Farmingdale Historical Collection

Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York. The first European settler in the area was Thomas Powell, who arrived in 1687. On October 18, 1695, he purchased a 15-square-mile tract of land from three Native American tribes. This is known as the Bethpage Purchase and includes what is now Farmingdale, as well as Bethpage, Melville, North Massapequa, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, and Plainview. When the LIRR started service to the area in October 1841,it used the name Farmingdale for its latest stop, here, on the line it was building to Greenport. Stagecoaches took people from the Farmingdale station to Islip, Babylon, Patchogue, Oyster Bay South, and West Neck (Huntington area). In 1886 a fire department was organized. The Village of Farmingdale was incorporated in 1904. In 1912, the State Agricultural and Technical school was established. Later, Farmingdale became a locus for the aircraft industry, notably Republic Aviation Company.