Sands Point

`Elegantly Rustic Way of Life'

Beginnings: The Sands brothers, James, Samuel and John, came in 1695 and bought 500 acres at the tip of a peninsula called Cow Neck from the Cornwalls, who had been there 20 years. The Sands and Cornwalls surely knew they had valuable real estate, though they never knew how valuable. By the 1900s, Sands Point was divided among 50 of the nation's wealthiest families. It was F. Scott Fitzgerald's East Egg, described in 1927's ``Great Gatsby'' as a place of ``white palaces glittering on the water.''

The Name: It came from the Sands family, not from the beaches. Prosperous farmers and sea captains, the family owned vast farms on Sands Point and an inland farm in Flower Hill, now the Sands-Willets House, headquarters of the Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society. On a voyage to Virginia, Capt. John Sands brought back locust trees; their descendants flourish.

The Revolution: Another John Sands was a colonel in the Continental Army and his wife also became a heroine of the Revolution. During the British occupation, she was asked to deliver gunpowder, hidden on their farm, to a whaleboat waiting at the Point. Disguised as an old woman, she delivered the powder, but was fired on by Hessians. She leaped into the whaleboat and escaped. Seven Sands brothers served in Washington's Army.

Turning Point: In 1910, Sands Point landholders sought incorporation to control zoning and preserve what historian Joan G. Kent called ``their elegantly rustic way of life.'' The original scheme for three villages was consolidated into one, the first on the peninsula. The estates have since given way, and the once all-residential village now contains a church, synagogue, county park and preserve.

Claims to Fame: Former Gov. Averill Harriman, publishers William Randolph Hearst, Conde Nast, John Hay Whitney, along with Newsday founders Alicia Patterson and Harry Guggenheim, called Sands Point home.

Where to Find More: ``Long Island, a History of Two Great Counties, Nassau and Suffolk,'' edited by Paul Bailey; ``Port Remembered,'' Ernie Simon, at the Port Washington Library.