Colonial and precolonial history The original settlers of the
Town of Brookhaven, based in the neighboring hamlet of
Setauket, bought a tract of land from the Setalcott Indians in 1655. The deed included the area of contemporary Port Jefferson along with all other lands along the
North Shore from the
Nissequogue River eastward to Mount Misery Point. Port Jefferson's original name was
Sowaysset, a Native American term for either "place of small pines" or "where water opens. The first known home within the present village boundaries was erected in the early 1660s by
Captain John Scott, an important leader in Long Island's early history. This house, named Egerton, was a grand abode on the western end of Mount Sinai Harbor at Mount Misery Neck. The first settler in Port Jefferson's current downtown was an
Irish Protestant shoemaker from
Queens named John Roe, who built his still-standing home in 1682. It remained a small community of five homes through the 18th century, and was renamed to "Drowned Meadow" in 1682. Another legend is that: during the
Revolutionary War, naval commander
John Paul Jones had a ship fitted here. To protect local interests, a small fortress was set up on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor. In 1836 the local leadership initiated the community's transition from a "swampish hamlet" to a busy port town. The 22 acres of the harborfront, which flooded at high tide, were brought to a stable elevation with the construction of a
causeway. The village changed its name from "Drowned Meadow" to "Port Jefferson", in honor of
Thomas Jefferson. Numerous shipyards developed along Port Jefferson's harbor, and the village's
shipbuilding industry became the largest in
Suffolk County. Two
whaling vessels were built for New Bedford at Port Jefferson in 1877 (ship
Horatio and bark
Fleetwing), and a Port Jefferson-built schooner (
La Ninfa) was later converted into a whaling vessel at San Francisco. Port Jefferson's primary role as a port in the 19th century was to build and support vessels engaged in the coastal
freighting trades. Many of Port Jefferson's remaining homes from this period were owned by shipbuilders and captains. This includes the
Mather House Museum, a mid-19th century home once owned by the Mather shipbuilding family that now serves as the center of a museum complex and headquarters for the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson.
P. T. Barnum, the famous circus owner, owned a tract of land which ran through the village. His intention was to make Port Jefferson the home base for his circus, founded in 1871. The residents blocked his plans, and he eventually sold his land. Barnum Avenue now runs through the area that was once Barnum's. The section of town at the intersection of the two streets, then known as Hotel Square, became an active center of Port Jefferson's early tourism industry in the mid-19th century, with a variety of hotels and restaurants. This included the John Roe house, which was converted into the Townsend House hotel. The village's first post office was added to this intersection in 1855. With the 1923 sale of the Bayles Shipyard to the
Standard Oil Company and demolition of all but two of its structures, Port Jefferson's shipbuilding industry came to a close. This resulted in an economic downturn, and the closing of many of the grand hotels in Hotel Square, as tourism declined along with the industry. Port Jefferson Harbor then became a depot for the oil transportation and gravel industries, and, since the 1940s, the site of a
Long Island Lighting Company coal-fired power plant. The harbor also had activity as a
rum-running center during the
Prohibition era. Decades later, Port Jefferson's economy had recovered, with tourism as its base.
Village of Port Jefferson (1963–present) The village of Port Jefferson was incorporated in 1963. The revitalization of lower Port Jefferson soon followed as local tourism brought increased revenues and the village adjusted itself to its new economic role. One such transformation was the 1976 redevelopment of the defunct Mather & Jones Shipyard into a shop-lined promenade known as Chandler Square. A result of the transition is new public access to much of the waterfront, as several industrial lots had previously stood in the way. Danfords Hotel and Marina was one major waterfront project, which integrated several new and historical structures into a luxury hotel. Danfords includes a commercial marina and walkable pier, marking an aspect of the harbor's transformation from industrial to recreational use. Harborfront Park, a project completed in 2004, similarly transitioned the site of a shipyard turned Mobil Oil terminal into a public park with picnic grounds, a seasonal ice skating rink and a promenade. Concurrent to the park's construction was the rebuilding of a former shipyard warehouse into the Port Jefferson Village Center, a new public space for events and recreation. A number of historic buildings were included in the
Port Jefferson Village Historic District, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Separately listed are the
Bayles Shipyard and
First National Bank of Port Jefferson building. ==Geography==