Bayport

The Railroad's Arrival Woke Up a Hamlet

Beginnings: The land that is now Bayport, in the southeast corner of Islip Town, was part of Brookhaven Town between 1666 and 1697. That year, William Nicoll, the Islip Town founder, who had made his first land purchases from the Secatogue Indians four years earlier, added the future Bayport to his holdings. After the Revolution, William Nicoll IV, seeking money to pay debts, sold off what would be about two-thirds of southern Bayport to Jeremiah Terry and Gersham Hawkins. The Bayport Heritage Association recognizes Dec. 16, 1786, the date of the Terry deed, as the hamlet's founding date.

Name That Place: In 1834, Middle Road, south of and parallel to Montauk Highway, was built to connect the farms between Sayville and Blue Point. Bayport was first dubbed Middle Road, later Southport. Because there was another Southport upstate, the name was changed to Bayport when a post office was established in 1858.

Turning Points: The first school - one room - was built about 1819. Historian Charles P. Dickerson says a young British naval officer named Lt. Burrill, who jumped ship in Gardiners Bay, East Hampton, became the first teacher and stayed in town 30 years. The first store, on Middle Road, was opened by Warren Hawkins in 1860, when the federal census showed there were 79 families. Some of their houses remain along Middle Road.

The railroad arrived in 1869, swiftly altering the sleepy farming, fishing and wood-cutting hamlet. Handsome summer estates emerged near the bay and around the Sans Souci Lakes, at the head of Brown's River, which once were commercial cranberry beds. The fire department was organized Aug. 15, 1891. ``They bought a hook and ladder truck so heavy that there were not enough members to pull it to the fire,'' Dickerson once wrote. Meanwhile, there was trolley service along Middle Road between 1910 and 1919, and flower growing was a major business in the first half of this century.

Where to Find More: ``Bayport, Fading Views,'' by Donald H. Weinhardt, Bayport Heritage Association, 1986; ``A History of the Sayville Community,'' including Bayport, by Charles P. Dickerson, 1975; both at Bayport-Blue Point Public Library.