Westbury, Long Island
| Westbury, New York | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
| Incorporated Village of Westbury | |
 Location in Nassau County and the state of New York. |
|
 Westbury, New York
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| Coordinates: 40°45′32″N 73°35′17″W / 40.75889°N 73.58806°WCoordinates: 40°45′32″N 73°35′17″W / 40.75889°N 73.58806°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Nassau |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.4 sq mi (6.2 km2) |
| • Land | 2.4 sq mi (6.2 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 102 ft (31 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 15,146 |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP codes | 11500-11599-11590 |
| Area code(s) | 516 |
| FIPS code | 36-79444 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0970896 |
| Website | www |
Westbury incorporated in 1932 as a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 15,146 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Westbury is in the Town of North Hempstead. It is located about 18 miles(40 km) east of Manhattan.
The first settlers arrived in 1658 in the region known as the Hempstead Plains. Many of the early settlers were Quakers.
Westbury's Jericho Turnpike, which provides connection to Mineola and Syosset as well as to the Long Island Expressway (or LIE), was once a trail used by the Massapequa Indians. As far back as the 17th century, it served as a divider between the early homesteads north of the Turnpike and the great plains to its south. Today, it serves as a state highway complex.
In 1657, Captain John Seaman purchased 12,000 acres (49 km2) from the Algonquian Tribe of the Massapequa Indians. In 1658, Richard Stites and his family built their homestead in this area. Theirs was the only family farm until an English Quaker, Edmond Titus, and his son Samuel, joined them and settled in an area of Hempstead Plains known to us today as the Village of Westbury. In 1675 Henry Willis, also an English Quaker, named the area "Westbury", after Westbury, Wiltshire, his hometown in England. Other Quaker families who were also seeking a place to freely express their religious beliefs joined the Tituses and Willises. The first Society of Friends meeting house was built in 1700. The early history of Westbury and that of the Friends are so interconnected that they are essentially the same.
These settlers, like many other landowners throughout the colonies, owned slaves. In 1775, compelled by their religious beliefs, the Quakers freed all 154 African-Americans that they owned. Many of these freed men and women built their own homesteads on the open land near the sheep grazing pastures. Their new community consisted of farms and dairies. In 1834, with Quaker assistance, they and their descendants built the New Light Baptist Church. Now known as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the building still stands on the corner of Union Avenue and Cross Street.
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