GARDEN CITY

residential village, town (township) of Hempstead, Nassau county, New York, U.S. It is located on western Long Island. One of the nation's first planned communities, it was the aspiration of textile merchant Alexander Turney Stewart, who bought a 7,000-acre (2,800-hectare) tract of land there in 1869. His heirs founded the Garden City Company, which developed and guided the community until its incorporation as a village in 1919. Distinguished for its handsome residential areas and garden atmosphere, it is the site of the English Gothic Cathedral of the Incarnation (seat of the Episcopal diocese of Long Island) and the George Mercer Jr. Memorial School of Theology. Adelphi University (founded 1896 in Brooklyn) was relocated to Garden City in 1929. Nearby Roosevelt Field, now covered by a shopping centre, was the starting point for Charles A. Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight in 1927. Nassau Community College (founded 1959), part of the State University of New York system, is in Garden City. Pop. (1990) 21,675; (1998 est.) 21,616.