Hempstead Lake Park Homes II

As a follow up to the previous post, the view above is another photo of the Hempstead Lake Park Homes development and highlights one of its most beautiful and attractive features - its private lake, located just off Colonial Drive near the Woodfield Road entrance. Developer Reuben Hillman took advantage of the fact that Schodack Brook, a rivulet fed by a natural spring, ran through his property. As a result, he carved out of it a man-made lake with a 50 foot beach for private recreation of the homeowners. The wooden bridge above was built by Hillman and a newspaper reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle was so struck by the beauty of the scene that he called it "a slice of old Connecticut transplanted to Long Island" and "suggestive of Shakespeare's Garden of Arden".

Schodack Brook, like its sister rivulets Pine Brook to the west and Horse Brook to the east, was once a continuously flowing stream that originated somewhere in the Hempstead Plains - a sandy barren at the center of the Island. It then meandered its way through West Hempstead before forming a series of small ponds in Lakeview. In the 1960s, the installation of sewers across Nassau County caused a dramatic drop in groundwater levels and thereafter our local streams no longer flowed continuously without the help of rainwater runoff, and many of the lovely ponds that once graced our landscape are now mere shells of what they once were. In some cases, such as with Pine's Pond in Malverne and Johnson's Pond in West Hempstead, the body of water was deliberately drained to make way for development. In other cases, such as with the ponds formed along Schodack Brook, the ponds are dying a slow death by asphyxiation. Below is a "now" view of Hempstead Lake Park Homes' private pond as it looks today.

Hempstead Lake Park Homes I

The view above, looking west toward Woodfield Road from Hillman St. along Colonial Drive in Lakeview and shows a section of the brand new Hempstead Lake Park Homes development as it appeared in 1931. On May 5th of that year, the development was incorporated by Reuben Hillman with a capitalization of $20,000 and with rapid speed, a number of houses were already built by September 6th when 2,000 people came out to inspect the homes. The name of the principle street of this neighborhood was chosen for the colonial designs of its homes, and another, Hillman St., was named, well - you guessed it, after its developer.

The premier attraction of this new neighborhood, as indicated by its chosen name, was its proximity to Hempstead Lake State Park, to which it had easy access via a back entrance at the end of Colonial Dr. The deal for the park's development occurred in Nov. 1925 and two years later, on Nov. 6 1927, the first section of the Southern State Parkway, from the Queens border to Hempstead Lake, was formally dedicated by Gov. Al Smith. In the following couple years, Hempstead Lake State Park began to take shape with a number of prized amenities such as playgrounds, clay tennis courts, ballfields and bridle trails. Local landowners immediately saw the value of their properties rise and these and similar types of housing developments began sprouting up throughout the area.

Below is the "now" shot to the picture above, showing the block virtually unchanged. The only difference is something you need to pay close attention to; in the "then" shot, you will notice at the end of Colonial Drive an island of trees that used to adorn the entrance to the colony at Woodfield Rd, which is no longer there.

West Hempstead's Grandest Home

The above picture shows a rare front view of what was likely West Hempstead's grandest home, built in the mid 1800's for and by the planner of Garden City, John Kellum. The house was a relic that seemed to fit in more among the grandiose Gold Coast mansions of Long Island's North Shore than among its humble West Hempstead surroundings.

Kellum was a native of Hempstead and a close associate of A.T. Stewart, the founder of Garden City. It was Kellum who convinced Stewart to purchase a large swath of the Hempstead Plains for his planned village in 1869. In a posthumous writeup of Kellum after his untimely death in 1871, the Brooklyn Eagle described his house as "..if not the finest, certainly the most comfortable house in the United States...a miracle of comfort and ingenuity". The house was built upon a foundation of ten feet of sand trucked in from the seashore, to protect it from moisture. It was piped throughout for plumbing and well-water was supplied via a state-of-the-art, self regulating windmill. Every window was equipped with a burglar alarm, an innovation that was almost unheard of in the mid 19th Century. His property spanned what is known today as the Cathedral Gardens section and when the A. T. Stewart deal was finalized, he deeded land to the Town to build Rockaway Avenue through his property as the southern approach to the new village.

Kellum's daughter Hannah inherited the home along with his son-in-law, Dr. Gerrit D. Van Vranken, a physician from Saratoga. Shortly after Van Vranken moved to Hempstead in 1877, he abandoned his trained profession and founded the Nassau Lumber Company and made a fortune. (The Nassau Lumber Co. was eventually taken over by fellow Dutchman and founder of Hofstra University, William S. Hofstra). Van Vranken was a prominent citizen of Hempstead and among the positions he served was as president of the board of trustees at the M. E. Church in Hempstead and also as superintendent of their Sunday school, and a director of the Hempstead Bank. He died in 1901 and his widow, Hannah, continued to live at the estate until her passing in 1915. Her will of over $1 million showed that she was one of the richest women in the region and was one of a handful of females who attained the status of millionairess in the early 20th century.

In 1926, the entire estate was sold at a hefty sum of $8,000/acre to a developer who subdivided and built the fine residences of the Cathedral Gardens section. Realizing the value of their properties, many other landowners in West Hempstead were inspired by the Cathedral Gardens deal to sell off their farms and estates as well. Thus began the transformation of West Hempstead from a quiet farm hamlet to a booming suburban community.

Below is a contemporary photo the approximate location of the Kellum/ Van Vranken estate, looking north across Hempstead Turnpike just east of Rockaway Avenue.

A Rare Old Sketch of Halls Pond and the Hall-Wall Feud

Note: This coming year will mark the 50th anniversary of Halls Pond Park as a county park.



The image above comes from the September 20, 1896 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle and is a rare sketch of Halls Pond in the 19th Century, perhaps the earliest known image of the pond in existence. Back then, it was called Wood's Pond and was but one of a series of ponds that formed along Pine Stream which eventually emptied into Smith's Pond in Rockville Centre, one of the storage reservoirs of the Brooklyn Water Works. The 1896 article as well as a follow-up article from June 25, 1899 focused on the water quality of the Brooklyn water system, about which some argued that the growth of vegetation in the tributary ponds was contributing to the foul odor and taste and questionable healthfulness of the water. The picture above, showing the pond blanketed in lilies, was presented as evidence of the typical type of vegetation prevalent in many of the ponds of the South Shore. (If you wish to see a similar example of a local pond carpeted in water lilies, go to Hempstead Lake State Park and hike down to Schodack Pond, a small body of water tucked away in a wooded area of the park). But, as a sanitary engineer interviewed in the 1899 piece correctly pointed out, the lilies and other vegetation, rather than polluting the water, actually worked as a purification system by aerating and filtering the water as it flowed down to the storage reservoir.

Now, a little about the name. The pond was originally called Wood's Pond after it's original owner, former Town of Hempstead supervisor Martin V. Wood. Wood willed the property to his daughter and son-in-law, William S. and Jeanette Hall. Their son, Martin V. W. Hall, president of the Hempstead Bank, became the eventual owner. In the 1920's, the Halls' beautiful Mansard style home across the street was sold to Charles S. and Eva Wall (Eva was the granddaughter of President John Tyler) and thereafter, it seems, the pond became known as Walls Pond. In the 50's the home fell vacant and eventually burned down.

Toward the end of that decade, Nassau County began buying up the pond and surrounding land to create a new park. By that time, the Wood/ Hall sole surviving heir, Martin Hall's son Bruce, had moved to Syosset while one of Wall's sons, Charles Jr., remained local. When the County dedicated the park in 1961, they chose the name Halls Pond. Evidently, Bruce Hall's prominent standing in the county (he continued for years as president of the Hempstead Bank until his retirement in the 80's) was enough to persuade the County to use the park name to pay tribute to his family. Charles Wall Jr. promptly fired off an irate letter to the County stating that for the previous three decades the pond was called "Walls Pond", and demanded to know why it was being changed now. Further, he alleged that the Halls were not worthy of the tribute anyway, since they were snobbish and wealthy elitists who fit in more in the exclusive North Shore estates where Bruce eventually moved than among the average, middle-class folk of the South Shore. Wall's argument fell on deaf ears at the County and ever since, the name Halls Pond has stuck. The Walls did get a token local tribute in the naming of West Hempstead's "Wall St.", a small avenue off Nassau Blvd. near where their home once stood.

Below is a "now" shot of Woods-Halls-Walls-Halls Pond , approximating the location of the "then" shot above. Photo is taken from Tara Conry's wonderful, new local online news publication Malverne/West Hempstead Patch.

The Wilcox Bungalow in Hempstead Gardens

The following article originally appeared in the Fall 2010 edition of the West Hempstead Community Support Association newsletter.


In 1910 the famed book publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday relocated his successful publishing house from Manhattan to the small Long Island village of Garden City. The move brought Doubleday's firm closer to his Long Island roots and was in line with his company philosophy that emphasized the joys of country living, a philosophy emblemized by its flagship publication - the twice-monthly magazine called Country Life in America. A move from Manhattan out to the country for an employer of over 600 workers was not without risks, however, as Doubleday would have to make due with a talent pool on Long Island that was considerably smaller than that of the region's great metropolis. So, to help attract area talent, Doubleday created a work environment that was at the cutting edge for a company in the early 20th century. The grounds were neatly manicured and decorated with ornate gardens with flora and fauna from all over the world. A completely separate railroad station was built for the location (which still exists today as Country Life Press). The campus came equipped with a baseball diamond, tennis courts and lawn bowling greens. A registered nurse was stationed on site and a doctor and dentist was on call to service employees.

With all these amenities, its no surprise why so many existing Doubleday employees opted to stay on and relocate with their company. For many of these employees, the hunt was on to find affordable housing in the area. The grandiose estates of Garden City village were out of reach to all but the most affluent of them. It was estimated that choice lots in Garden City commanded between $5,000- $10,000 an acre. So, many set their sights to the south where properties were much more affordable, in the small, up and coming residential neighborhoods of West Hempstead and Hempstead Gardens. One such employee was a 36 year-old proof reader named Robert H. Wilcox, who moved out with his wife and son from Hasbrouk Heights, N.J. At first, Wilcox rented one of the homes on Hempstead Avenue owned by the Hutcheson family, near the current location of the Chestnut Street School. In 1912, he purchased a two acre plot of land for $1,600 that was tucked away in the northeast corner of Hempstead Gardens. The location at the time was strikingly rural and was nestled in a forested area called Parson's Woods (the area would later be developed as the Hempstead Golf & Country Club. Aside from the recently platted street (Cedar St.), little else existed in the way of infrastructure improvements for the property. The gas and lighting district would not come for another couple years. It would be over a decade before the water district was formed. There was no sewer line on the street. To access to the property one had to traverse a dangerous railroad crossing of the LIRR's West Hempstead branch. As such, a hand-pumped water-well was built to provide the water supply. A sceptic tank was installed to handle the sewage. The house was piped for gas, in anticipation of the day that the gas district would come on line. Floor plans for the bungalow was a modest 36 X 36 ft with an excavated cellar as well as a loft. Wilcox began construction in August, 1912 and with blazing speed, completed the home and moved in by October 1st. Total construction costs for the bungalow came to $3,200, a relative bargain that would translate to a little over $70,000 in today’s dollars.

Together with the indefatigable E.J. Jennings, Wilcox successfully petitioned the LIRR to deed land adjacent along the rail line so that Railroad Ave. (later named Hempstead Gardens Drive) could be built.

Over the years the home has served its owners well and stood the test of time. It can still be seen albeit with minor alterations at 555 Cedar St.

S Klein Then & Now - Follow Up to Previous Post

The sketching below comes from an ad that ran on page nine of the Saturday, August 13th, 1955 edition of Newsday, heralding the grand opening of the S Klein Dept. Store in West Hempstead that Monday.

The building's initial design took full advantage of the property's wide frontage along Hempstead Turnpike with large showcase windows along the full length of its' north facade. You will also notice that the store originally had an entrance from Hempstead Turnpike. Overall, though the building typified the "big box store" model that became so prevalent throught American suburbia, it evidently had somewhat greater aesthetic appeal than what it eventually devolved into over the years. And while it didn't exactly compare to other upscale department stores, shoppers who entered the main floor were greeted with high, waffled ceilings and broad columns.

Comparing the "then" shot to the "now" shot below, taken roughly from the same angle, aside from the showcase windows being boarded up, the one striking difference is the addition of a third floor, which wasn't built until 1961, effectively adding another 75,000 sq. ft. to the building.

Looking closely, one notices a different color shading of the bricks used for the third floor. When Liquidators occupied the building, the 3rd floor was used for the offices of their national headquarters.


From S Klein (1955-74) to E J Korvette (1974-80) to Shopper's Village (1980-95) to National Wholesale Liquidators (1995-2009 to Shopper's Village #2 (2009), this property has gone through alot of tennants.

A Brief History of the Shopper's Village Property

The following article originally appeared in the Fall 2008 edition of the West Hempstead Civic Association newsletter. The article has been updated with minor modifications.


The recent “liquidation” of the National Wholesale Liquidators flagship store in West Hempstead and subsequent reopening (and reclosing) of Shopper’s Village gives us an opportunity to reflect on the history of a property that for over 50 years has housed our neighborhood’s largest retail establishment in one form or another.

We pick up the story in 1891, before which time the entire area was but a wooded and grassy meadow. The property was originally part of a 19 acre estate built by War of 1812 veteran Adrian V. Cortelyou, and later sold to Henry M. Onderdonk, editor of the Hempstead Inquirer. That September, LIRR president Austin Corbin started buying up hundreds of acres in West Hempstead, including the triangular property bounded by Hempstead Tpke., Westminster Blvd. and Hempstead Ave., instantly making him the neighborhood’s largest individual land owner¹. More than just purchasing land for a new rail line that would run from Valley Stream to Mineola (the remnant of which comprises the existing WH branch of the LIRR), Corbin envisioned developing a planned community to rival the style of Garden City². Corbin died unexpectedly in 1896 and his grand plan never materialized to the scale of his aspirations, leaving many large, vacant plots of land.

The tract remained undeveloped and in the hands of the LIRR, which for a time used the property as a grazing area for the horses of the Long Island Express Company (see this post). Then in May 1941, a man named John “Ole” Olsen came on to the scene. Olsen and his partner Chic Johnson had struggled in the small-time Vaudeville circuit for 25 years until the debut of their hugely popular smash hit Broadway musical, Hellzapoppin. By the time it ended its almost four-year run in 1941, Hellzapoppin became Broadway’s longest running musical and third longest running play of any kind³. Olsen, a resident of Malverne, became a big celebrity and made a killing on his show, and now was confronted with two primary problems - finding a good investment for his new fortune and finding a good local shopping venue where his wife could spend it. His solution was to head up a syndicate to purchase twelve acres of land in West Hempstead and develop a business and shopping center on it. His ambitious plan called for a building to accommodate a department store such as Sears or Montgomery Ward, a 1,500 seat theater, a sports center with bowling alleys and an ice skating rink, a “Howard Johnson” type restaurant and other retail shops⁴.

Disappointed West Hempsteaders who never got to see this development materialize can blame Emperor Hirohito for putting a hold on plans because in December of that year, a little incident at Pearl Harbor drew the US into WWII, effectively putting a stop to any major capital projects that didn’t have to do with the war effort. By the end of the decade Olsen’s project lost steam, though he did accomplish some minimal development not the least of which included a car wash he aptly named ‘Carzapoppin’⁵. During this time, a professional PGA golfer named Art Stuhler also set up a driving range on the site to the delight of St. Thomas school children who would scavenge for golf balls along the fence on their way to and from school. In July 1952, Olsen sold most of his land to Samuel Leider, a developer who had just completed the Centre Island Shopping Center in the brand new settlement of Levittown. Leider planned on bringing in S. Klein on the Square as the anchor tenant of a new 200,000+ sq. ft. building⁶. ‘Klein’s’ was a full-line discount retailer on Manhattan’s Union Square that started in 1906 and focused on selling bargain merchandise. Financial problems and disputes between shareholders delayed the project’s construction⁷ until it was finally completed in 1955. While the building was not exactly a marvel of architecture, it did provide modern conveniences like elevators and escalators and, oh yes, plenty of parking. To understand the phenomenon of the property’s massive underused parking lot is to appreciate the whale sized vehicles driven by our mothers and grandmothers in the ‘50s, the Long Island housewife’s disaffection for parallel parking those vehicles (especially the ones with the fins), and the lack of requisite parking at existing local dept. stores like Arnold Constable in Hempstead.

For West Hemspteaders old enough to wax nostalgic about those days, it didn’t get much better than the summer of ’55 and the heyday of the baby boomer generation. Scores of new homes, schools, churches, and synagogues were transforming the neighborhood, the Brooklyn Dodgers & NY Yankees were headed to the World Series, ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley & His Comets was playing on the radio, and West Hempstead was getting its very own department store.

For Klein’s management, however, anticipation of the August 15th grand opening was probably cause for more anxiety than excitement, after the launch of their first branch store in Newark five years earlier had caused a potentially dangerous human stampede. Terrific hype leading up to that opening (the front section of the previous day’s Newark Star-Ledger contained 14 full page broadsides announcing deeply discounted goods) had backfired when over 150,000 bargain hunters showed up. The mob forced managers to close the doors every 10 minutes to allow the disbursement of shoppers while police were called in for crowd control. Learning from that mistake, Klein’s heralded the WH opening with an understated single page ad in Newsday⁸. The plan worked, for although the 1,500 car parking lot was quickly filled (for the first and probably only time), the crowd was civil and orderly while shoppers sifted through racks of $1.39 skirts and 39¢ hosiery⁹.

By 1974, major operating losses forced Klein’s to sell off the WH store to another discount retailer called EJ Korvette. Korvette’s didn’t last very long, however. Mismanagement and a slowing economy forced it into bankruptcy and by 1980 the WH store was closed. After that was the brief tenure of Woolco (Woolworth’s experiment in the discount box chain market), followed by an indoor flea market called Shopper’s Village. Many locals still fondly remember the old Shopper’s Village for its grab-bag bargains and colorful vendors known by the particular merchandise they plied such as “the Pickle Man” and “the Dollhouse Lady”. The flea market operated for over a decade until it closed in 1995, done in to some extent by the soaring utility rates of the ‘90s.

The closing of Shopper’s Village created an expansion opportunity for National Wholesale Liquidators, an up and coming, locally based discount retailer that offered a wide variety of closeout items. For over the past decade, the building housed not only its flagship store, but also its national headquarters.

Alas, the wheel of history continues to turn, as National Wholesale Liquidators filed for Chapter 11 last year, giving a chance for a second go-around for Shopper's Village . Unfortunately, though, once again the viability of Shopper’s Village was short lived, leaving us awaiting to find out what’s “in store” for property that for decades has been an integral part of West Hempstead’s business landscape.

[1] “Buying Farms” Brooklyn Eagle 19 Sept, 1891 2
[2] See “Improvements at Hempstead” Brooklyn Eagle 30 May, 1894 12.
[3] Stanley Green, Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (Da Capo Press, 1980) 184
[4] “Business Center Planned in Nassau” NYT 11 May 1941 RE1
[5] “Farm in Baldwin Sold for Housing” NYT 17 Apr 1954 21
[6] “Stores Planned on Site Bought From Ole Olsen” NYT 25 Jul 1952 32
[7] “Shopping Center Halted by Dispute” NYT 26 Nov 1953 55
[8] The ad was placed on page 9 of the Saturday edition of Newsday
[9] “Klein Causes Jam at ‘Quiet Opening’” NYT 16 Aug 1955 34