Guide to Long Island - Mineola

Hello, I've never done a blog before, however I've recently gotten the inspiration to start a series here on JetPunk where I go to different towns out on Long Island via public transportation, take pictures, then write a summary of the town's history and the sights I saw, hopefully giving you a unique insight to a town you might've never heard of before. I plan on taking a trip to a different town every week or so depending on my schedule. For our first entry in this blog series, I'll introduce you to Nassau's county seat: Mineola, New York.

Originally known as Hempstead Branch, this area was inhabited by Dutch and English settlers when arriving to the new world, building farms throughout the region. The area known today as Mineola was named after an Algonquin phrase Miniolagamika meaning "pleasant village" which was eventually shortened to just "Mineola". Prior to the 1870s, this village was actually the county seat of Queens county until the county of Nassau broke away from the New York City borough. Mineola was voted for to be the seat of the newly formed county which became official July 13th, 1900. Then governor Theodore Roosevelt held a celebration in front of the new county courthouse upon it's opening, an event commemorated today with a statue of the former governor and president.

Mineola also has a rich history in aviation and many early pioneers of flight were quite familiar with the flat plains of Mineola for building and flying airplanes. Many historical flights took place from Mineola such as Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris; departing from Roosevelt airfield. Mineola was also home to the first female aviator in history as it abundantly makes clear upon pulling into the train station (don't worry I'll get to that soon).

Lastly, Portuguese immigrants have established a significant community throughout a lot of Long Island but most notably Mineola which can still be felt with a noticeable number of Portuguese themed markets, cafes, and churches.

To finish this section off, here are some boring stats I wouldn't blame you for skipping over. Mineola has 20,800 people per the 2020 census and is situated in the town of North Hempstead. Their current mayor and deputy mayor are Paul A. Pereira and Janine Satori respectively. Regarding transportation, their LIRR station is served by the Huntington/ Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay, and Ronkonkoma lines as well as various bus routes. Major arteries such as Old Country Road and Jericho Turnpike pass through the town.

Upon arriving in Mineola, the first area to address is the plaza around the train station. The most striking aspect of Mineola's Long Island Railroad station is a huge statue of Bessie Raiche, the first female aviator who built and flew planes on Long Island's flat grassy plains while living in Mineola.  She's seen here holding up Roxey, the LIRR dog. Roxey's story involves a mix up with his owner that left him wandering from car to car. He quickly became beloved by passengers and staff alike and according to the MTA, even rode in a private car with president Theodore Roosevelt with him to Oyster Bay. Roxey passed away in 1914 and even years later, commuters refilled his water bowl at his burial ground near Merrick station. 

Moving past the statue, the overall station maintains it's core of older buildings for the ticket office, plaza, and platform while having modern renovations with a recently built pedestrian overpass across the platform and parking.

Inside the waiting room and ticket office, there's a gallery of beautiful old photographs that display the history of the town and station.

The area immediately surrounding the station is a mix of older mixed use development and a main street as well as more modern business parks, hospitals, condos, and parking garages. 

Since Mineola is the seat of Nassau County, the village is home to the impressive Nassau County legislature along with other various government buildings and offices which are situated right along Old Country Road

As mentioned before in my history section, Mineola does have a Portuguese community that can be felt with a significant amount of Portuguese restaurants and cafes, although to be completely honest, it's not that noticeable and might be easy to miss if you weren't specifically looking out for them like I was. It's not like you'll find sections of the town imitating classical Portuguese architecture or anything unfortunately.

So that's Mineola. Overall a pretty nice town with a unique history. For Long Island standards, Mineola is quite walkable with a pretty decent "downtown" section near the train station with quite a bit of mixed use development. That being said, Jericho Turnpike and Old Country Road which run roughly parallel through Mineola are very hostile main arteries for pedestrians and are quite unpleasant to walk through which really brings the overall experience down. Despite this, I still rather enjoyed visiting Mineola and I'd say it lives up to its Native American etymology of "pleasant village".

Just a small footnote, I'd just like to add that this is my first blog, and I will be continuing this series, writing about more of Long Island's more obscure towns and villages in the weeks to come. With that said, I'd greatly appreciate feedback and suggestions about in what areas I can improve for the future.