Eastport town is built on Shinnecock land. The present hamlet dates to 1772, when two men built the dam that formed what has come to be called the West Pond, which created a dividing line between Brookaven and Southampton. They built two mills below the dam, a saw mill and a gristmill. By 1845, the area to the east of the West Pond had come to be known as Waterville. The land to the west was called Seatuck, after a nearby creek. When, in 1860, the United States Postal Department needed to define the town to deliver mail, it combined the two areas. The name Seatuck was dropped for being too similar to Setauket, New York and the combined area was named Eastport.
Passages that mention Eastport, cut from the printed page as they were published.
...History of Suffolk county, New York1882 · page 51Read the page →
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Worship was conducted by the Methodist Protestant denomination in connection with the church of that order at Eastport for many years. A society held meetings in the east school-house until 1869, when, a church edifice being given to the society here by the church at Moriches, the building was moved to a new site near the railroad station. Services were first held in it here" during the pastorate of Mr. Dibble, who was pastor also of
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.
Timeline
Eastport, 1873 to 1983
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1873
1873
c. 1888
