Hicksville, NY

Hicksville grew at a rail junction, and the station still sets the shape of downtown. Valentine Hicks formed a land association and subdivided property in 1834, the year he and other backers secured the Long Island Rail Road's state charter. Tracks reached the settlement in 1835. Today the line divides into branches toward Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma at Hicksville, making this one of the railroad's busiest stations. A state-funded station-area project broke ground in July 2025. Its planned work included a new entrance drive, green space, and a pedestrian passage connecting the platforms and parking areas with Jerusalem Avenue, Broadway, Kennedy Park, and Festival Plaza. At that ceremony, work was just beginning, and the passage and green space remained future components.

The community around the tracks changed several times before becoming a dense Long Island center. After the association sold 1,000 acres in 1849, German immigrant investors laid out streets and advertised lots to New York City buyers. Farms remained important, including cucumber fields that supplied a Heinz pickle plant. In 1967, the railroad was elevated and Broadway was widened, opening space beneath the tracks while leaving broad roads and rail infrastructure between parts of downtown. Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place governed through the Town of Oyster Bay. Its 2020 population was 43,869. Recent housing and storefront projects, including the completed development at 35 Broadway, place new homes close to the station and older commercial blocks. Broadway also carries a substantial South Asian commercial and cultural presence.

Restaurants, grocers, clothing and jewelry shops, and community organizations serve customers from Hicksville and across Long Island. In August 2025, the India Day Parade followed Broadway from Patel Brothers to East Barclay Street, ending with food, shopping, and music. A different layer of local history sits nearby at the Hicksville Gregory Museum, housed in a restored courthouse built in 1895. Its collections cover Long Island earth science and local history. Kennedy Park and Festival Plaza give the station district its limited outdoor event space. The planned pedestrian passage would connect gathering places that the elevated tracks and major roads currently separate. Hicksville's working geography extends well beyond the station. The Northwest Hicksville Brownfield Opportunity Area covers about 1,071 acres of light-manufacturing, research, warehouse, transportation, and commercial properties.

Current revitalization policy seeks to retain that employment base as sites are reused, keeping an industrial district near a downtown increasingly focused on housing and public space. West of the center, 127-acre Cantiague Park has served the county since 1961; its indoor ice rink, pools, fields, and courts draw regular recreation into another part of the hamlet. The Hicksville Public Library supplies local-history records, museum passes, language-learning resources, and a lending collection of household and technology items. Broadway crosses the tracks beside the station and meets Old Country Road south of downtown. Together those corridors lead toward the library, county park, and industrial blocks that occupy different parts of the hamlet.