Most of Baiting Hollow was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1904 on and old-book passages.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Baiting Hollow yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Baiting Hollow is a census-designated place (CDP) roughly corresponding to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of Riverhead in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, Baiting Hollow had a population of 2,763.
Its first post office opened in 1838. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,642 to 2,763 (+68%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Baiting Hollow in 1882
Passages that mention Baiting Hollow, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Baiting Hollow. Striking eastward from Wading River we find Baiting Hollow, a settlement of sixty or more farm houses scattered along the north Country road through a distance of three or four miles. Farming and furnishing firewood have been the chief employment of the people.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Baiting Hollow. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1904Moriches sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Baiting Hollow.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
