Manhasset

Manhasset Bay was home to a village of Matinecocks. “Place of small stones” is how these Native Americans referred to the location, calling it Sint Sink. They used oyster shells to make wampum. The Dutch West India Company claimed the region in 1623, and starting in 1640, they started evicting English inhabitants. English residents were able to return to Cow Neck (the peninsula containing modern-day Port Washington, Manhasset, and nearby settlements) after acquiring land in 1643.

Manhasset Bay was formerly called Martin Garretson’s Bay (Martin Garretson was the Schout at one point), Cow Bay, and finally Cow Harbor. A schout is the Dutch counterpart of a sheriff.Cow Neck was named for the quality of its grazing pasture. Around 300 cows and a 5-mile (8-kilometer) barrier divided Cow Neck from the regions to the south by 1659. It was decided by the settlers that each person may have one cow on their neck for every fence section they had built. In 1677, the fence was taken down, formally dividing the land among the inhabitants. While Port Washington was referred to as Upper Cow Neck, Manhasset was named Little Cow Neck.

Little Cow Neck suffered at the hands of the British during the American Revolution. Numerous buildings and assets, including the 1719 Quaker Meeting House, suffered destruction, fire, or seizure. Because the South, which was primarily home to Church of England residents, remained devoted to the king, the Town of North Hempstead broke away from the Town of Hempstead in 1784. The Yankee Congregationalists who ruled the villages and towns in the North favored independence.

Traveling from Roslyn to Spinney Hill on the recently constructed North Hempstead Turnpike (now Northern Boulevard) cost two cents in 1801.