The story
Read it all →How Long Island came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Long Island.
The first post office was established at Long Island in May 1872. Long Island was laid out in 1873.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick answers
How Long Island began
When was Long Island founded?
1872
The Long Island post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 291 in 19102020 census: 137154 years
Founding year: the first Long Island post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Long Island’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Long Island’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Long Island’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.On the map
Long Island on the map, 1893 to 1985
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Long Island. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893Norton sheet · 1:125,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Long Island.
Timeline
Long Island, 1872 to 1917
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the National Register
1 historic place in Long Island
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2005
Long Island School
Buildings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Long Island, census by census
Between 134 and 291 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Long Island’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Long Island
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Questions about Long Island’s history
What year was Long Island founded?
The Long Island post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Long Island?
One place: the Long Island School (listed 2005).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.