Glory days and new horizions

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Taking a Look at the Past, Present and Possible Future of Hempstead, Long Island and its Relationship to Garden City

Background

When many Long Islanders think about taking a step back in time, perhaps they consider planning a trip to colonial Williamsburg, an excursion to Plymouth Rock, or even Philadelphia, PA.

One place that may not jump immediately to mind is Hempstead, Long Island. However, with its past number of celebrity residents, historic status as a major fashion capital of Long Island, major transportation center and other places of interest, Hempstead may be a major, though possibly unlikely place for Long Islanders to connect to our earlier roots.


  • According to the Hempstead, Long Island Chamber of Commerce, "All roads lead to Hempstead" and Hempstead was always the "Hub" at one time in Hempstead history. Once a farm and merchant town, Hempstead boasts that by 1843 it was the “principal place of mercantile and mechanical business in this part of the country” On May 6, 1853, it became the “first community in Nassau County” to be incorporated, and was mostly comprised of immigrant families from the Mayflower that migrated in the spring of 1644 from the Long Island Sound to Hempstead harbor and gradually to the Village of Hempstead to officially settle. ALL INFO FROM HEMPSTEAD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: (http://www.hempsteadchamber.org/php/subFrame.php?linkid=3&hm_user=299d4063024e0d23a440c632446409af)
  • In addition, prior to the opening of Roosevelt Field mall in 1956 “before there were malls, there was Hempstead,” and for decades, ``the Hub was the center of transportation and shopping on Long Island, supporting not just Arnold Constable and A&S, Grant's and Woolworth's, but scores of mom-and-pop operations in an era when Mom and Pop still mattered.” “Even more important, Hempstead housed the county's largest bus terminus, making it a quick trip from as near as Garden City (before Garden City took over the carriage trade) and as far as Jamaica (whose own downtown dominated Queens).”

``You have to remember how important the bus was, says Hempstead Village historian James York. ``When Nassau started to expand, many GIs didn't have a job, much less an automobile. But as the bus gave way to the car and the downtown gave way to the mall, shopping began to change. By the 1960s, though, no downtown could compete with the malls' ever-growing array of card stores and shoe stores, their parking fields and their newfangled traditions (the department store Santa-turned-mall Santa, the indoor arts-and-crafts shows)” ( all info from http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs801c,0,6961089.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation)

(The first question that comes to mind is what happened today. You have it listed at poverty and immigration, but if this palce was as cool as you amke it sound, there must be other factors? Possibly political? And I think if you can get the Hempstead story, you dont need the Garden City story, becuase im sure the Hempstead story is enough for one article.)

My Proposal

  • With all this rich cultural Long Island history, it is intriguing to consider that Hempstead has received a rather declining reputation from a place of status and beauty to a place some feel doesn’t fit with a ritzy, cultured, lifestyle due to a decrese in economic status along with a rise in poverty levels and immigrant diversity.
  • My proposal includes researching where Hempstead has been and where it is going, how it has been changed by Garden City, and what the current opinions of it are. I plan to interview Hofstra students, professors, Hempstead residents and local retailers to discuss the changing atmosphere of Hempstead as well as local trends in the area and get a jist for what people outside as well as inside are saying about the community. I intend to focus on sources of community pride, and how Hempstead residents feel they relate to the rest of Long Island.



External Links

For additional opinions regarding Hempstead and Long Island in general from some internet users can be found at http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-york/45965-why-long-island-sucks-9.html



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