Central Park of Long Island

Vance Carroll knows Hempstead Lake State Park inside and out. As a former plumber, he used to service all of its fountains. Now, the park affects his life more than ever.

After Carroll, 53, suffered a heart attack nearly a month ago, his morning walks at the park help him not just unwind, but recuperate.

“The park provides me with a sense of well-being, getting with nature, the quietness, the birds,” he said, sitting at a picnic table with the newspaper.

“When I first started, I couldn’t walk from the middle of the tennis court to right here,” he said, indicating a distance of about an eighth of a mile. “Now, I can walk down there, walk back. So, it’s therapeutic to me. It’s great. I’m glad that the park’s here.” Although the park boasts 20 tennis courts, two playgrounds and a softball field, its most alluring quality is its bond with nature — forests border the approximately 800 acre park.

“You could be anywhere,” said Peter Damski, as he gazed at the trees. “You could be in upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, you could be anywhere that has this style of forest and that’s what I really like about it.”

The park holds four ponds and Hempstead Lake, which has a perimeter of three miles, making it the largest body of fresh water in Nassau County.

“Some people don’t even know that there’s fish in here and they’ve been living in this neighborhood all their lives,” said Susan Green, as she cast her line into McDonald Pond.

But the park attracts more than locals. Some come from as far as the Caribbean.

Kulea Tannis, a regular park cyclist, is from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We don’t have anything like this in the Caribbean,” said Tannis, cooling off in the shade. “We have just small plain fields. In the islands we have free activities. We can swim everyday, we can go to the beach. You can get stuff here for free too. You can walk, bike.”

For Steven Xuereb, the park represents family time.

“For the price, you get a whole day of this,” Xuereb said, as his children crisscrossed on their bikes ahead of him.

The location of the park makes it an accessible getaway even for the Xuerebs of Oceanside.

“It’s the Long Island version of Central Park,” said Xuereb. “You can hear the Southern State Parkway. But if you’re in the middle of everything, you don’t see it.”

A short walk from the picnic site is a hand-carved wooden carousel, a park novelty from the turn of the 20th century. It’s the masterpiece of M.C. Illions and Sons who pioneered the Coney Island style of carousels known for bold colors and intricate carpentry. The 36 horses’ tails are made of real horsehair.

The lead horse, nicknamed the “Flag Horse,” is the largest model on the ride and fashions an American flag draped over its saddle with a golden emblem of a bald eagle.

“Children love it,” said William Brown, the park manager, as he strolled around the ride. “I have a lot of older people that come who say they rode it 40 years ago and say that it’s still here and it’s beautiful.”

Looking ahead, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York Works projects will allocate approximately $1.25 million to the park later this year. It will be part of a $90 million, five-year state effort to renovate more than 50 state parks and historic sites.

“We’re hoping to potentially do a boathouse to expand the kayak program and other uses of the lake to get more people out on the lake and really experience Hempstead Lake in a different way,” said Brown.

Nature will continue to be a cornerstone of the park.

“I like a state park better than a county park or a town park,” Carroll said, breathing in the forest air. “I think it’s more of a preserve. It looks more like a park’s supposed to be to me.”