By John Ellis Kordes
Village Historian

Q: I live in Garden City South and I know many street names continue from Garden City to Garden City South (except with the word south added) and we share the same zip code. This causes all kinds of confusion. A lot of this would be avoided if the area would have been annexed into Garden City. Was this ever a possibility? If not could you tell me why?

If there ever was a place with an identity crisis it’s Garden City South. The streets say south and the numbers repeat themselves to show that there are two distinct places. Garden City never was involved with Garden City South or any talk of annexation. However, I agree about the confusion the name and zip code have caused.

First of all where did the name Garden City South come from? We know it’s a section of the Franklin Square School District and not Garden City. But for more of a detailed answer let me quote from historian Paul van Wie’s book “A History of Franklin Square:”

“Garden City South was long part of the Washington Square and later the Munson farming area. John Street, later renamed Nassau Boulevard, ran through the middle of what was to become Garden City South. In the early 20 th Century most of Garden City South was taken up by the Vogel, Schraeder, Stegner and Schlegel farms. The Vogel family owned land on both sides of Nassau Boulevard in the vicinity of Terrace Avenue. Terrace Avenue was once a small road on the Vogel Farm, and until the 1950’s it was known as Vogel Avenue. In the early 1920’s, the name Garden City South began to come into use, a term favored by developers to sell houses.”

So, as you can see, there is no tie to Garden City or its history. Garden City South was and still is part of Greater Franklin Square (which included Munson, Washington Square, and Garden City South). It has, however, over time created somewhat of its own identity as a hamlet of sorts with a community league, a Little League, a park and a small business district along Nassau Blvd. South.

Garden City, on the other hand, was founded in 1869 when Alexander T. Stewart purchased almost 10,000 acres of the barren Hempstead Plains from Floral Park to Bethpage. Although only a portion of that purchase makes up today’s Garden City, none of the purchase included the land that Garden City South comprises (since that land was Franklin Square farms). The Franklin Square School district predates Garden City and ends at the Garden City border. Garden City’s School District follows the Village’s border almost exactly except for Lydia Lane (which is in Garden City but is in the Franklin Square School District and Fernwood Terrace which is in Stewart Manor but in the Garden City School District.

In 1963 the real confusion began when the Postal Service introduced zip codes (Zone Improvement Program). Areas were linked together to deliver mail. The Incorporated Village of Garden City did not get its own zip code but rather it shares it with the Incorporated Village of Stewart Manor, the unincorporated commercial sprawl called East Garden City and the unincorporated area known as Garden City South. The 11530 zip code doesn’t really mean anything. What it does do, however, is allows homeowners & businesses in East Garden City and Garden City South to conveniently drop the east and south in their address and then they can act like its the same as Garden City. However, it’s simply not the same. Where you live is where you pay your taxes and where you receive the services provided to you for those taxes.

Stewart Manor is a “cousin” to Garden City as the West Section (Western Property Owners Association) was once referred to as the Stewart Manor Section of Garden City. Garden City incorporated in 1919 with three sections and in 1931 the West had grown enough to join. A small area of the west became the Incorporated Village of Stewart Manor in the late 1920’s.

Now the four Garden City Property Owner’s Associations: Garden City West, Garden City Estates, Garden City Central and Garden City East should not be confused with Garden City South or East Garden City. Within the Incorporated Village of Garden City we have four POA’s for political reasons but it has nothing to do historically with these surrounding areas. What about Garden City Park? Same zip code as New Hyde Park & again like Garden City South playing off of the Garden City name to sell houses way back when. Also, like Garden City South, Garden City Park has carved out a bit of its own identity but has no relationship to Garden City.

Like I said before it can be very confusing but the facts are the facts. There’s only one Incorporated Village of Garden City in New York State. The legal boundaries are clear and specific. The zip codes were designed to expedient mail delivery. Unfortunately they’ve caused a lot of confusion as to the location and association of certain areas.