Description: Hazelhurst Field was built in 1915, in Hempstead, Nassau County, on Long Island. In 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany, the U.S. Army converted a two-year-old National Guard base, on the former site of Camp Black, into Hazelhurst Field. The field was named for Leighton Hazelhurst, who was the first NCO killed in an aviation accident. After the First World War, the base became a civilian airfield. In 1920, it was renamed “Curtis Field”, until it merged with the adjacent Roosevelt Field in 1929. By 1951 the airfield closed its doors to make way for construction of the nation’s second ever shopping mall, known today as Roosevelt Field. The mall opened just in time for Christmas in 1956 and has remained tremendously successful for decades and is presently home to a whopping 243 stores.