North Amityville Community Profile

Native Americans, who were clusters of the Montaukett Indian Nation, lived in the area that became North Amityville prior to the arrival of 17th century English and Dutch Colonists. Today, many streets bear the names of the Native families that have lived in North Amityville for generations - Brewster, Devine, Fowler, Hunter, Miller, Payne, Squires and Steele. Small family burying grounds, including the Brewster and Green-Bunn Burying Grounds along Bethpage Road, were the final resting place for many Native Americans and Civil War Veterans. Drawn by the abundance of salt hay, Huntington farmers began settlements in the greater Amityville area around 1653. In the 1800s, numerous German immigrants and Black families also established homesteads in the rural community.

The historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church formed in 1815 and built its first permanent structure on Albany Avenue, in 1844. Once the largest private airport in the country, Zahn's Airport was created in 1936, through the apple orchards of Joseph Zahn.

In the 20th Century, as families began to flock to the south shore, businesses, factories and housing developments followed. In contrast to the caucasian-only policies promulgated by housing developments such as Levittown, Ronek Park was a non-discriminatory development that attracted many new families to the North Amityville community beginning in the early 1950

Historical Summary:

Native Americans, who were clusters of the Montaukett Indian Nation, lived in the area that became North Amityville prior to the arrival of 17th century English and Dutch Colonists. Today, many streets bear the names of the Native families that have lived in North Amityville for generations - Brewster, Devine, Fowler, Hunter, Miller, Payne, Squires and Steele. Small family burying grounds, including the Brewster and Green-Bunn Burying Grounds along Bethpage Road, were the final resting place for many Native Americans and Civil War Veterans. In the 1800s, numerous German immigrants and Black families also established homesteads in the rural community.

Dedication of Brewster Cemetery and Bunn-Green Cemetery, Bethpage Road, as Town of Babylon historic landmarks, 1995.

Long Island’s oldest Black church, Bethel A.M.E. Church was formed in 1815, and built its first permanent structure on Albany Avenue, in 1844. The Bethel Church relocated to nearby Copiague in 1967. The Chapel and Motherhouse built by the Sisters of St. Dominic in 1867, has been both a convent and an orphanage. In 2007, these majestic buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bethel A.M.E. Church, corner of Albany Avenue and Jefferson Street. Unfortunately, while under renovation and vacant, the historic house of worship was destroyed by fire in 1989.

Postcard view of the Queen of the Rosary, Sisters of St. Dominic Chapel, circa 1915.

A school for students of color was established on Albany Avenue in the mid- 1800s. The segregated school was abandoned in 1895 when it was resolved that all children be educated at the new school on Park Avenue. The hamlet is split between two school districts, following district divisions that date back to the mid-1800s. The western half is in the Amityville School District and the eastern half in the Copiague School District.

After World War II, large tracts of farmland were converted for suburban development, including the Ronek Park community. Contrary to the ‘Caucasian-only’ policies endorsed by some post-war housing developments, Ronek Park promoted itself as a non-discriminatory community, attracting many new families throughout the 1950s.