Editing Nassau County, New York (section)

==History==
The area now designated as Nassau County was originally the eastern 70% of [[Queens|Queens County]], one of the original twelve [[County (New York)|counties]] formed in 1683, and was then contained within two towns: [[Hempstead (town), New York|Hempstead]] and [[Oyster Bay (town), New York|Oyster Bay]]. In 1784, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through [[secession]] by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead. Nassau County was formed in 1899 by the division of Queens County, after the western portion of Queens had become a borough of New York City in 1898, as the three easternmost towns seceded from the county.

When the first [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]] settlers arrived, among the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] to occupy the present area of Nassau County were the [[Metoac|Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue]]. [[Dutch people|Dutch]] settlers in [[New Netherland]] predominated in the western portion of Long Island, while English settlers from Connecticut occupied the eastern portion. Until 1664, Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau and Suffolk counties, between the Dutch in the west and Connecticut claiming the east. The Dutch did grant an English settlement in Hempstead (now in western Nassau), but drove settlers from the present-day eastern Nassau [[hamlet (New York)|hamlet]] of [[Oyster Bay (hamlet), New York|Oyster Bay]] as part of a boundary dispute. In 1664, all of Long Island became part of the English [[Province of New York]] within the [[York Shire (Province of New York)|Shire of York]]. Present-day Queens and Nassau were then just part of a larger North Riding. In 1683, the colonial territory of [[York Shire (Province of New York)|Yorkshire]] was dissolved, Suffolk County and Queens County were established, and the local seat of government was moved west from Hempstead to Jamaica (now in [[New York City]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hopefarm.com/5boros.htm |title=Early Five Borough's History |quote=When Queens County was created the courts were transferred from Hempstead to Jamaica Village and a County Court was erected. When the building became too small for its purposes and the stone meeting house had been erected, the courts were held for some years in that edifice. Later a new courthouse was erected and used until the seat of justice was removed to North Hempstead. |access-date=December 30, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021055612/http://hopefarm.com/5boros.htm |archive-date=October 21, 2010 |url-status=dead |website= Hope Farm Press}}</ref>

By 1700, virtually none of Long Island's area remained unpurchased from the Native Americans by the English colonists, and townships controlled whatever land had not already been distributed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/parks/wheretogo/museums/central_nass_museum/old_bethpage_rest.html |title=Old Bethpage Village Restoration |access-date=April 22, 2012 |archive-date=May 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527045851/http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/parks/wheretogo/museums/central_nass_museum/old_bethpage_rest.html |url-status=live |website=Nassau County, NY}}</ref> The courthouse in Jamaica was torn down by the British during the [[American Revolution]] to use the materials to build barracks.<ref name=HoQC >{{Cite web|url=http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Queens/history/civil1.html|title=Civil History of Queens County- Crimes and Penalties- the Court-house- Officials. |website=bklyn-genealogy-info.com |access-date=November 13, 2012|archive-date=February 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210092009/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Queens/history/civil1.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

In 1784, following the [[American Revolutionary War]], the Town of Hempstead was split in two, when [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]] in the northern part formed the new [[North Hempstead, New York|Town of North Hempstead]], leaving [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] majorities in the Town of Hempstead. About 1787, a new Queens County Courthouse was erected (and later completed) in the new Town of North Hempstead, near present-day [[Mineola, New York|Mineola]] (now in Nassau County), known then as Clowesville.<ref>*{{cite web |url=http://www.queensbp.org/content_web/tourism/tourism_history.shtml |title=Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View |quote=From the final withdrawal of the British in November, 1783, until the 1830s, Queens continued as an essentially Long Island area of farms and villages. The location of the county government in Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) underscores the island orientation of that era. Population grew hardly at all, increasing only from 5,791 in 1800 to 7,806 in 1830, suggesting that many younger sons moved away, seeking fortunes where land was not yet so fully taken up for farming. |publisher=Official History Page of the Queens Borough President's Office |access-date=December 29, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218014547/http://www.queensbp.org/content_web/tourism/tourism_history.shtml |archive-date=December 18, 2007  }}
**{{cite book |title=A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and Its Neighborhood |editor=Jon A. Peterson and Vincent Seyfried |year=1983}}
**{{cite book |editor=Peterson, Jon A. |title=A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens, New York City |location=New York |publisher=Queens College, City University of New York |year=1987}}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.timevoyagers.com/bookstore/NewYork/counties/queens.htm |title=New York – Queens County  |website=Time Voyagers |access-date=December 29, 2007 |archive-date=July 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720070246/http://www.timevoyagers.com/bookstore/NewYork/counties/queens.htm |url-status=live }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.mynewyorkgenealogy.com/ny_history.htm |title=New York State History |year=1999 |publisher=Genealogy Inc |quote=Under the Reorganization Act of March 7, 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence. |access-date=December 28, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108141441/http://www.mynewyorkgenealogy.com/ny_history.htm |archive-date=January 8, 2008  }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.dos.state.ny.us/lgss/pdfs/Handbook.pdf |title=State of New York; Local Government Handbook; 5th Edition |date=January 2000 |pages=Ch 4, p 13; Ch 5 p 2 |quote=The 1777 New York State Constitution, Article XXXVI, confirmed land grants and municipal charters granted by the English Crown prior to October 14, 1775. Chapter 64 of the Laws of 1788 organized the state into towns and cities...The basic composition of the counties was set in 1788 when the State Legislature divided all of the counties then existing into towns. Towns, of course, were of earlier origin, but in that year they acquired a new legal status as components of the counties. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215150221/http://www.dos.state.ny.us/lgss/pdfs/handbook.pdf |archive-date=February 15, 2010  }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history_mysteries_hs221a,0,670882.story |title=History Mysteries: Shelter Island Ferry/Mineola Building |quote=The building shown below "is one of the most important buildings in the history of Mineola," wrote Jack Hehman, president of the Mineola Historical Society. Built in 1787 and known as the "old brig," it was the first Queens County courthouse and later a home for the mentally ill. The building was at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road until 1910, when it burned to the ground. |access-date=April 1, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706164332/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history_mysteries_hs221a%2C0%2C670882.story |archive-date=July 6, 2008  }}
**{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1882/08/29/archives/the-mineola-asylum-witnesses-who-testified-that-it-is-and-has-been.html |title=The Mineola Asylum; Witnesses who testified that it is and has been a model institution. |quote=The investigation of the charges made against the Superintendent and keepers of the Mineola Asylum for the Insane, which was begun last Tuesday, was continued yesterday by the standing Committee on Insane Asylums of the Queens County Board of Supervisors-- Messrs. Whitney, Brinckerhoff, and Powell. The committee were shown through the asylum, which is the old building of the Queens County Court-house over 100 years old |date=August 29, 1882 |work=[[New York Times]] |access-date=April 1, 2008 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215229/https://www.nytimes.com/1882/08/29/archives/the-mineola-asylum-witnesses-who-testified-that-it-is-and-has-been.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="NCPO">*{{cite web |url=http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Civil/Nassau.P.O.html |title=Nassau County Post Offices 1794–1879 |author=David Roberts |access-date=April 1, 2008 |archive-date=July 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725014638/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Civil/Nassau.P.O.html |url-status=dead |website=bklyn-genealogy-info.com }}
*{{cite book |title=New York Postal History: The Post Offices & First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980 |quote=There was only one post office established in present Nassau County when the Long Island post road to Sag Harbor was established September 25, 1794. It appears that the mail from New York went to Jamaica. This was the only post office in the present day Boroughs of Queens or Brooklyn before 1803. From Jamaica the mail went east along the Jericho Turnpike/Middle Country Road route and ended at Sag Harbor. The only post office on this route between Jamaica and Suffolk County was QUEENS established the same date as the others on this route 9/25/1794. This post office was officially Queens, but I have seen the area called "Queens Court House" and was located approximately in the Mineola-Westbury area. The courthouse was used until the 1870s when the county court was moved to Long Island City. Later it served as the Queens County Insane Asylum and still later as an early courthouse for the new Nassau County, during construction of the present "old" Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola. It was demolished shortly after 1900 ... after about 120 years of service of one type or the other. |author1=John L. Kay |author2=Chester M. Smith, Jr. |name-list-style=amp |publisher=American Philatelic Society |year=1982}}
*{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1872/02/25/archives/the-queens-county-courthouse-question-a-new-building-to-be-erected.html |title=The Queens County Court-House Question A New Building to be Erected at Mineola. |date=February 25, 1872 |quote=For forty years the Supervisors of Queens County have been quarreling over a site for a Court-house. The incommodious building used |access-date=April 1, 2008 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723004448/https://www.nytimes.com/1872/02/25/archives/the-queens-county-courthouse-question-a-new-building-to-be-erected.html |url-status=live }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Map/No.Hemp.html |title=1873 map of North Hempstead |quote=bottom right by spur road off Jericho Tpk – location is now known as [[Garden City Park, New York|Garden City Park]]. Clowesville was the name of the nearest station on the LIRR, approximately at the location of the present [[Merillon Avenue (LIRR station)|Merillon Avenue station]]. The courthouse was north of the station. |access-date=December 31, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610033357/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Map/No.Hemp.html |archive-date=June 10, 2007  }}</ref>{{refn|The former county courthouse was located northeast of the intersection of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25) and the aptly named County Courthouse Road in an unincorporated area of the Town of North Hempstead, variously referred to in the present day as Garden City Park or New Hyde Park. The site is now a shopping center anchored by a supermarket and is located in the New Hyde Park 11040 ZIP Code. A stone marker located on the north side of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25), between Marcus Avenue and Herricks Road, identifies the site.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1i9AnIpmtbAC&q=nassau+county+seat+mineola&pg=PA55 |title=Nassau County, Long Island, in early photographs, 1869–1940 |first1=Bette S. |last1=Weidman |first2=Linda B. |last2=Martin |publisher=Courier Dover |year=1981 |page=55 |isbn=9780486241364 |access-date=December 2, 2010 |archive-date=September 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930134401/https://books.google.com/books?id=1i9AnIpmtbAC&q=nassau+county+seat+mineola&pg=PA55#v=snippet&q=nassau%20county%20seat%20mineola&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>}}<ref name="MineolaFarmers">
{{cite news |url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist002d,0,6131005.story?coll=ny_community_guide_lihistory_promo |title=Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers |author=Rhoda Amon  |newspaper=Newsday |quote=That was the year when the "Old Brig" courthouse was vacated after 90 years of housing lawbreakers. The county court moved from Mineola to Long Island City. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015160228/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist002d%2C0%2C6131005.story?coll=ny_community_guide_lihistory_promo |archive-date=October 15, 2008 |access-date=November 11, 2012 |url-status=dead }}
</ref>

[[File:MTA Announces Opening of Second Section of LIRR Main Line Third Track (52322579438).jpg|thumb|[[Mineola station (LIRR)|Mineola Station]] of the [[Long Island Rail Road]]]]

The [[Long Island Rail Road]] reached as far east as [[Hicksville, New York|Hicksville]] in 1837, but did not proceed to [[Farmingdale, New York|Farmingdale]] until 1841 due to the [[Panic of 1837]]. The 1850 census was the first in which the combined population of the three western towns (Flushing, Jamaica, and Newtown) exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition of the old courthouse and the inconvenience of travel and accommodations, with the three eastern and three western towns divided on the location for the construction of a new one.<ref>*{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/02/14/80255277.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130215809/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/02/14/80255277.pdf |archive-date=January 30, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Queen's County Court House |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 14, 1870 |access-date=November 11, 2012}}
*{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/12/05/93250633.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501103851/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/12/05/93250633.pdf |archive-date=May 1, 2020 |url-status=live |title=Long Island |newspaper=New York Times |date=December 5, 1870 |access-date=November 11, 2012}}
*{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/02/25/78777602.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308155222/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/02/25/78777602.pdf |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |url-status=live |title=The Queens County Court-House Question |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 25, 1872 |access-date=November 11, 2012}}
</ref> Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to [[Long Island City, Queens|Long Island City]] from Mineola.<ref name="MineolaFarmers" /><ref>*{{cite news |url=http://www.queenstribune.com/guides/2005_PatchworkOfCultures/pages/QueensTimeline.htm |title=A Queens Timeline |newspaper=The Queens Tribune |quote=1874 – Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City. |access-date=December 23, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109203348/http://queenstribune.com/guides/2005_PatchworkOfCultures/pages/QueensTimeline.htm |archive-date=November 9, 2007 }}
*{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1874/02/09/79216521.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126075635/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1874/02/09/79216521.pdf |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |url-status=live |title=The New Queens County Court-House |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 9, 1874 |access-date=November 11, 2012}}
</ref><ref name="NewsdayNassau">
{{cite news |title=Nassau's Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling |author=Geoffrey Mohan  |newspaper=Newsday |url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs615a,0,7026626.story?page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016012933/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs615a%2C0%2C7026626.story?page=4 |year=2007 |quote=North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and the rest of Hempstead were excluded from the vote. |access-date=November 11, 2012 |archive-date=October 16, 2008 |url-status=dead }}
</ref> As early as 1875, representatives of the three eastern towns began advocating the separation of the three eastern towns from Queens, with some proposals also including the towns of Huntington and Babylon (in Suffolk County).<ref name="NYT1875-04-12" /><ref name="NYT1876-04-09" /><ref name="NYT1876-12-21" />

In 1898, the western portion of Queens County became a borough of the [[City of Greater New York]], leaving the eastern portion a part of Queens County but not part of the Borough of Queens. As part of the city consolidation plan, all town, village, and city (other than NYC) governments within the borough were dissolved, as well as the county government with its seat in Jamaica. The areas excluded from the consolidation included all of the Town of North Hempstead, all of the Town of Oyster Bay, and most of the Town of Hempstead (excluding the [[Rockaway, Queens|Rockaway Peninsula]], which was separated from the Town of Hempstead and became part of the city borough).

In 1899, following approval from the [[New York State Legislature]], the three towns were separated from Queens County, and the new county of Nassau was constituted.

In preparation for the new county, in November 1898, voters had selected [[Mineola, New York|Mineola]] to become the county seat for the new county<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1898/11/10/archives/mineola-chosen-nassau-countys-seat.html |title=Mineola Chosen Nassau County's Seat |newspaper=New York Times |date=November 10, 1898 |access-date=June 6, 2010 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726170215/https://www.nytimes.com/1898/11/10/archives/mineola-chosen-nassau-countys-seat.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (before Mineola incorporated as a village in 1906 and set its boundaries almost entirely within the Town of North Hempstead), winning out over Hicksville and Hempstead.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1898/09/01/archives/county-of-nassau-elections.html?sq=mineola+%22county+seat%22&scp=3&st=p |title=County of Nassau Elections |newspaper=New York Times |date=September 1, 1898 |access-date=June 6, 2010 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726172206/https://www.nytimes.com/1898/09/01/archives/county-of-nassau-elections.html?sq=mineola+%22county+seat%22&scp=3&st=p |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Garden City Company (founded in 1893 by the heirs of [[Alexander Turney Stewart]])<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.gardencityny.net/history1.htm |title=Incorporated Village of Garden City: History |publisher=Incorporated Village of Garden City |access-date=June 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719200958/http://www.gardencityny.net/history1.htm |archive-date=July 19, 2011 }}
</ref> donated four acres of land for the county buildings in the Town of Hempstead, just south of the Mineola train station and the present day village of Mineola.<ref>*{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1898/09/29/archives/sites-for-nassau-county-buildings.html?sq=nassau+%22county+seat%22+garden+city&scp=1&st=p |title=Sites for Nassau County Buildings |newspaper=New York Times |date=September 29, 1898 |access-date=June 6, 2010 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726174048/https://www.nytimes.com/1898/09/29/archives/sites-for-nassau-county-buildings.html?sq=nassau+%22county+seat%22+garden+city&scp=1&st=p |url-status=live }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nynassa2/populationsurvey2.htm |title=The History of Nassau's County Seat |publisher=rootsweb |access-date=June 6, 2010 |archive-date=December 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224235342/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nynassa2/populationsurvey2.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The land and the buildings have a Mineola postal address, but are within the present day [[Garden City, New York|Village of Garden City]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/15/nyregion/an-immigrant-s-vision-created-garden-city.html?pagewanted=all |title=An Immigrant's Vision Created Garden City |first=Marcelle S |last=Fischler |date=November 15, 1998 |access-date=June 6, 2010 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=May 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524234826/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/15/nyregion/an-immigrant-s-vision-created-garden-city.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref> which did not incorporate, nor set its boundaries, until 1919.

[[File:Int495eRoad-Exit41S-NY106sNY107s (31061511095).jpg|thumb|[[Long Island Expressway]] at [[Hicksville, New York|Hicksville]], [[New York (state)|New York]], home to a growing [[Little India]]]]

In 1917,<ref name=HOGC>{{cite web |url=http://www.nassaulibrary.org/glencove/History%20of%20Glen%20Cove.html |title=HISTORY OF GLEN COVE |author1=Antonia Petrash |author2=Carol Stern |author3=Carol McCrossen |name-list-style=amp |access-date=May 11, 2009 |archive-date=October 25, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051025183106/http://www.nassaulibrary.org/glencove/History%20of%20Glen%20Cove.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the hamlet of [[Glen Cove, New York|Glen Cove]] was granted a city charter, making it independent from the Town of Oyster Bay. In 1918, the village of [[Long Beach, New York|Long Beach]] was incorporated in the Town of Hempstead. In 1922, it became a city, making it independent of the town. These are the only two [[administrative divisions of New York#City|administrative divisions]] in Nassau County identified as cities.

From the early 1900s until the Depression and the early 1930s, many hilly farmlands on the North Shore were transformed into luxurious country estates for wealthy New Yorkers, with the area receiving the [[North Shore (Long Island)#Gold Coast|"Gold Coast"]] moniker and becoming the setting of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s 1925 novel ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''. One summer resident of the Gold Coast was President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], at [[Sagamore Hill]]. In 1908, [[William Kissam Vanderbilt]] constructed the [[Long Island Motor Parkway]] as a [[toll road]] through Nassau County. With overpasses and bridges to remove intersections, it was among the first [[Freeway|limited access motor highways]] in the world, and was also used as a racecourse to test the capabilities of the fledgling automobile industry.

Nassau County, with its extensive flat land, was the site of many [[aviation]] firsts.<ref name=CoA/> Military aviators for both World Wars were trained on the [[Hempstead Plains]] at installations such as [[Mitchel Air Force Base]], and a number of successful aircraft companies were established. Charles Lindberg took off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in 1927, completing the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from the United States. [[Grumman]] (which in 1986 employed 23,000 people on Long Island<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E7D91F3AF93BA35750C0A962958260 |title=Long Islanders Shocked by Grumman's Merger |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 8, 1994 |access-date=November 17, 2012 |archive-date=September 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930134403/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/08/business/long-islanders-shocked-by-grumman-s-merger.html |url-status=live }}</ref>) built many planes for World War II, and later contributed the [[Apollo Lunar Module]] to the Space program.<ref name=CoA>{{cite web |url=http://www.cradleofaviation.org/history/index.html |title=The Aviation History of Long Island |first=Joshua |last=Stoff |publisher=[[Cradle of Aviation Museum]] |access-date=November 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127012810/http://www.cradleofaviation.org/history/index.html |archive-date=November 27, 2012 }}</ref>

The [[United Nations Security Council]] was temporarily located in Nassau County, from 1946 till 1951. Council meetings were held at the [[Sperry Corporation|Sperry]] Gyroscope headquarters in the village of [[Lake Success, New York|Lake Success]], near the border with Queens County. It was here that on June 27, 1950, the Security Council voted to back U.S. President [[Harry S Truman]] and send a [[coalition]] of forces to the [[Korean Peninsula]], leading to the [[Korean War]].

Until World War II, most of Nassau County was still farmland, particularly in the eastern portion. Following the war, the county saw an influx of people from the [[borough (New York City)|five boroughs of New York City]], especially from Brooklyn and Queens, who left their urban dwellings for a more suburban setting. This led to a massive population boom in the county. In 1947, [[William Levitt]] built his first [[planned community]] in Nassau County, in the Island Trees section (later renamed [[Levittown, New York|Levittown]]; this should not be confused with the county's first planned community, which in general is [[Garden City, New York|Garden City]]). In the 1930s, [[Robert Moses]] had engineered curving [[parkways]] and parks such as [[Jones Beach State Park]] and [[Bethpage State Park]] for the enjoyment of city-dwellers; in the 1950s and 1960s the focus turned to alleviating commuter traffic.

In 1994, Federal Judge Arthur Spatt declared the Nassau County Board of Supervisors unconstitutional and directed that a 19-member legislature be formed.<ref>McQuiston, John T. [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/09/nyregion/judge-says-he-will-create-nassau-legislature-his-own-if-supervisors-fail-act.html "Judge Says He Will Create a Nassau Legislature on His Own if Supervisors Fail to Act"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726175515/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/09/nyregion/judge-says-he-will-create-nassau-legislature-his-own-if-supervisors-fail-act.html |date=July 26, 2018 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 9, 1994. Retrieved December 11, 2007.</ref> Republicans won 13 seats in the election and chose [[Bruce Blakeman]] as the first Presiding Officer (Speaker).<ref>McQuiston, John T. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03EEDF1239F930A35752C0A960958260 "Amid Pomp, Nassau County Inaugurates Its Legislature"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930134403/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/03/nyregion/amid-pomp-nassau-county-inaugurates-its-legislature.html |date=September 30, 2023 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 13, 1996.</ref>

According to a ''Forbes'' magazine 2012 survey, residents of Nassau County have the 12th highest median household annual income in the country and the highest in the state.<ref name="Forbes-2012-ranks-Nassau-12th"/> In the 1990s, however, Nassau County experienced substantial budget problems, forcing the county to near [[bankruptcy]]. Thus, the county government increased taxes to prevent a takeover by the state of New York, leading to the county having high [[property tax]]es. Nevertheless, on January 27, 2011, a State of New York oversight board seized control of Nassau County's finances, saying the wealthy and heavily taxed county had failed to balance its $2.6 billion budgets.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/nyregion/27nassau.html?hp |title=New York State Takes Control of Nassau's Finances |work=The New York Times |date=January 27, 2011 |access-date=January 27, 2011 |archive-date=October 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014205707/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/nyregion/27nassau.html?hp |url-status=live }}</ref>