History
In 1912, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum, a wealthy railroad executive, acquired 1,368 acres (5.5 km2) of land along the northern edge of the Village of Farmingdale extending into what is now Old Bethpage. Yoakum hired Devereux Emmet to design and build an 18 hole golf course on the land, which opened for play in 1923, and which Yoakum leased to the private Lenox Hills Country Club.
When Yoakum died in 1929, there was conflict over usage of the leased lands. The Yoakum heirs eventually sold the property to the State of New York, and Bethpage State Park opened there to the public in 1932, under the auspices of the Long Island State Park Commission. Jesse Merritt of Farmingdale, Nassau County Historian, had convinced Robert Moses to name the park "Bethpage State Park" after the 15-square-mile (39 km2) tract of land purchased by his ancestor Thomas Powell in 1695 from three Native American tribes.
The original golf course became the Green Course; by 1936, three more courses opened, designed by A. W. Tillinghast under contract to the Park Commission; a fifth (the Yellow Course) was designed by Alfred Tull and opened in 1958. The park has picnic facilities, bridle paths, playing fields, a polo field, tennis courts, cross-country skiing trails, and hiking and biking trails including one leading south to Massapequa, but it is best known for its golf facilities.
Read more about this topic: Bethpage State Park
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