Stony Brook is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in the

Town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of Brookhaven in

Suffolk County, New York Suffolk County ( ) is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of New York, constituting the eastern two-thirds of Long Island. It is bordered to its west by Nassau County, to its east by Gardiners Bay and the open Atlantic Ocean, to its no ...

, United States, on the North Shore of

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 ...

. Begun in the

colonial era Colonial period (a period in a country's history where it was subject to management by a colonial power) may refer to: Continents *European colonization of the Americas * Colonisation of Africa * Western imperialism in Asia Countries * Col ...

as an agricultural enclave, the hamlet experienced growth first as a

resort town A resort town, resort city or resort destination is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding area. Sometimes ...

and then to its current state as one of Long Island's major tourist towns and centers of education. Despite being referred to as a

village 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 v ...

by residents and tourists alike, Stony Brook has never been legally incorporated by the state. The population was 13,740 at the 2010 census. The CDP is adjacent to the main campus of

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 ...

, the largest public university in New York by area, and also The Stony Brook School, a private college preparatory school. It is also home to the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages and the Stony Brook Village Center, a privately maintained commercial center planned in the style of a traditional

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

village.

History

Origins and early history

Stony Brook was first settled in the late 17th century. It was originally known by the native name Wopowog and then as Stony Brook, with both names likely referring to the interconnected bodies of water at the hamlet's western edge. It began as a satellite community of adjacent

Setauket, New York Setauket is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States census, the CDP population, which at the time included ...

, the Town of Brookhaven's first settlement, and its land was included in the initial 1655 purchase from the native Setalcott tribe. Three Village Inn

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

was built in 1699 on the water body now known as the

Mill Pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the co ...

. The current structure, which replaced the original in 1751, ground grain into the 1940s and has since been repurposed for public

tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. For religious services and education, the hamlet's original residents had to attend institutions in the neighboring communities of Setauket and St. James. In the latter half of the

18th century The 18th century lasted from 1 January 1701 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCI) to 31 December 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the Atlantic Revolutions. Revolutions began to ch ...

, activity began to shift from the mill area north toward the

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

as new residences, a number of which still stand, were constructed. Stony Brook was a remote area through the 18th century aside for a modest amount of commerce near the mill at the intersection of Main Street and Harbor Road. The community's development was stalled by its poorly accessible harbor relative to nearby Setauket and

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 ...

. In the 1840s, local painter William Sidney Mount led a call for the harbor's

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

. This was completed twice, but after the harbor filled in both times the effort was abandoned. Lacking the resources of its neighboring harbor settlements, Stony Brook based its economy on agriculture and the cordwood industry.

Growth

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 ...

reached Stony Brook in the 1870s, creating an easy link between New York City and the citizens of Stony Brook. Stony Brook quickly became a popular summer resort for city dwellers attempting to escape the hazards and stress of urban life. The establishment of the Stony Brook Assembly in 1909 also helped to draw more residents to the local area. A number of these newcomers constructed houses and

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

s, many of which were either originally made for year-round use or have since been converted to such. Stony Brook Post Office 2

Nevertheless, the majority of residences were local farmers and businessmen who depended on all necessities being in easy reach. Most businesses were then on the compact plot that would become the contemporary village green. Unlike today, the shops in this area were utilitarian and haphazardly arranged. The history of the unincorporated "village" is closely linked to that of Ward Melville, a local businessman who owned what would become the CVS Corporation. At one point owned much of what his family coined as the ''Three Village'' area (consisting of Stony Brook, the hamlet of Setauket, and the incorporated village of Old Field). Stony Brook Village shops

Beginning in 1939 with the creation of his Stony Brook Community Fund, Melville used his wealth to begin the transformation of part of the hamlet into his idea of an idyllic

village, the Stony Brook Village Center, with white clapboard buildings and quaint stores. The focus had been in the previous center of the village's commerce, which now consists of a village green and a crescent of stores embellished with stone walkways and seasonal gardening. To accomplish this, Melville moved many of the existing shops in the plot into the crescent and modified their details for consistency, a design model similar to that of

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, wh ...

. As a centerpiece to the crescent, Melville built the Stony Brook Post Office, decorated by a large eagle that flaps its wings to mark each hour.

Modern development

Melville donated the land and funds to New York for establishing a branch of the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...

in the area. This led what was then called the ''State University College on Long Island'', at the time in constrictive Oyster Bay quarters, to relocate and change its name to

. Melville also donated land and funds for the local school district. The Three Village Central School District today serves several communities in the vicinity and has named its flagship Ward Melville High School after the philanthropist. Tourist attractions include the Stony Brook Grist Mill and the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, a large complex of buildings originally known as the Stony Brook Carriage House and Suffolk Museum. Other Stony Brook attractions are the 19th-century

William Sidney Mount House The William Sidney Mount House is a historic house at 1556 Stony Brook Road in Stony Brook, New York. Built in 1725 and enlarged in 1810, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 as the lifelong home of artist William Sidney Moun ...

, the St. James Episcopal Chapel, and the West Meadow Beach Historic District.

Geography

Stony Brook is on the North Shore of

, approximately east of the New York City borough of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. The census-designated place occupies an irregular shape measuring roughly north to south and east to west. The historic core of Stony Brook was developed from the 17th century onward at the mouth of Stony Brook Harbor, a narrow inlet of the

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, ...

. This section of town includes the Stony Brook Village Center, a planned commercial center in the style of New England clapboard architecture that opened in 1941. Nearby are the Long Island Museum, the Three Village Inn, and

. A

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

in this vicinity known as the West Meadow includes a beach and wetlands reserve. Stony Brook University is within and adjacent to the census-designated place, with its main campus less than from Stony Brook's historic center. It is primarily on the eastern side of the census-designated place, with a pedestrian entrance on Route 25a at the Stony Brook station of the

and a vehicular entrance on Nicolls Road. The local stretch of Route 25A contains shops and other commercial properties that cater to the university's student body. The southern (inland) portion of Stony Brook primarily consists of post-war residential development. The Stony Brook University Research and Development Park (in Stony Brook and adjacent St. James) occupies a buffer between this section and the university's central campus. Forming Stony Brook's official southern boundary is Route 347, a corridor with commercial development including an AMC Loews cinema within the CDP boundaries and the Smith Haven Mall nearby.

Education

Stony Brook is well known as the home and namesake of The Stony Brook School, a prep school, and

. The university is in a separate

and has been since the 2010 U.S. Census, and up to the 2000 U.S. Census the

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

did not place the university in a census-designated place at all. The hamlet is primarily located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Three Village Central School District. However, a small section of the hamlet's southwestern extreme is located within the boundaries of (and is thus served by) the Middle Country Central School District. As such, children who reside within the hamlet and attend public schools go to school in one of these two districts, depending on where they reside within the hamlet.

Transportation

The Stony Brook station of the

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 ...

is located within and serves the hamlet. Commute time to Penn Station is approximately 1 hr 48 mins including a transfer in Huntington, Hicksville or

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 13,727 people, 4,758 households, and 3,787 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 4,970 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 88.6%

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 ...

, 14.4% from two or more races, 7.5% Asian, 4.4%

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 ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

of any race, 1.7%

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 ...

, 0.25% from other races, 0.1% Native American, and 0.01%

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 ...

There were 4,758 households, out of which 39.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 71.3% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.4% were non-families. 16.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.88 and the average family size was 3.23. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 26.9% under the age of 18, 5.8% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $90,009, and the median income for a family was $95,567. Males had a median income of $68,400 versus $41,770 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $35,247. About 1.9% of families and 2.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.9% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.

Local media

* SBU TV, Stony Brook University Television * '' Stony Brook Independent'', publication at Stony Brook University * '' Stony Brook Press'', a newspaper at Stony Brook University. * '' The Statesman'', the oldest newspaper at Stony Brook University * ''The Village Times Herald'', a newspaper in Setauket * WUSB (FM), Stony Brook University Radio at 90.1 FM

Notable people

Bud Abbott William Alexander "Bud" Abbott (October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974) was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known as the straight man in the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. Early life Abbott was born in Asbury Park, New Jer ...

(1897–1974), comedian "Abbott, now 39, lives in Stony Brook, Long Island" * Cody Arnoux, soccer player *

Awkwafina Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina (), is an American actress, comedian and rapper. She rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, ''Yellow Ra ...

, actress, rapper * Ella May Bennett, Universalist minister *

Harold Beverage Harold Henry "Bev" Beverage (October 14, 1893 – January 27, 1993) was an American inventor and researcher in electrical engineering. He is known for his invention and development of the wave antenna, which came to be known as the Beverage ante ...

, inventor * George Booth, ''

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

'' cartoonist * Lars Brownworth, teacher and historian * Nathan Bruckenthal, U.S. Coast Guardsman and posthumous Bronze Star recipient *

Sarah Drew Sarah Drew (born October 1, 1980) is an American actress and director. She played Hannah Rogers in The WB family drama series ''Everwood'' (2004–2006) and April Kepner, Dr. April Kepner in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC medical drama se ...

, actress *

Brooke Ellison Brooke Mackenzie Ellison (October 20, 1978 – February 4, 2024) was an American academic, disability advocate, and the first person with quadriplegia to graduate from Harvard University. Life and career Ellison was born in Rockville Centre, Ne ...

, first quadriplegic graduate from Harvard University * Michael J. Epstein, filmmaker and musician * Toni Frissell, fashion photographer * Frank E. Gaebelein, educator * Manon Gage, actress * Marci Geller, independent singer-songwriter *

Kevin James Kevin George Knipfing (born April 26, 1965), known professionally as Kevin James, is an American comedian and actor. He began his career by performing stand-up comedy at clubs on Long Island in the 1980s. He rose to prominence for his portrayal ...

, comedian, actor *

Karsh Kale Karsh Kale (pronounced ''Kursh Kah-lay'', ''कर्ष काळे'' in Marathi; born 1 November 1974) is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental tabla playing within electronic music contexts, Kale ...

, producer, composer, musician * Anthony Kay, pitcher for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Michael Kimmel Michael Scott Kimmel (born February 26, 1951) is an American retired sociologist specializing in gender studies. He was Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University in New York and is the founder and editor of the academic jou ...

, sociologist, scholar * Steven Matz, pitcher for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

* Evelina Mount, painter * R.A. the Rugged Man, hip-hop artist *

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film ''PT 109 (film), PT 109'', a ...

, actor * Jim Simons, mathematician and hedge-fund manager * Louis Simpson, Pulitzer Prize poet * Robert R. Sokal (1925–2012), biological anthropologist and biostatistician * Gary Valentine, comedian, actor * Koyo (band), musicians, band

References

External links

*
Stonybrook.com
community website
Ward Melville Heritage Organization

The Stony Brook School

Stony Brook University
{{authority control Brookhaven, New York Hamlets in New York (state) Long Island Sound Census-designated places in New York (state) Populated coastal places in New York (state)