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== History == What is now Franklin Square was near the center of the [[Hempstead Plains]], and used as grazing land, and later farmland, by the first white settlers.<ref name=":0">[http://franklinsquarehistory.org/history/?doing_wp_cron=1358537978.1718111038208007812500 "History" Franklin Square Historical Society]</ref> The southern portion included [[oak]] and [[dogwood]] forests.<ref name=":0" /> In late 1643, Robert Fordham and John Carman made a treaty with members of the [[Metoac|Massapequak]], [[Mericoke]], [[Matinecock (tribe)|Matinecock]] and [[Rockaway Indians|Rockaway]] tribes to buy roughly 100 square miles upon which they intended to start a new settlement. They purchased this tract, including much of what are now the towns of [[Hempstead, New York|Hempstead]] and [[North Hempstead, New York|North Hempstead]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1790, [[George Washington]] passed through the town while touring [[Long Island]]. He wrote in his diary that the area was "entirely treeless except for a few scraggly fruit trees." [[Walt Whitman]] spent three months in the spring of 1840 as the [[schoolmaster]] of the Trimming Square school district, in the area where Franklin Square, Garden City South and West Hempstead intersect.<ref name=":0" /> In 1852, one Louis Schroeher built a hotel near a tollgate (by what is now Arden Boulevard) of the Hempstead-Jamaica Turnpike ([[toll road]]). The hotel attracted an increasing number of visitors and immigrants (the latter often German) from [[New York City]] to the formerly rural hamlet.<ref name=":0" /> Population grew steadily until the sudden intensified surge of [[suburbanization#United States|suburbanization]] into post-[[World War II]] Long Island reached the community. By 1952, the farms were all gone, replaced by newly-built houses full of emigrants from nearby New York City.<ref name=":0" /> ===Etymology=== It is rumored that the original name for the area, Trimming Square, reflected the fact that farms once dominated the area's landscape (as was common for areas all across the Hempstead Plains), and because many sheep were brought to the area by local farmers for separation during the latter parts of the 18th Century.<ref name=":81">{{Cite book|last=Winsche|first=Richard|title=The History of Nassau County Community Place-Names|date=October 1, 1999|publisher=Empire State Books|isbn=978-1557871541|location=[[Interlaken, New York]]|pages=34β35}}</ref> The Trimming Square name was used between the early 19th Century and 1851, when the name was changed to Washington Square after George Washington.<ref name=":81" /> [[File:Joseph Siffrein Duplessis - Benjamin Franklin - Google Art Project.jpg|left|thumb|Benjamin Franklin]] The name of the community was again changed in the 1870s when locals made strides to establish a local U.S. post office.<ref name=":81" /> The United States Postal Service would not use the name Washington Square, as they felt that there were too many other places within New York which had Washington in their names. This led to locals again changing the name, and they ultimately chose the name Franklin Square. It is rumored that the name is in honor of [[Benjamin Franklin]].<ref name=":81" /> === Failed incorporation attempt === In February 1929, locals tried incorporating their community as the '''Incorporated Village of Franklin Square'''.<ref name=":81" /> However, the plans were scrapped that April when the Town of Hempstead denied the petition, due to the fact that too few residents were in favor of incorporation.<ref name=":81" />
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