A history of Freeport,
since 1892
Postcards, papers and photographs of Freeport from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Before people of European ancestry came to the area, the land was part of the territory of the Meroke Indians. Written records of the community go back to the 1640s. The village now known as Freeport was part of an area called "the Great South Woods" during colonial times. In the mid-17th century, the area was renamed Raynor South, and ultimately Raynortown, after a herdsman named Edward Raynor, who had moved to the area from Hempstead in 1659, cleared land, and built a cabin.
In 1853, residents voted to rename the village Freeport, adopting a variant of a nickname used by ship captains during colonial times because they were not charged customs duties to land their cargo.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Freeport’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCuddys Canary Cottage, Just A Goo…, 1890: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Freeport
See all 28 →
Freeport, decade by decade
1960s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Cuddys Canary Cottage, Just A Good Place to eat at Freeport, Long Island (1890) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.