Nassau

Formed January 1, 1899 (62^nd county)

Nassau County (1,395,777), Mineola (20,806), Hempstead (59,170)

The masonry structure sits on County Seat Drive between Old Country Road and Court House Drive.  New York State Highway 25 is 14 blocks north of the site.  The courthouse was built in 1966.  There were 1900 and 1942 facilities earlier.  There is also a District Courthouse in Mineola, and augmenting courthouses in Hempstead and Westbury.  Nassau County was formed on January 1, 1899 from Queens County as the 62^nd and final county with Mineola as the only county seat.  It is named for William of Nassau, later King William.  The county seat is named for a Native American chief. 

Nassau County government consists of a sheriff and 19 Legislators.  Nineteen County Court Judges, Twelve Family Court Judges, One Surrogate Court Judge, and Twenty-seven District Court Judges serve Nassau County.  The county is in the southeast on Long Island.  New York City, New York is directly west of the county.  The county center is 4.3 miles Southeast of Mineola in Hempstead.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Connecticut and Suffolk County and the Atlantic Ocean and Queens, Bronx, and Westchester counties. 

The area of the county is 453 square miles.  It is 49 out of 62 in the state.  It ranks 6 out of 62 in population in the state.  It has a density of 3081.2 persons per square mile making it 6 out of 62 in the state.  Nassau County has 38.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 495 crosses the county east to west from Suffolk County to Queens County.  Theodore Roosevelt, the 25^th President, is buried in this county.  The overall shape of the county looks like a vase tipped east.  Mineola is located in the western third of the county.  Hempstead is in the southwest quarter of the county.  Mineola is the county seat and Hempstead is the largest city.  Mineola is 1.5% of the county population while Hempstead is 4.2% of the county population.  The county is pronounced NAS-SAW.  The county seat is pronounced MIN-EE-OE-LA.  This county is in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.