Old Bethpage Village Restoration

I really love the place. The historic buildings are so nice to tour and the farm is a favorite for the kids. I would like to see more fully battle reenactments for other periods other than civil war which they have periodically
I can’t give 5 stars because there are not enough bathrooms for the giant area the grounds cover and the bug bites are just ouch.
The root beer at the Inn is delicious. Check with your library to see if they offer free passes before going as the village is a tad pricey. Neighboring armor museum has separate admission.

I absolutely love this place. If you love history it’s a must see! One of my favorite areas on the island.

I basically live for halloween and I really loved their halloween season event. The property and houses are beautiful, and at night its really dark and spooky! Its not the typical haunted house attraction, it’s very family friendly, but my boyfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed it as adults with no kids. The ghost tour was interesting, and the tour guide played us some EVP’S at the end that were pretty creepy. All in all, not a bad way to kill a few hours on an autumn night.

It was a fun and educational experience. My son enjoyed the staff staying true to their roles.

WOW! It was beautiful to walk into the building and be greeted with the most beautiful Christmas music carolers with people representing all. Saw many friends and neighbors this place is popular. You walk through a large property illuminated with candlelight and you can see the way the village was back in the day. Each house represents a different line of work (Dr, Blacksmith) There are spots for snacks, hot cider and cookies. All personell are dressed from back in the times and know their part well. It is a must visit for all!

Nice time with friends. Good set up and value. More than enough to do and no real lines. They give you a time slot for spooky tour and you go do other things while that time winds away. Bounce houses n stuff.

Arrived at village at 7:30pm with family of 7 (adults and teenagers). Waited on a long line to purchase tickets and proceeded down path to take a tour. There were no more tours available. Went back to entrance to get our money back and decided we would stay for general admission. Walked back down into village to find out that it was geared for little kids. Complete waste of time and money. Very disorganized!

Step back in time… The restoration is an amazing place. A modern building is the gateway to this stunning village of yester year.
The modern building offers a lunch room as well as displays of Long Island history
Then go through the doors to a village from the 1870s
Original Buildings gathered from other places on Long Island
Houses stores a church and school house just to name a few
Truly fascinating
There is a real working farm
And a house original to this land
Authentic dressed townspeople will tell you lots of history
And MY favorite time of the year is the fair
It’s a real one yes indeed where you can display your livestock fruits veggies and wares there are ribbons and cash prizes
And yes indeed my brownies took home a blue ribbon
I say it takes a full day to visit all the buildings go enjoy

Great place to visit. Once you enter, you see completely different world. Over two hundred years old buildings, people with old time fashion, and nature.
I really enjoyed listening to person in each houses, explaining about history about house and owner. I learned so much about History in Long Island. I would love to visit again.

For the past 50 years Old Bethpage Village has been a reflection of the Dutch and English settlement of Long Island, with a focus on the mid-​19^th century American town. Many historic structures (homes, farm buildings, businesses) have been moved there from all over Long Island rather than be razed for suburban development. It’s an outdoor museum not a theme-​park, and doesn’t have a commercial vibe at all. You’re not going to find a food vendor or a gift shop all over the place, except during the Long Island Fair in September (
).
Except during the Long Island Fair the restoration is often understaffed. Some buildings may be open but have no staff or informative signage. On one of our visits we went into the one-​room schoolhouse, and I played tour guide, telling my kids everything I knew about it based on books and my visits to other restorations. Some of the staff are volunteers, just local people, not aspiring actors or history buffs. They’re only somewhat informed and only lightly immersed in their period role, knowing basically only what they need to carry out a demo. But during the Fair most of the buildings were staffed by very knowledgeable people in period costume (see my pics). I talked a long time with a retired history teacher who became an expert in the Shaker culture and was demonstrating their style of basket-​making.
The Long Island Fair is not a carnival but a real traditional agricultural fair: livestock, produce, home brewing, baked goods, quilting and loads of other crafts – awesome (see my pics)! We’ve also seen the old-​time baseball tournament – very cool! There’s also Civil War re-​enactments, if that’s your thing.
A few years ago Nassau County slashed Old Bethpage’s funding and threatened to close it, and I’m glad the community managed to keep it open. It’s really a gem, and must be accepted for what it is with all its charm and limitations. It shouldn’t be judged poorly against commercially-​motivated places like Colonial Williamsburg or the Renaissance Faire.

I love Old Bethpage Village Restoration! I have been coming here since I was a kid and still go several times a year as an adult. They have fun and festive holiday celebrations for Memorial Day and July 4^th as well as for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I love walking through all the old houses and the volunteers are great. I usually go on Memorial day or July 4^th because they have super fun old timey baseball games and read the Declaration of Independence in full costume. If you love history, it’s for you! It is all run by volunteers so as someone else said it isn’t going to compare with Williamsburg but it’s still completely wonderful. I hope that it will be there when I have kids! I did see someone previously left a bad review based on trying to plan a wedding there and it’s really a review of the catering company and I just wanted to say that the OBVR has no choice whatsoever about who does the catering there, it’s a Nassau County park and Dover Catering has the contract for ALL Nassau County parks so it’s not the choice of OBVR. In conclusion, grab a bonnet and go to OBVR!

Our Horrible Experience With Old Bethpage: When we first went to look at Old Bethpage as our wedding venue, I was amazed at the beautiful location. I’ve been there as a child, and I remember school trips, camp trips, and trips with my family there. I was so excited to look at Old Bethpage again as a prospective location for the most important day of our lives. Once we got there, I knew it was where our wedding had to be. It was old, in nature, beautiful… we are two blue collar, working class individuals and so I knew that to be within our moderate budget for our wedding we were going to have to be creative, and a county park seemed perfect. We picked a date, and I was overjoyed to start sharing the location with our friends and family. I even painted a picture of a photo I had taken when we visited for Christmas for my mom. However… the Park insisted that we use «Dover Catering» for the venue… including DJ. We met with Dover and explained that we were on a tight budget, and mentioned we would prefer to use a family friend. We scaled down the event, offered to provide linens, our own silverware and plates, and bring our own dessert and cake (I am gluten-​free). We picked a simple cocktail hour and several stations for food, no sit down dinner. They came back to us with a whopping $ 125 PER PERSON not including tax, gratuity, or an open bar. They weren’t even providing tables. We were totally shocked. We asked them to revamp and come back to us with something a little more budget friendly. They came back with $ 75 per person, with only beer and wine being served. No napkins, no plates, no forks, no tables. For $ 75 a person. We were heartbroken. We asked if we could buy them out of their contract with the Town of Hempstead, and they agreed… for $ 30 a person. As in, pay them over $ 4000 just to NOT show up. When we tried to reason with them, they threatened with harassing emails and phone call and threatened to release our date within 3 days, and that we had to bring them THE FULL BUY OUT PRICE and the full deposit by the end of the week (two days). I have a full time job and so does my fiancé. Today they told us we could buy out Dover or they would cancel our wedding. Which they did. What kind of horrible, intimidation tactics are used by your employees, Old Bethpage? What is wrong with you? My fiancé and I are HEARTBROKEN by your complete lack of regard for the good working people of Long Island. I am disgusted, and will never, ever, ever visit Old Bethpage ever again, and will make it my mission for every person I know to learn what a horrible experience I’ve had with your location and the county.
PS– When we delivered this feedback on their facebook page, they not only deleted the post and the ensuing comments but also BLOCKED us. People should know what their tax dollars are going to an organization that treats citizens of Nassau County in this way.

I really dislike this dog run. It is definitely beginning to show its age.
There is a huge parking lot, which is really just a grassy field that is part of the rest of the park. There are two separate runs, one for large dogs and the other for smaller dogs. The water system they provide is simply a large water drum with a faucet, and many people that bring their pups here say it gets filled with ticks during the summer months. There is no concrete anywhere so when you go there with your dog, you too are standing on the ground. It’s VERY shaded, which is great when it’s 90 degrees out but horrible the rest of the year. A lot of visitors leave old toys, water, and bags behind since the park itself doesn’t provide anything.

Poor planning hamper this run.
Things it has going for it:
— Plenty of parking
— Separate runs for large & small dogs
— Plenty of shade
Things it has against it:
— No permanent water source for dogs (Has a 55 gallon plastic drum for water)
— No poop bags provided
— Ground cover is just dirt
— No bathrooms for humans
— Too much shade (can get buggy and muddy)
— Closed in the winter
— Small considering all the open land around it
I have been to this park only once and this run isn’t much to brag about. Needs some better planning. Needs water lines brought in. Seems like this run was just at after thought. Don’t see myself going there again.
* whole park is closed during winter months including the run*
Dog runs/​parks I have been to so far:

This is a long island staple! I like to come here and walk around. Sometimes you catch an old time baseball game and get some roasted peanuts. I also love the old school sarsaparilla soda and sourdough pretzels. It’s a nice relaxing place where you can pretend you live in the old days on the farm.

I’m sitting here with my glass of vino winding down after having a good old-​fashioned Halloween scare thanks to Fear Fest.
I’m sure this is a lovely «The Village» type setting during the day, but they have done a really super job transforming what I assume is the Town Hall into a horror house. We brought a friend visiting from Germany and her response was «I was so scared, I couldn’t speak in English.» My inner Jamie Lee Curtis was unleashed as people jumped out at every turn as strobe lights were flashing. What really got me was the man with the chainsaw and blood-​soaked apron who chased me through three rooms. What got my boyfriend S, who suffers from extreme coulrophobia, was the oversized death clown with a knife. He actually tried to sidle across a wall and as a result tripped and fell over a prop fence. (Pause from being scared here to laugh, because people falling is always funny).
Admission is only $ 12 to scream, stumble and swat dead bodies out of your way. i couldn’t be more in the Halloween spirit now unless i had a fun-​size bag of M&M’s!

Even the casual fan of baseball knows that the game is constantly evolving. If you want to see America’s pastime as it was played during one of its earliest incarnations, a visit to Old Bethpage Village Restoration is in order.
As seen on Conan O’ Brien (
), this site offers a recreation of 1860s baseball – heavy bats, horsehide balls beat to death, heavy wool uniforms, no gloves, no fences. On Sundays, weather permitting, men with amusing facial hair take the field and play the game according to the rules of this archaic style. If you ask nicely, they might even permit you to participate in the action. Bully!

Although this place cannot hold a candle to Williamsburg, Va., you have to remember that although Long Island has it’s own history, it does not have the same sort of history as Williamsburg, but still, you are able to travel back to the mid 19^th century with a visit here.
I recently had the opportunity to chaperone my little boy’s class on a field trip here. We walked around for a few hours and got to see old stage coach’s, large draft horses pulling the coach’s, they had sack races and old houses of notable area residents — they even had a working recreation of a blacksmith shop which is always fun to see (who doesn’t like to see fire and things being forged of metal?)
There were other sights I would have like to of seen, and some of the sights were closed for renovation. None-​the-​less, the kids seemed to have enjoyed it.
Apparently they have a halloween celebrations here and I suppose other holiday happens as time gets closer to the season. Perhaps we will go back to visit come holiday time. Just remember, it is not Williamsburg, and quite frankly, for the most part, it really shouldn’t try to be – two totally different locales.

For sentimental reasons I am giving OBVR 2 stars… I have been coming here since I was little… However…I can’t help but think the same thing every time I am here… They could do so much more with this place!
They have old homes and items in them but if you want to learn about life lived years ago… go to Old Williamsburg. I went yesterday with my family. Most of the actors/​villagers did not seem to have a good grip on history they just seem to kind of blurt out a script. One man sitting in a barn looked like he was studying for school and never even looked up at us??? We were not sure what many of the household items were and there was no one offering any information?
Visiting OBVR means a LOT of walking and Sun. They have picnic tables, you can bring food/​drink/​cooler etc… Strollers and wagons ok. Bring what you need… they do not offer food, (unless you think birch beer in a dixie cup and a cookie is food). Think shade for the little ones since it can get very hot in the summer!
This was a nice walk for the day and we got to see some animals. maybe by the time I visit again in 10 years they will improve some??? Maybe?
We went for 4^th of July, they had an old time ball game, parade, etc… they have events for holidays but the crowds made it not worth it… the events are just ok…

Old Time Village — recreation.
While not as authentic as Old Williamsburg down in Virginia this is a collection of buildings that have been moved here from all over Long Island.
They do a nice job overall with giving you an idea of how life was lived years ago.
Great for history buffs or for taking the kiddies out to learn something other than x-​box…