First settled in the 1600s, the present-day village of Franklin Square developed as a German-speaking farming community in the late 1800s. The fertile farmland of Franklin Square supplied New York City with all types of fresh produce into the mid-20th century, when waves of suburban growth transformed fields into residential neighborhoods. Franklin Square's rich history exemplifies the larger trends in America's history. George Washington visited in 1790, and the poet Walt Whitman taught in the local school in 1840. The Franklin Square National Bank invented a new type of walk-up window as well as the bank credit card, eventually becoming the 18th-largest bank in the United States. A native son orbited the earth on the space shuttle.
Paul van Wie, PhD, has served as Franklin Square's historian since 1975 and as Town of Hempstead landmarks commissioner since 1988. For most of his professional career, he has taught at Hofstra University and in the East Williston schools. His coauthors in this volume are Kiera Grassi and Hannah Mutum, two enthusiastic and talented H. Frank Carey High School students who have recorded present-day Franklin Square in an ambitious photographic survey comprising thousands of images.