Great Neck

County: Nassau

Great Neck is a village in the town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island.  The village population was 9,538 as of the 2000 census.  The name Great Neck is commonly applied to the entire peninsula on the north shore, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success.  The larger Great Neck area encompasses a residential community of some 40,000 people made up of nine villages as well as hamlets of North Hempstead.  To differentiate the village of Great Neck from the other villages in larger Great Neck, it is sometimes referred to as “the old village.”  The Village of Kings Point, part of Great Neck, provided a setting to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which immortalized the society scene that once prevailed.  The dawning of direct rail service to New York City was the largest single influence in development of the Great Neck region, although the area represented prime real estate for centuries before celebrities or captains of industry or even commuting suburbanites made it the western anchor of the Gold Coast.  Today, density and growing diversity characterize the area. In fact, newcomers will discover an atmosphere that is more delightfully cosmopolitan and lively than most of Long Island.
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