History of Oyster Bay
The history of this quaint town on an inlet off Long Island Sound can be traced to 1615, when a Dutch explorer, impressed by the area’s bountiful shellfish, named it Oyster Bay. The hamlet’s distance from Long Island’s more urbanized areas has helped preserve a small-town feel. Today, thousands of oyster lovers descend on the town every summer for its annual Oyster Bay Festival.
Oyster Bay is also the name of a hamlet on the north shore, within the town of Oyster Bay. Near this hamlet, in the village of Cove Neck, is Sagamore Hill, the former residence and summer White House of Theodore Roosevelt and now a museum. At least six of the 36 villages and hamlets of the town have shores on Oyster Bay Harbor, an inlet of Long Island Sound, and many of these at one time or another have also been referred to as being part of the hamlet of Oyster Bay.