Hempstead (village)
| Hempstead, New York | ||
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| Village | ||
| Incorporated Village of Hempstead | ||
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_highlighted.svg) Location in Nassau County and the state of New York. |
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| Coordinates: 40°42′17″N 73°37′2″W / 40.70472°N 73.61722°WCoordinates: 40°42′17″N 73°37′2″W / 40.70472°N 73.61722°W | ||
| Country | United States | |
| State | New York | |
| Region | Long Island | |
| County | Nassau County | |
| Settled | 1643 | |
| Incorporated | 1853 | |
| Named for | Heemstede, Netherlands | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Wayne Hall (D) | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 3.68 sq mi (9.53 km2) | |
| Population (2010 est.) | ||
| • Total | 53,891 | |
| • Density | 14,356/sq mi (5,547/km2) | |
| Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) | |
| • Summer (DST) | Eastern (UTC-4) | |
| FIPS code | 36-33139 | |
| Website | villageofhempstead |
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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, making it the most populated village in New York.
Hofstra University is located in Hempstead.
In the fall of 1643, Robert Fordham and John Carman crossed Long Island Sound by rowboat to negotiate with the local Indians for a tract of land upon which to establish a new community or "town spot". Representatives of the Marsapeague (Massapequa), Mericock (Merrick), Matinecock and Rekowake (Rockaway) tribes met with the two men at a site slightly west of the current Denton Green in Hempstead Village. Tackapousha who was the sachem (chief) of the Marsapeague was the spokesman for the other tribes. The Indians sold approximately 64,000 acres (260 km²), the present day towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead, for items worth less than $100 in today's market, although they were very valuable to the Native Americans in terms of the contemporary markets for European "trinkets," which held symbolic and spiritual importance to Native America peoples in the Northeast.
This transaction is depicted in a mural in Hempstead Village Hall, reproduced from a poster commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hempstead.
In the spring of 1644, thirty to forty families left Stamford, Connecticut, crossed Long Island Sound, landed in Hempstead Harbor and eventually made their way to the present site of the village of Hempstead where they began their English settlement within Dutch-controlled New Netherland. The settling of Hempstead marked the beginnings of the oldest English settlement in what is now Nassau County. Subsequent trips across the Sound brought more settlers who prepared a fort here for their mutual protection. These original Hempstead settlers were Puritans in search of a place where they could more freely express their particular brand of Protestantism. They established a Presbyterian church that is the oldest continually active Presbyterian congregation in the nation. In 1843, Benjamin F. Thompson wrote and published a history of the village, and an account of contemporary Hempstead Village. Thompson reported that there were 200 dwellings, and 1,400 residents; that the village was connected to New York City by a Turnpike and a railroad; that it had dry soil, excellent water, and pure air; and that it was the principal place of mercantile, and mechanical business, in the county. The village of Hempstead was incorporated on May 6, 1853, becoming the first community in Queens County (Nassau County did not exist as a separate county until 1899) to do so.
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