There is a wealth of activities at the Rockville Centre, day or night, in and out of town, and there is a city council that offers the most comprehensive range of services on Long Island.
Even before its foundation as a community, Rockville Centre enjoyed a wide range of services, including a volunteer fire department founded in 1875, a public library opened in 1882, and the first high school on the South Shore, opened in 1892, before the mid-1950s, where villagers could boast year-round recreational facilities. It is also a proof of the stability, growth and service of the community that make up the present village. As an independent community, Rockston Centre leaders made early decisions that positioned the village as a leader of the Long Island communities and ensured dynamic growth throughout the 20th century. The growth of the suburbs after World War II also brought growth to the Rockton Centre, but it was also the beginning of a new era in the history of the village.
The population had grown slowly since the 17th century, but with the construction of DeMott's Mill and Smith's Pond, a new community, Rockton Centre Village, with a population of about 1,000 people, began to emerge. The community's growth was enhanced by the move of more people to the Rockville Centre, and its location changed as it became a commercial city with a focus on the city.
Banking was a growing industry in the village, and by 1929 the Rockville Centre had earned a reputation as the leading financial centre on the island. This was underscored by the opening of the first commercial bank on Long Island's southern shore in 1929, the Bank of Rockton Centre.
The high school (now the Village Hall) celebrated its 100th anniversary last year and is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and highly rated schools on Long Island. There is no doubt that living at the Rockville Centre where I lived made a difference in my life. I attended a school with a consistently academically rated program and a high level of academic achievement.
Rockville Centre residents have an hour's commute every day when they travel to Midtown Manhattan. The journey from Rockton Centre station to Manhattan would take just over an hour. The journey takes 1 - 1.5 hours depending on traffic to and from Manhattan, and then another 2 - 3 hours by subway.
Interestingly, the way to New York City was much more congested then than it is now, and at times Front Street was too narrow to leave enough space in the center to provide convenient parking for residents commuting to New York. This "outfront" philosophy is evident today as the village works to complete an electricity improvement project that will continue to provide all residents of the Rockville Centre with access to the Rockton Centre subway station.
Aboriginal access on February 8, 2018 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral is home to the Diocese of Rockville Centre and is a magnificent building with beautiful architecture. It has a capacity of over 2,000 people, with an average attendance of about 1,500 people per day. The Rockville Centre Public School District includes seven schools, including a high school, two middle schools and two elementary schools. In addition to the elementary school, Rockville Center consists of a middle school and a secondary school for children ages 6 to 12.
Part of the Rockville Centre is in the Oceanside School District, and 78 percent of black graduates receive regents diplomas or higher designations, compared with only 3.5 percent of white graduates in the district as a whole. Black people, who make up a portion of the zip code, and children attending schools there still go west on Peninsula Boulevard, to Nassau County, and then east to Long Island City, New York, in the predominantly minority Malverne district. In the 2010-2011 school year, 75 percent of Rockville Center residents were white, compared with just 20 percent, the highest percentage of any county on Long Island. The Rockville Centre may not have the white complexion of Long Beach, but it has a more diverse population than any other area on the island, according to census data.
A black man who attended the school at the Rockville Centre wasn't sure if Ransom would be better off or stay, but he said he now thinks he would have been better off. The educational opportunities are great and there is a well-off community at RockVILLE Centre. In 1986, the village purchased the site of the former Belmont Park and Browning Aqueduct, a former railroad track, from the state of New York for $1.5 million. It is currently used as a parking lot for the Long Island Rail Road and the Nassau County Convention Center. Growing up in Rock County Centre, New York, I knew better than the leafy Belmonte Park, for which my heart is still hungry, because I spent a lot of time where I started riding horses at the age of 16.