What Came Before the American Suburb?

Much of the urban landscape across the United States today was shaped by rapid development after World War II. The few decades that followed saw a massive development of suburbs, highways, and later, shopping malls. But what did the American landscape look like before the war? What was small-town life like then? A look at the history of Hempstead Village, New York, provides a glimpse of that period.

Hempstead Village on Long Island was founded in the mid-1600s during the period of colonization. Although the area was initially under Dutch colonial control, two Englishmen, John Carman and John Fordham, purchased land there in 1643 to establish a new community. Carman and Fordham negotiated with local Indigenous tribes living on Long Island to purchase the land, and the following year, families moved there to start their new community.

Cranes Furniture storefront at street intersection, Hempstead, New York

World War I soldier with horse at corner of Franklin Street and Fulton Avenue

Businesses on Main Street in Hempstead, New York

Bohack Building at southwest corner of Fulton Avenue and Washington Streets in Hempstead

Carman R. Lush Pharmacy storefront

Commercial block at street intersection, Hempstead, New York

Commercial Building with Greenwich St. Restaurant, Hempstead

Dry goods and notions store with horse-drawn wagon, Hempstead

In a lecture to the Long Island Historical Society in 1943, Dr. Courtney R. Hall explained how Hempstead got its name. Speaking about the village’s history for its tercentenary celebration, Hall stated that the new community’s name “was derived from the birthplace of John Carman, one of the original patentees, in Hertfordshire—a place called Hemel-Hempstead. Carman’s fellow purchaser, Fordham, was born only eighteen miles from that place.” Like many places in former colonial territories, Hempstead’s name refers back to the homeland of those who colonized and settled in the region.

Train stations helped guarantee foot traffic, enabling downtown shopping districts in smaller towns to thrive.

Despite their long histories, Hempstead Village and its neighbors in Nassau County remained largely rural communities until the twentieth century. When New York City annexed Queens County to form the Borough of Queens on January 1, 1898, the smaller rural communities involved, including Hempstead, were not pleased about becoming part of New York City. Nassau County was established one year later on January 1, 1899, allowing these rural communities to maintain their independence from their metropolitan neighbor. Images from Hofstra University’s Hempstead, New York Photographs collection, shared via JSTOR, document Hempstead during this period and the decades that followed, offering a visual record of the village’s downtown businesses, homes, civic buildings, and community life.

Fire Department Parade on Main Street, Hempstead

First Baptist Church, Hempstead

Group by a pond with boat and barn, Hempstead, New York

Hempstead Library Building Exterior

Long Island Rail Road Depot with Horse-Drawn Carriages, Hempstead

Men standing on shoveled Main Street sidewalk in Hempstead after the blizzard of March 1888

Parade in Downtown Hempstead with Decorated Buildings

Brooks Tire Company and Garage, Hempstead Village

It was Hempstead’s railroad connections that helped keep its economy active and the community connected before automobile travel became widespread. As Arnold Silverman and Linda Schneider explain in their research on Long Island’s suburbanism, “[b]efore the development of paved roads and widespread automobile ownership, railroad communities such as Hempstead (a nascent city despite the legal designation of village) served as the focal point of commercial, political, and cultural life in Nassau’s south shore.” A vast network of transcontinental and regional rail lines across the United States got people where they needed to go, and having a busy train station was a real asset to a place like Hempstead Village. Train stations helped guarantee foot traffic, enabling downtown shopping districts in smaller towns to thrive.

Victorian house with mansard roof in Hempstead

Street view of Island Hotel and adjacent buildings, Hempstead

R.G. Powell Undertaker storefront with proprietor

Storefronts on Main Street, Hempstead Village

Buck Storage Battery and Radio Sales Building, Hempstead

Chas. Dreihof Sammis Hotel and Surrounding Businesses, Hempstead Village

Facade of Thomas J. Wylie Old Homestead Hotel with S. Liebmann's Sons Rheingold Teutonic Signage

Hempstead Inquirer Building on Main Street

While automobile-centric urban design took off quickly after World War II, it built on a trend that had begun prior to the war. In their report on twentieth-century urbanism in the United States, Thomas J. Nechyba and Randall P. Walsh point out that “[b]y 1910 the number of registered automobiles in the U.S. had passed the 500,000 mark, and in 1920 car registration reached eight million.”

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This came quickly to Long Island in the post-World War II period. The first Levittown, an iconic planned suburban community that was copied around the country, was built from 1947 to 1951, less than 10 miles from Hempstead Village. The development of shopping malls like Roosevelt Field drew shoppers away from historic commercial centers like Hempstead. Like much of the country, Hempstead Village continued to transform from a community with rural roots into a suburban center.

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