In 2019, Huntington will mark the 366th anniversary of its founding. The number of years of Huntington’s existence matches the number of days in a leap year. That realization led to an exercise in visualizing the Town’s history in terms of a calendar year. In other words, if each year of Huntington’s history were a day in the calendar, the First Purchase would be January 1; last year, 2018, would be December 31.
What would the rest of the year look like? Here are a few notable milestones.
January 4, Second Purchase (1656)
January 5, First school (1657)
January 6, First church established (1658)
January 12, British seize New Amsterdam from the Dutch (1664)
January 14, Governor Richard Nichols issues a Patent defining Huntington’s borders. (1666)
January 31, Suffolk County established (1683)
April 5, St. John’s Church established (1748)
April 18, Jupiter Hammon becomes the first published African American poet (1761)
May 1, Huntington adopts the Declaration of Rights (1774)
May 3-10, Huntington occupied by British troops during the American Revolution (1776-1783)
May 11, Current Old First Church building erected (1784)
May 17, George Washington visits Huntington (1790)
June 15, Walt Whitman born in West Hills (1819)
June 24, Huntington Methodist Church built on Main Street (1828)
July 2, Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Company formed (1836)
July 4, Whitman starts The Long-Islander newspaper (1838)
July 9, Bethel A.M.E. Church established (1843)
July 15, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church established (1849)
July 21, Whitman published Leaves of Grass (1855)
July 27-31, The Civil War (1861-65)
August 3, Long Island Rail Road reaches Huntington (1868)
August 8, Babylon Town separated from Huntington (1873)
August 10, Huntington Library Association formed (1875)
August 28, Electric service arrives in Huntington (1893)
August 29, Northport Village incorporated (1894)
September 7, Huntington celebrates its 250th anniversary and the Huntington Historical Society is formed (1903)
September 10, First synagogue established (1906)
September 12, Long Island Motor Parkway constructed, Huntington first park (Halesite Park) created (1908)
September 14, Old Town Hall built (1910)
September 15, LeRoy Grumman graduates from Huntington High School (1911)
September 20, Huntington Hospital built (1916)
September 21, First paved road (New York Avenue from main Street to the train station) in Huntington (1917)
September 22, One of the first two women elected to NYS Assembly (Ida Bunce Sammis) is from Huntington (1918)
September 24, Heckscher Museum dedicated (1920)
September 28, Village Huntington Bay incorporated (1924)
September 29, Village of Asharoken incorporated (1925)
September 30, Village of Lloyd Harbor incorporated (1926)
October 2, Huntington’s first Planning Board appointed (1928)
October 12, First woman elected to Huntington Town Board (1938)
November 3, Huntington Police Department merges into the Suffolk County Police Department (1960)
December 6-30, Frank Petrone serves as Town Supervisor (1993-2017)
Huntington History 
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