North Woodmere

The property that stretched from Lawrence to South Valley Stream was owned by lawyer Franklin B. Lord before it was developed in the late 1950s (President of the Long Island Water Company in the late nineteenth century). A portion of this land was also once home to the Water Company pumping station, which remains there today. His land, dubbed “The Lord’s Woods,” extended all the way from Lawrence and Cedarhurst to Far Rockaway. The forest thinned out and gave way to grassland at Mill Road. At the Long Island Water Property, the last remnant of these stunning woodlands can still be found.

This last remaining stretch of natural woodland in southwest Nassau was the focus of a conflict between conservation groups, locals, and developers in 1956, as the housing boom changed the county’s environment. Woodmere Woods, a more than 100-acre forest bounded by Mill Road and Peninsula Boulevard, was formerly owned by the Long Island Water Corporation. The location of the Peninsula Shopping Center was formerly the site of camping weekends for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

When deeper wells could be dug in the late 1950s, Long Island Water Corp. decided to sell off a large portion of their territory for development in spite of opposition from environmentalists. The woods were entirely vanished by the end of 1958, and the newly created region had been given the name “North Woodmere Knolls.”

Voters authorized the County of Nassau’s purchase of around 45 acres (18 hectares) of water and about 27 acres (11 ha) of land in 1962 so that North Woodmere County Park could be developed.

Although North Woodmere is served by the Valley Stream Post Office, the developers devised a marketing ruse to link their tract houses to the affluent Five Towns, even though they are formally part of South Valley Stream. Due to their shared social and cultural ties, North Woodmere is formally regarded as a part of The Five Towns and joined Hewlett-Woodmere School District 14.