Plainview is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Oyster Bay in east central Nassau County, New York, United States.

[3] Plainview and its neighboring hamlet, Old Bethpage, share a school system, library, fire department, and water district.

The land was considered desirable for farming because of a small pond named the Moscopas by local Native Americans, meaning "hole of dirt and water".

[5] The 1837 arrival of the Long Island Rail Road to nearby Hicksville brought a boom to local farming.

[6] In 1885, residents of Manetto Hill petitioned the United States Postal Service for a local post office, but were turned down because, according to several accounts, a similar name was already in use upstate.

[4] Plainview remained a farming community, famous for growing cucumbers for the huge Heinz pickle factories located in nearby Farmingdale and Hicksville.

After World War II, a potato blight combined with the desire of many returning GIs to leave New York City for the more rural Long Island, convinced many farmers to sell their property, leading to massive development in the area, giving rise to so-called suburban sprawl.

Some of these developments include "The Hamlet on Olde Oyster Bay" [8] and "The Seasons at Plainview", a residential community focused on over age 55 residents and first time home buyers.

While largely a suburban enclave, in addition to its numerous shopping centers and strip malls, Plainview has approximately 330 acres of commercial property, spread across three office parks.

The Plainview Library was first established in 1956 in the Jamaica Avenue School, and later opened as a separate facility in the Morton Village Shopping Center in 1958.

In March 1962, voters approved a $711,000 bond issue to pay for the purchase of a nearly three-acre parcel of land and development of a new library building directly across the street from Morton Village.

[19] Since its construction, the building has had two major expansions to better serve the community's needs, including increased audio/visual and internet demands.

The Mid Island Y-Jewish Community Center, which opened in 1956,[23] serves residents of Plainview, Old Bethpage, Syosset and surrounding areas.

Although the studios still remain at this address, the station now shares transmission facilities with WNET on top of One World Trade Center in New York City.

The multiplexes built in Hicksville and Commack drew patrons away from the local theaters which were subsequently converted, primarily, to office or retail use.

Plainview is home to WPOB 88.5 FM, the local radio station located in the Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School.