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B−History
History · Brookville

10% of Brookville’s homes were built before 1940

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns · #681 of 758 in New York. What drives it

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1940.

1on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Brookville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

About Brookville’s history

How historic is Brookville?

B−

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Brookville’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brookville is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns, #681 of 758 in New York. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brookville’s overall grade.
Founding eraNo founding year we can rely on, so the grade uses the other two–Homes built before 194010.4% of homes (±7.2) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%B−National Register1 listing, 2 historic buildings, 6.8 per 10,000 residents · typical NY town 12.3 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 48%
NewerOlder
New York towns of 2,500+ (758)Ahead of 10%

New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Brookville’s 6.8 sits near the middle of its state (40% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.2 points).

Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Brookville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

On the map since 18976 editions of the USGS map, 1897 to 1979. Watch Brookville change.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1834–1928.
★ What stands out · On the map

Brookville on the map, 1897 to 1979

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brookville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Brookville on the 1897 USGS mapBrookville on the 1900 USGS mapBrookville on the 1947 USGS mapBrookville on the 1954 USGS mapBrookville on the 1967 USGS mapBrookville on the 1979 USGS map1897Oyster Bay 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 Brookville.

By decade

Brookville, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1830s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1830s1 item
Untitled photo1834Untitled photoDocument
1910s–1920s11 items
Attendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doomed in the Brooklyn Eagle of Brooklyn, New York on May 14, 19111911Attendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doomed in the Bro…Geraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence1928Geraldyn L. Redmond, residenceElisha Dyer, residence1928Elisha Dyer, residenceElisha Dyer, residence1928Elisha Dyer, residenceElisha Dyer, residence1928Elisha Dyer, residenceElisha Dyer, residence1928Elisha Dyer, residence
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story

How Brookville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Brookville.

Read it all →

The territory that today comprises the Village of Brookville was formed in two stages. When the village was incorporated in 1931, it consisted of a long, narrow tract of land that was centered along Cedar Swamp Road (NY 107). In the 1950s, the northern portion of the unincorporated area then known as Wheatley Hills was annexed and incorporated into the village, approximately doubling the village's area to its present 2,650 acres (1,070 ha).

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Brookville, 1834 to 1991

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1834In the archiveUntitled photo
  3. 1897On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 20th century
  5. 1911In the archiveAttendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doomed in the Brooklyn Eagle of Brooklyn, New York on…
  6. 1928In the archiveGeraldyn L. Redmond, residence
  7. 1991Born hereShamar Stephen is born here
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Attendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doomed in the Brooklyn Eagle of Brooklyn, New York on May 14, 1911
Retake this viewAttendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doomed in the Brooklyn Eagle of Brooklyn, New York on May 14, 1911, 1911

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Brookville’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Brookville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Brookville, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,00019401960198020002020Peak: 3,716

Between 204 and 3,716 people in every census since 1940.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brookville’s Wikipedia page.

Help out

Finish Brookville’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewAttendance Falls Off, Old Church Is Doo…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Old Westbury2 historic placesBMuttontown1 historic placeB−Upper Brookville1 historic placeA−Jericho1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townOld BrookvilleIts storyCEast Hills3 historic placesC

Questions about Brookville’s history

How does Brookville rank for history?

Brookville is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns, #681 of 758 in New York. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Brookville?

10% of Brookville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1967.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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).

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (10), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.