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Main Street Historic District (Roslyn, New York)
Encyclopedia
The Main Street Historic District is one of two such districts in the village
of Roslyn, New York. It is, as its name suggests, located along Main Street between North Hempstead Turnpike (NY 25A
) and East Broadway, incorporating Tower Street and portions of Glen Avenue and Paper Mill Road.
It is mostly residential, with some commercial development at its northern end. The 50 buildings within it are mostly houses, many built during the 19th century before the Civil War
, in the Federal and Greek Revival
style
s. Main Street has changed very little despite the heavy growth of surrounding areas of Nassau County
. The district was created in the early 1970s and added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1974.
In the early 20th century, a small park was created out of some of the Roslyn Pond land as part of a malaria
control project. It contains a replica of Roslyn's original paper mill, and is included within the district.
and other communities to the south. The Main Street area was where this settlement took place. The oldest property in the district, a section of the Van Nostrand-Starkins House, dates to 1680, during this period.
In 1700 the village's first gristmill
was built. Hendrick Onderdonk took it over in the 1750s, and was able to open up a paper mill
in 1773, the first real industry in the village. Around that time the first extant house along Main Street, now numbered 150 Main Street, was built as well, by Wilson Williams, a cooper
who worked for Onderdonk. George Washington
stayed there in 1790, and his diary mentions the two mills.
The 19th century saw the houses along Main Street quadruple in number. Most of them were built by local builders or merchants, with only one, John Hendrickson's home at 110 Main, intended as an estate
of the kind found elsewhere along Long Island's North Shore
. The stone clock tower
which serves as Roslyn's most identifiable landmark was erected at the junction of Main and Old Northern in 1895.
Land use remained in the primarily residential pattern throughout the 20th century. In the late 1960s the Roslyn Landmark Society worked to protect and preserve
the extant structures, culminating in the Register listing. The Roslyn Village Historic District
, added 15 years later in 1987, also included the Main Street district as a component area.
a provision protecting the buildings in both its historic districts. They are recognized in its zoning
and any additions, demolition or alterations are subject to approval by the six-member Historic District Board. The Roslyn Landmark Society also holds a restrictive covenant on some of the properties.
Roslyn, New York
Roslyn is a village in Nassau County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the village population was 2,770...
of Roslyn, New York. It is, as its name suggests, located along Main Street between North Hempstead Turnpike (NY 25A
New York State Route 25A
New York State Route 25A is a state highway on Long Island in New York in the United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running from the Queens Midtown Tunnel in the New York City borough of Queens at its western terminus to...
) and East Broadway, incorporating Tower Street and portions of Glen Avenue and Paper Mill Road.
It is mostly residential, with some commercial development at its northern end. The 50 buildings within it are mostly houses, many built during the 19th century before the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, in the Federal and Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s. Main Street has changed very little despite the heavy growth of surrounding areas of Nassau County
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...
. The district was created in the early 1970s and added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1974.
Geography
The Main Street area is bounded on the east by the waters of Roslyn Pond and on the west by steep upward slopes. There are no through cross streets, save Old Northern Boulevard, intersecting Main between North Hempstead and East Broadway. This geographic separation has been credited with helping the district retain its historic character.In the early 20th century, a small park was created out of some of the Roslyn Pond land as part of a malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
control project. It contains a replica of Roslyn's original paper mill, and is included within the district.
History
What has since become Roslyn was first settled in the mid-17th century as Hempstead Harbor, a port community serving HempsteadHempstead (village), New York
Hempstead is a village located in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 53,891 at the 2010 census.Hofstra University is located on the border between Hempstead and Uniondale.-Foundation:...
and other communities to the south. The Main Street area was where this settlement took place. The oldest property in the district, a section of the Van Nostrand-Starkins House, dates to 1680, during this period.
In 1700 the village's first gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
was built. Hendrick Onderdonk took it over in the 1750s, and was able to open up a paper mill
Paper mill
A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...
in 1773, the first real industry in the village. Around that time the first extant house along Main Street, now numbered 150 Main Street, was built as well, by Wilson Williams, a cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
who worked for Onderdonk. George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
stayed there in 1790, and his diary mentions the two mills.
The 19th century saw the houses along Main Street quadruple in number. Most of them were built by local builders or merchants, with only one, John Hendrickson's home at 110 Main, intended as an estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
of the kind found elsewhere along Long Island's North Shore
North Shore (Long Island)
The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
. The stone clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
which serves as Roslyn's most identifiable landmark was erected at the junction of Main and Old Northern in 1895.
Land use remained in the primarily residential pattern throughout the 20th century. In the late 1960s the Roslyn Landmark Society worked to protect and preserve
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
the extant structures, culminating in the Register listing. The Roslyn Village Historic District
Roslyn Village Historic District
The Roslyn Village Historic District encompasses the center of that village in the U.S. state of New York. It includes within its boundaries the earlier Main Street Historic District, although that is considered a separate district by the National Park Service, which added the Roslyn Village...
, added 15 years later in 1987, also included the Main Street district as a component area.
Significant contributing properties
Several of the district's properties are notable within it:- Ellen J. Ward Memorial Clock Tower: Built in 1895 of random ashlarAshlarAshlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
graniteGraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and limestoneLimestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
trim and located at the intersection of Main and Old Northern, it has become one of Roslyn's most visible local landmarkLandmarkThis is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
s. The tower was designed by the New York firm of Lamb & Rich, and the clock mechanism itself by the Seth ThomasSeth Thomas (clockmaker)Seth Thomas was an American clock maker and a pioneer of mass production at his Seth Thomas Clock Company.-Biography:Thomas was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1785. He started in the clock business in 1807, working for clockmaker Eli Terry...
Clock Company. - William G. Valentine Store. One of the rare brick buildings from 19th-century Roslyn. Valentine reportedly acquired the brick at low cost during the economic downtimes that preceded the Civil War, and from them built his store as well as the neighboring buildings at 19, 21 and 23 Main Street.
- Obidian W. Valentine House, 105 Main Street. A clapboardClapboard (architecture)Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
Greek RevivalGreek Revival architectureThe Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
structure built between 1833–36, its one-and-a-half-story height appears a story higher due to its construction into the steep slope on the west side of the street at this point. Several other nearby houses emulated the design. - Warren Wilkey House, 190 Main Street. Built for a successful New York businessman around 1865, this wood frame house is unusually large and ornate by Main Street standards. It actually is two and a half stories high, with a mansard roofMansard roofA mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
and elaborated belvedereBelvedere (structure)Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
. In 1925 it was converted into three apartmentApartmentAn apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s. - Van Nostrand-Starkins House, 221 Main Street. A one-and-a-half-story clapboard structure begun in 1680, making it the oldest in the village, it was purchased by blacksmithBlacksmithA blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
Joseph Starkins in 1795. A later frame wing has been moved back, and the house has been restored to its 1810 appearance by the Roslyn Landmark Society. It is currently used as a museum.
Preservation
Roslyn has added to its ordinancesLocal ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
a provision protecting the buildings in both its historic districts. They are recognized in its zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
and any additions, demolition or alterations are subject to approval by the six-member Historic District Board. The Roslyn Landmark Society also holds a restrictive covenant on some of the properties.
External links
- Warren Wilkey House, 190 Main Street, Roslyn, Nassau, NY: 5 photos, 3 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- James & William Smith Barn, 106 Main Street, Roslyn, Nassau, NY: 1 drawing, 1 photo, 1 data page, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- James & William Smith House, 106 Main Street, Roslyn, Nassau, NY: 10 drawings, 4 photos, 3 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey