island. Twenty-two incorporated villages (one of which is named Hempstead) are completely or partially within the town.

If Hempstead were to be incorporated as a city, it would be the second-largest city in New York and the 18th largest city in the country. Hempstead is thus the most populous municipality in the New York metropolitan area outside New York City.

Hofstra University's main campus is located in Hempstead.

History The town was first settled around 1644 following the establishment of a treaty between English colonists, John Carman and Robert Fordham, and the Lenape Indians in 1643. Although the settlers were from the English colony of Connecticut, a patent was issued by the government of New Netherland after the settlers had purchased land from the local natives. This transaction is depicted in a mural in the Hempstead Village Hall, reproduced from a poster commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hempstead Village.

In local Dutch-language documents of the 1640s and later, the town was invariably called Heemstede, and several of Hempstead's original 50 patentees were Dutch, suggesting that Hempstead was named after the Dutch town and/or castle Heemstede, which are near the cities of Haarlem and Amsterdam. However, the authorities possibly had Dutchified a name given by co-founder John Carman, who was born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, on land owned by his ancestors since the 13th century.

In 1664, the settlement under the new Province of New York adopted the Duke's Laws, austere statutes that became the basis upon which the laws of many colonies were to be founded. For a time, Hempstead became known as "Old Blue", as a result of the "Blue Laws".

During the American Revolution, the Loyalists in the south and the American sympathizers in the north caused a split in 1784 into "North Hempstead" and "South Hempstead". With the 1898 incorporation of the Borough of Queens as part of the city of New York, and the 1899 split of Queens County to create Nassau County, some south-western portions of the Town of Hempstead seceded from the town and became part of the Borough of Queens.

Richard Hewlett, who was born in Hempstead, served as a Lieutenant Colonel with the British Army under General Oliver De Lancey in the American Revolution. Afterward, Hewlett departed the United States with other Loyalists and settled in the newly created Province of New Brunswick in what later became Canada. A settlement there was named Hampstead, in Queen's County next to Long Island in the Saint John River.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 191.3 square miles (495.5 km²), of which 120.0 square miles (310.7 km²) is land and 71.4 square miles (184.8 km²) (37.30%) is water.

The western town line is the border of Queens County in New York City. Its northern border, with the town of North Hempstead and the town of Oyster Bay, is along the main line of the Long Island Rail Road and along Old Country Road in Garden City heading east towards the Wantagh Parkway. Its eastern border, also with the town of Oyster Bay, runs parallel to (and several hundred feet west of) Route 107. To the south is the Atlantic Ocean, off of Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach, Point Lookout, and Jones Beach, as well as the city of Long Beach.

The most popular beach on the east coast of the United States, Jones Beach State Park, is located in Hempstead. The beach is a popular destination for Long Islanders and residents of New York. The beach itself receives approximately six million visitors per year.

Communities The town of Hempstead contains 22 villages and 38 hamlets: Villages • Atlantic Beach • Bellerose • Cedarhurst • East Rockaway • Floral Park (small part in North Hempstead) • Freeport • Garden City (small part in North Hempstead) • Hempstead (village) • Hewlett Bay Park • Hewlett Harbor • Hewlett Neck • Island Park • Lawrence • Lynbrook • Malverne • Mineola (almost all in North Hempstead) • New Hyde Park (part; with North Hempstead) • Rockville Centre • South Floral Park • Stewart Manor • Valley Stream • Woodsburgh; Hamlets • Baldwin • Baldwin Harbor • Barnum Island • Bay Park • Bellerose Terrace • Bellmore • Bethpage (almost all in Oyster Bay) • East Atlantic Beach • East Garden City • East Meadow • Elmont • Franklin Square • Garden City South • Harbor Isle • Hewlett • Inwood • Lakeview • Levittown • Lido Beach • Malverne Park Oaks • Merrick • Munson • North Bellmore • North Lynbrook • North Merrick • North Valley Stream • North Wantagh • North Woodmere • Oceanside • Point Lookout • Roosevelt • Salisbury (South Westbury) • Seaford • South Hempstead • South Valley Stream • Uniondale • Wantagh • West Hempstead • Woodmere; In addition, there are a few areas that are not part of any incorporated village or place: • Jones Beach Island and nearby uninhabited islands in South Oyster Bay • A small area between Lynbrook and Rockville Centre that contains only Rockville Cemetery.

Economy Lufthansa United States had its headquarters in East Meadow, beginning in the 1970s, after it moved from Park Avenue in Manhattan, in order to save money. In 2019, the office had 206 employees; that year the headquarters moved to Uniondale.

At one time Swiss International Air Lines operated its United States office at 776 RexCorp Plaza in the EAB Plaza in Uniondale. The airline moved from 41 Pinelawn Road in Melville, Suffolk County around 2002.

Snapple was previously headquartered in East Meadow, prior to moving their corporate office. The office space is now currently occupied by the Epilepsy Foundation of Long Island.

Railroad lines The Long Island Rail Road's Main Line runs through the north-western part of the town with stations from Bellerose through Merillon Avenue in Garden City. The Hempstead Branch breaks away from the Main Line in Floral Park, and uses stations from Bellerose into Hempstead. The West Hempstead Branch runs from Valley Stream north-east to West Hempstead. Further south in the town, the Babylon Branch runs from the New York City Line into southern portions of the Town of Oyster Bay with stations between Valley Stream and Seaford. Also the Far Rockaway Branch branches off from Valley Stream and curves to the south-west from that station through Inwood before finally re-entering the city in the Rockaways. Just east of there, the Long Beach Branch breaks away at Lynbrook and runs south-east into Long Beach.

Bus service The Town of Hempstead is served primarily by Nassau Inter-County Express bus routes, though some MTA Bus Routes enter Nassau County from Queens. The City of Long Beach also has a separate bus service.

Transport: Road • Meadowbrook State Parkway • Wantagh State Parkway • Southern State Parkway • Bay Parkway • Loop Parkway • Ocean Parkway • New York State Route 25 • Glen Cove Road • Peninsula Boulevard • New York State Route 24 • New York State Route 27 • Merrick Road • New York State Route 102 • New York State Route 105 • New York State Route 106 • New York State Route 107 • New York State Route 135 • New York State Route 878

State parks • Hempstead Lake State Park • Jones Beach State Park • Valley Stream State Park.