Bethpage Purchase
Encyclopedia
The Bethpage Purchase was a 1687 land transaction, in which Thomas Powell
bought more than 15 square miles (38.8 km²) in central Long Island
, New York
for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Indian tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue
.
This land, which includes present day Bethpage
, East Farmingdale, Farmingdale
, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview
, South Farmingdale, and part of Melville
is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east to west and 5 miles (8 km) north to south, covering land on both sides of the present-day border between Nassau
and Suffolk
counties.
On October 18, 1695, Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, is recorded in the Queens
County Clerks office, and in it the Indians reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold.
At that time, people would fish in the Massatayun River that ran through the area, roughly where Route 135 now is, just west of Merritts Road.
Powell was a Quaker farmer, born August 1641 in Wales
, who had emigrated about 1661 to Huntington, New York
. He called the land he purchased Bethphage, because it was situated between two other places on Long Island, Jericho
and Jerusalem
, just as the biblical town of Bethphage
(meaning "house of figs") was situated between Jericho
and Jerusalem in Israel
. Today, the Long Island place formerly called Jerusalem is known as Wantagh and Island Trees
, while the placename Jericho, also a Quaker settlement at that time, still has that name. Over time, Bethpage was spelled without the second "H".
One of two houses Powell built in the area (circa 1700) still stands on Merritts Road in Farmingdale, just north of the Bethpage-Hempstead Turnpike
.
In 1699, in what is called the "Rim of the Woods Purchase", Powell also purchased from the Indians
land to the west of the original Bethpage Purchase - including most of present-day Bethpage, and all the land in the northern section of present-day Plainedge (Boundary Ave. north to Old Motor Parkway and Hicksville Road east to Cedar Drive).
Thomas Whitson bought one-third of the Bethpage Purchase in 1700, and died there in 1742 at the age of ninety.
After Powell's death in 1731, his remaining property was divided among his fourteen children and their heirs, and so it evolved into several farming communities. Three separate communities within the original Bethpage Purchase have, at one time or another, been named Bethpage. The first was the one centered in present-day Farmingdale around Merritts Road just north of the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike; the second was present-day Old Bethpage; the latest is present-day Bethpage.
A map using some present day landmarks is available here.
In the 1830s, anticipating construction of the Long Island Rail Road
(LIRR), land developer Ambrose George purchased a large tract of land in the eastern part of the Bethpage Purchase lands, between the community then known as Bethpage and a large area in Suffolk County called Hardscrabble.
He built a general store just east of the Bethpage community, and named his property Farmingdale. When the LIRR started service to the area in October 1841,
it used the name Farmingdale
for its latest stop, here, on the line it was building to Greenport
. Stagecoaches took people from the Farmingdale station to Islip, Babylon, Patchogue, Oyster Bay South, and West Neck (Huntington area). By December 1841, construction was completed to the next stop on the LIRR, a temporary stop called Babylon Station,
and later to a permanent station called Deer Park
,
reducing some, but not all,
stagecoach traffic from Farmingdale.
In March 1842, Ambrose George donated some of his land for the construction of the first Methodist meeting house in Farmingdale. Until that time, the only other place of worship was the Quaker Meeting House northwest of the Farmingdale LIRR station.
A post office opened July 31, 1845 using the name Farmingdale.
The name Hardscrabble continued to appear on maps for the area further east in Suffolk County, in the vicinity of present-day Wyandanch
.
In 1912, the New York State School of Agriculture on Long Island
opened in East Farmingdale.
In 1912, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
, a wealthy railroad executive, acquired 1368 acres (5.5 km²) of land
along the northern edge of Farmingdale extending into what is now Old Bethpage. Yoakum hired Devereux Emmet to design and build an 18 hole golf course on the land, which opened for play in 1923, and which Yoakum leased to the private Lenox Hills
Country Club.
When Yoakum died in 1929, there was conflict over usage of the leased lands. The Yoakum heirs eventually sold the property to the State of New York, and Bethpage State Park
opened there to the public in 1932, with more golf courses soon being constructed.
The Bedells, with 15 families in the area, were one of the larger families present when the federal census of 1790 was taken, and were later responsible for the first school in the district.
The area along Plainview Road, from Haypath Road to Central Avenue, was the first section of present-day Bethpage to be built up. In addition to the Bedells and the Powells, there were the Pearsalls, Whitsons, and Stymuses.
Bedelltown was the name of one of the local school districts
before the formation of the present Bethpage Union Free School District
.
That name, with variant spellings, appeared on maps in 1873,
1898,
1906,
at least as late as 1927,
and was still in use in 1928.
In 1841,
train service began to the Farmingdale LIRR station
.
In 1851, there is still no indication of any stop between Hicksville and Farmingdale.
By 1854, there is reference to a Jerusalem Station, likely near the current Bethpage LIRR station
.
On January 29, 1857, a local post office opened, also named Jerusalem Station.
LIRR schedules listed the station also as simply Jerusalem.
Residents succeeded in changing the name of the post office to Central Park, effective March 1, 1867 (respelled as Centralpark from 1895 to 1899).
By 1873, the Central Railroad of Long Island had a regularly scheduled stop, using both the name Central Park and Jerusalem, near Stewart Avenue and Motor Lane in Plainedge
, approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) south of the present Bethpage
station.
In 1907, William Kissam Vanderbilt II
began construction of the Long Island Motor Parkway
, one of the country's first highways. Nine miles of the road were completed from modern Westbury through Central Park to modern Old Bethpage in time to be used as part of the October 1908 Vanderbilt Cup
motor race course.
The road eventually stretched 45 miles (72.4 km) from Queens
to Lake Ronkonkoma, New York
. An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 people attended the races.
Famous people came out to Central Park to watch the races and stayed at the Beau Sejour Hotel.
The Central Park Fire Company was organized in April 1910, and incorporated in May 1911. In May 1923 the Central Park Water District was created.
Following the opening of nearby Bethpage State Park
in 1932, local residents again petitioned to change the name of the post office, this time to Bethpage. The name Bethpage was, however, already in use by an adjacent community, which resisted suggestions of a merger and instead renamed itself Old Bethpage
. The change from Central Park to Bethpage, effective October 1, 1936, was one of the last complete name changes of Nassau County's post offices.
From 1936 until 1994, Bethpage was home to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
, which made, among other things, the F-14 Tomcat
and the Apollo Lunar Module
for moon landings. (Bethpage is thus mentioned in the film Apollo 13
.) Cablevision Systems Corporation, a Fortune 500
company, is headquartered in Grumman's former main office.
of the Central Railroad of Long Island,
ran to a brickworks plant which had opened in the Old Bethpage area in the 1860s. The railway was built to transport bricks for the construction of A.T. Stewart's
Garden City
.
For a few years, regularly scheduled passenger traffic also appeared in timetables, with the station being called Bethpage. The line was abandoned in 1942. Remnants of a locomotive turntable can be found in the woods of Bethpage State Park
on the east side of Round Swamp Road.
The brickyard continued operations under different owners until 1981, with different sections known variously as Bethpage Brickworks, Queens County Brick Manufacturing Company,
Post Brick Company, and (after Nassau County split from Queens County in 1899) Nassau Brick Company.
At least for part of the 1930s, the brickworks used Farmingdale for its postal address.
The pitted terrain at the brickworks was useful to Grumman in the 1970s for studying the digital mapping of Earth.
The name Bethpage also features prominently as the name of the school district in a map of 1873.
In 1932, under the auspices of Long Island State Parks Commissioner, Robert Moses
, Bethpage State Park
, was opened. The 1400 acres (5.7 km²) park was built on the former estate of railroad tycoon Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
, and is located almost entirely within modern Old Bethpage. In 1936, the adjacent hamlet of Central Park petitioned the post office to change its name to Bethpage
.
Since there were only fifty residents in the original Bethpage, the post office suggested that the two communities merge and granted the request. Residents of the original Bethpage, resisting the merger suggestion, changed the name of their school district to Old Bethpage
. Residents also used Old Bethpage as their postal address, though, there being no such post office until 1965,
mail addressed to Old Bethpage was handled by the Plainview post office. , Old Bethpage and Plainview continue to have joint school, library, fire, and water districts.
There was no movement to rename Bethpage State Park, and so some mistakenly believe it is located mostly in Bethpage.
Old Bethpage is home to the Old Bethpage Village Restoration, opened in 1963, on a former Powell family farm. The restoration is an authentic recreation of a pre-Civil War, Long Island farming village, complete with original mid-19th century structures moved from various areas of the island, including farmhouses, a blacksmith, general store, cobbler, schoolhouse (1845), and church.
Costumed staff demonstrate crafts from that period.
Thomas Powell (1665-1731)
Thomas Powell was an English land owner during the colonial period of American history in the Province of New York. Thomas Powell purchased land in present day Huntington, Long Island in 1689 and in present day Oyster Bay, Long Island in 1695. Thomas Powell was a devote Quaker and called his land...
bought more than 15 square miles (38.8 km²) in central Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Indian tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue
Metoac
Metoac is the collective name for the group of culturally and linguistically related Native American settlements roughly east of what is now the Nassau County line on, Long Island in New York at the time of European contact in the 17th century. Metoac does not specifically refer to political,...
.
This land, which includes present day Bethpage
Bethpage, New York
Bethpage is a hamlet located on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States, as well as a census-designated place with borders slightly different from those of the hamlet...
, East Farmingdale, Farmingdale
Farmingdale, New York
The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...
, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview
Plainview, New York
Plainview is a hamlet located on Long Island in the town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, USA. The population of the CDP as of 2010 was 26,217. The Plainview post office has the ZIP code 11803....
, South Farmingdale, and part of Melville
Melville, New York
Melville is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Huntington in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, 14,533 people resided there.-Location:...
is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east to west and 5 miles (8 km) north to south, covering land on both sides of the present-day border between Nassau
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
and Suffolk
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
counties.
On October 18, 1695, Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, is recorded in the Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
County Clerks office, and in it the Indians reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold.
At that time, people would fish in the Massatayun River that ran through the area, roughly where Route 135 now is, just west of Merritts Road.
Powell was a Quaker farmer, born August 1641 in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, who had emigrated about 1661 to Huntington, New York
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
. He called the land he purchased Bethphage, because it was situated between two other places on Long Island, Jericho
Jericho, New York
Jericho is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the CDP population was 13,567. The area is served by the Jericho Union Free School District, the boundaries of which differ somewhat from those of the hamlet...
and Jerusalem
Wantagh, New York
Wantagh is a hamlet and census-designated place in Nassau County, New York, United States...
, just as the biblical town of Bethphage
Bethphage
Bethphage was a place in ancient Israel, mentioned as the place from which Jesus sent the disciples to find a donkey and a colt with her upon which he would ride into Jerusalem....
(meaning "house of figs") was situated between Jericho
Jericho
Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...
and Jerusalem in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Today, the Long Island place formerly called Jerusalem is known as Wantagh and Island Trees
Island Trees Union Free School District
Island Trees Union Free School District is a school district in central Nassau County on Long Island, approximately 31 miles east of New York City. The district includes parts of the following hamlets; Levittown, Bethpage and Seaford....
, while the placename Jericho, also a Quaker settlement at that time, still has that name. Over time, Bethpage was spelled without the second "H".
One of two houses Powell built in the area (circa 1700) still stands on Merritts Road in Farmingdale, just north of the Bethpage-Hempstead Turnpike
New York State Route 24
New York State Route 24 is an east–west state highway on Long Island in New York in the United States. The route is split into two segments, with the longest and westernmost of the two extending from Interstate 295 and NY 25 in the Queens Village section of the New York City...
.
In 1699, in what is called the "Rim of the Woods Purchase", Powell also purchased from the Indians
land to the west of the original Bethpage Purchase - including most of present-day Bethpage, and all the land in the northern section of present-day Plainedge (Boundary Ave. north to Old Motor Parkway and Hicksville Road east to Cedar Drive).
Thomas Whitson bought one-third of the Bethpage Purchase in 1700, and died there in 1742 at the age of ninety.
After Powell's death in 1731, his remaining property was divided among his fourteen children and their heirs, and so it evolved into several farming communities. Three separate communities within the original Bethpage Purchase have, at one time or another, been named Bethpage. The first was the one centered in present-day Farmingdale around Merritts Road just north of the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike; the second was present-day Old Bethpage; the latest is present-day Bethpage.
The deed
The deed reads as follows:A map using some present day landmarks is available here.
Bethpage and Hardscrabble: modern Farmingdale
The original Bethpage Friends Meeting House, on Quaker Meeting House Road, Farmingdale, built in 1741, was the first house of worship constructed in the Bethpage Purchase area. The present structure, built in 1890, is the third meeting house at this site, the previous two having been destroyed by fire. It is nearly surrounded by Farmingdale's oldest cemetery.In the 1830s, anticipating construction of the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
(LIRR), land developer Ambrose George purchased a large tract of land in the eastern part of the Bethpage Purchase lands, between the community then known as Bethpage and a large area in Suffolk County called Hardscrabble.
He built a general store just east of the Bethpage community, and named his property Farmingdale. When the LIRR started service to the area in October 1841,
it used the name Farmingdale
Farmingdale (LIRR station)
The Farmingdale Railroad Station is a historic railroad station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located off Secatogue Avenue, on Front Street and Atlantic Avenue, in Farmingdale, New York, however, the actual station is on Eastern Parkway...
for its latest stop, here, on the line it was building to Greenport
Greenport, Suffolk County, New York
Greenport is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on the north fork of Long Island. The population was 2,048 at the 2000 census....
. Stagecoaches took people from the Farmingdale station to Islip, Babylon, Patchogue, Oyster Bay South, and West Neck (Huntington area). By December 1841, construction was completed to the next stop on the LIRR, a temporary stop called Babylon Station,
and later to a permanent station called Deer Park
Deer Park (LIRR station)
Deer Park is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located at Pineaire Drive, Executive Avenue, and Long Island Avenue near Deer Park, New York...
,
reducing some, but not all,
stagecoach traffic from Farmingdale.
In March 1842, Ambrose George donated some of his land for the construction of the first Methodist meeting house in Farmingdale. Until that time, the only other place of worship was the Quaker Meeting House northwest of the Farmingdale LIRR station.
A post office opened July 31, 1845 using the name Farmingdale.
The name Hardscrabble continued to appear on maps for the area further east in Suffolk County, in the vicinity of present-day Wyandanch
Wyandanch, New York
Wyandanch is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 10,546 at the 2000 census.-History:...
.
In 1912, the New York State School of Agriculture on Long Island
State University of New York at Farmingdale
Farmingdale State College, formerly the State University of New York at Farmingdale or SUNY Farmingdale, is a college of the State University of New York that is located on Long Island in East Farmingdale, New York, with a small section in Old Bethpage.The college dates from 1912 as a school of...
opened in East Farmingdale.
In 1912, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
Benjamin Franklin Yoakum was a visionary railroad executive of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who attempted to join the Frisco and Rock Island Railroads into a great system stretching from Chicago to Mexico...
, a wealthy railroad executive, acquired 1368 acres (5.5 km²) of land
along the northern edge of Farmingdale extending into what is now Old Bethpage. Yoakum hired Devereux Emmet to design and build an 18 hole golf course on the land, which opened for play in 1923, and which Yoakum leased to the private Lenox Hills
Lenox Hills
Lenox Hills is a neighborhood on the northern edge of Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. The first subdivision there was established in the late 1920s on land adjacent to an 18-hole golf course then known as the Lenox Hills Country Club. During the Depression of the 1930s, this golf course was...
Country Club.
When Yoakum died in 1929, there was conflict over usage of the leased lands. The Yoakum heirs eventually sold the property to the State of New York, and Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park is a New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. The park contains tennis courts, picnic and recreational areas and a polo field, but is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course, which hosted the 2002...
opened there to the public in 1932, with more golf courses soon being constructed.
Bedelltown, Jerusalem Station (and Jerusalem), Central Park: modern Bethpage
An early name for the northern section of present-day Bethpage was Bedelltown, a name in use for over 100 years.The Bedells, with 15 families in the area, were one of the larger families present when the federal census of 1790 was taken, and were later responsible for the first school in the district.
The area along Plainview Road, from Haypath Road to Central Avenue, was the first section of present-day Bethpage to be built up. In addition to the Bedells and the Powells, there were the Pearsalls, Whitsons, and Stymuses.
Bedelltown was the name of one of the local school districts
before the formation of the present Bethpage Union Free School District
Bethpage Union Free School District
The Bethpage Union Free School District in Bethpage, New York contains 5 schools. The boundaries of the school district include parts of some surrounding hamlets ....
.
That name, with variant spellings, appeared on maps in 1873,
1898,
1906,
at least as late as 1927,
and was still in use in 1928.
In 1841,
train service began to the Farmingdale LIRR station
Farmingdale (LIRR station)
The Farmingdale Railroad Station is a historic railroad station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located off Secatogue Avenue, on Front Street and Atlantic Avenue, in Farmingdale, New York, however, the actual station is on Eastern Parkway...
.
In 1851, there is still no indication of any stop between Hicksville and Farmingdale.
By 1854, there is reference to a Jerusalem Station, likely near the current Bethpage LIRR station
Bethpage (LIRR station)
Bethpage Station is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains...
.
On January 29, 1857, a local post office opened, also named Jerusalem Station.
LIRR schedules listed the station also as simply Jerusalem.
Residents succeeded in changing the name of the post office to Central Park, effective March 1, 1867 (respelled as Centralpark from 1895 to 1899).
By 1873, the Central Railroad of Long Island had a regularly scheduled stop, using both the name Central Park and Jerusalem, near Stewart Avenue and Motor Lane in Plainedge
Plainedge, New York
Plainedge is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 8,817 at the 2010 census.Plainedge is a census-designated place located in the Town of Oyster Bay, residents are served by the Bethpage , Massapequa , and Seaford Post Offices, with a small number of residents...
, approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) south of the present Bethpage
Bethpage (LIRR station)
Bethpage Station is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains...
station.
In 1907, William Kissam Vanderbilt II
William Kissam Vanderbilt II
William Kissam Vanderbilt II was a motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman and a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family.-Biography:...
began construction of the Long Island Motor Parkway
Long Island Motor Parkway
The Long Island Motor Parkway , also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway and Motor Parkway, was the first roadway designed for automobile use only. It was privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt with overpasses and bridges to remove intersections...
, one of the country's first highways. Nine miles of the road were completed from modern Westbury through Central Park to modern Old Bethpage in time to be used as part of the October 1908 Vanderbilt Cup
Vanderbilt Cup
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing.-History:An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held at a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The announcement that the race was to be held caused...
motor race course.
The road eventually stretched 45 miles (72.4 km) from Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
to Lake Ronkonkoma, New York
Lake Ronkonkoma, New York
Lake Ronkonkoma is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 19,701 at the 2000 census.Lake Ronkonkoma is located in the town of Brookhaven, but has small sections in the Town of Smithtown....
. An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 people attended the races.
Famous people came out to Central Park to watch the races and stayed at the Beau Sejour Hotel.
The Central Park Fire Company was organized in April 1910, and incorporated in May 1911. In May 1923 the Central Park Water District was created.
Following the opening of nearby Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park is a New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. The park contains tennis courts, picnic and recreational areas and a polo field, but is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course, which hosted the 2002...
in 1932, local residents again petitioned to change the name of the post office, this time to Bethpage. The name Bethpage was, however, already in use by an adjacent community, which resisted suggestions of a merger and instead renamed itself Old Bethpage
Old Bethpage, New York
Old Bethpage is a hamlet located on Long Island in the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, USA. The population of the CDP was 5,523 at the 2010 census.It is served by the Old Bethpage Post Office, ZIP code 11804....
. The change from Central Park to Bethpage, effective October 1, 1936, was one of the last complete name changes of Nassau County's post offices.
From 1936 until 1994, Bethpage was home to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U.S. producer of military and civilian aircraft...
, which made, among other things, the F-14 Tomcat
F-14 Tomcat
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental program following the collapse of the F-111B project...
and the Apollo Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
for moon landings. (Bethpage is thus mentioned in the film Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
.) Cablevision Systems Corporation, a Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company, is headquartered in Grumman's former main office.
Bethpage: modern Old Bethpage
A railroad spur completed in 1873, known as the Bethpage BranchBethpage Branch
The Bethpage Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road , running from the present-day split between the Ronkonkoma Branch and Central Branch north about 1¾ miles to present-day Old Bethpage, New York.This branch was originally built by the Central Railroad of Long Island in...
of the Central Railroad of Long Island,
ran to a brickworks plant which had opened in the Old Bethpage area in the 1860s. The railway was built to transport bricks for the construction of A.T. Stewart's
Alexander Turney Stewart
Alexander Turney Stewart was a successful Irish American entrepreneur who made his multi-million fortune in what was at the time the most extensive and lucrative dry goods business in the world....
Garden City
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
.
For a few years, regularly scheduled passenger traffic also appeared in timetables, with the station being called Bethpage. The line was abandoned in 1942. Remnants of a locomotive turntable can be found in the woods of Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park is a New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. The park contains tennis courts, picnic and recreational areas and a polo field, but is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course, which hosted the 2002...
on the east side of Round Swamp Road.
The brickyard continued operations under different owners until 1981, with different sections known variously as Bethpage Brickworks, Queens County Brick Manufacturing Company,
Post Brick Company, and (after Nassau County split from Queens County in 1899) Nassau Brick Company.
At least for part of the 1930s, the brickworks used Farmingdale for its postal address.
The pitted terrain at the brickworks was useful to Grumman in the 1970s for studying the digital mapping of Earth.
The name Bethpage also features prominently as the name of the school district in a map of 1873.
In 1932, under the auspices of Long Island State Parks Commissioner, Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
, Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park
Bethpage State Park is a New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. The park contains tennis courts, picnic and recreational areas and a polo field, but is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course, which hosted the 2002...
, was opened. The 1400 acres (5.7 km²) park was built on the former estate of railroad tycoon Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
Benjamin Franklin Yoakum
Benjamin Franklin Yoakum was a visionary railroad executive of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who attempted to join the Frisco and Rock Island Railroads into a great system stretching from Chicago to Mexico...
, and is located almost entirely within modern Old Bethpage. In 1936, the adjacent hamlet of Central Park petitioned the post office to change its name to Bethpage
Bethpage, New York
Bethpage is a hamlet located on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States, as well as a census-designated place with borders slightly different from those of the hamlet...
.
Since there were only fifty residents in the original Bethpage, the post office suggested that the two communities merge and granted the request. Residents of the original Bethpage, resisting the merger suggestion, changed the name of their school district to Old Bethpage
Old Bethpage, New York
Old Bethpage is a hamlet located on Long Island in the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, USA. The population of the CDP was 5,523 at the 2010 census.It is served by the Old Bethpage Post Office, ZIP code 11804....
. Residents also used Old Bethpage as their postal address, though, there being no such post office until 1965,
mail addressed to Old Bethpage was handled by the Plainview post office. , Old Bethpage and Plainview continue to have joint school, library, fire, and water districts.
There was no movement to rename Bethpage State Park, and so some mistakenly believe it is located mostly in Bethpage.
Old Bethpage is home to the Old Bethpage Village Restoration, opened in 1963, on a former Powell family farm. The restoration is an authentic recreation of a pre-Civil War, Long Island farming village, complete with original mid-19th century structures moved from various areas of the island, including farmhouses, a blacksmith, general store, cobbler, schoolhouse (1845), and church.
Costumed staff demonstrate crafts from that period.
