Charles Lindbergh East Garden City takeoff site eyed for landmark status

The Hempstead Town board will hold a public hearing next month to consider landmarking a monument at the historic takeoff site of Charles Lindbergh’s solo trans-Atlantic flight, the world’s first such flight.

The board Tuesday set the hearing for July 9 around 10:30 a.m., after receiving the Town of Hempstead Landmarks Preservation Commission’s support and recommendation.

“Charles Lindbergh’s takeoff site is a historic gem,” Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, who represents the area, said in a statement. “It is our duty as town officials to protect its future as a landmark.”

Hofstra University student Adam Sackowitz has been working for more than a year to preserve and get landmark status for the East Garden City monument that denotes the spot where Lindbergh took off May 20, 1927, in the Spirit of St. Louis, bound for Paris.

“It’s important that the town honors that particular event and its history,” Sackowitz said.

Town officials and Sackowitz have been working to protect the monument, located within the Source Mall property in Westbury, from development. In order to make any alterations to a landmarked monument, property owners would be required to seek approval from the town’s landmarks commission.

“Long Island is at the center of aviation history thanks to aviation pioneers and historic achievement in the arena of flight,” Supervisor Kate Murray said in a statement. “I am confident that the Town Board will support our efforts to protect the legacy of the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ and its Hempstead Town roots.
 

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