Wednesday, March 26, 2025
On a frigid January night, a few steps from Village Hall, Valley Stream residents converged to officially launch its centennial year with a flag-raising ceremony. The moment marked the start of a year-long celebration honoring the village’s evolution from a quiet farming outpost to one of the largest incorporated villages in New York State.
The timing was deliberate. Nearly a century ago, on Jan. 30, 1925, Valley Stream residents cast their votes to break from the Town of Hempstead and chart their collective destiny.
What followed was a century of rapid expansion—farmland gave way to suburban streets, a few thousand residents became more than 40,000, and a once-sleepy village emerged as a thriving community.
Now, as Valley Stream turns 100, village officials are pulling out all the stops. A parade, a block party, and a lineup of events throughout the year will commemorate the milestone. But beyond the pageantry, the centennial is a moment to take stock—to reflect on where the village has been, and where it’s headed next.
Mayor Ed Fare sat down to discuss the weight of the occasion, starting with the centerpiece of the event: the centennial flag.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the design of the centennial flag?
Fare: We love our official Village logo and flag. We wanted to keep its heritage, design, and meanings as we surmise our founding fathers were thinking when they originally adopted it as the official village seal, 100 years ago.
“Loyaute M’Oblige” is a French phrase that roughly translates to “loyalty gratefulness and faithfulness. “On the Trail of the Rising Sun” more closely represents our village, as travelers from the states, or New York City would first reach Valley Stream as they traveled on “SUNRISE Highway” as they were heading east . . . on the trail of the rising sun. Still very appropriate today.
So, we kept that logo, and added some centennial flourishes with celebratory gold leaf, and voila! our anniversary flag was born.
Q: What does it mean to you to have the centennial celebration fall under your administration as mayor?
Fare: It is a huge honor to be the leader of this great village during our 100th-anniversary celebrations. You have heard me say many times that I am a third-generation, lifelong Valley Streamer. My grandparents settled here before incorporation. So, my ancestry exceeds 100 years. I love this village, and I raised my three children here, the fourth generation of Fares to live here. I want to show my appreciation for all this village provides to its residents, and continue these traditions for years to come.
While the centennial flag adds decorative flourishes to the original, its deeper historical meaning has been mostly lost to time, according to village historian Carol McKenna.
The archives of the Valley Stream Historical Society hold no record of it. A review of period newspapers—including the Valley Stream Record, Brooklyn Eagle, and Brooklyn Daily Times—yielded no mention of its existence. Even a visit to the Henry Waldinger Library, a repository of local history, came up empty, she noted.
“It is conceivable that any records regarding it were destroyed years ago,” she said.
The village’s centennial presses, but the origin story of its banner remains, it seems, in the place where time forgot.
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