With 12 votes a village was born

By Gabrielle Deonath

Roslyn Times, December 31, 2016

On March 26, 1931 incorporation papers for a proposed new village in Roslyn were filed. Several months later, the village of East Hills was established.

The decision by small Town of North Hempstead communities to form villages had became very popular during the late 1920s and 1930s. Landholders of large properties looked toward incorporation as an easy route to be excluded from taxes that went toward improvements to the road and sewer systems of the town, which did not benefit them personally, according to the Evelyn Philips’ book “The History of the Village of East Hills.” Control of zoning regulations was another factor that pushed some communities toward incorporation.

For the area that would become East Hills, there are records of the first village attorney, J. Oakey McKnight, saying that the incorporation of East Hills was seen as a beneficial move for the community because it would exclude them from an expensive highway tax required by the Town of North Hempstead, according to Philips’ book.

The book also said that a proposal for the Mackay Estate to be included in the Roslyn Sewer District also pushed forward the idea of incorporation.

In a Roslyn News article published on June 4, 1931, it was mentioned that another major reason for the incorporation of East Hills was to avoid businesses from overtaking the area.

When the proposal for incorporation was placed on the ballot, only 12 votes were cast, though there were over 250 adults in the community. The 12 people who voted were all in agreement. East Hills would be a village of its own.

While Harold Hawxhurst, a surveyor, is credited by some sources with naming the village East Hills, McKnight had said in the past that his father, H. Stewart McKnight, was the one to come up with the name.

J. Oakey McKnight said this father, recognizing that the area encompassed the hills to the east of North Hills, suggested East Hills as an appropriate name for the new village, according to Philip’s book

According to a Roslyn News article published on July 2, 1931, a village board consisting of a mayor and four trustees were elected unanimously by a total of 15 votes cast.

This first election took place in the barn of John W. Mackay.

Robert H. Willets was the elected mayor, and Ellen Hennessey, Catherine Hechler, John W. Mackay and Stephen H. Willets joined him as village trustees, with Charles Hechler filling the position of village clerk.

The first village board meeting was held at the Hechler home, the farmhouse on the Mackay property on July 8, 1931. See above photo.

When the Hechlers later moved to a house across Glen Cove Road, their home remained the meeting place for the East Hills board of trustees.

On March 1, 1952, the meetings moved from the house with the opening of the first Village Hall on Town Path.

The first trial of East Hills was held around 1944 in the living room of J. Oakey McKnight’s home on Squirrel Hill Road.

The defendant ran over a fire hose with his vehicle during a fire. He was charged and convicted of arson for starting the fire, according to J. Oakey McKnight’s account cited in Philips’ book.

The first development of homes in East Hills was known as Old Norgate and was built by Gustav A. Mezger.

The area Norgate was constructed on included land bought from the Mackay Estate and Sarah Taber Willets, in addition to part of the Hennessey Farm, according to recorded accounts of Catherine Hechler.

William Sherrard and his son bought part of the land in the Red Ground Road area and developed it by mapping out streets and constructing house on George and Sherrard streets.

Red Ground was included in East Hills because it supplied the populations and homes required for incorporation, according to Philips’ book.

Canterbury Woods was developed by Frank Clauson in 1946.

Levitt & Sons built 307 homes in the Strathmore development in 1947.

In 1949, the Bandes Development Corporation constructed 132 homes, creating the Fairfield Park development, while Westwood was completed by the Westgate Building Corporation in 1950.

Fairfield Park had once been a polo field.

Before it was turned into a housing development, it was transformed back into farmland to increase wartime food production for a few years during World War II, according to Philips’ account.

Although much of the grand Mackay Estate, which was built in the early 1900s, was razed in the mid-1940s due to multiple fires that destroyed many parts of the mansion, there are three of its structures that still remain.

The stone water tank from the Mackay Estate, located on Redwood Drive, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, along with the Mackay Estate Dairyman’s Cottage and Mackay Estate Gate Lodge.

The Dairyman’s Cottage is located on Elm Drive, and Gate Lodge is situated at the junction of Harbor Hill Road and Roslyn Road.

East Hills Commons was constructed in 1950 by Harry Berger, who also became the owner.

Berger also began building the first office building in East Hills in 1966 located on the east side of Glen Cove Road.

It was three-story building, complete with an elevator, costing about $250,000.

Aside from Roslyn High School, built on land donated by Clarence McKay, there were no public schools in East Hills before the 1950s.

Then three schools were built as new homeowners came to live in the area during the baby boom.

East Hills Elementary School was built near the intersection of Round Hill Road and Locust Lane, and Roslyn Junior High School was built on Power House Road.

In 1959, Harbor Hill School was constructed.

A campaign was started by St. Mary’s Catholic Church to raise funds to build a parochial school on the corner of Locust Lane and Round Hill Road.

The first synagogue in Roslyn was built in East Hills in the 1950s.

Temple Beth Sholom was constructed on the east side of Roslyn Road. The temple’s congregation, made up of 35 families, began in 1951, according to Philips’ book.

This 40-year period after the incorporation of East Hills was the time of greatest transformation of the village.

According to a village newsletter, when it was first incorporated, farmland and estates made up 98 percent of East Hills, with residential homes making up the other 2 percent.

By 1971, the ratio had flipped. East Hills only had 2 percent of farmland and estate holdings left, with 98 percent of the village transformed into homes.

The East Hills Village Hall when it was located on Town Path.