Editing Freeport, New York (section)

== Arts and culture ==
[[File:Freeport, NY Nautical Mile 050.jpg|thumb|left|On the Nautical Mile, 2012]]
Freeport is a Long Island hot spot during the summer season in New York. A popular festival occurs on Freeport's Nautical Mile (the west side of Woodcleft Canal) the first weekend in June each year, which attracts many people from across Long Island and New York City. The Nautical Mile is a strip along the water that features well-known seafood restaurants, crab shacks, bars, eclectic little boutiques, fresh fish markets, as well as party cruise ships and casino boats that float atop the canals. People line up for the boat rides and eat at restaurants that feature seating on the water's edge and servings of mussels, oysters, crabs, and steamed clams ("steamers") accompanied by pitchers of beer.  An 18-hole miniature golf course is popular among families.  The Sea Breeze waterfront park—which includes a transient marina, boardwalk, rest rooms and benches—opened in 2009 at the foot of the Nautical Mile.  It has proven to be a very popular spot to sit and watch the marine traffic and natural scenery.  This is in addition to an existing scenic pier.<!-- is this up to date? -->

Freeport has an ethnically and racially diverse population. There is one housing project, named after Nassau County's first black judge, Moxie Rigby. Freeport's [[Hispanic]] community is made up of [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Ricans]], [[Dominican Republic|Dominicans]], [[Mexicans]], [[Colombians]] and other Latin American countries. Among the many Latin-American-themed businesses are several grocery stores or "bodegas" and restaurants along Merrick Road and Main Street that serve Caribbean, Central American, Dominican, and South American cuisines.

Freeport, along with neighboring [[Merrick, New York|Merrick]], is also the gateway to [[Jones Beach State Park|Jones Beach]], one of the largest state beaches in New York. One famous area is the [[Town of Hempstead Marina]], where people from all over Long Island dock their boats. Freeport is a 45-minute ride by the [[Long Island Rail Road]] to Manhattan, making the trip an easy commute to New York City.

From 1974 to 1986, Freeport was one of the few Long Island towns to hold a sizeable open-air market area, known as the Freeport Mall.<ref>"Board of Trustees Minutes, 1974.</ref> The heart of the Main Street business area was closed to vehicular traffic and reconfigured for pedestrians only. The experiment was not a success. The [[W. T. Grant]] store that was supposed to anchor the mall closed, along with the rest of that chain, shortly after the mall opened. The mall area became shabby and disused, and many businesses failed.  The mall was dismantled and returned to through traffic with regular parking on each side of the street.<ref>
{{Cite journal| title = Freeport Abandoning Failed Pedestrian Mall
  | journal = The New York Times
  | volume = Late City Final Edition, Section 1
  | pages = Page 54, Column 1, 756 words
  | date = December 7, 1986
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/07/nyregion/freeport-abandoning-failed-pedestrian-mall.html?scp=1&sq=freeport+abandoning+failed+pedestrian+mall&st=nyt
  }}</ref>

===Architecture===
[[File:Freeport, NY post office interior 01.jpg|thumb|Interior of the Freeport Post Office.]][[File:Woodcleft Canal 20240919 131823.jpg|thumb|Woodcleft Canal Historic Marker]][[File:Woodcleft Inn historic marker 20240919 130959.jpg|thumb|Woodcleft Inn historic marker]]
Just north of the high school and the railroad tracks is the ruin of the former [[Brooklyn Waterworks]], described by Christopher Gray of the ''New York Times'' as looking like an "ancient, war-damaged abbey." Designed by architect [[Frank Freeman (architect)|Frank Freeman]] and opened in 1891 to serve the City of Brooklyn (later made a borough of New York City), it was fully active until 1929 with a capacity of 54 million gallons a day, and remained in standby for emergency use until 1977, when the pumps and other machinery were removed.  See [[Ridgewood Reservoir]].  An unsuccessful 1989 plan would have turned the building into condos.<ref>Christopher Gray, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDC1F3DF932A35753C1A96F948260 STREETSCAPES: Millburn Pumping Station; A Rundown 'Abbey' Gets New Life as Condominiums], ''New York Times'', October 1, 1989. Retrieved July 20, 2006.</ref><ref>[http://www.lioddities.com/Abandoned/BWW.html Brooklyn Water Works] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622005526/http://lioddities.com/Abandoned/BWW.html |date=June 22, 2009 }} on the Long Island Oddities site. Retrieved July 20, 2006.</ref>  Currently, the parcel is the subject of litigation and ongoing investigations by various agencies.  Long Island Traditions also describes the sites of notable architecture in Freeport's history, such as bay men's homes<ref>{{cite news|journal=Long Island Traditions|title=Architecture: Bay Men's Homes|url=http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/baymenshomes/index.html|access-date=November 23, 2012}}</ref> and commercial fishing establishments,<ref>{{cite news|journal=Long Island Traditions|title=Commercial Fishing|url=http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/commfish/index.html|access-date=November 23, 2012}}</ref> some of which are still existing, as well as the still-existing Fiore's Fish Market and Two Cousins, which are located in historic waterfront buildings, built by the owners, so they could negotiate directly with the baymen as they pulled into dock.<ref>{{cite news|journal=Long Island Traditions|title=Fish Markets & Eateries| access-date=November 23, 2012| url=http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/eateries/index.html}}</ref>

Long Island Traditions also describes and provides a photograph of the no-longer existing Woodcleft Hotel<ref>{{cite news|journal=Long Island Traditions|title=Architecture: South Shore Estuary Site|url=http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/boatyards/index.html|access-date=November 23, 2012 }}</ref> and important boatyards, about which the site writes:<ref>{{cite news|journal=Long Island Traditions|title=Architecture: Boatyards|url=http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/boatyards/index.html|access-date=November 23, 2012}}</ref>

<blockquote>"In Freeport the Maresca boatyard stands on the site of what is now the Long Island Marine Education Center owned by the Village of Freeport. Founded in the 1920s by Phillip Maresca, they built both recreational and commercial boats. Their customers included Guy Lombardo and party boat captains. The business was taken over by Everett Maresca, who died in 1995. The original building remains relatively intact, consisting of a large concrete block structure. Further down on Woodcleft Canal stands the former Scopinich Boatyard, now part of Shelter Point Marine services. The structure is obscured by corrugated metal siding but elements of its original frame structure remain. The yard was founded by Fred Scopinich, a Greek immigrant in the early 1900s. His grandson Fred moved the yard to East Quogue. The Freeport yard specialized in building commercial fishing boats including trawlers, government boats for the Coast Guard, rum running boats, as well as sailboats and garveys for local baymen. Finally the original Grover boatyard, founded by Al Grover, stands on Woodcleft Avenue a short distance from the Maresca yard. A modest frame building, approximately 20 people worked there. Today the yard is located north of the Nautical Mile on South Main street, run by Grover's sons. Their yard consists of modern corrugated structures used primarily for maintenance and storage."</blockquote>

===Libraries===
The [[Freeport Memorial Library]], which is the library serving the Freeport Library District, is the main library in Freeport.<ref name=":0" /> The Baldwin and Roosevelt Library Districts serve some of the northernmost portions of the village.<ref name=":0" />

===Schools===
[[File:First school in Freeport, NY plaque.jpg|thumb|left|Plaque marking the first public school in Freeport, NY; located at the corner of North Main Street and Church Street, in front of the cannon.]]

[[Freeport Public Schools]] (FPS) operates the community's public schools.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Archer Street School Historic marker 20240919 132535.jpg|thumb|Archer Street School Historic marker]]
For the 2009–10 school year, there were 6,257 students enrolled in Freeport's public schools.<ref name=NYSEDAOR>NYSED, [https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2010/89/AOR-2010-280209030000.pdf The New York State District Report Card Accountability and Overview Report 2009–10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323021029/https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2010/89/AOR-2010-280209030000.pdf |date=March 23, 2012 }}, ''New York State Education Department'', February 5, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2011.</ref> The children of Freeport, in grades 1–4, attend four magnet elementary schools, each with a different specialty: Archer Street (Microsociety and Multimedia), Leo F. Giblyn (School of International Cultures), Bayview Avenue (School of Arts and Sciences), and New Visions (School of Exploration & Discovery). In grades 5 and 6, all public school children attend Caroline G. Atkinson School on the north side of the town. Seventh and 8th graders attend John W. Dodd Middle School.  The Middle School is built on the property that housed the older Freeport High School, but not on exactly the same site. The old high school served for some years as the junior high; then the new junior high was built on what was previously parking lot and playground, and the old building was torn down. In 2017, The school remodeled, with an added track and field.  A Catholic school, the De La Salle School, is run by the Christian Brothers and accepts boys from grades 5–8.

Children in grades 9–12 attend Freeport High School, which borders the town of [[Baldwin, Nassau County, New York|Baldwin]] and sits beside the Milburn duck pond, which is fed by a creek, several hundred yards of which was diverted underground when the high school was built. Freeport High School's mascot is the Red Devil, and its colors are red and white. The school has track-and-field facilities.<!-- up to here not cited --> One unique feature of the school's curriculum is a science research program run in cooperation with [[Stony Brook University]]. The school offers numerous advanced placement courses and was a pioneer in distance learning at the high school level. Roughly 87 percent of the high school's graduates go on to some form of higher education. A community night school for teenagers had 236 students as of 1999.<ref name=Rather />

As early as 1886, Freeport's schools began the then-unusual policy of providing their students with free textbooks. In 1893, the newly incorporated village constructed a ten-room brick schoolhouse. Also in the late 19th century, the community was among the first Long Island communities to establish an "academic department", offering classes beyond the elementary school level.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smits|1974|pp=31, 33}}</ref>
[[File:Seaman Ave school No2 historic marker Freeport NY 20211021 201721359.jpg|thumb|Seaman Ave school #2 historic marker Freeport NY]]
Freeport saw its share of the social, political, and racial turbulence of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1969–70 school year saw three high school principals in the village's only high school, succeeded in August 1970 by William McElroy, formerly the junior high school principal, who came to the position "in the midst of racial tension and a constantly-polarizing student body";<ref name=Seabrook>{{cite news|author=Seabrook, Veronica |title=McElroy Sees Change Evolving|newspaper=Flashings (Freeport High School newspaper)|date= May 15, 1972|pages= 3–4}}</ref> McElroy backed such initiatives as a student advisory committee to the Board of Education and, in his own words, "made [him]self available to any civic-minded group" that wished to discuss with him the situation in the school. By May 1972, he could claim success, of a sort. "Formerly, a fight between a black and a white student would automatically become racial; now a fight is just a fight—between two students."<ref name=Seabrook />
[[File:Trubia Rifles 20211027 171357366.jpg|thumb|left|Trubia Rifles & Dedication Plaque]]
The Freeport High School newspaper, ''Flashings'', founded 1920, is believed to be the oldest high school paper on Long Island.<ref name=Wilgoren>{{cite news|author=Wilgoren, Jodi|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E3DC113DF934A25752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title= Lessons: High School Students Learn About Freedom of the Press|newspaper=The New York Times|date= November 17, 1999|access-date= November 15, 2008}}</ref> It has won numerous awards over several decades.<ref name=SPLC-Flashings>{{cite journal|url= http://www.splc.org/report_detail.asp?id=524&edition=3|title= High School Censorship (Students fight for free press: Editors to retain control over newspaper despite school officials' efforts)|journal= Student Press Law Center Report|volume= XXI|number= 1|date= Winter 1999–2000|page= 18|access-date= November 13, 2008|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090621132257/http://www.splc.org/report_detail.asp?id=524&edition=3|archive-date= June 21, 2009|url-status= dead}}</ref> From 1969 until 1999, it operated under "free press" guidelines unusual for a high school newspaper, with an active role for the students in picking their own faculty adviser and with ultimate editorial control firmly in the hands of students.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> Throughout that time, Ira Schildkraut functioned as faculty adviser.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> In 1999, the school administration removed Schildkraut from that role and attempted to establish themselves as censors.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> That last decision was turned back by the school board after it drew attention from, among others, ''[[The New York Times]]'' and the Student Press Law Center. However, the dispute's resolution did reduce the student journalists' role in selecting their own faculty adviser and increased the faculty adviser's editorial authority relative to the student journalists'.<ref name=SPLC-Flashings />

From about 1970 to 1973, the town and Freeport High School achieved recognition because of the performance of its math team ("The Mathletes") in regional inter-school math competitions and performance on advanced mathematics tests, including the [[International Mathematical Olympiad]] and those from the [[Mathematical Association of America]] (MAA).

In addition, in about 1970, Freeport High School became one of the few schools in the country then to have a general purpose computer on the premises dedicated to student use and teaching programming, an [[IBM 1620 Model II|IBM 1620]] donated by IBM.  The 1620 was later replaced by remote access to a [[DECsystem-10|DEC System 10]] then, later, an on-site [[PDP-11|PDP-11/40]] running the [[RSTS/E]] time sharing system, also dedicated to the students.  Much credit for the team and computers goes to FHS math teachers and to the Freeport School District's head of Mathematics, Joseph Holbrook.

In June 2008, 16 people were arrested after violence erupted in the high school.<ref name="2008 violence">{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/1495736721.html?dids=1495736721:1495736721&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+17%2C+2008&author=LAURA+RIVERA&pub=Newsday&edition=&startpage=n%2Fa&desc=FREEPORT%3A+16+arrested+in+Freeport+High+School+melee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621134037/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/1495736721.html?dids=1495736721:1495736721&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+17%2C+2008&author=LAURA+RIVERA&pub=Newsday&edition=&startpage=n%2Fa&desc=FREEPORT%3A+16+arrested+in+Freeport+High+School+melee |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 21, 2009 |author=Rivera, Laura|title=16 Arrested in Freeport High School Melee|newspaper=Newsday|date=June 17, 2008}}</ref>

In a 2010 ''Newsday'' story regarding Long Island eighth-grader scores on [[Regents Exams]], which have traditionally been given to students in ninth grade and up, Freeport was ranked in the highest tier.<ref>{{cite news|author=Hildebrand, John|url=http://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/number-of-li-eighth-graders-taking-regent-exams-jumps-1.2045896 |title=Number of LI eighth-graders taking Regent exams jumps|newspaper=Newsday|date= June 22, 2010|access-date= October 4, 2011}}</ref>

===Sports and recreation===
[[File:Parrot Rifle and Historic Marker 20211102 180140720.jpg|thumb|Parrot Rifle of Freeport]]

In the early 1930s, Freeport was the playing field for the [[Pennsylvania Red Caps of New York]], a [[semi-professional|semi-pro]] baseball team which took their name from the caps worn by [[Pullman Company#Porters|Pullman porters]]. For a few years after that, the [[National Football League|NFL]]'s [[Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL)|Brooklyn Dodgers]] football team, which, like their [[Los Angeles Dodgers|baseball namesakes]], played at Ebbets Field, using the stadium as a midweek training site.<ref name=Bleyer /> The site is now a Warehouse [[BJ's Wholesale Club]].

From 1931 until the early 1980s, Freeport was home to Freeport Speedway,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stockcarracing.com/thehistoryof/31638_freeport_stadium/index.html|website=StockCarRacing.com|title=The History of Freeport Stadium|access-date=March 18, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205235400/http://www.stockcarracing.com/thehistoryof/31638_freeport_stadium/index.html|archive-date=December 5, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> originally Freeport Municipal Stadium. Seating about 10,000, the stadium originally hosted "midget" auto races; after World War II it switched to [[stock car racing]] and eventually [[demolition derby|demolition derbies]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lasheefs.com/Pages/IslipFreeport/freeport1.html|title= Freeport Speedway: Photos from the 1970s|website=LaSheef's Racing Photos}}</ref>

Freeport is home to the Freeport Recreation Center, which features an enclosed, year-round ice skating rink; an indoor pool; an outdoor Olympic-size pool; an outdoor diving tank; an outdoor children's pool; handball courts; sauna; steam room; fully equipped workout gyms; basketball courts; and snack bars serving hot and cold foods. The "Rec Center" also offers evening adult classes and hosts a pre-school program, camp programs, and a senior center.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Locations Layout|url=https://www.freeportny.gov/115/Recreation-Center|website=freeportny.gov}}</ref>