Huntington History

The Early Years
The earliest residents of today’s Huntington were Matinecock Indians. The native population settled near the waterfront in Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, Centerport and Crab Meadow. Seventeenth century European explorers and traders unwittingly introduced diseases for which the natives had no immunity. By the time Europeans arrived to settle in the Huntington area in the middle of the 17th century, the native population had been decimated.

The formal European history of Huntington dates to April 2, 1653 when three English settlers from Oyster Bay—Richard Holbrook, Robert Williams and Daniel Whitehead—secured a deed from Raseokan, Sachem (i.e. leader) of the Matinecocks for six square miles of land stretching from Cold Spring Harbor to Northport Harbor and from the Long Island Sound to what is now Old Country Road. The consideration consisted of “six coats, six howes, six kettles, six hatchets, six shirts, ten knives, six fathoms of wampum, three muxes and thirty needles.”

The Oyster Bay men immediately turned the land over to a group of Englishmen and their families who had already settled here. Subsequent purchases—most notably the Eastern Purchase in 1656—extended the Town’s territory to the Ocean on the south shore and as far east as the Nissequogue River. The eastern boundary specified in the Second Purchase overlapped with the western boundary in deed secured by Richard Smith for Smithtown. This dispute was settled in the courts and the border between the Towns was set at Fresh Pond. A similar dispute concerning Lloyd Neck was not settled until 1885 when jurisdiction of that peninsula was transferred from Oyster Bay to Huntington.
Most of the early settlers were English. They arrived in Huntington by way of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Home lots were established around Huntington harbor and the Village Green. From time to time allocations of common lands in outlying areas were made based on the share each contributed to the expense of securing the land. The name “Huntington” was probably chosen in honor of the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland at the time the town was established.

Following the custom of New England, the earliest form of government in Huntington was the Town Meeting. Called as the need arose, free men of the town gathered to distribute town-held land, resolve disputes, regulate the pasturing of cattle on town land, engage schoolmasters, appoint someone to keep the ordinary (public house) and maintain the roads, as well as resolve any other matters that concerned the town as a whole. For example, the people of Huntington showed their interest in education very soon after the founding of the town. The Town Meeting voted on February 11, 1657 to hire Jonas Houldsworth as the first schoolmaster. In 1660 the town voted to build a schoolhouse.

These early settlers were Congregationalists. They established a church in 1658, but did not construct a meetinghouse until 1665.

While the Dutch settled Manhattan and western Long Island and the English controlled New England, the first settlers in Huntington were largely outside the jurisdiction of any European authority. However, in 1660 residents voted to place the town under the jurisdiction of Connecticut to gain some protection from the Dutch.

In 1664, the English gained control of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. The Duke of York became proprietor of the area and the colony was renamed New York. The Duke’s representative, Governor Richard Nicholls, asserted control over all of Long Island and summoned representatives of each town on Long Island to meet in Hempstead early in 1665. The representatives were required to bring with them evidence of title to their land and to receive a patent from the crown affirming that title. The Hempstead Convention also adopted the “Duke’s Laws,” which regulated virtually every area of life.
Seventeenth century English politics was tumultuous. A king was beheaded, a civil war was fought, another king was restored to the throne and the Glorious Revolution saw the invitation to a Dutch regent to take the English throne. Each change of leadership led to a reaffirmation of the settlers’ claim to land. Accordingly, in 1688, following James II ascension to the throne, his governor, Thomas Dongan, issued a patent that confirmed the earlier Nicholls Patent. In addition, it mandated the creation of “Trustees” to manage and distribute town-owned land. The Trustees, like other town officials, were chosen at a Town Meeting. The Dongan Patent also authorized the creation and use of a seal, which is still in use today. A third patent was issued in 1694 after William and Mary assumed the throne.

During the colonial period, Huntington became an established community. Consisting mostly of farms, the community also included a school, a church, flour mills, saw mills, brickyards, tanneries, a town dock and a fort. Shipping was also an important part of the economy with vessels traveling not only to and from other ports along the Sound but also as far as the West Indies.

Slavery existed in Huntington until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Farmers relied on slave labor for help in the fields and it was a mark of status to have black slaves as domestic servants, but rarely did a person own more than a few slaves. For example, according to a 1755 census, there were 81 slaves belonging to 35 families in Huntington. Unlike the South, the economy was not heavily dependent on slave labor. The New York State Legislature passed an act in 1799 providing for the gradual abolition of slavery.

American Revolution
By the last quarter of the eighteenth century, resentment of English authority was as strong here as in New England. In June 1774, alarmed by events in Boston and hoping to re-assert their rights as British citizens, Huntington adopted a “Declaration of Rights” affirming “that every freeman’s property is absolutely his own” and that taxation without representation is a violation of the rights of British subjects. The Declaration of Rights also called for the colonies to unite in a refusal to do business with Great Britain until the crisis in Boston was resolved.

The following year, 80 men assembled to drill and prepare for potential skirmishes with the English authorities. The New York Provincial Congress provided 100 pounds of gunpowder for the troops. In 1776, the Provincial Congress sent another 1,000 pounds. The gunpowder and a limited number of armaments and military equipment were kept in the home of weaver Job Sammis at the south end of the Village Green. Sammis’ house still stands and is now commonly known as the Arsenal in reference to its brief use as a military storage facility.

The year of independence proved eventful—and tragic—for Huntington. The year started with the shipment of gunpowder. On July 22, news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence reached Huntington where it was met with great excitement. An effigy of the king was created using materials ripped from the red flag that included the British union and the words “GEORGE III” on one side and “LIBERTY” on the other. The union and the king’s name were removed, leaving a red flag with “LIBERTY” in white letters. The effigy was hung and blown up. Thirteenth patriotic toasts were made to celebrate the occasion.
The following month, the Liberty Flag, as it came to be known, was carried to the Battle of Long Island. Unfortunately, the American forces suffered a humiliating defeat. George Washington and his army had to escape to Manhattan at night under cover of fog. The British army meanwhile took control of Long Island arriving in Huntington on September 1 and remaining for the duration of the war.

A couple of weeks later, Nathan Hale volunteered to gather intelligence on the British forces in New York. He began his mission on the shores of Huntington Bay. He was later captured—it is unclear where, perhaps in Huntington or perhaps closer to the city—and hanged in New York City.

The occupying army forced Huntington residents to take oaths of allegiance to the Crown. If a man refused to take the oath, he and his family could be turned off their property, losing everything. The British established a headquarters in Huntington and used Long Island as a supply depot for the occupying forces in Manhattan. Crops and livestock were taken, horses and oxen were commandeered, and residents were forced to provide food, housing and labor.

The church, which had been built in 1715, was used as a stable and near the end of the war was dismantled to construct a fort on top of the town burying ground. Residents resisted as best they could. Men who had fled to Connecticut conducted raids across the Sound, aided by patriots who remained on Long Island. British troops were harassed. In 1781, American and French forces attacked Fort Franklin on Lloyd’s Neck, but were repulsed.

After independence had been secured and the British army evacuated, the church was rebuilt. The community itself was also rebuilt. By 1790, when George Washington stopped in Huntington for lunch during his tour of Long Island, Huntington had a population of 2,000. Twenty years later, the population had doubled to 4,424.

19th Century Industry
Throughout the nineteenth century Huntington remained primarily a farming community, but several other industries also took root. Mills to grind grain, cut lumber and weave wool were established along the shoreline. The earliest mills were powered by small streams. But in 1752, Zophar Platt built a mill harnessing the power—and predictability—of the tides. The town’s first tide mill stood on the west shore of Huntington Harbor. Today’s Mill Dam Road runs along the embankment built to capture the tide. A second tide mill was built in Centerport. The third built further up Huntington Harbor still stands in Lloyd Harbor.

A pottery was established on the east shore of Huntington Harbor where a succession of owners produced a variety of stoneware and earthenware goods. Local clay was also used in nineteenth century Huntington’s biggest industry, brickmaking. Brickyards operated in West Neck (now Lloyd Harbor), East Neck (now Huntington Bay), Crab Meadow and Fresh Pond. Bricks by the millions were shipped to New York. Many Irish immigrants came to Huntington in the 1850s to work in the brickyards.
Sand mining was another lucrative extraction industry. Hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand were dug along the shore, especially in Eaton’s Neck, Asharoken and Northport, and shipped to New York City.

Ships were built in every harbor, but Northport produced the greatest number—more than 180 vessels between 1814 and 1884. These ships were used in the coastwise trade bringing Huntington’s farm produce, bricks and sand to the city markets.

In Cold Spring Harbor, a whaling company was established in 1838. Ships from the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Company traveled as far as the Bering Sea in search of their prey. Whales were harvested for their oil, which was used for fuel. The whales’ bones and baleen were also put to good use. The whaling company did not survive the advent of petroleum.

In local waters, bay men harvested oysters, clams, lobster and finfish. Commercial fishing is now Huntington’s oldest industry.

Huntington also produced the poet of the nineteenth century—Walt Whitman. Huntington’s most famous resident was born in West Hills in 1819. His family moved to Brooklyn when he was a child but he returned to Long Island as a young man. He taught in various local schools and at the age 19 he founded The Long-Islander newspaper, which is still published.

Southside residents felt disenfranchised from the business affairs of the Town because the population along the north shore was greater than along the south shore. This dissatisfaction, which had been building since before the Civil War, finally led to the creation of the Town of Babylon in 1872.

Regular steamboat service to New York City was established in the 1840s. The arrival of the Long Island Rail Road in 1867 had a tremendous impact on the town. Not only did the railroad make city markets more accessible for Huntington produce, it also made Huntington more accessible to New Yorkers. In addition, the railroad created new settlements because the track was not laid near established village centers. The communities of Huntington Station, Greenlawn and East Northport trace their roots to the railroad.

Summer Resort Era
Although several wealthy New Yorkers, seeking escape from the tumult of the city, built country estates in Huntington as early as the 1830s, the railroad made Huntington a summer colony for wealthy New Yorkers, who could now commute to work in the city while their families spent the summers near Huntington’s shores. By the late 1880s, Huntington had well established summer colonies all along its shores. Resort hotels and summer cottages attracted many to the town.

The advent of the automobile along with improved roads made Huntington even more accessible. Centerport resident William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. built the first roadway specifically for automobiles in 1908. His Long Island Motor Parkway ran from Queens to Ronkonkoma. In addition to providing easy access to Long Island, it served as a racetrack for the annual Vanderbilt Cup races. A portion of the road led through Dix Hills opening up that section to large estates.

In the 1890s, local utility services were established. A trolley ran from Huntington Harbor to the train depot. Service was later extended across the Island to Amityville. The trolley was replaced by buses in 1927.

20th Century Growth
The years around the turn of the twentieth century also saw the construction of Huntington’s civic core. The town’s first library was built in 1892. The first Town Hall was built in 1910. At the same time, a new high school building was being constructed near the site of the first schoolhouse. That building now serves as Town Hall. A new, modern firehouse was built the following year. Civic pride in the community’s past was celebrated in a grand celebration of the Town’s 250th anniversary in 1903—an event that led to the formation of the Huntington Historical Society.

By the early twentieth century thousands of acres of productive farmland were laying fallow because the land had been appropriated for large estates. Marshall Field, Robert DeForest, Otto Kahn, Charles Gould, August Heckscher, George McKesson Brown, Walter Jennings, Roland Conklin and many others extended Long Island’s Gold Coast into Huntington. The middle class was also attracted to Huntington. Summer bungalow communities developed along the shores of Centerport Harbor, Huntington Bay and Huntington Harbor during the 1920s.

From 1920 to 1930, Huntington’s population increased 84% from 13,893 to 25,582. Huntington village began to take shape with one large building project after another along New York Avenue: The Palace Theatre in 1917, the Huntington Theatre and Huntington Office Building in 1927, The Huntington Mortgage Building in 1928 and the Hotel Huntington in 1929.

This explosive growth slowed considerably during The Great Depression. This break provided an opportunity for the Town to implement zoning and building codes in an attempt to manage growth, which returned with a vengeance after World War II. From 1950 to 1960, the Town’s population increased 165% and then another 58% from 1960 to 1970. In just twenty years, Huntington grew from 47,506 residents to 199,486. Where the railroad had spurred growth and commerce in the mid-nineteenth century, the Long Island  Expressway served the same purpose almost 100 years later.

This growth led to the need for new schools. Before the war, Huntington’s students graduated from one of three high schools. Today, there are eight. Residents saw a greater need for parks. A referendum in 1962 led to the acquisition of hundreds of acres of parkland. Beaches and golf courses were built. Programs, such as the popular summer concert series in Heckscher Park, were established.

Suburbanization brought regional and local shopping centers built to attract shoppers traveling by car rather than on foot. In response to this threat to the town’s traditional downtown shopping districts, the Town instituted an Urban Renewal program. While the program saw some success in Huntington village, Huntington Station was decimated. Ongoing efforts to reclaim the Station continue.

The once quiet farming area in Melville was re-imagined as a commercial center. In the 1960s, the Chamber of Commerce led efforts to attract light industry and corporate offices to Huntington to help alleviate the tax burden on local residents due to the need for new schools and other public services caused by the growing population. Today the Route 110 corridor in Melville is considered Long Island’s business downtown.

Despite the threat posed by automobile-centered shopping centers, Huntington’s downtown business districts have thrived. Seen as models of walkable communities, they continue to attract visitors from across Long Island. The vibrant cultural scene in Huntington village—featuring a Fine Arts museum, independent cinema, first class concert venue, and local galleries, as well as superb restaurants, has earned Huntington village the nickname “The Little Apple.”