Bordering on Queens to the west and the town of Oyster Bay to the east, North Hempstead can be considered the heart of the Gold Coast--once the highest concentration of wealth and power in the country. As the gateway to New York City, the area was enticing to the rich and famous, including William Cullen Bryant, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan, Groucho Marx, and the Vanderbilt, Whitney, Phipps, and Guggenheim families, and they flocked to North Hempstead for homes. With early advances in trains, automobiles, parkways, and even seaplanes, the town was transformed from a...