Hempstead is a village located in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 59,169 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the most populous village in New York.

The Incorporated Village of Hempstead is the site of the seventeenth-century "town spot" from which English and Dutch settlers developed the Town of Hempstead, the Town of North Hempstead, and ultimately what would become Nassau County centuries later. It is the largest community by population in both the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County.

Hofstra University is partially located in Hempstead.

Etymology

Hempstead may have been named after Hemel Hempstead in the English county of Hertfordshire, where village founder John Carman was born. The Indians sold approximately 64,000 acres (260&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), the present day towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead, for an unknown quantity of items; a 1657 revisit of this agreement names large and small cattle, stockings, wampum, hatchets, knives, trading cloth, powder, and lead given as payment by the English. Some items may have been valuable to the Native Americans in terms of the contemporary markets for European "trinkets," which may have held symbolic and spiritual importance to Native America peoples in the Northeast.

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. The British attempted to occupy Hempstead after the Battle of Long Island,

In March 1898, Camp Black was formed on the Hempstead Plains (roughly the shared location of Hempstead and Garden City), in support of the impending Spanish–American War. Camp Black was bounded on the north by Old Country Road, on the west by Clinton Road, and on the south by the Central Line rail. Camp Black was opened on April 29, 1898, as a training facility and a point of embarkation for troops.

Early Long Islanders made their living in agriculture or from the sea. Hempstead, with its central location, became the marketplace for the outlying rural farming communities. It was a natural progression, as the surrounding areas developed from small farms into today's suburbia, that Hempstead Village would remain as the marketplace. Chain department stores such as Arnold Constable and Abraham & Straus called Hempstead home for many years. Hempstead's Abraham & Straus was the largest grossing suburban department store in the country during the late 1960s. Hempstead was Nassau's retail center during the 1940s through the 1960s. The advent of regional shopping malls such as the one at nearby Roosevelt Field, the demise of nearby Mitchel Air Force Base in 1961 as well as the changing demographics put the retail trade in the village into a downward spiral that it was unable to recover from during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. A plethora of businesses left the village in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Abraham & Straus.

Recent years

thumb| Downtown Hempstead, as seen from eastbound [[New York State Route 24|Fulton Street (NY 24)]]

In the course of the 1990s the village saw redevelopment as a government center as well as business center. There are more government employees from all levels of government in the village than there are in Mineola, the county seat. According to James York, the municipal historian, writing in 1998, the population during the day might rise to nearly 200,000, from a normal census of 50,000. and a four-story, 112-unit building for senior housing, with retail on the ground level was completed at Main and West Columbia Streets in January 1998. Thirty-two units of affordable townhouses known as Patterson Mews at Henry Street and Baldwin Road was completed and fully occupied in 1997.

In 1989, Hempstead residents elected James A. Garner as their mayor.

The first African-American male judge, Lance Clarke, was elected in 2001. Cynthia Diaz-Wilson was the first female justice in the Village of Hempstead and first African American village justice in the state of New York.

In recent years, there has been concern regarding ongoing gang activity in certain neighborhoods, notably the "Heights", in addition to the issue of illegal rentals (homes/apartments that are illegally-subdivided by slumlords) and racial steering. Hempstead was also one of the first Long Island communities to contend with the Salvadoran gang, MS-13. The continual intra-violence this gang has exhibited has led to the formation of their arch-rivals, "SWP" or "Salvadorans with Pride". These issues have contributed to Hempstead's high crime rate as compared to other communities in the area.

Geography

thumb|U.S. census map of Hempstead|left

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.7&nbsp;square miles (9.5&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), all land.

The Village of Hempstead differs from the majority of Nassau County as its population density is about 15,000 people per square mile—almost four times that of its neighbor on its northern border, Garden City.

2020 census

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Hempstead village, New York – Racial and ethnic composition<br><small></small>

!Race / Ethnicity <small>(NH = Non-Hispanic)</small>

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!

!% 2000

!% 2010

!

|-

|White alone (NH)

|7,460

|3,548

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3,067

|13.19%

|6.58%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5.18%

|-

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|28,729

|24,724

|style='background: #ffffe6; |23,041

|50.80%

|45.88%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |38.94%

|-

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|184

|96

|style='background: #ffffe6; |147

|0.33%

|0.18%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.25%

|-

|Asian alone (NH)

|736

|704

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1,242

|1.30%

|1.31%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.10%

|-

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|19

|13

|style='background: #ffffe6; |17

|0.03%

|0.02%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.03%

|-

|Other race alone (NH)

|185

|221

|style='background: #ffffe6; |621

|0.33%

|0.41%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.05%

|-

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|1,250

|762

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1,394

|2.21%

|1.41%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.36%

|-

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|17,991

|23,823

|style='background: #ffffe6; |29,640

|31.81%

|44.21%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |50.09%

|-

|Total

|56,554

|53,891

|style='background: #ffffe6; |59,169

|100.00%

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

|}

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 53,891 people, 15,234 households, and 10,945 families residing in the village. The racial makeup of the village was 21.9% White, 44.2% Hispanic, 48.3% Black or African American, 0.6% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 22.8% from other races, and 5.0% from two or more races.

There were 16,034 households, out of which 38.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.0% were married couples living together, 27.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 20.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.41 and the average family size was 3.76.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.2% under the age of 18, 16.3% from 18 to 24, 31.4% from 25 to 44, 17.5% from 45 to 64, and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.4 males.

In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the majority of Hempstead voters voted for Kamala D. Harris (D).

Education

thumb|The Mack Student Center at [[Hofstra University, partially located within the village]]

Primary and secondary education

The community is served by the Hempstead Union Free School District. Students attend Alverta B. Gray-Schultz Middle School and Hempstead High School for their secondary years of K-12 education.

There is one private high school in Hempstead: Sacred Heart Academy – a private, all-girls Catholic school.

There are two charter schools located within the village: the Academy Charter School and Evergreen Charter School. It serves as the terminus of the Long Island Rail Road's Hempstead Branch, and is served by a number of Nassau Inter-County Express routes.

thumb|The bus terminal at the [[Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center]]

thumb|The [[Long Island Rail Road|LIRR terminal at the Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center]]

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%;"

|+List of Nassau Inter-County Express bus routes serving Hempstead:

  • Nassau County African American Museum
  • St. George's Episcopal Church
  • Christ's First Presbyterian Church – First Presbyterian church established in the US

Notable people

Residents (native or lived) about whom an article exists, by date of birth:

<!--native/resident claims found in articles, else tagged --><!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in chronological order ♦♦♦--->

thumb|180px|[[Julius Erving]]

thumb|180px|[[Tu Holloway]]

  • Thomas Truxtun (1755-1822), sea captain, U.S. Navy officer; born in Hempstead
  • Samuel L. Mitchill (1764–1831), physician, naturalist, and politician; born in Hempstead
  • Walt Whitman (1819–1892; resident 1836–1838), poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist
  • William S. Hofstra (1861–1932), entrepreneur
  • Christopher Morley (1890–1957; resident during the 1910s), journalist, novelist, essayist, and poet
  • Frank Field (1923–2023), television meteorologist
  • Francis E. Dec (1926–1996), disbarred lawyer and outsider writer
  • Joe Tex (1935–1982), singer
  • Walter Hudson (1944–1991; life resident), 4th most obese human, Guinness World Record for the largest waist
  • Julius Erving (born 1950), basketball star, lived in the village of Hempstead as a child for at least two or three years from around 1953 to 1955 or 1956
  • Sheryl Lee Ralph (born 1956), actress and singer
  • Eric "Vietnam" Sadler (born 1960; native 1960–87, music producer, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Slick Rick, Bell Biv Devoe, Vanessa Williams)
  • Rob Moore (born 1968; native), NFL football player
  • Method Man (born 1971), rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor; spent his childhood living between Hempstead and Staten Island
  • Trevor Tahim "Busta Rhymes" Smith, Jr. (born 1972), resident, rapper, producer, and actor
  • Prodigy (1974–2017; native), member of hip-hop duo Mobb Deep
  • Craig "Speedy" Claxton (born 1978; native), NBA basketball player
  • Tavorris Bell (born 1978), Harlem Globetrotter
  • Roc Marciano (born 1978), rapper and producer
  • The Product G&B, hip hop/R&B vocal duo consisting of David McRae (also known as Sincere Gubano) and Marvin Moore-Hough (also known as Money Harm), both born circa 1980
  • Scott Lipsky (born 1981), tennis player
  • Hykiem Coney (1982–2006), anti-gang activist
  • A+ (born 1982; native and childhood), rapper, made albums in 1996 and 1999 during his school years
  • Tu Holloway (born 1989), basketball player for Maccabi Rishon LeZion in the Israeli Basketball Premier League.

See also

  • Suburban Technical School

References

  • Village Code