Editing Freeport, New York (section)

===1940–present: recent history===
[[File:Freeport, NY - Sigmond Opera House c. 1913.jpg|thumb|The Sigmond Opera House (shown here {{circa|1913}}), originally a [[vaudeville]] theater and later a cinema, stood at 70 South Main Street. It burned on January 31, 1924.<ref name="fire" />]]

By 1937, Freeport's population exceeded 20,000, and it was the largest village in Nassau County.<ref name="NYT May 23, 1937" /> After [[World War II]] the village became a [[bedroom community]] for New York City. The separation between the two eras was marked by a fire that destroyed the Shorecrest Hotel (originally the [[Crystal Lake Hotel]]) on January 14, 1958.<ref name="fire" /> During the 1950s local merchants resisted building any shopping malls in the village and subsequently suffered a great loss of business when large malls were built in communities in the central part of Long Island.

The landscape of Freeport underwent further change with a significant increase in apartment building construction. When such buildings went up in just two years in the early 1960s, the Village passed a moratorium on multi-unit residential construction.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smits|1974|p=204}}</ref>

While never a major boatbuilding center, Freeport can boast some notable figures in that field. Fred and Mirto Scopinich operated their boatyard in Freeport from just after [[World War I]] until they moved it to [[East Quogue, New York|East Quogue]] in the late 1960s. Their Freeport Point Shipyard built boats for the [[United States Coast Guard]], but also for [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]-era [[rumrunner]]s.<ref>{{cite video|url=http://www.tv.com/history-alive/rumrunners-moonshiners-and-bootleggers/episode/988813/recap.html?tag=episode_header;recap|title=History Alive: Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers Trivia and Quotes|date=February 23, 2007|location=History Channel|access-date=March 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629022904/http://www.tv.com/history-alive/rumrunners-moonshiners-and-bootleggers/episode/988813/recap.html?tag=episode_header%3Brecap|archive-date=June 29, 2011|url-status=dead|medium=television}}</ref> From 1937 to 1945 the shipyard built small boats for the [[United States Navy]] and British [[Royal Navy]].<ref name="Bleyer" /> The marina and dealership operated by [[Al Grover]] in 1950 remains in Freeport and in his family. Grover's company built fishing [[skiff]]s from the 1970s until about 1990. One of these, a 26-footer, carried Grover and his sons from [[Nova Scotia]] to [[Portugal]] in 1985, the first-ever crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a boat powered by an [[outboard motor]].<ref name="Bleyer" /> [[Columbian Bronze]] operated in Freeport from its 1901 founding until it closed shop in 1988. Among this company's achievements was the propeller for the {{USS|Nautilus|SSN-571|6}}, an operational [[Nuclear marine propulsion|nuclear-powered]] [[submarine]] and the first vessel to complete a submerged transit across the [[North Pole]].<ref name="Bleyer" />