Garden City, New York

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Garden City, New York is a village in Nassau County, New York in the USA. The village is located 18.5 miles to the east of mid-town Manhattan, on Long Island. Garden City is on the border of the Town of Hempstead and the Town of North Hempstead.

As of the 2000 census, The Incorporated Village of Garden City population was 21,672. The village is an upper middle-class, predominantly white, Catholic and Protestant community. Many families can trace their heritage to Italian and Irish immigrants from New York City.

The Garden City name is also applied to unincorporated areas in the region such as Garden City South, Garden City Park and East Garden City. Roosevelt Field, the current shopping center and former airfield from which Charles Lindbergh took off on his landmark 1927 flight, is located in East Garden City. The Village of Stewart Manor and Cathedral Gardens, an area in the village of Hempstead have close ties to the village of Garden City, as they have similar socio-economic backgrounds. These areas could then, in turn, be considered the "Greater Garden City" region.

History and Description

Thousands of years before tree-lined streets stretched past graceful, formal homes, the place that would become Garden City sat in the heart of the Hempstead Plains, the only prairie east of the Mississippi River. It was a flat, barren meadow -- as clean a sheet of paper as any developer could hope for. No hills. No forest to clear or swamps to fill. In pre-colonial times, Indians lived on the shores, using the plains only for hunting. Then, for more than a century before Garden City was developed in the mid-1800s, the plains were public land in the Town of Hempstead, used as pastures available to all. Some of Long Island's first horse-racing tracks were laid out on the plains. Every so often in the years after 1850, town officials would try to put the 7,000 acres they controlled up for sale, but voters routinely vetoed the attempts.

Finally, in 1867, the sale narrowly won voters' approval, and two years later Charles Harvey agreed to buy the plains for $42 an acre. Harvey, one of the backers of New York City's elevated railways, was secretive about his plans for the Nassau land. Rumors spread that he would make the plains into an enormous cemetery, or build a jail. Enter wealthy New York merchant Alexander T. Stewart. He offered to pay an astounding $55 an acre - and promised to invest millions of dollars to build homes, roads and neighborhoods. It would be one of the nation's first planned communities.

In following year, Scottish-born multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart bought the then relatively unpopulated Hempstead Plains, and in 1869 founded the Village of Garden City. The village was created as an upscale community for those seeking respite from New York City. The main attraction of the community was its McKim, Mead and White-designed Garden City Hotel (which exists to this day as Long Island's most exclusive hotel, albeit in a more modern form) as well as its many fine Victorian homes, which still exist in the village's Central Section.

Stewart and his architect, John Kellum, got to work laying out their new village, which Stewart named Garden City, after Chicago's informal nickname. Stewart liked the sound of it.

Much of 1870 was spent clearing and grading land and building an occasional house. The first one, a two-story cottage at 4 First St., was the headquarters for the enterprise. Workers erected 28 miles of white picket fence around the empty blocks, and Kellum had 6,500 sugar maple trees transplanted from Flushing. (The first house was razed in the 1960s, but the fence in front remains.)

In 1871, builder James L'Hommedieu of Great Neck won the first contract to build 20 `fine villa residences' in Garden City, priced between $2,000 and $20,000. Construction began the following year on the original Garden City Hotel. Despite the trappings of a fine village, residents were slow to arrive. They may have been put off by Stewart's insistence on retaining ownership of the entire village. He leased every house and every business to occupants. By the end of 1874, only 40 families had moved to Garden City. But Stewart persevered. He built a railroad to serve Garden City. He built a waterworks and the first sewage system in what was then Queens County. He built more stately houses.

And then he died, in April, 1876. His village was still a shell, with empty roads, saplings and empty houses. Residents began referring to the picket fences around empty lots as "Stewart's ribs." Stewart's widow, Cornelia, continued to improve the village and began work on a massive memorial to him. She founded the St. Paul's School for boys, St. Mary's School for girls, a Bishop's Residance and the gothic Cathedral of the Incarnation, which is today the center of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, as well as the final resting place of Alexander Turney and Cornelia Stewart. This elaborate memorial was completed in 1885. Mrs. Stewart died the following year. There were no heirs. The Cathedral of the Incarnation is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar renevation, which should be completed by 2012.

Control of the village passed to the newly formed Garden City Company, and in the 1890s, the village came to life. The company cleared away Stewart's ribs, encouraged renters to buy their homes and hired famed New York architect Stanford White to remodel the Garden City Hotel. It was an instant success. The hotel attracted the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Pierpont Morgans -- the richest citizens of the day. A golf course was similarly successful.

At the same time, the inability to attract land buyers prompted the Garden City Company in 1910 to sell 40 acres on Franklin Avenue to Doubleday, Page & Co. -- a rare invitation to industry from the planned community. Former President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone and the publishing plant's 700 employees soon were turning out 6,500 books a day. Doubleday dubbed it Country Life Press, a name that lives in a railroad station by that name.

Doubleday's corporate headquarters would remain in Garden City until the middle 1980s, soon after Bertelsmann took over the firm. (The editorial division of the company has been located in Manhattan for several years.) The plant closed in 1988 and has since been converted to offices for Bookspan, a media firm partly owned by Doubleday.

The Army's use of the remaining plains as campgrounds during the Spanish-American War and World War I brought visitors to the Garden City Hotel and village. And nearby Roosevelt and Curtiss airfields attracted aviators. Charles Lindbergh stayed at the hotel in the week before his flight to Paris in 1927.

The Long Island Rail Road offers convienent and speedy transit to and from New York City. Within the Garden City limits are five LIRR stations: Stewart Manor, Nassau Boulevard, Garden City,Country Life Press and Merrillon Avenue.The Merrillon Avenue station is the location of what has become to be known as the "LIRR Massacre." On December 7, 1993, Colin Ferguson, a New York City resident, boarded the 5:33 p.m. local train to Hicksville at Pennsylvania Station with a concealed weapon. After the train entered Nassau County, he walked down the aisle of the car he was riding in and shot some passengers while passing others. When the engineer realized that there was a serious problem on the train, he stopped the train at the Merillon Avenue. Several passengers overpowered Ferguson while he was attempting to reload for the second time and held him for police. Ferguson was convicted of shooting 25 passengers, six of whom died; he received six consecutive life sentences. This propelled Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son seriously injured, to successfully run for the United States House of Representatives on a gun control platform.

The recent threat of expansion on the LIRR's "main line," has concerned many Village residents. The reason for the high concentration of train stations in Garden City can be accredited to Alexander T. Stewart's vision of a village public transportation network, known as: Stewart's Central Railroad of Long Island. Typical to be found across much of Long Island, there is quite an expanse of unused rail road, which was once part of Stewart's Central Railroad. One of the stations still stands to this day, serving as one of Garden City's three fire stations, located at the juncture of St. James Street North and Clinton Road.

The early village did well due to its proximity to Hempstead, at that time the commercial center of Long Island. In time, thanks both to the railroad and automobiles, Garden City finally began to fill up. In 1915, the Village of Garden City merged with the Village of Garden City Estates to its west. It became an incorporated village in 1919, and its exclusive reputation led nearby communities to spring up and associate themselves with it, particularly Stewart Manor, Garden City Park, Garden City South and East Garden City.

In the 1920s, the community continued to grow, with housing constructing mainly in the Colonial and Tudor styles occurring largely in Garden City Estates as well as the Eastern Section of Garden City (including the Mott Section, developed by the heirs to the Mott Apple Juice fortune), spurred by the relocation of Doubleday & Company's publishing headquarters to Garden City at this time, as well as easy access to the, now defunct, Long Island Motor Parkway, one of the first expressways in the United States, which provided quick access between Jamaica and Lake Ronkonkoma.

The picturesque toll-houses which lined this historic road are all but extinct, save for one, located in Garden City. Until 1989, the Garden City toll house remianed abandoned along the route of the Long Island Motor Parkway. Since then, the building has been moved to the heart of the village, Seventh Street, and serves as headquarters for the Village's Chamber of Commerce.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh departed on his famous solo transatlantic flight from Roosevelt Field in East Garden City. Today, Roosevelt Field is one of the largest shopping malls in the world. In 1929 Adelphi College, later upgraded to university, moved from Brooklyn to its present 76 acre campus in Garden City, becoming the first four-year college in Nassau or Suffolk counties.

Housing construction slowed after the 1929 stock market crash. But in the 1930s, hundreds of houses were built to accommodate a population boom, though Garden City used a strict zoning code to preserve Stewart's vision. Alone in central Nassau, the village retained a sense of orderly development, true to its rigorously planned roots. During World War II, the airfield of Mitchell Field in the far east of Garden City was used by the airforce. Today, it is the present site of a military base, Nassau Community College, home the Long Island Children's Museum, a Sony IMAX theater and the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

After World War II, following a trend of urban flight to the suburbs, Garden City continued to grow. Post War construction filled out the present borders of Garden City with many split and ranch style homes, with construction occurring in the far eastern, northern and western sections of the town. The Waldorf School of Garden City was founded in 1947 (one of the first Waldorf Schools in the United States), originally as a part of Adelphi University. The village's public high school was also constructed during this time.

In the 1970s, the old Garden City Hotel declared bankruptcy, and subsequently closed. The hotel was later demolished, and unfortunately Garden City lost one of its grandest and most historical landmarks. A new Garden City Hotel was constructed on the previous site of the old Garden City Hotel.

In the 1980s, the St. Paul's School also closed and in 1993 was purchased by the Village of Garden City. Recently, the Village voted to designate St. Paul's and its property as "park land." Although still a controversial topic in Village politics, hopefully this new designation will help find a use for the classic Gothic-style building.

In the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the village's downtown areas (Seventh Street, New Hyde Park Road and Franklin Avenue) benefitted from a renewal campaign and new construction. Franklin Avenue has long been known as the "Fifth Avenue of Long Island," although many upscale department stores (such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's and A&S) moved from Franklin Avenue to the Roosevelt Field Mall. However, Lord and Taylor has a large freestanding location that opened in 1956 on Franklin Avenue. Today, Franklin Avenue is living up to its new nick-name as the "Wall Street of Long Island," being the home to many banks and investment firms. Several luxury restaurants have also opened in recent years along this majestic avenue, giving Franklin Avenue another moniker, "Restaurant Row."

Although there are a myriad of reasons which make Garden City an ideal place to raise a family, the crown jewel, so to speak, is the nationally renowned public school district. The culmination of competitive academics, arts and athletics is a combination unparalleled by any other district in the area. The district's Mission Statement reads: "The Garden City School District seeks to create an environment for learning which enables each student the opportunity to grow as an individual as well as a group member while striving to achieve the optimal level of academic, social and personal success." With this attitude in mind, the Garden City School District creates a unique curriculum where all students can grow. It is no surprise that all the schools in the district are National Schools of Excellence. There are seven schools in the Garden City School District: three primary schools (Hemlock School, Homestead School and Locust School), two elementary schools (Stewart School and Stratford School),the Garden City Middle School (grades 6-8), and finally, the Garden City High School (grades 9-12). The primary schools function as a single unit, with three campuses spread across the village.

Garden City is notoriously known for having high property-taxes, but there is good reason behind this. In addition to the nationally recognized school district, residents’ tax dollars pay for numerous services. The Garden City Police Department, established in 1919, protects and serves the citizens of Garden City. The officers are an integral part of community life, participating in many of the village’s events. They are a full-time, paid police force, patrolling the streets and neighborhoods of the village. The Garden City Fire Department is a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters. After the devastating fire at the Garden City Hotel in 1899, the Garden City Fire Department was formed, yet it was not incorporated into the village government until 1920. There are three fire stations strategically located throughout the village. The Department of Public Works offers several services to the residents of the community, that help to keep the village clean and beautiful. There are weekly garbage, rubbish and recycling collections. In the fall, Public Works collects leaves and branches and turns the detritus into mulch for the community. During the snowy winter, the department works long, tireless hours, though the night, plowing and sanding the roads, to keep them safe and clear. And finally, in the spring and summer, the Department of Public Works plants and maintains the countless, colorful and picturesque gardens throughout the village, helping Garden City live up to her name.

Garden City’s residents pride themselves on an active, healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the village provides for this with an extensive Recreation Department. The Recreation Department supervises the five playgrounds, located at various points across the village (Edgemere Park, Grove Park, Hemlock Park, Nassau Haven Park and Tullamore Park), the Senior Recreation Center the Community Park, and the Parkgrounds and second Senior Center at St. Paul's. The Community Park is the site for a number of baseball/softball fields, platform tennis, and mini-golf. In addition to this, located here is the Garden City Swimming Pool, which offers refuge from the heat during the hot summer months. There are three pools on the premises: an Adult Pool, a Children’s pool, and a General Pool, complete with two water-park style slides. There is also a movie screen, which features a movie every Tuesday night, a snack bar, and game room, as well as a playground. Finally, the Community Park also offers eight indoor clay tennis courts, open all year-round. Lessons are available.

Geography

Garden City is located at 40°43′37″N 73°38′59″W / 40.72694°N 73.64972°W / 40.72694; -73.64972Invalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function (40.726885, -73.649720)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 13.8 km² (5.3 mi²), all land.

Garden City is located in the heart of Nassau County, New York.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 21,672 people, 7,386 households, and 5,857 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,567.0/km² (4,059.5/mi²). There were 7,555 housing units at an average density of 546.3/km² (1,415.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 94.21% White, 1.23% African American, 0.07% Native American, 3.30% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.36% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.77% of the population.

There were 7,386 households out of which 36.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.8% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.7% were non-families. 19.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size was 3.27.

In the village the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 90.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.1 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $104,176, and the median income for a family was $120,305. The per capita income for the village was $93,196. About 1.8% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.3% of those under age 18 and 2.6% of those age 65 or over.

Notable landmarks

Historical Images (External Links)

Notable residents

External links

Various

Education

Lodging

Houses of Worship

Points of Interest

Golfing

Dining

Businesses

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Ode To Jint http://youtube.com/watch?v=dEHCDEgi6GU

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