Editing Rockville Centre, New York (section)

== History ==
The site of Rockville Centre has been occupied by humans for thousands of years. Generally speaking, the people of the prehistoric Woodlands period East River culture are believed to have been the [[Algonquian languages|Algonkian-speaking]] ancestors of the historical Indian tribes of western Long Island.<ref>[http://www.garviespointmuseum.com/indian-archaeology-long-island.php ''The Indian Archaeology of Long Island''], Garvies Point Museum and Reserve, accessed February 2018.</ref> The historical territory of their [[Lenape]] descendants, the Canarsie, Recouwacky (Rockaway),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jHcVAAAAYAAJ&dq=Reckonhacky&pg=PA179 ''Aboriginal Place Names of New York'', Bulletin of the New York State Museum, 1907; page 179; accessed 8 February 2018.]</ref> Matinecock and Massapequa, included present-day western Long Island's Queens and Nassau Counties.

By the year 1643, there were roughly thirteen Algonquin bands (then referred to as tribes) living east of the Dutch-English settlements: the four or so [[Lenape]] chieftaincies in western Long Island, and [[Metoac]] descendants of the prehistoric Woodlands period Windsor culture living on eastern Long Island, considered by some to be branches of the [[Pequot]]: Merrick, Nissequoge, Secatoag, Seatauket, Patchoag, Poosepatuck (also called Uncachogee), Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhansett (also called Manhasset), and Montaukett.

Imported diseases had decimated the natives in 16th century. While disease was still a major factor during the decades of the 17th century, native mortality in western Long Island due to disease was similar to that of the settlers. Most [[Lenape]] were pushed out of their homeland by expanding European colonies; the colonies received many emigrants while the [[Munsee]]-speaking Indian communities did not. Their dire situation was exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts.

The Reckouakie tribe (the Reckonhacky chieftaincy) had left their original land in present-day [[Rockaway, Queens|Rockaway]] and its surroundings in [[Queens County, New York|Queens County]] to Dutch Governor Kieft in 1640 because he wanted it for better defense of New Netherlands.<ref>[http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/indianwars/articles/kieftswar.aspx ''Governor Kieft's Personal War''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117030352/https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/indianwars/articles/kieftswar.aspx |date=January 17, 2019 }}, by Walter Giersbach; accessed February 2018.</ref> Most settled to the east in what was to become Rockville Centre on the traditional land of the Matinecock (or of the Massapequa), with whom they had ties of kinship. Dutch and English settlers declared the 1639 treaty meant no Indians would remain in western Long Island (so they could sell it to emigrants), in contrast to the exact terms of the treaty which meant the Native Americans were willing to share the [[usufruct]] of unoccupied land, with the Dutch leadership having [[eminent domain]] superior to their [[sachem]]'s eminent domain. This led to many conflicts, then four years of open warfare. The Reckonhacky / Rockaway were party to a peace treaty dated May 24, 1645, following the devastation of Indian communities by Dutch soldiers.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120206010852/http://www.matinecock.org/portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=23&item=9 Matinecock Masonic Historical Society: History]}}, accessed February 8, 2018</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=U9pZQLEDiZYC&dq=Reckonhacky&pg=PA158 Encyclopedia of Massachusetts Indians], by Donald Ricky, Somerset Publishers, Inc., January 1, 1998; page 158; accessed February 8, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SnkCBQAAQBAJ&dq=Reckonhacky&pg=PA61 The Munsee Indians: A History], by Robert S. Grumet, University of Oklahoma Press, October 22, 2014, page 61; accessed February 8, 2018.</ref> Violent expropriation dislocated them with the arrival of additional Dutch and English settlers.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Rockville Centre: A Community Not Easily Pigeonholed|last = Rather|first = John|date = September 10, 2000|journal = New York Times}}</ref>

The hamlet was named "Rockville Centre" in 1849, after local Methodist preacher and community leader Mordecai "Rock" Smith.  It was incorporated as a village in 1893.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rvcny.us/history.html|title=History of Rockville Centre|date=August 21, 2014|website=Village of Rockville Centre|access-date=April 18, 2016}}</ref>  Rockville Centre emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as a [[commuter town]] connected to New York by the [[Long Island Rail Road]] (LIRR).<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Rockville Centre a Growing Suburb|date = August 14, 1910|journal = New York Times}}</ref> In 1915, the ''New York Tribune'' went so far as to declare that Rockville Centre was a place in which "the average mortal could live happily."<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Rockville Centre a Popular Town|date = July 18, 1915|journal = New York Tribune}}</ref>

Like many Long Island communities at the time, Rockville Centre's population included a considerable number of supporters of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] during the 1920s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = Seized Klan Wreath Ordered Replaced|date = May 31, 1923|journal = New York Times}}</ref> When the white supremacist organization placed a wreath at the town's memorial to its war dead in 1923, the American Legion removed it in protest, but the village police received so many calls of complaint in response that they were forced to replace the wreath.<ref name=":0" />  In the late 1960s, the village of Rockville Centre received a stinging rebuke for its failure to maintain public housing units primarily inhabited by African-Americans.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|title = Rights Panel Report Assails Rockville Centre on Housing|last = Leventhal|first = Paul and RV Denenberg|date = February 15, 1966|journal = Newsday}}</ref> A report from Nassau County's Human Rights Commission stated Rockville Centre was "at best indifferent to, if not actually in favor of, Negro removal."<ref name=":1" />  Martin Luther King Jr. visited Rockville Centre in 1968, where he addressed a large audience at South Side Junior High School on March 26, 1968.<ref>{{Cite book|title = A Brief History of Rockville Centre: the Heritage and History of a Village|last = Devlin|first = Marilyn Nunes|publisher = The History Press|year = 2011|location = London|pages = 101}}</ref>

In the early 1940s, Rockville Centre [[Municipal annexation in the United States|annexed]] the Mercy Medical Center property; the annexation saw the village's total area expand by {{Convert|87|acre|ha}}.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 22, 1941 |title=Opposition to Annex Mercy Collapses |work=[[Newsday]] |pages=4 |via=[[ProQuest]]}}</ref>

On February 17, 1950, [[Rockville Centre train crash|two LIRR trains collided]] near [[Rockville Centre station]], killing 32 and injuring more than 80.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liherald.com/stories/recalling-rockville-centres-deadly-lirr-train-crash-69-years-later,112009|title=Recalling Rockville Centre's deadly LIRR train crash 69 years later|last=Strack|first=Ben|date=February 21, 2019|website=Herald Community Newspapers|access-date=September 14, 2019}}</ref>

The [[United States Post Office (Rockville Centre, New York)|Rockville Centre Post Office]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1989.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>