Looking to Live in Baxter Estates

Long Island Business News, May 2, 2008 by Bernadette Starzee

Lynn Pinkham long considered moving to Port Washington, admiring the community's bike riding areas and the short commute to Manhattan. Her search for a home ended when she fell in love with a charming house adjacent to Baxter's Pond in the incorporated village of Baxter Estates, an upscale enclave within Port Washington.

"With the pond and the tall trees in my backyard, it reminded me of being in a park," she said.

Baxter Estates is known for its magnificent old trees, said Dorothy Waxman, an associate broker in the Port Washington office of Century 21 Laffey Associates. "You can be just one block from the heart of Main Street, but it feels like you're in another world because of the trees," she said.

Emma McMahon, manager of the Port Washington office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, described Baxter Estates as a "tucked-away little paradise with rolling hills." Its centerpiece is the 5.4-acre Barbara Johnson Park and Preserve at Baxter's Pond, an idyllic Nassau County-maintained park with seating areas around the pond. The village maintains Baxter Estates Beach, a small beach overlooking Manhasset Bay. Incorporated in 1931, the village includes a commercial section along the north side of Port Washington's Main Street and has just about 1,000 residents.

"There are a lot of long-term residents," said Edith E. Katz, a licensed associate broker in the Fine Homes and Estates Division of Century 21 Laffey Associates in Port Washington. "They raise their families and then stay on."

Because of the low turnover and small size, there are never more than a few homes on the market at a time. Houses typically fall within the $700,000 to $1 million price range, Katz said.

Property sizes are usually a third-acre or smaller, and home styles vary. "There are some Tudors; some beautiful, elegant colonials; a few contemporaries - you name it, it's there," said Katz, a former village resident who lived in a house with a Spanish flavor. "A stream ran in front of the house, so we had to cross a small footbridge to get to it," she said.

A major selling point of Port Washington is its train line, which does not pass through the Jamaica Station bottleneck. Many Baxter Estates residents walk to the Port Washington train station and, since it's the first stop on the line, they get a seat for the trip to Penn Station, which can be as short as 35 minutes.

Another draw is the downtown which, with its shops, restaurants, street fairs and parades, provides a central gathering place that is a source of pride for residents. "Port Washington is a rah-rah, Main Street, USA, kind of town," Waxman said. Residents affectionately refer to their hometown as "Port," and the Pride in Port celebration is a popular event each fall.

A peninsula nestled between Manhasset Bay and Hempstead Harbor, Port Washington boasts several marinas, yacht clubs and beaches. "It has a lot of wonderful waterfront activities," McMahon said. Port Washington's parks include Manorhaven Beach Park, a Town of North Hempstead facility with an Olympic-sized pool, children's pool, beach, boat ramp, playground, tennis courts and ball fields.

Children of Baxter Estates attend the Port Washington Union Free School District, a high-achieving and ethnically diverse district. At number 191, Schreiber High School in Port Washington ranked within Newsweek's 2007 list of the top public high schools in America, and this year, two Schreiber students were Intel scholarship finalists.