Oyster Bay, New York

This article refers to the hamlet. For the town in Nassau County, New York, see Town of Oyster Bay, New York.

Oyster Bay is the name of a hamlet and census-designated place on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County in the state of New York, USA. The hamlet is also the site of a station on the Long Island Rail Road and the eastern termination point of that branch of the railroad.

The community is within the Town of Oyster Bay, a town which contains 18 villages and 18 hamlets.

The hamlet's area was considerably larger before several of its parts incorporated as villages. At least six of the 36 villages and hamlets of the Town of Oyster Bay have shores on Oyster Bay Harbor and its inlets, and many of these were previously considered part of the hamlet of Oyster Bay.

The Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District was created on July 1, 1960 by the action of the voters in the former Oyster Bay and East Norwich School Districts. The district's 13.1 square mile (34 km²) boundaries include the hamlets of Oyster Bay and East Norwich and the incorporated villages of Centre Island, Oyster Bay Cove, Cove Neck, and portions of Mill Neck, Muttontown, Laurel Hollow, and Upper Brookville.

History

The area was the traditional starting place for settlers from Connecticut, who were granted a patent from New Amsterdam and thus became the first to inhabit the county around 1641. The area became the boundary between Dutch settlements and the English settlements in Suffolk County.

In the 1890s, the LIRR had ferry service from Oyster Bay to Connecticut, where rail service continued to Boston.

The oysters that give the bay its name are now the only source of traditionally farmed oysters from Long Island, providing up to 90% of all the oysters harvested in New York State.

Geography

Oyster Bay is located at (40.867105, -73.532038).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has a total area of 4.2 km² (1.6 mi²). 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²) of it is land and 1.0 km² (0.4 mi²) of it (23.60%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,826 people, 2,815 households, and 1,731 families residing in the area. The population density was 2,142.7/km² (5,554.1/mi²). There were 2,898 housing units at an average density of 909.7/km² (2,358.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the community was 90.51% White, 3.16% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 1.76% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 2.17% from other races, and 2.09% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.25% of the population.

There were 2,815 households out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% were married couples living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.5% were non-families. 33.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the area the population was spread out with 20.7% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.3 males.

The median income for a household in the area was $57,993, and the median income for a family was $73,500. Males had a median income of $51,968 versus $41,926 for females. The per capita income for the area was $34,730. About 3.3% of families and 7.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.5% of those under age 18 and 12.1% of those age 65 or over.

Notable past residents

Oyster Bay is known for the residence and summer White House of Theodore Roosevelt, Sagamore Hill (though that residence is in a nearby area known since 1927 as the Village of Cove Neck).

Many well known United States entertainers spent their youth in this area; among its best known former residents are musician Billy Joel, tennis player John McEnroe, authors Thomas Pynchon and Tracy Kidder, and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo (Pynchon and Ranaldo both attended Oyster Bay High School). A less distinguished figure from the hamlet's past is Typhoid Mary, whose contagiousness was discovered following an investigation into her employment at a summer home in Oyster Bay in 1906. A famous current resident is composer John Barry.

Points of interest

Planting Fields Arboretum, a 400 acre (1.6 km²) arboretum and botanical garden including Coe Hall near Oyster Bay.
Sagamore Hill, the historic home of Theodore Roosevelt, who was the President of the United States.
Raynham Hall Museum, home of the Samuel Townsend family and a British headquarters during the American Revolution.
Matinecock Lodge Temple and Matinecock Historical Society Building on West Main Street. Theodore Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt Jr. were both members of Matinecock Lodge, No. 806. The original Lodge building burned down in October of 2003 and has since been re-built through the efforts of the members of the Lodge and the citizens of Oyster Bay and the surrounding community.
Beekman Beach

External links