Carle Place

The Prototype for Levittown

Beginnings: Carle Place, like the rest of modern-day central Nassau County, existed initially as a fragment of the Hempstead Plains. The prairie was viewed as largely worthless by the English settlers of 1644. One of those settlers was Capt. Thomas Carle, who purchased land in the area in 1656. He and his neighbors turned cattle and sheep loose on the plains to graze and thought little else of it. Not until 100 years later did farmers realize the land could be cultivated. One of Carle's descendants, Silas Carle, had become a successful pharmaceuticals merchant in New York City. Some time after 1800, he returned to Long Island to build a showy house on 220 acres for his family. Indeed, it became a local landmark, referred to by residents as ``the Carle place,'' a name that eventually came to be applied to the community that developed around it, replacing the name Frog Hollow.

Farm Country: For decades, the Carle place was one of the few homes in an area dominated by small farms, most of which were run by Polish, German and Irish immigrants. Although the Long Island Rail Road ran right through Carle Place since the 1830s, it wasn't until 1923 that the hamlet warranted a station. Indeed, it had gained a post office only in 1916, making the name Carle Place official.

Turning Point: In 1946, developer William J. Levitt bought 19 acres for an experiment. His crews brought precut lumber to the site and rapidly assembled 600 low-cost houses. The population swelled by five times in five years. It transformed Carle Place, and served as the prototype for the gargantuan development Levitt began the following year a few miles away: Levittown. Before long, the last potato farms in Carle Place were developed as well.

Brush With Fame: Guitar virtuosos Joe Satriani and Steve Vai grew up in Carle Place. Vai took lessons from Satriani there.

Where to Find More: In the Carle Place files at the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University, Hempstead.