Massapequa Park Living - (631) 827-6411

Massapequa Park is a community of Families, Businesses, lovely Parks & Preserves. This page is dedicated to sharing the experience of Living in Massapequa Park ... you are welcome to share your's too!

The Village of Massapequa Park is a village located within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 17,008 at the 2010 census.

History

The village located on the South Shore of Long Island shares the early Native American history of Massapequa. Then, in the 19th century, families of German descent relocated from Brooklyn to what is now Massapequa Park, and the resulting community was known as Wurtenberg or Stadtwurtemburg. The main attraction and center of activity was the Woodcastle Hotel, a rooming house built in 1868 on Front Street next to the fire department as a summer resort. It was destroyed by fire in 1952 and replaced by houses.
In 1928 readers of The New York Times saw ads for Massapequa Park, a development built by a real estate firm owned by Michael J. Brady, Frank Cryan and Peter Colleran. The three Irish-Americans described their project as having a bit of Old Erin and the area between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road still has its mostly Irish street names. In 1931, Massapequa Park was incorporated as a village to ensure control of land use and other issues.
The village once had its own airport, the Fitzmaurice Flying Field, named in 1929 for James Fitzmaurice, one of a crew of three to be the first to fly a plane from east to west across the Atlantic (Baldonne,Ireland to Greenly Island in Labrador, Canada). An estimated 100,000 people came to the dedication of the field on Spruce Street. The field was used by private planes. The field was eventually closed and became the home for the athletic fields of the 4M Club, a popular youth athletic program founded by Larry Neusse, and supported by a wide range of local residents. Today the site is home to McKenna Elementary School (which used to be a junior high school) and the Nassau County Police Academy (which used to be Hawthorn Elementary School).

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