Smithtown, New York

Smithtown is a town in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island. The population was 117,801 at the 2010 census.

The census-designated place of Smithtown lies in the town.

History
The town was first settled around 1665. Local legend has it that after rescuing a Native American Chief's kidnapped daughter, Richard Smith was told that the Chief would grant title to all of the land Smith could encircle in one day - on a bull. Richard Smith chose to ride the bull on the longest day of the year (summer solstice) - to enable him to ride longer "in one day". The land he acquired in this way is said to approximate the current town's location. There is a large anatomically correct statue of Smith's bull, known as Whisper, at the fork of Jericho Turnpike (New York State Route 25) and St. Johnland Road (New York State Route 25A). Smithtown originally was known as "Smithfield."

The border between Smithtown and the Town of Huntington is partially defined by Bread and Cheese Hollow Road (Suffolk County Road 4), so named after Bread and Cheese hollow, which according to legend is where Smith stopped on his ride to have a lunch of bread and cheese. The road is reputed to follow part of his original ride.

Geography
The Town of Smithtown is located at 40° 52' 13" North, 73° 13' 3" West (40.862786, -73.215175).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 111.4 square miles (288.5 km²), of which, 53.6 square miles (138.8 km²) of it is land and 57.8 square miles (149.7 km²) of it (51.89%) is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 115,715 people, 38,487 households, and 31,482 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,159.9 people per square mile (833.9/km²). There were 39,357 housing units at an average density of 734.6 per square mile (283.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was:


 * 114,817 or 99.2% mono-racial
 * 110,546 or 95.5% White
 * 748 or 0.65% Black or African American,
 * 78 or 0.01% Native American
 * 2763 or 2.4% Asian
 * 22 or less than 0.01% Pacific Islander
 * 660 or 0.6% from other races
 * 898 or 0.08% from two or more races.
 * 3855 or 3.3% Hispanic or Latino

There were 38,487 households out of which 38.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 71.6% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.2% were non-families. 15.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.95 and the average family size was 3.28.

In the town the population was spread out with 26.0% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 94.6 males. For every 1000 females age 18 and over, there were 911.2 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the town was $100,165, and the median income for a family was $110,776. Males had a median income of $61,348 versus $38,208 for females. The per capita income for the town was $31,401. About 2.1% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.9% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

Ancestries: Italian (35.3%), Irish (26.0%), German (18.7%), Polish (6.9%), English (5.0%), Russian (4.1%).

Villages (incorporated)

 * Head of the Harbor
 * Nissequogue
 * Village of the Branch

Hamlets (unincorporated)

 * Commack (in part, with the Town of Huntington)
 * Fort Salonga (in part, with the Town of Huntington)
 * Hauppauge (in part, with the Town of Islip)
 * Kings Park
 * Lake Ronkonkoma (in part with the Town of Brookhaven and Town of Islip)
 * Nesconset
 * Smithtown
 * St. James

Other communities

 * North Smithtown
 * San Remo

State parks

 * Caleb Smith State Park Preserve, a state park southwest of Smithtown village
 * Sunken Meadow State Park
 * Nissequogue River State Park

Notable people

 * Marcus Barone - Motion Picture Music Supervisor and Composer
 * Craig Biggio - Former Major League Baseball player
 * Frank Catalanotto - Major League Baseball player
 * Dan Corbett - Weather broadcaster for the BBC
 * Bob Costas - American sportscaster
 * John Curtis - American baseball player
 * John Daly - Olympic athlete: skeleton
 * David DiVona - Musician and Television personality
 * Mick Foley - WWE Wrestler, NY Times Best Selling Author and Stand-up Comedian
 * Andrew Gross - Noted Author
 * John Hampson - Nine Days Lead Vocalist
 * Emily Hart - American Actress (younger sister of Melissa Joan Hart)
 * Melissa Joan Hart - American actress (elder sister of Emily Hart)
 * Christopher Higgins - National Hockey League player
 * Kevin James - Actor
 * Keith Law - Sportswriter and blogger
 * Andrew Levy - Publicist and Current Co-host of Fox News' Red Eye
 * Lori Loughlin - Actress
 * Marty Lyons - National Football League player
 * Jim Mecir - Major League Baseball player
 * Michael P. Murphy - Medal of Honor recipient
 * Soledad O'Brien - CNN News anchor
 * Rosie O'Donnell - stand-up comedienne, actress, singer, author and media personality
 * John Petrucci - Dream Theater guitarist
 * Jodi Picoult - Novelist
 * Stephen Rannazzisi - American actor
 * Jai Rodriguez - Queer Eye/Broadway actor
 * Kevin Thoms - American actor
 * Jeremy Wall - Founding pianist of the Jazz Fusion Band Spyro Gyra
 * William Weld - 68th Governor of Massachusetts (1991–1997)
 * Matt Yallof - SNY Sports Broadcaster

Media
Smithtown is the city of license for two radio stations, WFRS Family Radio and WWSK "94.3 the Shark", repeater W228BI for WNYC, and the TV station WFTY-TV. Smithtown broadcasts its board meetings on SGTV, the Town of Smithtown Public service television station; Cablevision channel 18 or Verizon channel 27. SGTV is also available on the web at http://www.smithtowngtv.org/ Smithtown has three local newspapers, Smithtown Messenger, The Times of Smithtown, and The Smithtown News, which carry community-based articles. Web sites such as SmithtownRadio.com serve as hyper-local news outlets for the community.

Infrastructure
Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services are provided by the seven Volunteer Fire Departments, and two Volunteer Ambulance Corps that cover parts of the Township. The Smithtown, Kings Park, Saint James, Nesconset, and Nissequogue Fire Departments provide both Fire Protection, as well as Emergency Medical Services to their districts. The Commack Fire Department and Commack Volunteer Ambulance Corps provide coverage for the Commack hamlet, which is divided between the Town of Smithtown, and the Town of Huntington. The Hauppauge Volunteer Fire Department and Central Islip-Hauppauge Volunteer Ambulance Corps provide coverage to the Hauppauge hamlet, which is divided between the Town of Smithtown, and the Town of Islip.

Smithtown is covered by the 4th Precinct of the Suffolk County Police Department as well as the Smithtown Department of Public Safety.

Emergency medical care can be found at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, located in Smithtown, as well as the nearby Stony Brook University Hospital, located in Stony Brook, in the neighboring Town of Brookhaven.

The Town of Smithtown is also home to the Kings Park, Smithtown, and Saint James Stations of the Long Island Rail Road's Port Jefferson Branch.

Schools
Smithtown Central School District is home of nine elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools, all on different campuses.

The Town of Smithtown is also home to the Kings Park Central School District, a portion of the Commack Union-Free School District (shared with the Town of Huntington), a portion of the Hauppauge School District (shared with the Town of Islip) and a portion of the Sachem Central School District (shared with the Town of Brookhaven).

Elementary schools

 * Accompsett Elementary School
 * Branch Brook Elementary School
 * Dogwood Elementary School
 * Mills Pond Elementary School
 * Mt. Pleasant Elementary School
 * Nesconset Elementary School
 * Smithtown Elementary School
 * St. James Elementary School
 * Tackan Elementary School

Middle schools

 * Accompsett Middle School (formerly Smithtown High School Freshman Campus 1992-2005)
 * Great Hollow Middle School
 * Nessaquake Middle school

Smithtown High School

 * Eastern Campus (formerly Smithtown Central High School, 1960s-1973; formerly Smithtown High School East, 1973–1992; formerly Smithtown Middle School, 1992–2005) - located in St. James
 * The High School's Eastern Campus is composed of graduates of Nesaquake Middle School and those graduates of Great Hollow Middle School that reside in the Tackan and Nesconset Elementary area.
 * Famous graduates
 * Jay Beckenstein
 * Soledad O'Brien
 * John Reiner
 * Jeremy Wall
 * Western Campus (formerly Smithtown High School West, 1973–1992; formerly Smithtown High School 10-12 Building, 1992–2005)- located in south of the Kings Park Hamlet and west of the Smithtown Bull
 * The High School's Western Campus is composed of graduates of Accompsett Middle School and those graduates of Great Hollow Middle School that reside in the Mt. Pleasant and Branch Brook Elementary area.

Private schools

 * Smithtown Christian School (pre-school to twelfth grade)
 * Saint Patrick School (parochial school grades preschool through eighth)
 * Holy Family Regional School (pre-school to eighth grade)
 * Saints Philip and James School (parochial school grades preschool through eighth)
 * The Knox School(boarding students 7th to PG, day students 6th to PG)

Former Smithtown schools (No longer used as K-12 Facilities)

 * New York Avenue Junior High School- (now the Joseph M. Barton/New York Avenue Building) Currently the central office and headquarters of Smithown Central School District
 * Smithtown Branch High School- Smithtown High School before the opening of Smithtown Central High School in the 1960s