Vanderbilt Cup Races

At the meeting of the Central Park Historical Society of Bethpage, Howard Kroplick will speak and sign his new book at the Bethpage Library  at  47 Powell Avenue at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, April 23, 2014. All are welcomed to attend.

All proceeds from this book signing will be donated to the Roslyn Landmark Society Mackay Horse Statue Project.

Howard, North Hempstead’s town historian since 2012, has completed his third book with local history publisher, Arcadia Publishing. This new pictorial history entitled North Hempstead is the newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series.  The book boasts over 200 historic images and also features a foreword written by Leslie Gross, the town clerk of North Hempstead from 2007 to 2013.

In the first book published specifically on the Town of North Hempstead, Howard Kroplick takes readers on a visual journey of the history of the town including the people, places and landmarks that have created its identity.  Historic documents, maps and rare images have been culled from a wide variety of town and village archives, museums, libraries, schools and private collections, some of these documents date back from 1654.  The book spans the history of the area from the real estate treaty with the Algonquian people in 1654 to current times showing the community as a sprawling suburb.

North Hempstead celebrates the 400th anniversary of the European discovery of the Long Island Sound and the area which became the Town of North Hempstead.  Kroplick hopes that the book “will further document the history, growth and evolution of the town into one of the “Best Places to Live in America.”” All author proceeds from the book will be donated to various North Hempstead agencies including; Child Abuse Prevention Services, The Roslyn Landmark Society and the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center.

Highlights of North Hempstead include:

•Images of historic documents such as the 1654 real estate treaty with the Algonquian people, the 1665 Duke’s Laws, which established the basic principles of law and local government, and the 1784 Act that divided North Hempstead from Hempstead .
•The lives and homes of North Hempstead’s rich and famous including, William Cullen Bryant, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan, Groucho Marx and the Vanderbilt and Guggenheim families.

-Images of the 17 town landmarks designated by the town’s Historical Landmark Preservation Commission including 11 buildings, 3 cemeteries, 2 historical districts and a boulder.
•Twelve “Now and Then” pages, which show the transformation from a farming and estate community to a busy suburban area.

Location: Bethpage Public Library

Address: 47 Powell Avenue, Bethpage, NY