Cedarhurst, NY — Crash Data, Roads, History & Law

History

Cedarhurst's own account of its history describes a one-mile-square area settled before the American Revolution and occupied in large part by British troops during the war, and specifically names the Martin family of the Rock Hall estate — the Georgian mansion that stands a short distance away in present-day Lawrence — as Tory sympathizers active in the area at that time.^[1] The Village took its name from a grove, or "hurst," of cedar trees that stood near the village post office.^[1] Population grew slowly until after the Civil War, when the Village's history credits the extension of the Long Island Rail Road to the Rockaway Peninsula with the area's first significant increase in population.^[1] A 1918 history of the Rockaways adds a name the community carried in between: in 1869 the South Side Railroad Company built a station on land donated by developer Thomas E. Marsh and called the stop Ocean Point, and Marsh and his brother Samuel A. W. Marsh — New York City grain merchants — began buying up local farms as developers that same year, later cutting Central Avenue through their property as one of the area's first planned improvements.^[8] In 1884 Charles Cheever and others formed the Rockaway Hunt Club, which established a post office on its own clubhouse grounds.^[8]

It was a demand for street improvements, not a single dramatic event, that led residents to incorporate: the Incorporated Village of Cedarhurst was formed on September 16, 1910, per the Village's own account (a 1918 history instead gives September 10, 1910 — sources differ).^[1] Its first chief official carried the title "Village President" rather than mayor, as state law then required; James H.P. Vandewater, the first President, served until his death on May 8, 1912, and the village's first two trustees were Abraham Adelberg and John J. Campbell Sr. (given as "Abram Adelberg" in the 1918 source), elected on the "Square Deal" ticket.^[3] Village officials met in the Weyant Coal Office on Spruce Street until 1919, when the office moved to larger quarters at 112 Spruce Street; a change in state law in 1927 required the village to adopt the mayor-and-four-trustees structure it uses today.^[3] The present Village Hall, at 200 Cedarhurst Avenue, was completed in 1959 and now also houses the Village Court.^[3][2] Today the Village describes itself as "a vital commercial and cultural hub of the Five Towns."^[1]

How the roads got here

Central Avenue is Cedarhurst's commercial spine; the Village's own description calls Central Avenue and the surrounding business district home to "a broad selection of shops, restaurants and professional services," with the Cedarhurst Business Improvement District promoting the strip today as ShopCedarhurst.^[4] A 1918 history credits the road's construction to developers Thomas E. and Samuel A. W. Marsh, who cut it through their Ocean Point property and then extended it into neighboring Lawrence with the cooperation of that village's developer, Alfred Lawrence.^[8] New York State's official touring-route description places NY 878 — known locally in this stretch as the Nassau Expressway — on a path running through Cedarhurst, Inwood, Lawrence and Atlantic Beach to the Atlantic Beach Bridge, though it does not run through the village's commercial center.^[7]

Law and legal history

As an incorporated village, Cedarhurst keeps its own prior-written-notice law in Village Code Chapter 224 ("Streets and Sidewalks"), Article I, "Notification of Defects": §224-1, "Prerequisites to civil action," and §224-2, "Scope of provisions."^[5] The chapter's remaining articles regulate sidewalk maintenance and obstructions, curb cuts, sidewalk construction, and street-opening permits and restoration.^[5]

The village's 1927 shift from a Village-President form of government to a mayor-and-trustees structure was compelled by a change in state village law rather than a local dispute, according to the Village's own account — an illustration of how New York's Village Law has directly reshaped local government structure here over time.^[3]

Government, courts and policing

The Cedarhurst Justice Court, at 200 Cedarhurst Avenue, has jurisdiction over "all Village ordinances and N.Y.S. traffic regulations"; Andrew Goldsmith serves as Village Justice and Christina M. Sardo as Associate Village Justice.^[2] The Nassau County Police Department's Fourth Precinct patrols Cedarhurst along with the rest of the Five Towns; the Village directs residents to the precinct's non-emergency line and to 911 for emergencies.^[4][6] Fire protection comes from the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department, and public education from the Lawrence Union Free School District, which is District 15.^[4]

The Village is governed by an elected Mayor — currently Benjamin Weinstock, in office since 2015 after previously serving as Deputy Mayor and Trustee — and a Board of Trustees that meets on the first Monday of each month.^[3]

Railroad and transit

Cedarhurst is served by its own stop, Cedarhurst station, on the Long Island Rail Road's Far Rockaway Branch, along with NICE Bus routes 31, 31X/M and 32.^[4] The Village's history page credits the railroad's extension to the Rockaway Peninsula after the Civil War with the area's first significant population growth.^[1]