Wantagh

• Official Name — Wantagh, New York • Settlement Type — Hamlet and census-designated place • Image Skyline — File:Wantagh aerial 2021.jpg • Image Caption — An aerial view of Wantagh in 2021. • Pushpin Map — USA New York Long Island#New York • Pushpin Map Caption — Location on Long Island##Location within the state of New York • Image Map — Nassau County New York incorporated and unincorporated areas Wantagh highlighted.svg • Mapsize — 260px • Map Caption — Location in Nassau County and the state of New York. • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — United States • Subdivision Type1 — State • Subdivision Name1 — New York • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Nassau • Area Total Km2 — 10.69 • Area Land Km2 — 9.92 • Area Water Km2 — 0.77 • Area Total Sq Mi — 4.13 • Area Land Sq Mi — 3.83 • Area Water Sq Mi — 0.30 • Population As Of — 2020 • Population Total — 18613 • Population Density Km2 — 1876.49 • Population Density Sq Mi — 4859.79 • Timezone — Eastern (EST) • Utc Offset — -5 • Timezone Dst — EDT • Utc Offset Dst — -4 • Elevation M — 7 • Elevation Ft — 23 • Postal Code Type — ZIP Codes • Postal Code — * 11793 (Wantagh) • 11710 (Bellmore) • Area Code — 516, 363 • Blank Name — FIPS code • Blank Info — 36-78146 • Blank1 Name — GNIS feature ID • Blank1 Info — 0968763 • Website — www.wantagh.li • Population Demonym — Wantonian • Subdivision Type3 — Town • Subdivision Name3 — Hempstead • Motto — "The Gateway to Jones Beach" • Unit Pref — Imperial • Area Code Type — Area codes Wantagh is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, New York, United States. The population was 18,613 at the time of the 2020 census. Wantagh is known as "The Gateway to Jones Beach".

• Illustration — Jerusalem historic marker in Wantagh • Illustration — A historic marker noting President George Washington's 1790 journey on Babylon Turnpike

The Wantagh area was inhabited by the Indigenous Merokee (or Merikoke) tribe prior to the first wave of European settlement in the mid-17th century. The Merokee were part of the greater Montauk tribe that loosely ruled Long Island's Native Americans. Wantagh was the sachem (chief) of the Merokee tribe in 1647, and was later the grand sachem of the Montauk tribe from 1651 to 1658. The Dutch settlers came east from their New Amsterdam colony, and English settlers came south from Connecticut and Massachusetts settlements. When the English and Dutch settled their competing claims to Long Island in the 1650 treaty conducted in Hartford, the Dutch partition included all lands west of Oyster Bay and thus the Wantagh area. Long Island then was ceded to the Duke of York in 1663–64, but then fell back into Dutch hands after the Dutch regained New York in 1673. The Treaty of Westminster in 1674 settled the land claims once and for all, incorporating Long Island into the now-British colony of New York.

Early settler accounts refer to Wantagh as "Jerusalem". The creek running north–south through Wantagh, and which has been covered up in many places but is still visible between the Wantagh Parkway and the housing developments west of Wantagh Avenue, was originally the Jerusalem River. The original post office was built in 1837, for Jerusalem, but mail service from Brooklyn began around 1780. The town's first school was established in 1790. At some time around the 1880s, Jerusalem was renamed Ridgewood, and the town's original LIRR station was named "Ridgewood Station". Later, Ridgewood was renamed Wantagh to avoid confusion with another town in New York State with the same name. George Washington rode through Jerusalem on April 21, 1790, as part of his 5-day tour of Long Island. The Daughters of the American Revolution have placed a plaque on Hempstead Turnpike to commemorate Washington's travels, which took him from Hempstead on Jerusalem Road (now North Jerusalem Road) to Jerusalem, on to Merrick Road. He then went on to head east, then circle back west on the north shore. During the Revolutionary War, British ships traveled up Jones inlet and came ashore to raid Jerusalem farms. The oldest original settlers of the Wantagh/Jerusalem area were the Jackson and Seaman families, and their marks are still visible. The Cherrywood shopping center (at the corner of Jerusalem and Wantagh avenues) was the site of prominent settler Capt. John Seaman's estate, which was named Cherrywood. Wantagh is home to a number of New York State Historical Markers (9 of Nassau County's 25), including: • Cherrywood, Capt. John Seaman's 300 acre estate and home, from 1644, on the corner of Wantagh and Jerusalem avenues • 1666 Jackson House, the home of Col. John Jackson, Brig. Gen. Jacob Shearman Jackson, and Samuel Jackson Jones (in 1923), on Merrick Road east of Riverside Drive • The Grist Mill Site, granted to Col. John Jackson on the Jerusalem River in 1704, on Merrick Road east of Riverside Drive • The Cornbury Patent, given by Queen Anne conferring the present-day site of Jones Beach to Major Thomas Jones, whose family would later provide the land that would become Jones Beach State Park in 1929 • The 1644 home of Robert Jackson, Jerusalem's pioneer settler, on Wantagh Avenue south of Hempstead Avenue • North Jerusalem Road, originally constructed in 1644 between Hempstead and Jerusalem • The 1777 home of Richard Jackson, Captain in the Queens County Militia in the Revolutionary War, and where his daughter, Jane, lived with her husband, ex-Hessian soldier Lt. John Althause, on Wantagh Avenue and Island Road The Samuel and Elbert Jackson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The oldest cemetery in Wantagh is the Jackson Cemetery, located just north of the St. Frances de Chantal Roman Catholic Church on Wantagh Avenue. There are 63 confirmed graves that include descendants from the Seaman and Jackson families, with the most notable including Thomas Jackson, who served in the Revolutionary War in the Second New York Regiment and participated in the Battle of Long Island and the storming of Fort St. George under Major Talmadge in 1780, and who was the original landowner of the site of land around the Wantagh Public Library; and General Jacob Seaman Jackson, a brigadier general in the War of 1812 and senior warden of Long Island's first chartered Masonic lodge in 1797. The Rierson burial plot was located in what has been redeveloped into Bunker Avenue. This cemetery includes members of the Rierson family who were Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. The Jerusalem Society of Friends Cemetery is located behind (east of) the current Christian Tabernacle Church. The Society of Friends were Quakers who maintained meeting houses in Jericho, Bethpage, and Hempstead, and met in then-Jerusalem as early as 1697. Capt. John Seaman allowed the Society to conduct meetings on his land in 1699, but the congregation later traveled to Bethpage to worship.

The Jerusalem Society of Friends purchased land from another Seaman, Arden Seaman, and then constructed their own meeting house on the site of the current Christian Tabernacle Church in 1827, and added the cemetery in 1861. By the 1940s, the congregation had dwindled significantly, and the property was sold in 1952 to the newly formed Wantagh Baptist Church and then recently sold to the newly formed Christian Tabernacle Church in 2007. The cemetery contains the graves of three Civil War veterans: Lt. H.R. Jackson, Gilbert Seaman, of the 139th Regiment of NY Volunteers, and Charles Wilson, of the 119th Regiment of NY Volunteers and who was wounded in Gettysburg. The St. John of Jerusalem Cemetery served the German Methodists, who moved to Jerusalem from New York City around 1850 to farm. The cemetery can be found west of Wantagh Avenue a few hundred yards north of North Jerusalem Road (now North Wantagh). The congregation began to meet in 1854 and held services entirely in German. The cemetery was constructed in 1862 and was intended only for use by congregation members and their families.

Later generations of congregants grew weary of the services in German, and numbers dwindled until the last German service was held in 1911. From 1912 to 1926, the church remained unused. The church has since been used by a local Lutheran congregation from 1926 to 1940, and a United Christian congregation from 1949 to 1969. Since then, however, the church has remained unused, although the cemetery has been fenced in and maintained by a board of trustees. The cemetery contains graves of veterans from the Civil War, Spanish–American War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. The area that became today's Wantagh continued primarily as a farming area until the construction of Sunrise Highway and Jones Beach in the early 20th century, when tourism and fishing took hold, centering on Jones Beach. The Long Island Rail Road has served the town since 1885 and possibly as early as 1867, but the town did not take on a suburban character until the housing development between the 1950s and 1970s. The LIRR tracks were completely elevated in 1968, along with neighboring Seaford station. The Wantagh Railroad Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon's dog, Checkers, is buried at Wantagh's Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery on Beltagh Avenue.

• Illustration — U.S. Census map of Wantagh According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Wantagh has a total area of 4.1 sqmi, 3.8 sqmi of which is land and 0.3 sqmi, or 7.25%, of which is water.

Wantagh has a warm temperate climate (type Cfa) with cool winters, hot summers, and mild springs and falls. Precipitation is spread uniformly throughout the year, but peaks slightly in early winter and early spring. It is located in hardiness zone 8a due to its south shore location; most of Long Island is situated in zone 7b.

• Illustration — Intersection of Wantagh Avenue and Sunrise Highway

As of the 2020 census, Wantagh had a population of 18,613. The median age was 42.4 years. 22.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 92.8 males age 18 and over. 100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas. There were 6,062 households in Wantagh, of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 70.1% were married-couple households, 9.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 17.7% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 13.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 6,228 housing units, of which 2.7% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 2.7%. Racial composition as of the 2020 census • Race — Number — Percent • White — 16,595 — 89.2% • Black or African American — 64 — 0.3% • American Indian and Alaska Native — 13 — 0.1% • Asian — 499 — 2.7% • Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander — 0 — 0.0% • Some other race — 294 — 1.6% • Two or more races — 1,148 — 6.2% • Hispanic or Latino (of any race) — 1,399 — 7.5%

As of the census of 2000, there were 18,971 people, 6,179 households, and 5,215 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 4,936.3 PD/sqmi. There were 6,250 housing units at an average density of 1,626.3 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.75% white, 0.20% black or African American, 0.04% Native American, 1.89% Asian, 0.34% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.26% of the population. There were 6,179 households, out of which 41.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.8% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15.6% were non-families. 13.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.06 and the average family size was 3.37.

Parks located within the hamlet include: • Jones Beach State Park • Mill Pond • Twin Lakes Preserve • Wantagh Park

• MacArthur High School • Wantagh Senior High School

• Wantagh Middle School

• Forest Lake Elementary School • Mandalay Elementary School • Wantagh Elementary School Wantagh is primarily located in the Wantagh Union Free School District. However, small areas towards the eastern edges of the hamlet are served by the Seaford Union Free School District. And students living in portions of Wantagh north of Jerusalem Avenue are served by the Levittown Union Free School District. Students who reside in Wantagh attend public schools in one of these districts depending on the hamlet in which they reside.

Wantagh is served by the Wantagh Library District and the Seaford Library District. The boundaries of these districts within the hamlet roughly correspond with those of the school districts.

Commuter rail service in Wantagh is provided by the Long Island Rail Road, specifically at the Wantagh station on the Long Island Rail Road's Babylon Branch. Most parking at the station is limited to Town of Hempstead residents and requires a permit. Express trains to Penn Station average roughly a 45-minute one-way trip.

Bus service in Wantagh is provided by the n19 (Freeport LIRR–Sunrise Mall), as well as the n54 and n55 (Hempstead Transit Center–Sunrise Mall); these lines are operated by Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE).

Merrick Road, the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway, Sunrise Highway, Wantagh Avenue, and the Wantagh State Parkway all traverse and have major intersections or exits/entrances within Wantagh.

• Craig D. Button, U.S. Air Force pilot noted for his mysterious flight and crash • Rob Cesternino, third-place finisher, Survivor: The Amazon; Survivor: All-Stars participant; host of Rob Has a Podcast; author of The Tribe and I Have Spoken: The Definitive (Unofficial) Lore and Legacy from the Game's Smartest Surviving Loser (Simon & Schuster, 2026) • Keaton Nigel Cooke, actor and singer • Ed Emshwiller, filmmaker, science fiction illustrator, and video artist • Amy Fisher (born 1974), known as the "Long Island Lolita"; shot and seriously wounded Mary Jo Buttafuoco in 1992 in a case that became a national media sensation; pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless assault and served nearly seven years in prison; her story was the subject of three television movies aired simultaneously in 1993 • Todd Hodne, former Penn State football player and convicted murderer • Al Iaquinta, mixed martial artist • Tom Junod, journalist • Trent Kowalik, Tony Award-winning actor, Billy Elliot the Musical • James Preller, author, Jigsaw Jones series • Jason Reich, Emmy Award-winning television writer, The Daily Show • Lonny Ross, actor and comedian, 30 Rock • Gary J. Shapiro, author and president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association • John Silver, professional wrestler • Frances Townsend, U.S. Homeland Security Adviser under President George W. Bush • Allen Weisselberg (born 1947), businessman; former Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization; longtime resident of Wantagh; pleaded guilty to tax fraud in 2022 and to perjury in 2024 in connection with his role at the Trump Organization • Alan Zweibel, author and comedy writer