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History · Napeague

15% of Napeague’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1834 on.

0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Napeague’s archive · credits on each photo
The story so far

Napeague, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Napeague yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Napeague (, NAP-eeg) is a census-designated place (CDP) that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, Napeague had a population of 368. Napeague is located on a very narrow, low-lying strip between the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Gardiners Bay to the north that was flooded in the Great Hurricane of 1938. It lies between Napeague State Park on the west and Hither Hills State Park on the east. Napeague derives its name from the Montaukett name for "land overflowed by the sea".

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 200 to 368 (+84%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

Napeague, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1830s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1830s4 items
Hicks Island, Napeague Harbor -b1834Hicks Island, Napeague Harbor -bDocumentHicks Island, Napeague Harbor -c1834Hicks Island, Napeague Harbor -cDocumentHicks Island, Napeague Harbor, south east top of Long Island, NOAA 19371834Hicks Island, Napeague Harbor, south east top of Long…DocumentUntitled photo1834Untitled photoDocument
1900s2 items
FMIB 32580 Discharging Menhaden from Steamer by Means of Bucket Elevator1902FMIB 32580 Discharging Menhaden from Steamer by Means…Suffolk County, V. 1, Double Page Plate No. 8 (Map bounded by Part of Town of East Hampton, Oak Island Beach, Part of F…1902Suffolk County, V. 1, Double Page Plate No. 8 (Map bo…Map
1910s–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
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.

FMIB 32580 Discharging Menhaden from Steamer by Means of Bucket Elevator
Retake this viewFMIB 32580 Discharging Menhaden from Steamer by Means of Bucket Elevator, 1902

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

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Napeague’s story

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewFMIB 32580 Discharging Menhaden from St…: 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.

Amagansett4 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMontauk6 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Napeague’s history

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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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 Wikimedia Commons (6). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.