Driveway Paving in Carle Place, Nassau County, NY

In 1946, developer William J. Levitt bought 19 acres of land near the Carle Place train station for an experiment. His crews brought pre-cut lumber to the site and rapidly assembled 600 low-cost houses, offering affordable suburban living with an easy commute into offices in New York City. Within five years, returning veterans and their families swelled the population by 500 percent. It transformed Carle Place, and served as the prototype for Levittown, the larger development which Levitt began the following year only a few miles away.

The hamlet is named for Silas Carle, or (more specifically) the Carle House – a 32-room house built by Carle in Westbury in the 1800s. It was commonly known as the “Carle Place”, and the surrounding area later took the name.

The area was also known as Mineola Park between circa 1895 and 1915, after an unsuccessful real estate development of the same name within the hamlet. The name was reverted to Carle Place in 1915, and there was only one further attempt to change it, which took place in 1951 after Levitt & Sons purchased and developed much of the area consisting of the unsuccessful development. The proposal failed, as the majority of residents preferred keeping the name, and no attempts to change it have taken place since.