Floral Park, Nassau County

Floral Park Village, with its boulevards and avenues named for flowers and trees, was a community built around the cultivation, promotion, packaging, and sale of seeds and bulbs. From fields of flowers to streets full of houses with diverse architecture, for more than 100 years Floral Park has continued to be a family-oriented village. At the western edge of Nassau County, with Belmont Park as its neighbor, Floral Park seems very distant from New York City, though it is only a 30-minute train ride away. Floral Park contains photographs from the archives of the Village of Floral Park, the library, and Floral Park Historical Society. These collections yield unique images that tell the story of a community that has retained its appeal for generations.

Walter E. Gosden, a historian and award-winning author, is a lifelong resident of Floral Park. In addition to being the village historian and a founding member of the Floral Park Historical Society, he is also a member of the Association of Public Historians of New York State and former vice president and director of the Society of Automotive Historians. He has been an art teacher for over three decades.