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Hempstead

An artist's view of the Willis Lake Stock Farm in East Williston in the 1890s. (East Williston Village Historian)

In September, 1775, almost a year before the future nation declared its independence from George III, the people of Great Neck, Cow Neck and other areas north of Old Country Road signed their own Declaration of Independence.

The signers, passionate Patriots, declared their independence from the Town of Hempstead, which, in their opinion, had the bad habit of pledging allegiance to the king. Therefore, the northern necks declared themselves ``an entire separate and independent beat or district.'' The ``beat'' would officially become the Town of North Hempstead in 1784.

During the Revolution, the northern Patriots had their own militia headed by Capt. John Sands of Cow Neck (now Port Washington), which invaded South Hempstead in search of arms. The rift caused a north-south animosity that would take years to heal.

The first North Hempstead Town Board, headed by Patriot Adrian Onderdonk, had to cope with an impoverished area, devastated by an avenging British occupation. The councilmen met in Roslyn taverns and didn't get a permanent home until 1907, when the present town hall opened in Manhasset.

In the meantime, steamboat service from Manhattan began in 1836, and the Long Island Rail Road inched eastward, bringing a commuter population, including the rich and powerful whose mansions monopolized the waterfront and the inland ``horse country.'' Determined to protect their rights and resources, they incorporated as villages with the power to set zoning restrictions. Today North Hempstead is a town of villages. There are 30 of them, more than in any other town on Long Island (and only one fewer than in all of Suffolk County). ``The smaller the unit of government the more you are heard,'' explains town historian Joan G. Kent. No new villages have been created since 1936, when a revised county charter denied zoning power to future villages.

By the late '20s the Gold Coast era had begun to ebb; the great estates were sold to developers and the beach resorts became year-round communities. The trend was accelerated with the building boom that followed World War II.