Brookhaven is a large suburban town in Suffolk County,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. With a population of 488,497 as of 2022, it is the second most populous town in New York (after Hempstead, in the adjacent Nassau County) and the third most populous community in the state. The first settlement in what is now Brookhaven was known as Setauket. Founded as a group of agricultural hamlets in the mid-17th century, Brookhaven first expanded as a major center of shipbuilding in the 19th century. Its proximity to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

facilitated the establishment of resort communities, followed by a post-war population boom. In the 2020 census record, Brookhaven contained 485,773 people. The township is home to two renowned research centers,

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

and

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

. Combined these two research centers are approximately 50% of the Town's top ten employer's employee count. Tourism is also a major part of the local economy. The largest traditional downtowns are located in

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson, also known as Port Jeff, is an Administrative divisions of New York (state)#Village, incorporated village in the Administrative divisions of New York (state)#Town, town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New Y ...

, a regional transportation hub for the

Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, commonly referred to as the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry, is a privately owned transportation company that operates a passenger and vehicle ferry service across the Long Island Sound, betwe ...

, and Patchogue. The area has long been serviced by the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

History

Origins and etymology

The primary known inhabitants were Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, of the Setauket and

Unkechaug Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island,Rudes (1997:1)Goddard ( ...

tribes. The first English settlers arrived around 1640, and in 1655, several purchased Brookhaven's land from its tribal inhabitants. The latter founding year was recognized in 1976, when the Brookhaven Town Bicentennial Commission proposed setting the date on the seal to 1655 in line with this first deed of settlement of the town of Brookhaven at Setauket on April 14, 1655. Considering this founding year of 1655, Brookhaven is the fifth English township on Long Island following

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, Southold, Huntington, and East Hampton. The first English settlement was named "Setauket" after the Native American tribe. The names "Brookhaven" and "Setauket" were initially used interchangeably to describe the village or the town. The verbal division between the smaller hamlet of Setauket and township of Brookhaven was not set until well into the 19th century. A point of confusion is the existence of the hamlet named Brookhaven, which was in fact named for the township in 1879. Other names used in the settlement's first decades were "Ashford", after

Ashford, Kent Ashford is a town in the Borough of Ashford, Ashford district, in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Great Stour at the southern or Escarpment, scarp edge of the North Downs, about by road southeast of centr ...

, in England, and "Cromwell Bay", for English Protestant leader

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

. The original purchase from the native Setalcott tribe that took place in 1655 encompassed the land making up present-day Setauket, Stony Brook, and

. A second purchase was made by Richard Woodhull in 1664 expanded this tract eastward along the North Shore to additionally include all lands from the ''Old Mans'' area (

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

and Miller Place) to Wading River. Richard Woodhull was the direct heir of Eustace de Vesci, a British noble who was a signator of the Magna Charta. Another land purchase in the same year expanded Brookhaven to the South Shore of Long Island. Brookhaven was integrated into the

Province of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...

following that colony's establishment in 1664, and in 1666 Governor

Richard Nicolls Richard Nicolls ( – 28 May 1672) was an English military officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of the Province of New York from 1664 to 1668. Early life Richard Nicolls was born in in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. He ...

granted a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for the town which confirmed title to the lands purchased. Governor Thomas Dongan issued a patent in 1686 which granted powers to the town and established a representative form of government. The town seal was authorized at this time. The central element of the town seal, the letter “D”, was designated to the Town of Brookhaven as its official cattle earmark by the Duke's Laws of 1665. Although no records exist dating to the town seal's original design plan, it is generally thought that the seal's olive branch signified peace and the whaling tools signified the most lucrative business in the Town of Brookhaven at the time. The current seal is a redesign, retaining the original elements, but adding the Town of Brookhaven and its 1655 date of settlement.

Colonial era

Early English settlers farmed, fished, and hunted whales. Brookhaven was largely agrarian, with each hamlet being limited to a handful of families yet containing miles of land. This economy was supplemented in coastal sections with fishing. A major commercial center did not exist in Brookhaven until the early 19th century. Brookhaven was founded primarily by English colonists that partook in the settlement of Southold, and was likewise under the jurisdiction of the theocratic

New Haven Colony New Haven Colony was an English colony from 1638 to 1664 that included settlements on the north shore of Long Island Sound, with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The colony joined Connecticut Colony in 16 ...

in the modern state of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. Brookhaven was transferred to the more secular Hartford-led

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

in 1662. Following the English takeover of

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

in 1664, the new English

colony of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to the G ...

laid claim to Long Island and brought Brookhaven into its jurisdiction.

American Revolutionary War

During the early stages of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, Brookhaven and the rest of Long Island were captured by British forces, and many residents sided with the British as loyalists to the English crown. Nevertheless, Brookhaven had multiple episodes of celebrated American activity during the war. This included the actions of the Culper Spy Ring, a spy network working for George Washington that largely consisted of Brookhaveners working in occupied territory. Another episode was Benjamin Tallmadge's successful raid from across Long Island to the British stronghold at the Manor St. George, wherein his raiding party rowed from

to Cedar Beach and marched across Long Island, culminating in the Battle of Fort St. George and burning of the defensive structure. A more minor skirmish occurred within the settlement of Setauket, where the British had repurposed the local Protestant church as a fortress. Gunshots were fired and some bullet holes remain within the walls of the adjacent Caroline Church.

Development

In the mid-19th century, several communities in Brookhaven prospered as shipbuilding ports. The most successful of those were the villages of

and Patchogue, which remain the township's most bustling traditional downtowns. Whaling and cordwood industries also developed in Brookhaven. Railroads reached Brookhaven in the mid-19th century, beginning in 1843 with trains reaching inland to Ronkonkoma. The earliest equivalent to the North Shore's present-day

Port Jefferson Branch The Port Jefferson Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The branch splits from the Main Line (Long Island Rail Road), Main Line just east of Hicksville ...

began operation in 1873. The

has been operating between Port Jefferson and

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...

, since 1888 and was partly founded by legendary circus-master P.T. Barnum. From the end of the late 19th century until the middle of the 20th, many communities along the North Shore and South Shore became successful resort towns. These hosted many urban residents from nearby

, including numerous celebrities of the era, during the summer months. Meanwhile, many rural sections across Brookhaven served as campgrounds for youth clubs. During the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, Brookhaven underwent some of the same changes that affected Long Island's Gold Coast. Waterfront areas along the North Shore, including Belle Terre and Old Field, transformed from small fishing communities into fashionable and exclusive enclaves of the moneyed elite. A variety of notable research occurred in Brookhaven around the turn of the 20th century. Inventor

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

had a research center in Shoreham, which featured the large Wardenclyffe Tower. As of 2016, this site was being renovated as the

Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe (also known as TSCW) is a nonprofit organization established to develop a regional science and technology center, museum and makerspace at the site of Nikola Tesla's former Wardenclyffe laboratory on Lo ...

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...

opened one of the world's largest radio facilities, known as

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

's ''Radio Central'', in Rocky Point.

Modern history

In the post-war era, Brookhaven experienced a massive population boom. This was partly due to its proximity to

along the

and the highway system of

Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...

. The township's most internationally renowned institutions,

and Brookhaven National Lab, both date to the years following World War II. During the mid-century, a number of major transformations were conducted by philanthropist Ward Melville in the "Three Village" area ( The Setaukets, Stony Brook, and Old Field). Melville, an Old Field resident and owner of what later became CVS Corporation, used his fortune to transform Northwestern Brookhaven to his vision of an idealized New England–style region. To this end, he ordered the construction in 1939 of the Stony Brook Village Center, a picturesque commercial center set on village green in Stony Brook, with clapboard buildings designed to look as if they had colonial origins. In 1962, Ward Melville donated 400 acres of land for the relocation of now-named

from Oyster Bay. Aerial View of Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) sits on the site of Camp Upton, a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

installation that was used as a training ground in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by thousands of soldiers including composer

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...

. In 1946 ownership of the grounds was transferred for use by the new national laboratory, which began operating the following year. Brookhaven researchers have since made such diverse contributions as patenting

Maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

, designing one of the

first video game The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering many inventions and developments. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video game ...

s, detecting the first solar neutrinos, designing pollutant-eating bacteria, creating the first

PET scan Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bloo ...

, and various contributions to

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

. The laboratory contains the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the National Synchrotron Light Source.

Geography

Brookhaven is located centrally on the geographic Long Island and extends from the North Shore to the South Shore. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (51.20%) is water. It is the largest town in New York in terms of total area, excluding water. However, there are four towns in the state with more land area: Arietta in Hamilton County, Long Lake in Hamilton County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

in Herkimer County and Webb in Herkimer County. Brookhaven is bounded by

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

to the north, the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to the south, Riverhead to the northeast,

to the southeast, Smithtown to the northwest, and

Islip Islip may refer to: Places England * Islip, Northamptonshire *Islip, Oxfordshire * Islip Manor Meadows United States *Islip, New York, a town in Suffolk County ** Islip (hamlet), New York, located in the above town **Central Islip, New York ...

to the southwest. A large part of

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy once again divided Fire Island into two islands. Together, these two isl ...

(accessible by a bridge at Smith Point) and the

Great South Bay The Great South Bay is a lagoon situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is about long and has an average depth of and is at its deepest. It is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island, a barrier island ...

are in the town. Bald Hill, a large hill in the hamlet of Farmingville, marks where the glacier which formed Long Island stopped. At the top of Bald Hill is a

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

veterans memorial. Telescope Hill, to the west of Bald Hill Cultural Park, is slightly taller at above sea level and the highest point in the town.

Climate

Physical features

Outer Barrier The Outer Barrier, also known as the Long Island and New York City barrier islands, refers to the string of barrier islands that divide the lagoons south of Long Island, New York from the Atlantic Ocean. These islands include Long Beach Barrie ...

** Patchogue Bay ** Bellport Bay ** Narrow Bay ** Moriches Bay

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 485,773 people residing in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . The racial makeup of the town was 83.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

(including 72.0%

Non-Hispanic Whites Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

), 6.1%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.1% Native American, 4.7% Asian, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, and 3.8% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino people of any race were 15.6% of the population.

Economy

According to Brookhaven's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town are:

Attractions

* Baseball Heaven in Yaphank * Cupsogue Beach County Park *

Fire Island National Seashore Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) is a United States National Seashore that protects a section of Fire Island, New York, Fire Island, an approximately long and wide barrier island separated from Long Island by the Great South Bay. The isla ...

in Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, and Davis Park * Manor St. George in Shirley * Old Field Point Light in Old Field * Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove * Smith Point County Park in Shirley/Mastic Beach * Southaven County Park in South Haven * Splish Splash

water park A water park (also waterpark, water world, or aquapark) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming ...

in Calverton * Stony Brook Village Center in Stony Brook * Watch Hill * Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge *

William Floyd House William Floyd House, also known as Nicoll Floyd House and Old Mastic House, was a home of Founding Father William Floyd, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, in Mastic Beach, New York. It was his home from 1734 until 1803. ...

in Mastic Beach

Government and politics

Patchogue was the town seat of Brookhaven until 1986 when it moved to Medford and then its current location near Bald Hill in Farmingville. Brookhaven is led by a town supervisor and a six-member town council, which are all four-year term elected positions. Council members have been elected by district since a referendum in 2002. Before 2002, the local Republican Party for the Town of Brookhaven nearly controlled the entirety of the town board for several decades, except for four years in the mid-1970s when Democrats held a majority under Supervisor John Randolph. This one-party domination, and a series of scandals, led to a tarnished reputation of local politics and accorded the nickname "Crookhaven". After the referendum was passed In 2002, alse assertion of second place statewide population ranking cannot be justified./ref> Steve Fiore-Rosenfield became the first Democrat elected since the 1970s in 2003. In 2005, Brian X. Foley, a Democratic county legislator, won the town supervisor race. Constance Kepert and Carol Bissonette were also elected to the town board. With Fiore-Rosenfield's re-election, the Democrats gained control of the Brookhaven town board for the first time since the 1970s. In 2007, councilwoman Carol Bissonette chose not to pursue re-election but to instead run for the open receiver of taxes seat. Her district (the 6th) was won by Republican Keith Romaine, returning the town to a 4-3 majority on the town board. The new majority opted to elect Councilman Tim Mazzei as the majority leader. In 2008, Brian X. Foley was elected to the New York State Senate. As per New York state law, his seat was declared vacant, and a special election was held on March 31, 2009, to replace him. Democrat Mark Lesko defeated Majority Leader Mazzei to become supervisor. In August 2012, Lesko chose to step down and join a tech company on Long Island. A special election was held on November 6, 2012, which was won by Republican county legislator Edward P. Romaine, who had previously served as county clerk. With Romaine's victory and the subsequent victories of Daniel Losquadro in 2013 for the special election of highway superintendent and

Independence Party of New York Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

member Donna Lent to town clerk, the Republican party and its endorsed allies won all townwide seats for the first time since former supervisor John Jay LaValle.

Communities and locations

William Glackens - Bathers at Bellport - Google Art Project

Villages (incorporated)

Brookhaven has eight

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

: * Belle Terre * Bellport * Lake Grove * Old Field * Patchogue * Poquott *

* Shoreham

Hamlets (unincorporated)

Brookhaven includes all or part of approximately 50

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

. One of those hamlets is also named Brookhaven. * Blue Point * Brookhaven * Calverton ''(mostly in Town of Riverhead)'' * Center Moriches * Centereach * Cherry Grove * Coram * Davis Park * East Moriches * East Patchogue * East Setauket * East Shoreham * Eastport ''(Eastern portion in Town of Southampton)'' * Farmingville * Fire Island Pines * Gordon Heights * Hagerman (Part of East Patchogue CDP) * Holbrook ''(mostly in Town of Islip)'' * Holtsville ''(small part in Town of Islip)'' * Lake Ronkonkoma ''(small parts in Towns of Islip and Smithtown)'' * Manorville ''(small part in Town of Riverhead)'' * Mastic * Mastic Beach * Medford * Middle Island * Miller Place * Moriches *

* North Bellport * North Patchogue * Ocean Bay Park * Port Jefferson Station * Point O'Woods *

Ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

* Rocky Point * Ronkonkoma ''(mostly in Town of Islip)'' * Selden * Setauket * Shirley * Sound Beach * South Haven * Stony Brook * Strongs Neck * Upton * Wading River ''(mostly in Town of Riverhead)'' * Water Island * West Manor * Yaphank

Other communities

* Bayberry Dunes * Bellview Beach * Canaan Lake * Coram Hill * Crystal Brook * East Yaphank * Hallock Landing * Old Mastic *

Poospatuck Reservation The Poospatuck Reservation is a Native American reservation of the Unkechaugi band in the community of Mastic, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is one of two Native American reservations in Suffolk County, the other being the Shinne ...

* Rocky Point Landing * Patchogue Highlands * Siegfried Park * South Manor * South Medford * South Setauket * South Yaphank * Squassux Landing * Smith Point * Wading River Landing * West Yaphank * Woodhull Landing * East Selden (Selden)

Education

Brookhaven is the home of

, which moved to Stony Brook from its original Oyster Bay campus in 1962; the university has since become the town's largest employer. The town is home to the first and largest campus of Suffolk County Community College, located in Selden. The town is also home to The Stony Brook School, a Christian college prep and boarding school in Stony Brook. The St. Joseph's University's Long Island Campus is located in Patchogue. Brookhaven Public Schools over-sees the 11 School Districts, 15 High Schools and 63,500 Students within the town.

Transportation

Major roads

Notable Roads. * Interstate 495 * NY-25A

New York State Route 25A New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York (state), New York, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, running ...

New York State Route 25 New York State Route 25 (NY 25) is an east–west state highway in downstate New York in the United States. The route extends along the central parts and North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island for just over from east ...

New York State Route 24 New York State Route 24 (NY 24) is a east–west State highway (US), state highway on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The highway is split into two segments; the longer western section extends from an I ...

New York State Route 27 New York State Route 27 (NY 27) is a long state highway that runs east–west from Interstate 278 (I-278) in the borough (New York City), New York City borough of Brooklyn to Montauk Point State Park on Long Island, New York ( ...

New York State Route 112 * NY-347

New York State Route 347 * Suffolk County 16

County Route 16 * Suffolk County 80

Montauk Highway Montauk Highway is an east–west road extending for across the southern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It extends from the Amityville, New York, Amityville–Copiague, New York, Copiague line, where ...

, including County Route 85 and County Route 80 * Suffolk County 97

County Route 97 * Suffolk County 83

County Route 83 * Suffolk County 46

County Route 46 * Suffolk County 51

County Route 51 * Suffolk County 111

County Route 111

Bus service

The Town of Brookhaven is served primarily by

Suffolk County Transit Suffolk County Transit is the provider of bus services in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island and is an agency of the Suffolk County government. It was founded in 1980 as a county-run oversight and funding agency for a group of private con ...

. It also operates a Para-Transit Bus line. The Village of Patchogue operates its own local Bus Service.

Railroad lines

has three lines running through the Town of Brookhaven. The Main Line includes Ronkonkoma station, which not only serves as a major transportation hub, but is also located on the Islip-Brookhaven Town Line. It also contains the and stations. The

Montauk Branch The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City to Montauk. However, in LIRR maps and sche ...

, located on the South Shore of Long Island, includes the , , and stations, with the Center Moriches station having operated until 1998. On the North Shore of the town, the

contains two stations as it enters from the Town of Smithtown, Stony Brook station along the northern edge of SUNY at Stony Brook, and Port Jefferson station along Main Street where the line terminates.

Ferries

The primary ferry within the Town of Brookhaven is the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry, which takes vehicles and passengers across the

to and from Port Jefferson to

. On the Great South Bay, passenger ferries take vacationers to and from Fire Island. The ferry terminals in Patchogue lead to the communities of Davis Park, and Watch Hill Visitor Center, on the western edge of the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness Area. Bellport also has a ferry leading to Bellport Beach on Fire Island. From Fire Island itself, communities have ferries from Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove, both of which are popular vacation spots for LGBT tourists as well as the Sailors Haven Visitor Center, which is located within the Sunken Forest Visitor Center. All three ferries lead to Sayville in the Town of Islip. Ocean Bay Park is the westernmost community in the Town of Brookhaven, and ferries from there lead to Bay Shore.

Airports

The Town of Brookhaven contains no Commercial Airports. The adjacent Town of Islip contains

Long Island MacArthur Airport Long Island MacArthur Airport , formerly known as Islip Airport, is a public airport in Ronkonkoma, New York, within the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, on Long Island. Covering , the airport was established in 1942, activated in 1943, and b ...

which serves Brookhaven Residents, three Minor Reliever Airports are within Brookhaven, all of which are in the southern shore communities. The first one is the Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley. East of this is the Spadaro Airport and Lufker Airport both of which are in East Moriches, and both of which share a taxiway. Coram Airport was operational until 1984.

Notable people

* Tapping Reeve

References

External links

Town of Brookhaven official website
{{authority control Towns on Long Island Towns in Suffolk County, New York Towns in New York (state) Towns in the New York metropolitan area Populated coastal places in New York (state)