Great Neck, New York

Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorporated areas, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border territory of Queens. The incorporated village of Great Neck had a population of 9,989 at the 2010 census, while the larger Great Neck area comprises a residential community of some 40,000 people in nine villages and hamlets in the town of North Hempstead, of which Great Neck is the northwestern quadrant. Great Neck has five ZIP Codes (11020–11024), which are united by a park district and one school district.

The hamlets are census-designated places that consolidate various unincorporated areas. They are statistical entities and are not recognized locally. However, there are locally recognized neighborhoods within the hamlet areas, such as Harbor Hills, Saddle Rock Estates, University Gardens, and Manhasset. The Manhasset neighborhood (in ZIP Code 11030) is not considered part of Great Neck. The part of the Hamlet of Manhasset that is considered part of Great Neck includes the Great Neck Manor neighborhood. Great Neck Gardens is featured on many maps as a name of one such hamlet, even as the name is used rarely if ever by local residents.

Pre-colonization
Before the Dutch and English settlers arrived on the peninsula of Great Neck in the 17th century, the Mattinecock Native Americans originally inhabited the shorelines of the peninsula. It was not until 1681 when the European settlers held the first town meeting. The Mattinecock or Metoac used Long Island Sound as a way to both fish and trade with others.

They referred to present-day Great Neck as Menhaden-Ock. It is speculated that they chose this name because of the large amount of fish in the area. With the arrival of the European settlers on the peninsula in the 1640s, Menhaden-Ock evolved into Madnan's Neck. By 1670, Madnan's Neck had further evolved into the current name Great Neck. Local legend has it that the name "Madnan's Neck" is named after Anne (or Nan) Hutchinson. It is said that Anne Hutchinson tried to take over what is considered present-day Kings Point upon her arrival to the peninsula. However, Anne Hutchinson could not actually procure a land grant or deed for the land that she desired. Her temper supposedly earned her the nickname Mad Nan. On November 18, 1643, the Hempstead Plains, which included the peninsula of Great Neck, was sold to the Reverend Robert Fordham and John Carman. In the beginning, the Mattinecock Indians and the European settlers cooperated and coexisted very well together. The Mattinecock would teach the settlers their knowledge of the land in exchange for new technology from the settlers. The settlers even started using the Indian currency of wampum. However, this peaceful coexistence would not last forever, and the relationship between the Mattinecock and the settlers quickly began to deteriorate. Settlers often began complaining of unfriendly Mattinecock behavior, claiming that the natives would damage their homes and hurt their cattle. On November 18, 1659, the settlers passed a law that forced the natives to pay damages for white property that they had damaged. The problem between the settlers and the Mattinecock natives over land and property kept growing and finally came to a head in 1684. A commission of settlers had been elected and given the power to appease the Mattinecock and their leader Tackapousha. Tackapousha was eventually paid off, and received 120 pounds sterling for his land. Tackapousha eventually died, and his body still rests at the Lakeville AME Zion Church's cemetery on Community Drive, across the street from North Shore University Hospital. The Lakeville AME Zion Church is one of the oldest churches in New York State. The very first European to look upon the Long Island peninsula of Great Neck was Captain Adrian Block of the Great Dutch West India Company in 1614, when his men were stranded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, because their ship Tiger sank shortly after its landing. The captain and his men then built a ship called the Onrust out of timber and salvaged parts from Tiger. When the sailors set sail again, they sailed around Long Island, mapping it as they passed. Later, the Reverend Robert Fordham and John Carman first came to Great Neck from New Haven by use of Long Island Sound. During this trip, the deal with Chief Tackapousha was reached. One year later, on November 16 William Kieft granted a special land patent for the territory, and permission for the community's incorporation. William Kieft was the director general of New Netherland, and the patent that he granted gave the people of the peninsula the right to religious self-determination. The new community's political independence was so great that only town officials who were in any way elected by the Dutch government or its magistrates, first nominated by a town meeting. The Dutch controlled Long Island from 1642 to 1664. Under Dutch rule, constables, local officers, nominated magistrates, and overseers were elected by town meetings and passed legislation. On December 21, 1656, Peter Stuyvesant, who was the director general of New Netherland after William Kieft, appointed the first two magistrates of Hempstead. These two men were John Seaman and Richard Guildersleeve. The local government of Madnan's Neck at the time was extremely active in passing new laws. A liquor tax was imposed, and half of that tax paid for the town's supply of ammunition, with the other half going to education. A religious code of ethics was also published by the local government, which included conduct on holidays for the entire town. There were also punishments for poor conduct, which included fines, corporal punishment, and banishment. The first reported instance of sexual misconduct in the peninsula's history was recorded on October 3, 1659, against Henry Linnington. After the threat of being banished, Linnington was ultimately allowed to stay, on the condition that he reformed his behavior. Around this time, the boundaries of Madnan's Neck and Hempstead grew increasingly apart. As the population of Madnan's Neck grew, independence from Hempstead became increasingly realistic. In 1672, Robert Jackson, a well-known man in the community of Madnan's Neck, beat out Simon Seryon in the election for constable of Hempstead by a count of 39 to 31. However, Seryon was still declared the victor, due to governmental corruption and back door bribery. Incensed by the fixed election and obviously staged result, residents of Madnan's Neck petitioned the governor for separation, but their request was denied. Finally, on June 9, 1687, the order went out from the government of the New Netherland that Madnan's Neck be "separate, hereafter from Hempstead". The town was then given its own marshal, and its own constable. The first constable of Madnan's Neck was a man named Edward Hare, who helped aid in the movement for Madnan's Neck's independence. Over time Madnan's Neck grew increasingly politically independent over time. Throughout the next few years, Madnan's Neck depended even less on Hempstead. Few communities of Madnan's Neck's size had their own highway, grist mill, minister, constable, and marshal, yet Madnan's Neck, emerged from Hempstead as a fully functioning town.

After settlement
During the late 19th century, Great Neck was the rail head of the New York and Flushing Railroad, and began the process of converting from a farm village into a commuter town.

In the 1920s, Great Neck—in particular the Village of Kings Point—provided a backdrop to F. Scott Fitzgerald's book The Great Gatsby. It was thinly disguised as "West Egg," in counterpoint to Manor Haven/Sands Point, which was the inspiration for the more posh "East Egg" (the next peninsula over on Long Island Sound), Great Neck symbolized the decadence of the Roaring Twenties as it extended out from New York City to then-remote suburbs. The Great Gatsby's themes and characters reflected the real-world transformation that Great Neck was experiencing at the time, as show-business personalities like Eddie Cantor, Sid Caesar, and the Marx Brothers bought homes in the hamlet and eventually established it as a haven for Jewish Americans formerly of Brooklyn and the Bronx.



In 1943, the United States Merchant Marine Academy was founded at the former location of Walter P. Chrysler's palatial estate in Kings Point, as the only higher education institution in Great Neck. The end of World War II saw a tremendous migration of Ashkenazi Jews from the cramped quarters to the burgeoning suburb. They founded many synagogues and community groups and pushed for stringent educational policies in the town's public schools; it is portrayed in Jay Cantor's 2003 novel Great Neck, with recently installed residents of all stripes trying to secure the brightest futures for their children. During the construction of the current headquarters of the United Nations from 1947 through 1952, the United Nations was temporarily headquartered at the Sperry Corporation facility in the Great Neck community of Lake Success due to its proximity to Manhattan. Eleanor Roosevelt headed the UN Commission on Human Rights at this location.

During the 1960s, many residents frequented the local pool and ice-skating complex, Parkwood, after which its patronage dramatically increased following years of decline as homeowners built their own in-ground pools. After the September 11 attacks, the ice-skating rink was renamed in honor of Andrew Stergiopoulos, a local resident who was killed in the attack. It was extensively renovated in 2007 and 2008.

Beginning in the 1980s, an influx of Persian Jews who left their country fleeing persecution from the 1979 Islamic Revolution settled in Great Neck. Beginning in the late 1990s and continuing till present day, a number of East Asians, predominantly Chinese and Korean, have been moving into the area for a better environment for their children as well as for the relatively high quality public school education (the GNPS school district has been ranked by Niche as a #1 public school district in New York in previous years and some of its schools have received Blue Ribbons).



List of communities
Great Neck consists of 9 incorporated villages and 6 unincorporated hamlets:
 * Village of Great Neck
 * Great Neck Estates
 * Great Neck Plaza
 * Kensington
 * Kings Point
 * Lake Success
 * Russell Gardens
 * Saddle Rock
 * Thomaston
 * Great Neck Gardens
 * Harbor Hills
 * Saddle Rock Estates
 * University Gardens

The westernmost portion of the Hamlet of Manhasset lies between the villages of Thomaston and Lake Success and has Great Neck postal codes (1102x).

Transportation
Great Neck is a 25- to 35-minute commute from Manhattan's Penn Station on the Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road via the Great Neck station, which is one of the most frequently served in the entire system; as a result, many LIRR trains terminate at the station to serve the large number of riders. Nassau Inter-County Express connects the villages to the train station and offers service to several destinations in Nassau County and Queens from the station, while the southern part of the Great Neck area can also directly access the Q46 New York City Bus on Union Turnpike at the border with Glen Oaks and the Q12 bus on Northern Boulevard at the border with Little Neck.

Emergency services
The Village of Great Neck is protected by the Nassau County Police Department's Sixth Precinct, as is the rest of Great Neck except for the villages of Great Neck Estates, Kings Point, Kensington and Lake Success. Those villages have their own police departments, which are reinforced by the NCPD during any criminal activity, event, or other incident that falls outside the realm of "routine."

Great Neck is served by three all-volunteer fire departments. The Great Neck Alert Fire Company was founded in 1901. The Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company was founded in 1904. Company 3 of the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department was founded in 1912, and Company 4 of the M-LFD was founded in 1926. Alert covers the northern part of the peninsula, including the Village of Great Neck, providing fire and heavy rescue response. Alert responds to certain medical emergencies with its heavy rescue truck and provides care before the arrival of an ambulance. Vigilant serves the middle portion of Great Neck with fire and heavy rescue response. The Vigilant Fire Company also provides emergency ambulance services to both its own territory and Alert's. M-LFD Co. 3 and 4 serve the southern part of Great Neck, including the villages of Thomaston and Lake Success. These two companies offer fire and rescue services. The M-LFD Ambulance Unit operates two ambulances out of Co. 3's firehouse. In addition, the Nassau County Police Emergency Ambulance Bureau also provides EMS service to the Manhasset-Lakeville fire district.

Parks and recreation
The Parkwood Pool and skating rink complex, the Village Green and sections of Kings Point Park are managed by the Great Neck Park District. The park district serves all of Great Neck except the villages of Saddle Rock, Great Neck Estates, and Lake Success, and the neighborhoods (not hamlets) of Harbor Hills and University Gardens. The areas not served by the Great Neck Park District each have their own facilities for their residents, run by the villages or civic associations. Parkwood can also provide tennis lessons and skating lessons. During the summer it is a part of the Great Neck day camp program, where young campers use the swimming pool facilities.

Economy
At one time Servisair had its Americas offices in Great Neck. Great Neck is also one of the most affluent towns in the country.

Culture and tourism
Great Neck serves primarily as a "bedroom" community for New York City. As such, it contains few "touristy" attractions. Notable exceptions include:
 * Saddle Rock Grist Mill, a historical grain-mill powered by tides; known to have been in operation as early as the 18th century.
 * United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point
 * Steppingstone Park, formerly part of the Walter P. Chrysler estate in Kings Point. Offers summer concerts every Saturday night.
 * Kings Point Park
 * Great Neck Arts Center
 * Great Neck Plaza Shopping District
 * Great Neck Plaza Promenade Nights – Several summer nights in Great Neck's downtown area, the streets are closed off and local restaurants bring all of their seating outdoors for a festival evening of dining, live music, and entertainment.
 * Handful of Keys, a trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) mural painted by Willian Cochran located in Great Neck Plaza
 * F. Scott Fitzgerald's House, which was loosely referred to in his novel, The Great Gatsby. "West Egg" referred to King's Point, a prosperous neighborhood in the North of Great Neck, once known for its prevalence of "new money."

Education
Great Neck Library is the public library system serving the community of Great Neck. There are four branches, located throughout the Great Neck peninsula: Main, Station, Parkville, and Lakeville.

The Great Neck Union Free School District is the school district of most of Great Neck. It also includes parts of unincorporated New Hyde Park and Manhasset Hills. A small part of eastern Great Neck around Northern Boulevard is part of the Manhasset Union Free School District, whose students attend Manhasset High School. About 6,200 students, grades K-12, attend the Great Neck Public Schools. There are three high schools: North, South, and Village (a small alternative high school). There is a district-wide alternative high school program, SEAL Academy (Supportive Environment for All Learners). There are also two middle schools and four elementary schools. Students have diverse backgrounds; they come from more than 40 countries and represent a broad socioeconomic range.

Colleges:
 * United States Merchant Marine Academy

High schools:
 * Great Neck North High School
 * Great Neck South High School
 * Great Neck Village High School (Alternative high school)

Middle schools:
 * Great Neck North Middle School
 * Great Neck South Middle School

Elementary schools:
 * E. M. Baker Elementary School
 * John F. Kennedy Elementary School
 * Lakeville Elementary School
 * Saddle Rock Elementary School

Nursery school:
 * Parkville School

Adult centers:
 * Cumberland
 * Clover Drive

Great Neck's two major high schools are rated among the top in the country. Its students have been frequent finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, and Great Neck has produced several Intel STS winners since 1999. In addition, the district has produced several high school winners of the international First Step to the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded in Poland. In the 2008 Newsweek magazine's annual list of the top 1,300 American high schools, Great Neck South was ranked 49th, and Great Neck North was ranked 68th.

Private schools in the region include North Shore Hebrew Academy and Silverstein Hebrew Academy.

At one time, the Japanese Weekend School of New York (ニューヨーク補習授業校) conducted lessons in Great Neck.

Notable people

 * Dan Ahdoot, comedian
 * David Baltimore (born 1938), Nobel Prize-winning biologist and former president of Caltech (former resident and high school graduate).
 * Nikki Blonsky (born 1988), actress who starred as Tracy Turnblad in the 2007 version of Hairspray and in Harold, filmed in Great Neck North High School and Middle School.
 * Enea Bossi (1888–1963), Italian-American engineer and aviation pioneer
 * Oscar Brand (1920–2016), folk singer and songwriter (resident)
 * Donald Brian (1877–1948), Broadway actor, singer, and dancer
 * Fanny Brice (1891-1951), comedian, entertainer, theater and film actress, Funny Girl
 * Carol Bruce (1919-2007), singer and theater, film and television actress
 * Algis Budrys (1931–2008), science-fiction author and editor (former resident)
 * Sid Caesar (1922–2014), television pioneer known for Your Show of Shows (resident)
 * Barrie Chase, dancer and actress
 * Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972), actor and entertainer (resident)
 * Walter Chrysler (1875–1940), automobile pioneer, founder of the Chrysler Corporation
 * Mary L. Cleave (born 1947), space shuttle astronaut.
 * George M. Cohan (1878-1942), entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer (resident)
 * Arthur G. Cohen (1930-2014) American businessman and real estate developer
 * Steven A. Cohen, hedge fund manager (SAC Capital), billionaire (resident)
 * Kenneth Cole, designer (attended school in Great Neck)
 * Francis Ford Coppola, film director (graduated from Great Neck High School North)
 * Andrew W. Cordier, Columbia University president (former resident)
 * Anthony Cumia, latter half of Opie and Anthony (resident)
 * R.J. Cutler, (born 1962) American filmmaker, documentarian, television producer and theater director
 * Thomas DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller (resident)
 * Gail Dolgin (1945–2010), filmmaker
 * Tad Dorgan (1877-1929), cartoonist
 * Shay Doron, first Israeli to play in the Women's National Basketball Association (New York Liberty)
 * Will Durant (1885-1981), historian. Author of the multi-volume outline of world history The Story of Civilization.
 * Quinn Early, football player drafted by San Diego Chargers (graduated from Great Neck South High School)
 * Sam Eshaghoff, real estate developer and investor (graduated from Great Neck North High School)
 * Percy Faith, (1908-1976) Canadian bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor (former resident)
 * W. C. Fields, comedian and actor (former resident)
 * F. Scott Fitzgerald, author (former resident), lived in Great Neck in the 1920s, at 6 Gateway Drive in Great Neck Estates. He lived here in a modest house not dissimilar to that of Nick, the protagonist of his novel, The Great Gatsby. It is said that Fitzgerald modeled West Egg—the fictional town in which Nick lives—after his own Great Neck (specifically Kings Point) and the atmosphere and lifestyle there; and he modeled East Egg after Great Neck's eastern neighbor, Port Washington, or, more specifically, Sands Point. It is possible to see the actual green light referred to in the book, at Stepping Stone Park. The park is located at the top of the Great Neck Peninsula.
 * Whitey Ford, New York Yankees pitcher (resident)
 * Matt Fox, songwriter/producer
 * Arnold and Jesse Friedman, subjects of award-winning 2003 documentary Capturing the Friedmans (former residents)
 * Julius Genachowski FCC chairman under Obama administration
 * Harry Gideonse (1901-1985), President of Brooklyn College, and Chancellor of the New School for Social Research
 * Jamie Gorelick, Clinton Administration official (former resident)
 * Morton Gould, concert pianist (former resident)
 * Joseph Peter Grace, Sr., businessman (former resident)
 * Mark J. Green, former New York City Public Advocate and mayoral candidate (former resident and high school graduate)
 * Jim Gurfein (born 1961), tennis player
 * Betty Haas Pfister (1921–2011), aviator
 * Ilan Hall, chef and winner of reality television show Top Chef (former resident)
 * Oscar Hammerstein II, writer, producer and director of musicals (former resident)
 * Dick Heyward, former deputy Director of UNICEF (1914-2005) (former resident)
 * Jackie Hoffman, actress, singer and comedian
 * Leslie Howard (1893-1943), actor, director and producer
 * Christopher Howes, Yale professor in Cardiology and head of Greenwich Hospital Cardiology (grew up in Great Neck)
 * Emily Hughes, member of the U.S. figure skating team at the 2006 Winter Olympics
 * Sarah Hughes, gold medalist in figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics
 * Marion Hutton, singer/actor (former resident)
 * Eric Isaacs (born 1957), physicist, director of Argonne National Laboratory
 * David Kahn, historian, journalist, and writer on subjects of cryptography and military intelligence
 * Anna Kaplan, Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman (resident)
 * Michael Karlan, founder of the nation's largest networking and socializing group, Professionals in the City (former resident)
 * Andy Kaufman (1949-1984), comedian and actor (former resident)
 * Edward Keonjian (1909-1999), Armenian-American engineer and "father of microelectronics"
 * Alan King (1927-2004), comedian and actor (former resident)
 * Andrew Klavan (1954-), author
 * Moogy Klingman, (1950-2011) American musician and songwriter
 * Josh Kopelman, entrepreneur (former resident)
 * Christopher Lambert, actor (born in Great Neck)
 * Morris S. Levy, television and film producer (resident)
 * Jack Liebowitz co-founder of DC Comics; lived in the Saddle Rock neighborhood.
 * Ring Lardner, sports columnist and short story writer (former resident)
 * Brian Maller, visual artist (graduated from Great Neck South High School)
 * Edna Luby (1884-1928), entertainer, lived in Great Neck
 * The Marx Brothers, stars of vaudeville and movies (former residents)
 * Mimi Michaels, actress
 * Minae Mizumura, novelist, essayist, critic, based in Tokyo (former resident)
 * Bobby Muller, Vietnam War veteran and anti-war activist (grew up in Great Neck)
 * Louise Nevelson, abstract sculptor (former resident)
 * Paul Newman, actor (former resident)
 * Ted Nierenberg (1923–2009), founder of Dansk International Designs, created in the garage of his Great Neck home.
 * Roy Niederhoffer (born 1966), founder and President of R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Investments, philanthropist, Chairman of the New York City Opera
 * Eugene O'Neill, playwright (former resident)
 * Charlotte Blair Parker, playwright; writing under pen name Lottie Blair Parker, remembered most for three plays produced between 1897 and 1906: Way Down East, Under Southern Skies and The Redemption of David Corson
 * Larry Poons, abstract painter (graduated from Great Neck High School [North])
 * Neil Portnow, President of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (former resident)
 * Dan Raviv, author and CBS TV and radio correspondent who hosts the CBS News Weekend Roundup (former resident)
 * Daniella Rabbani, Yiddish theatre actress
 * Peter Rennert (born 1958), tennis player
 * Jimmy Roberts, composer for musical theater as well as a pianist and entertainer (graduate of Great Neck North High School)
 * Bobby Rosengarden, (1924-2007) jazz drummer and bandleader, (former resident)
 * Jordan Rudess, keyboard player for the band Dream Theater (grew up in Great Neck)
 * Tamir Sapir, Georgian-born billionaire
 * Roxanne Seeman, songwriter and lyricist (graduate of Great Neck North High School)
 * Fred Schwartz, Furrier, Philanthropist and Television Pitchman 12 acre estate on Pond Road
 * George Segal, actor (resident)
 * David Seidler, screenwriter of "The King's Speech," 2011 Oscar winner; Great Neck H.S. graduate, 1955
 * Burt Shavitz, co-founder of Burt's Bees
 * Talia Shire, actress, known for The Godfather and Rocky films (born in Lake Success)
 * Jared Siegel (Jared Evan), singer, songwriter, and producer
 * Elie Siegmeister, composer (resident)
 * Harry F. Sinclair, oil industrialist (former resident)
 * Helen Slater (born 1963), actress
 * Alfred P. Sloan, president of General Motors (former resident)
 * Tim Sommer, musician in Hugo Largo and record executive and producer
 * Seth Swirsky, songwriter and author
 * Jon Taffer, host and co-executive producer of Spike TV reality series Bar Rescue
 * Norma Talmadge, actress (former resident)
 * Richard Tucker, operatic tenor (former resident)
 * Louis Uchitelle, journalist with The New York Times (former resident)
 * Sim Van der Ryn, architect, researcher and educator, who has applied principles of physical and social ecology to architecture and environmental design.
 * William Kissam Vanderbilt II, railroad executive and yachtsman (former resident)
 * Robert Varkonyi, World Series of Poker champion (resident)
 * Sam Warner (1887–1927), one of four brothers who were co-founders of Warner Bros.
 * Mordecai Waxman (1917–2002), prominent rabbi in the Conservative movement and of Temple Israel of Great Neck.
 * .Max Weber (1881-1961) One of the first American Cubist painters.
 * Michael H. Weber (born 1978), screenwriter
 * Mort Weisinger, editor (Batman, Superman, Thrilling Wonder Stories)
 * Charlie Williams, traded by the New York Mets along with cash for Willie Mays; did not make the Great Neck South Senior baseball team as a senior
 * P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), English comic writer (former resident).
 * Bruce Wolosoff (born 1955), composer, pianist and educator (former resident)
 * Herman Wouk (1915–2019), author (former resident)
 * Harris Wulfson (1974–2008), composer, instrumentalist and software engineer (graduated from Great Neck South High School)
 * Chic Young (1901–1973) created Blondie in his Great Neck studio in summer of 1930
 * Fred Schwartz, Furrier, Philanthropist and Television Pitchman