Central Park Historical Society 
P.O. Box 178
Bethpage, NY 11714
 

The Encyclopedia of the Unincorporated Village of Bethpage

Now under construction!

History

A provisional charter was granted by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York on February 16, 1990 to the Central Park Historical Society.  The purpose of the Central Park Historical society is to promote and encourage historical research, to disseminate and encourage a greater knowledge and interest in the state of New York, particularly Bethpage and the surrounding area.  The Central Park Historical Society is in the process of gathering, preserving, displaying, and making available for study artifacts, relics, books, manuscripts, papers, photographs, and other records relating to Bethpage. The name Central Park was the name of our hamlet before 1936.  In 1936, with much festivity, the name was changed to Bethpage.

Meetings

The Central Park Historical society holds informative and interesting monthly meetings from September to June (no meetings January or February) on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 7:30 P.M. in the Bethpage Library. 

Non-members are welcome.

Officers


President Lenny Mulqueen
Vice President Ann Albertson
Corresponding Secretary Laura Mulqueen
Recording Secretary Mary Morgan
Treasurer Audrey Tallman

President Lenny Mulqueen and members of CPHS bid farewell and best wishes to Bethpage historian Jack Gifford. (Sept. 2001)

The Legend of the Logo

The New York State Education Department in January 1990 chartered the Central Park Historical Society of Bethpage as a nonprofit educational organization.  The society sought a logo that would depict the history of Bethpage at a glance.

THE NAME CIRCLE

The outer circle of the logo traces the names of our hamlet.  Central Park was the name given by land developers in the 1850's to this part of the Bethpage Purchase, previously known as Jerusalem Station.  In the absence of rail lines on the north and south side of the island, our hamlet, located in the central part of the island serviced surrounded communities among them Jerusalem, as Wantagh was known.  The developers felt that this area should be identified independently and not be considered an extension of Jerusalem.

Progressing along the name circle, one approaches the present name of our community, Bethpage, which was renamed in 1936 as noted on the tree.  The tree allows us to perceive how deeply religious the earliest settlers of the Bethpage Purchase were.  It is symbolic of a fig tree located in the Biblical town of Bethpage located on the Mount of Olives as related in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 

THE FRONTIER CIRCLE

Engine 39, the last steam locomotive to pass through Bethpage, symbolizes the importance of the LIRR to Bethpage, which at one time was a frontier in the eastward movement of people on Long Island.  It enabled early residents to work in the city and raise their families in this park-like hamlet.

The Lunar Expedition Module (LEM) designed and constructed by the Grumman Aerospace Corporation of Bethpage established a new frontier for Bethpage.  Just as the railroad reached eastward in the 1800's, the LEM reached for the moon in the 1900's achieving a "giant step" for mankind.

As summarized by Daniel Schiavetta, the first President of the Central Park Historical Society of Bethpage, "No place in the world is there a country or village that can claim the only structure on the moon but Bethpage."