Port Jefferson

The history of Port Jefferson, a village on Long Island's North Shore, is rich with the lore of ships and the sea. Once called Drowned Meadow because of flooding at high tide, the town was renamed Port Jefferson in 1836. Those same harbor waters, which overran their banks, would become the natural resource that made Port Jefferson's first industry—shipbuilding—possible. By the mid-19th century, the village had become one of the principal shipbuilding centers on Long Island and a major port ...