What is a Hamlet?

A hamlet is a community. The Town of Babylon is comprised of ten hamlets and three incorporated villages. The hamlets are: Copiague Deer Park East Farmingdale North Amityville North Babylon North Lindenhurst West Babylon Wheatley Heights Wyandanch And, the barrier beach communities of Captree Island, Gilgo Beach, Oak Beach, Oak Island and West Gilgo Beach.

Local governments in the state of New York include counties, cities, towns and villages. The communities within Town governments are known as “hamlets.”

The term “hamlet” does not have a legal definition under NYS law, but is used to identify communities within Towns (such as the Town of Babylon) that are not part of incorporated villages, sometimes referred to as “unincorporated communities.”

A hamlet does not have its own government and is under the jurisdiction of its Town for municipal services (e.g. garbage pick-up, building codes). Causing great confusion … hamlets have no official boundaries. (Outside of the state of New York, the term “hamlet” is rarely used.)

Generally, the hamlet of West Babylon is bounded on the west by the Village of Lindenhurst (Park Avenue on the north side of Montauk Highway and Neguntatogue Creek on the south side of Montauk Highway). On the east, West Babylon is bounded by the Village of Babylon (Beechwood Drive on the south side of the railroad and Little East Neck Road on the north side of the railroad). North of Sunrise Highway, the boundary between West Babylon and North Babylon has historically been Little East Neck Road, and the boundary between West Babylon and North Lindenhurst has historically been Route 109.

Of course, on the south, West Babylon is bounded by the Great South Bay. Three necks make up the waterfront of West Babylon – Santapogue Neck, Great East Neck, and part of Little East Neck – as described in the “Town of Babylon ‘Necks’” section.

Please note: Spellings and pronunciations of Long Island Native American words and names are subjective and typically determined by community residents. The Native Americans of Long Island had a spoken language, and records kept by Colonists, starting in in the 1600s, contained interpretations of the Native American language. The European settlers typically used phonetic spellings, which often differed among documents and writers. The meanings of Native American words can also differ among historians and researchers.

Reportedly, Santapogue means “a place of cool water” and Neguntatogue means “abandoned” or “forsaken land.”