With the Long Island Railroad reaching Roslyn Heights in 1865, a commercial district began to build around the new passenger depot. This growth increased with the new railroad station in 1887 and the introduction of the Roslyn trolley by 1910.

The largest stores were located north of the station at the corner of Warner Avenue and surrounded by a plaza named after Ernest Brower, a Roslyn civic leader. Brower helped clean up the Roslyn swamp land which latter became the Gerry Pond Park.

Brower Plaza has been documented by these wonderful 1928 photos courtesy of the Nassau County Police Museum.

The primary store in Brower Plaza was Thomas Roulston's grocery store. Thomas Roulston was an Irish immigrant who founded a chain of more than 230 grocery stores in Brooklyn and Long Island. Adjacent to Roulston's was a stationery store, which may have been the original location for Adelson's Stationery, which latter moved to Mineola Avenue.

Further west towards Garden Street were the James Butler store, a laundry store, Meyer's Meat Market and the Veteran's Barber Shop.

Around the corner on Garden Street was Hamilton's Garage and J.F. Stapleton's Grain. By 1982, all the Brower Plaza buildings were demolished by the Roslyn Heights urban renewal project and replaced by the railroad station parking lot.

Then (1928) and Now (2021)