Between 1870 and 1879, the Southern Hempstead Branch of the South Side Railroad of Long Island had its terminal station located on Greenwich Street further to the east.

[3] In 1893, the Long Island Rail Road established a subsidiary that ran through West Hempstead between Valley Stream and Mineola called the New York Bay Extension Railroad Company, which was merged into the LIRR nine years later.

A low-cinder platform station was installed between Rockaway Road (today's Hempstead Avenue) and Fulton Street (now Hempstead Turnpike), which contained a bridge over the tracks and a station for the New York and Long Island Traction Company trolleys.

In 1926, the West Hempstead Branch was electrified, and a substation built southeast of the current station site that remains to this day.

The mostly single-tracked West Hempstead Branch expands to two tracks north of the previous station.