| Patchogue, New York |
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The village is named after the Patchogue Indians, who once inhabited the area. The Village of Patchogue is within the Town Of Brookhaven , on the South Shore of Long Island on the Great South Bay . The Patchogue area is not neatly divided into North, East, etc. For additional demographic and geographic information on the area also see North Patchogue and East Patchogue . OVERVIEW Patchogue is just 50 miles east of Manhattan. It was incorporated in 1893. A riverfront and a natural harbor are spectacular natural resources that the town has used for the past 100 years to become a modern and largely self-contained community. Patchogue has all the ingredients for a desirable residential area where children can study and grow in health and peace. The current mayor of Patchogue is Paul Pontieri, who was a vice-principal in the neighboring South Country School District's Bellport High School for many years and currently serves as a vice-principal in Ward Mellville High School in Three Village School District. Patchogue and the adjacent hamlet of Medford share a school district and library. There are Primary, Middle and High Schools, plus continuing education programs for adults and a healthy emphasis on sports. The School District combines with the St. Joseph's and the Briarcliff Colleges to give the impressive commitment to education that makes a town attractive to families interested in providing the best for their children. The Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts reinforces the village's image as a place of discerning taste and values. At one time a movie theatre, the Theatre has been fully renovated and seats more than a thousand. The lobby can hold receptions and has a full service bar. This splendid institution is possible solely due to the concerted efforts of local people to conserve and promote the Performing Arts. Patchogue has churches of all denominations. The Patchogue Chamber of Commerce with more than 400 members, Kiwanis, Rotarians and Lions join the religious institutions to provide support and voice to residents and business people in the town. The Patchogue Ambulance Company, which provides the very best standards of emergency medical care, is an astonishing all-volunteer effort. The Lighthouse Mission feeds more than a thousand poor people each week, and provides spiritual support and school supplies. The Brickhouse Brewery and Restaurant is a celebration of history. 150 years of catering and hospitality permeate great food, quenching beer and entertainment that lift your spirits. HISTORY Patchogue was nicknamed Milltown because of the many mills -- gristmills, sawmills, paper, wool, cotton mills -- that operated on Patchogue waterways from as early as 1750. The village's permanent name may have derived from Pochaug or Paushag, which were the early settlers' interpretation of the name of Indians who lived in the vicinity. Area residents once set their clocks by the noon whistle from the giant red-brick Patchogue-Plymouth Lace Mill, which closed in 1954 and was demolished in the mid 1990's. Most of the mills succumbed in the 1940s and '50s, as a result of foreign competition and the industry movement to the South and overseas for cheaper labor. According to Marjorie Roe, president of the Greater Patchogue Historical Society, the Lace Mill was once known as "the Patchogue College because so many Patchogue kids went there when they finished high school." Charles E. Merrill , a co-founder of brokerage firm Merrill Lynch & Co., worked at the mill from 1907-1909. Workers also came by stagecoach from Sayville and other South Shore communities. The mill employed as many as 1,200 during World War II , when it manufactured camouflage netting and other war products. Paradoxically, the Lace Mill's biggest problem may have been that its products were too good for this modern, disposable world. "They lasted forever and never had to be replaced - I still use a lace tablecloth my mother bought in the '30s," says Roe, a sixth-generation descendant of Capt. Austin Roe, a chief spy for General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War . Justus Roe, Capt. Roe's son, built Patchogue's first hotel in 1808, and the family continued building ever-larger hotels throughout the 19th Century . Patchogue was then a bustling seaport with fishing, oyster and boat-building industries as well as mills on the Patchogue River and Great South Bay . Patchogue's recorded history dates from 1664, when John Winthrop, The Younger , Governor of Connecticut , purchased "nine necks of land" extending from Great South Bay to the middle of the Island. He sold some to Humphrey Avery of Boston, who, in need of cash, disposed of them by lottery. In 1759, Leoffer d'Leofferda won the "lot" that ultimately became Patchogue. Settlers and shipping entrepreneurs soon flocked to the area, attracted by waterpower. Schooners set out from Patchogue to do commerce up and down the East Coast and even to the Mediterranean . In 1890, the Army Corps Of Engineers dredged the Patchogue River, making it the only deep-water port on Long Island's South Shore. Until 1922, Patchogue was a U.S. port of entry with a customs house on South Ocean Avenue. The port also attracted Bootleggers during Prohibition in the 1920's. New York City gangster Dutch Schultz set up a headquarters in Patchogue, giving lucrative employment to farm boys, who helped unload and hide the kegs of illegal liquor. The Long Island Rail Road came to Patchogue in 1869. For awhile the South Shore line ended at Patchogue. It brought thousands of summer visitors from New York City, seeking the cool southwest breezes. The village, which incorporated in 1893, became a summer colony, with hotels accommodating as many as 1,600 guests. It was also the starting point for great bicycle races. The last of the Roe family's hotels, the elegant Eagle Hotel, burned down in 1934. Tourism gradually declined after 1920 as the affordable motor car took tourists to farther destinations, notes village co-historian Hans Henke in a pictorial history of Patchogue in its boom years from 1840 to 1915. The legendary Catholic high school, Seton Hall, operated by the Sisters of Mercy (Halifax, Nova Scotia) operated on the property now occupied by St Joseph's College on Roe Blvd. The school closed its doors in 1974. COMMUNITY REINVIGORATION PLANS As of 2005, Village co-historian Anne Swezey and the Greater Patchogue Historical Society hope to bring back the tourist industry, if not the mills. They have restored the 1858 one-room schoolhouse, and the village hopes to reopen the elegant Patchogue movie house of the '20s as a community theater. The village plans to demolish the lace mill and replace it with a combination retail and housing development, according to Mayor Stephen E. Keegan. Plans are also in the works to bring new life to the Patchogue River. The village, working with the Fire Island National Seashore , which has headquarters and a ferry terminal on the river, wants to develop a year-round commercial recreation area and visitors center. The historical society is also creating a showplace for an 1890 catboat by Patchogue's best-known boat builder, Gil Smith. The river is where Patchogue began, Swezey says, and where it will come back. GEOGRAPHY Patchogue is located at 40°45'48" North, 73°1'4" West (40.763370, -73.017868). According to the United States Census Bureau , the village has a total area of 6.5 Km&2 (2.5 Mi&2 ). 5.8 km&2 (2.2 mi&2) of it is land and 0.7 km&2 (0.3 mi&2) of it is water. The total area is 10.71% water. DEMOGRAPHICS As of the Census of 2000, there were 11,919 people, 4,636 households, and 2,749 families residing in the village. The Population Density was 2,045.3/km&2 (5,301.2/mi&2). There were 4,902 housing units at an average density of 841.2/km&2 (2,180.2/mi&2). The racial makeup of the village was 81.27% White , 3.89% African American , 0.34% Native American , 1.39% Asian , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 9.23% from Other Races , and 3.85% from two or more races. 23.84% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 4,636 households out of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.3% were Married Couples living together, 13.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.7% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.20. In the village the population was spread out with 22.5% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 37.1% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.7 males. The median income for a household in the village was $47,027, and the median income for a family was $60,126. Males had a median income of $38,561 versus $30,599 for females. The Per Capita Income for the village was $22,962. 10.7% of the population and 8.1% of families were below the Poverty Line . 13.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. MISCELLANEOUS Sadly, the best-known person from Patchogue is Army Captain Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald , who was convicted of murdering his wife and two children in a case that is still hotly debated. REFERENCES
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