Manhasset, New York, United States

🇺🇸 Manhasset is a hamlet and place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. As with other unincorporated communities in New York, its local affairs are administered by the town in which it is located, the Town of North Hempstead, whose town hall is in Manhasset, making the hamlet the town seat.

Etymology The name Manhasset was adopted for the community in 1840. It is most likely the anglicised rendition of the name of a nearby Native American tribe whose name translates to "the island neighbourhood".

History The Matinecock had a village on Manhasset Bay. These Native Americans called the area Sint Sink, meaning "place of small stones". They made wampum from oyster shells. In 1623, the area was claimed by the Dutch West India Company and they began forcing English settlers to leave in 1640. A 1643 land purchase made it possible for English settlers to return to Cow Neck (the peninsula where present-day Port Washington, Manhasset, and surrounding villages are located.).

Manhasset Bay was previously known as Schout's Bay (a schout being roughly the Dutch equivalent of a sheriff), Martin Garretson's Bay (Martin Garretson was the Schout at one point), and later Cow Bay or Cow Harbor. Cow Neck was so called because it offered good grazing land. By 1659, there were over 300 cows and 5 mi (8 km) fence separating Cow Neck from the areas to the south. The settlers came to an agreement that each of them could have one cow on the neck for each section of fence the individual had constructed. The area was more formally divided among the settlers when the fence was removed in 1677. Manhasset took on the name Little Cow Neck, Port Washington was known as Upper Cow Neck.

During the American Revolution, Little Cow Neck suffered at the hands of the British. Many structures and properties, such as the 1719 Quaker Meeting House were burned, seized or damaged. The Town of North Hempstead separated from the Town of Hempstead in 1784 because the South, inhabited mainly by Church of England people, was loyal to the king. The Northern communities and villages, dominated by Yankee Congregationalists supported independence.

In 1801, it cost two cents to travel between Roslyn and Spinney Hill on the North Hempstead Turnpike, the newly opened toll road (now Northern Boulevard).

The Manhasset name was adopted in 1840 and comes from the native word "Manhanset", roughly meaning "the island neighborhood". Dairy farming was still a major endeavor, but the oyster industry was also on the rise. In 1898, the Long Island Railroad arrived, bringing with it wealthy New Yorkers looking for country homes with easy transportation to more urban areas of New York City. Manhasset Valley and Spinney Hill attracted a number of skilled workers and immigrant families.

The North Hempstead Town Hall opened in Manhasset on Plandome Road in 1907. Town councilmen had previously been meeting in Roslyn taverns after North Hempstead split away from Hempstead in 1775.

The Manhasset Valley School, originally built to serve the children of the help on the local Gold Coast Estates, eventually came to serve Manhasset's African American community, and was closed in the 1960s by a desegregation lawsuit. It is still standing and is currently used as a community center. The centrally located but antiquated Plandome Road School was demolished in the early 1970s, having been replaced by the new Shelter Rock Elementary School in North Hills by 1969. Currently, Mary Jane Davies Green sits on the site of the old school.

Manhasset is served by the Nassau County Police Department, with the Sixth Precinct station house located on Community Drive, just south of Northern Boulevard. RMPs 608 and 616 are the cars assigned to patrol duties in Manhasset. In 2005, a Wall Street Journal article ranked Manhasset as the best town for raising a family in the New York metropolitan area. The Manhasset area, settled by 1680, grew quickly after it began being served by the Long Island Rail Road in 1898. The LIRR provides access to New York City via the Manhasset station with an approximately 40 minute commute to Penn Station. Express trains, which run during rush hour, make the trip in less than 30 minutes. The hamlet of Manhasset is located 19.5 miles (29.2 km) away from midtown Manhattan.

In the 2010s and 2020s, talks have been restarted to connect the businesses on Plandome Road to sanitary sewers operated by the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District. These proposals have been discussed for decades but historically had been met with opposition, ultimately killing some of the earlier plans.

Failed incorporation attempts There have been several unsuccessful attempts over the years – especially throughout the 1940s – for some or all of the unincorporated areas of Manhasset to incorporate as villages. The most recent proposal to incorporate the hamlet took place in 2016.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²), of which 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²), or 1.24%, is water.

Geography: Topography Like the rest of Long Island's North Shore, Manhasset is situated on a terminal moraine, which is named the Harbor Hill Moraine. This moraine was formed by glaciers during the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, and is named for Harbor Hill in Roslyn; Harbor Hill is the highest geographic point in Nassau County.

Greater Manhasset area In addition to the unincorporated areas of Manhasset proper (Bayview, the Strathmores (North and South Strathmore, Strathmore Village, and Strathmore–Vanderbilt), Shorehaven, Terrace Manor, Manhasset Park, Manhasset Gardens, and Norgate), the Greater Manhasset area also includes three incorporated villages: Munsey Park, Plandome, and Plandome Heights; and parts of three others: Flower Hill, Plandome Manor, and North Hills.

Economy The Americana Manhasset mall opened in 1956, and is located on Manhasset's Miracle Mile.

The commercial centre of Manhasset is situated around the railroad station on Plandome Road, where the LIRR connects directly into Manhattan for a 37-minute commute. The area has bakeries, pizzerias, delis, bars, coffee shops, and a movie theater. Centralized in town is a small park and a gazebo. The community's public library is located one block east of Plandome Road, on the corner of Onderdonk Avenue and Northern Boulevard, adjacent to the historic Quaker Meeting House.

Prior to the Long Island Rail Road's arrival, the commercial centre of Manhasset was located in the Manhasset Valley (near the present-day Manhasset Valley Park), along Manhasset Bay.

The North American headquarters of Sabena was located in a 36,000 square feet (3,300 m²) office building in Manhasset. In April 2002, Knightsbridge Properties Corp. bought the building for $4.9 million. Due to the bankruptcies of Sabena and Swissair, the real estate deal took over a year to finish. During that month the building was 30% occupied. Sabena was scheduled to move out of the building on May 10, 2002. The buyer planned to spend an additional $2 million to convert the building into a multi-tenant, Class A office and medical facility.

Parks and recreation The Town of North Hempstead owns and operates several parks within the hamlet. These parks include Manhasset Valley Park, Mary Jane Davies Green, and Whitney Pond Park.

Park districts In addition to having several parks which are owned and maintained by the Town of North Hempstead, two park districts serve the majority of the hamlet: the Great Neck Park District and the Manhasset Park District.

The portion of Manhasset zoned for the Manhasset Union Free School District is located, in its entirety, within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Manhasset Park District. This special district owns and operates numerous parks and parking facilities throughout the Greater Manhasset area. Meanwhile, the portion of the Spinney Hill section of Manhasset zoned for the Great Neck Union Free School District is located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Great Neck Park District, which owns and operates numerous parks and parking facilities throughout the Greater Great Neck area.

The only portion of the hamlet not located within either of the two park districts is the southernmost, sparsely-populated tip of the hamlet.

Schools Manhasset is primarily located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Manhasset Union Free School District, while some of the hamlet's southernmost portions and a portion of its western panhandle are located within the boundaries of (and are thus served by) the Great Neck Union Free School District. As such, children who reside in Manhasset and attend public schools go to school in one of these two districts, depending on where they reside within the hamlet.

Several private schools, including St. Mary's High School, are also located within the hamlet.

Libraries Manhasset is located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Great Neck Library District and the Manhasset Library District. The boundaries of these two library districts within the hamlet are coterminous with those of the school districts.

Transport: Road Other major roads which travel through the hamlet include Bayview Avenue, Community Drive, East Shore Road, Maple Street, Onderdonk Avenue, Park Avenue, Plandome Road, Searingtown Road, and Shelter Rock Road.

Transport: Rail The Manhasset station on the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch is located in Manhasset's downtown area.

Transport: Bus Manhasset is served by the n20H, n21, n25 and n26 bus routes, which are operated by Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE). The n20H and n21 run east–west through Manhasset on Northern Boulevard while the n25 and n26 pass through the western part of Manhasset en route between Great Neck and Lynbrook and Jamaica respectively.

Natural gas National Grid USA provides natural gas to homes and businesses that are hooked up to natural gas lines in Manhasset.

Power PSEG Long Island provides power to all homes and businesses within the hamlet.

Sewage Manhasset is partially sewered. The sewered areas are connected to the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District's sanitary sewer network, which handles and treats the hamlet's sanitary waste.

The remainder of the hamlet instead relies on cesspools and septic systems.

As of 2022, plans are underway to connect the hamlet's downtown area along Plandome Road to the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District's sanitary sewers.

Water Manhasset, in its entirety, is located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Manhasset–Lakeville Water District.

Healthcare Manhasset is home to North Shore University Hospital, located on Community Drive. The hospital is operated by Northwell Health.

Fire Manhasset, in its entirety, is located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Manhasset–Lakeville Fire District.

Police Manhasset, in its entirety, is served by the Nassau County Police Department's 6th Precinct, which is headquartered on Community Drive within the hamlet.