This was due to an accident from January 1912 involving a milk train that rear-ended a stationary passenger car, sending it across Fulton Avenue and crashing into a building across the street and resulting in two deaths.

[8][9][10][11] In conjunction with the new railroad station, its construction was part of a plan by Mayor James A. Garner to redevelop Hempstead and help bring it back to prominence as "Long Island's hub.

The new transit center can accommodate many more buses than the original terminal and allows almost half of the Nassau Inter-County Express (formerly MTA Long Island Bus) system's routes to run through Hempstead.

"[12][13] In addition to the renaming of the terminal, a permanent exhibit of the civil rights movement will be constructed, telling the story of the struggle for equality through the photographs of photojournalists and artists who covered the unrest of that era, including the late Moneta Sleet Jr., Jim Peppler, and Herbert Randall.

[12][13] A column in the back of the bus terminal has been renovated with black marble, engraved with a large image of Rosa Parks and her story.