Cesspool in Elmont, NY

In 1650, Christopher and Thomas Foster purchased a large plot of land. The Fosters’ land was controlled by Dutch settlers. The Fosters intended to raise cattle and sheep on their newly settled land, the Hempstead Plains of Long Island. They named this place “Foster’s Meadow”-a name which would remain for the next 200 years of the village’s history.

By the mid-17th century, descendants of Sephardic Jews were settling on the Hempstead Plains for agriculture. Control of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam shifted to England in 1664. This marked the first gradual cultural shift in Foster’s Meadow with the establishment of a community of predominantly English Protestant farmers, and their families. In 1683, Long Island was divided into three counties, Kings, Queens, and Suffolk County. Under this new structure, Foster’s Meadow was originally part of Queens. During 1790 George Washington passed through the town while touring to the east on Long Island. The current boundaries of Elmont were decided upon in 1898; at this point, Nassau County was created, leading to conflict over land, and monies owed as a result of Elmont’s boundary shift from Queens.

It was during the mid-19th century that Foster’s Meadow experienced its second cultural shift. There was an influx of Roman Catholic and Ashkenazi Jewish farmers from Brooklyn and Middle Village to the west. These ethnic groups were largely of German and Italian descent, practicing both Roman Catholicism and Judaism.