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FRANKLIN SQUARE/ELMONT GUIDE
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Elmont and Franklin Square
HISTORICAL TIMELINE •1643
John Carman and the Rev. Robert Fordham traded with four local Indian tribes for approximately 64,000 acres of what became the towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead. The purchase price: approximately $100 in modern money.
•1664
The area passed into English control, becoming part of the colony of New York.
•1790
George Washington passed through on his tour or Long Island. Writing in his diary, he noted that the area was entirely treeless, except for a few “scraggly fruit trees.”
•1851
Bernard Rottkamp and Caroline Engle married and moved to Foster’s Meadow. They were to have 14 children, 10 of whom survived infancy.
•1853
Louis Schroerer built a hotel near a tollgate on what is now Arden Boulevard. The hotel attracted a large number of visitors, especially Germans, many of whom were interested in moving from New York City.
•1867
Ruthless, a 3-year-old filly, won the first Belmont Stakes horse race at Jerome Park in the Bronx. The race was named for Wall Street mogul August Belmont Sr. It moved to Elmont in 1905.
•1887
St. Boniface opened a four-room school, with an auditorium. Nuns of the Dominican order were invited to teach and built a convent on land donated by the parish.
•1650
Christopher and Thomas Foster bought land from the Dutch, intending to raise cattle and sheep. They named the land Foster’s Meadow. The name stuck for the next 200 years.
•1683
The area of Elmont and Franklin Square became part of Queens County under a three-part division of Long Island.
•1840
Walt Whitman served for three months as schoolmaster in the Trimming Square school district, located at the juncture of Franklin Square, Garden City South and West Hempstead.
•1902
Perhaps the most significant milestone in the development of modern Elmont, Belmont Park was opened. A turreted neogothic mansion on the property belonging to William de Forest Manice served as the Turf and Field Club headquarters until 1956.
•1910
Orville and Wilbur Wright staged an aerial competition — the first air race ever held in the U.S. — from Elmont to the Statue of Liberty and back. The crowd drew 150,000 spectators.
•1919
Sir Barton became the first Triple Crown winner.
•1852
The Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ was consecrated. It was reconsecrated in 1857 and dedicated to St. Boniface, the patron saint of Germany.
•1923
The Franklin Square Hose and Chemical Company was formed.
The Rev. Peter Hartraub was appointed the first pastor of St. Boniface.
The Franklin Square National Bank opened; it would eventually become the 18th largest bank in the nation.
•1929 •1882
The area was subdivided into the areas of Alden Manor and Locustwood. Foster’s Meadow was renamed Elmont.
•1899
Elmont and Franklin Square became part of the newly formed Nassau County.
•1907
The Franklin Hook & Ladder Co. No.1 was formed in Munson.
•1918
The U.S. Postal Service inaugurated airmail service between New York City and Washington, D.C. Belmont Park was designated as the terminus for New York deliveries.
•1920
Man O’ War, one of the great thoroughbreds of all time, won the Belmont Stakes by 20 lengths.
•1924 •1926
•1858
Courtesy Franklin Square Historical Society
Children from Fosters Meadow would crowd around the planes landing at what would become Green Acres Mall.
Sewanhaka (“island of shells”) High School opened.
•1939
The cornerstone of the new Plattdeutsche Park Restaurant was laid. Originally the Plattdeutsche Volksfest Vereen of Brooklyn, its sister organization, the Plattdeustsche Home and Enhanced Living Apartments, bills itself as “one of the finest senior living complexes on Long Island.”
The Franklin Hook & Ladder Co. and the Franklin Square Hose and Chemical Company merged to become the Franklin Square & Munson Fire District.
•1928
The Elmont Fire Department was established.
•1937
The Franklin Square Free Library Association was formed.
•1939
The Elmont Memorial and Franklin Square Public libraries were granted charters by the state. Timeline continued on next page
