Tattoo Shop in Inwood, NY

Inwood was first settled in 1600s. Like many other nearby communities, the area was known as Near Rockaway. A meeting was held by the Town of Hempstead on January 16, 1663, and during that meeting, the name of what is now Inwood was changed to North West Point (also spelled as Northwest Point), named after its geographic position in relation to the more central part of Far Rockaway, which it was then part of. It became the first area which was once known as Near Rockaway to be given its own name. Its original settlers were Jamaica Bay fishermen, generally lawless and troublesome to other Rockaway residents. Soon after the American Civil War, the area in 1871 became known as Westville. The Westville designation was used as the name of the community until residents petitioned for the United States Postal Service to establish a post office in the community. The post office refused as a Westville already existed in Upstate New York. This led locals to change the community’s name to Inwood in December 1888. This name received the most votes; the other proposed names included Bayhead, Springhaven, Radwayton, Elco, Raway, Pike’s Peak, and Custer. By changing the community’s name, the locals were able to get a post office for Inwood, which ultimately opened on February 25, 1889.

Inwood’s first post office closed after roughly 30 years of operation (circa 1920), and it was not until 1949 that a new post office would open in the community – although an unsuccessful, earlier attempt to reopen it was made in 1932.

The first true road in the area, the Inwood end of Lord Avenue, was built when the neighboring village of Lawrence was developed.