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| Babylon Town History |
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The first designation of this area as anything but "HUNTINGTON SOUTH" was in 1803. Nathaniel Conklin took his family with him and moved out of the hills northward and built a house on the northeast corner of what is now the intersection of East Main Street and Deer Park Avenue. This is new text.
It was Nathaniel's mother who first termed her new home "BABYLON". Some say this was prompted by a reference to the quotation from the Psalms: "By the water of Babylon there sat we down; yea we wept, when we remembered Zion", for she was most unhappy when she compared this lonely place to the fine home in Dix Hills which they had left. There is a tradition in the Conklin family however, which assigns the naming of the town to another quality of that same biblical Babylon. They say that Mrs. Conklin, probably with the peace of the inland hills fixed in her mind, was not happy in a spot where her grandchildren would be brought up with a posting tavern as their neighbor, and compared their lonely lot to that of the Babylon captivity of the exiled Judeans.
Mr. Conklin was not as troubled at the prospect here as was his mother. It is reported that he replied to her wailing comment: "Oh, no Mother! It will be a New Babylon" and gave evidence of his faith in his new home by placing a stone tablet in the chimney front of the house inscribed:
NEW BABYLON THIS HOUSE BUILT BY NATE CONKLIN 1803
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 Did you know that there were once cowboys in Amityville?
In the early part of the nineteenth century, farmers living in Huntington found that the salt hay in the marsh lands around the Great South Bay provided good, free grazing for their cows. In the spring, the cattle would be driven south to what is now Amityville for the summer grazing. In the fall, the 'cowboys' would round up the cattle and drive it north again. And, did you know that Amityville was once notorious as a speedtrap?
In the late 1920's and early 1930's, Amityville's constables used to wait for unsuspecting speed demons -- often traveling as fast as fifteen miles an hour -- who traveled along the Merrick Road from New York City. The Amityville speed limit of ten miles an hour to trap the drivers who were unable to slow down before they were caught by village Police chief and a few assistants. The fines from these 'outsiders' helped to ease the tax burden on the Amityville property owners during the depression years before World War I.
Some very famous people summered in Amityville.
Annie Oakley and Will Rogers are among those who spent their summers in the shady streets of Amityville. Even the notorious gangster, Al Capone, enjoyed summers at Amityville (people said he behaved like a perfect gentleman while he was there!) |
The barrier beaches -- Fire Island, Oak Island, Cedar Island once served as the home base of the Life Saving Service. This service was important as a safety factor for the many ocean going vessels which passed along the shore on their way to the port of New York. The Life Saving Stations along the islands were disbanded after World War I, as more modern technology made them no longer necessary.
In 1896, they also served as quarantine station for European passengers who were afflicted with the dread disease, cholera. Fearing contagion, Babylon residents threatened to burn down the hotel in which the passengers had been sheltered, but calmer heads prevailed -- a good thing, since there were still people living in the hotel at the time! |
Once upon a time, mothers in Babylon used to threaten their daughters that, if they didn't behave, they would be sent to Farmingdale.
St. Rose's trade school was established in Farmingdale by Roman Catholic Sisters to help 'wayward' girls. The remains of their large, brick -- now- abandoned -- building can still be seen on Route 110, its roof long gone and its windows broken. But once, the home was the latest thing in helping troubled girls from the city to reform their lives, and Babylon mothers were known to make the most of it.
East Farmingdale was once the home of the Full Ton Truck Assembly Company. Long before airplanes were built at Republic, there was a truck manufacturing company on Route 110. The trucks, which were designed to carry a load weighing 2,000 pounds, gave the company its name. The name was eventually shortened to Fulton. The Huntington-to-Amityville trolley line served the workers who commuted to the factory in the early twentieth century.
In the middle of the twentieth century Farmingdale's industries expanded to provide fighter planes for WWII. The industries attracted workers and soon acres of suburban communities surrounded the aircraft factories.
The State College at Farmingdale once housed pigs, chickens and cows.
Back in the 1920's the Agricultural College at Farmingdale was the latest thing in modern technology in animal husbandry. Young people came from all over the State to learn how to run a state-of-the-art farm. As Long Island became more urban, the need for an agricultural college began to disappear. The old barns and coops will soon be gone, the last testimony to Babylon's agricultural heritage. |
North Babylon, on the fertile outwash plain, was once noted chiefly for its floriculture and its estates. Tulip and dahlia bulbs were among the 'crops' of the many nurseries which were established in the North Babylon/Deer Park area.
August Belmont, raised his racing horses at his estate which is now called Belmont Lake State Park. There is still a flat circular plot of ground just south of Southern State Parkway on the western side of Belmont Avenue where his trainers worked the horses when they were in New York for the racing season.
In the barnstorming days of early aviation, the training track area was used as a field on which to land small planes. During World War I the government used the area as a military flying field, known as Camp Damm.
Austin Corbin, who developed Coney Island in the 1870's before he became the manager of the Long Island Railroad, built his summer residence along the shores of Deer Lake.
Phelps Lane mansion once was a rod and reel club where city gentlemen came to hunt ducks and quail and to fish for the trout which were stocked in Phelps pond. |
 Did you know that Walt Whitman once taught school in West Babylon? The 'good grey poet' was not very happy as a teacher. He preferred "goofing off" to teaching his students. Indeed, charges were once brought against him and several of his students for rowdy behavior by a farmer whose land sat just about where the new King Kullen now stands on Merrick Road.
In the 1920's and 1930's, the communities of Babylon were every bit as well known as resort communities as the Hamptons are today. Many celebrities, after a Broadway stint or a filming, came "out on the Island" to relax and enjoy the summer. Among the many resort areas offered was the land around Beaver Lake. The Santapoque Creek was dammed up, just north of today's Sunrise Highway, to create three ponds: Low Beaver, High Beaver and the trout pond. Cottages were built along the shores and a roadhouse (a speak- easy during prohibition) was built on Route 109. The summer residents would gather at the roadhouse for their evening entertainment after a day spent bathing, boating, or fishing in the lake. Fred and Adele Astaire were among the celebrities who summered there.
Route 109 was used in one of Rudolph Valentino's movies. In the 1920's, Route 109 -- the old Farmingdale Road -- was a sandy, country road which, with a little imagination, could appear just like a desert. The moviemaker, Vitagraph, which had studios in Bay Shore, filmed a chase scene, using Farmingdale Road as its desert road.
In 1929, Bulk's nursery built a windmill in West Babylon to mark the site of their roadside stand which sold Dutch bulbs. For many years, West Babylon held a tulip festival in the Spring to celebrate the many flowers which were cultivated here. |
 Originally known as "Powell's," after one of its earliest landowners, Copiague was later given an Indian word which meant "sheltered place" as its official name.
The greatest growth in Copiague took place in the 1920's when a developer produced a small replica of the Italian city of Venice along the canals south of Montauk Highway. On summer weekends you could ride a gondola on the canal or listen to a band playing on the bandstand at the head of the canal. This, plus the fact that upper Copiague was called "Marconiville" to honor the Italian who invented the wireless radio, attracted a great number of Italians to settle in Copiague in the 1920's and 1930's.
In 1965, the Bethel AME congregation, which had been established in Amityville in the early part of the nineteenth century, built its new Church on Simmons Street in Copiague. The Congregation is the oldest church -- the oldest institution of any kind -- operated by African Americans on Long Island. Their first church, which stood at the corner of Albany and Jefferson Avenues in North Amityville, burned to the ground in February of 1989. |
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 The Village of Babylon was once just a crossroads with a tavern and a general store. As people from the North and West began to settle here, the community grew. After the Civil War, when the railroad came to Babylon, it brought with it a host of summer travelers looking for fresh air, sun, and water, along with a bit of recreation and entertainment. At first, the travelers used the mainline, taking the train as far as Deer Park and then riding in a Stage Coach to Babylon. Those who didn't find their fun on the mainland could ferry across to their barrier beaches.
When the Railroad came to Babylon Village, Hotels blossomed: The Argyle, the American, the National and the Watson House on the Mainland, and the Surf Hotel on Fire Island were among the many hotels. The railroad and the hotels advertised to weary city dwellers to come to Babylon and refresh themselves.
Many creeks and waterways from the Glacial moraines of Half Hollow Hills wandered southward through the town, toward the Great South Bay.
Enterprising manufacturers along the way would dam up the creek to power their watermills. The Babylon whip mill, which stood just about where Route 231 meets Montauk Highway today, began as a grist mill, grinding the wheat which was grown in town. Finally, buggy whips were manufactured there.
As the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, the market for buggy whips disappeared; it wasn't long before the mill had disappeared with it.
Revised by S. Aldrich
We are presently composing histories and gathering photos for Deer Park, East Farmingdale, Lindenhurst, and Wyandanch. If you have any information or old photos you would like to share with us please call us at (631) 957-7487 or (631) 957-4403.
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