Copiague, NY — Crash Data, Roads, History & Law

History

Copiague is an unincorporated hamlet of the Town of Babylon, bounded generally by the Village of Amityville on the west, the Village of Lindenhurst on the east, and the Great South Bay on the south; its undefined northern edge toward North Amityville runs near or up to a third of a mile north of Sunrise Highway.^[17] The Town of Babylon's own historical account derives the name from a Native American term meaning "sheltered place," and a companion Town page gives "sheltered harbor" or "sheltered place," tying the name to Copiague Neck, a peninsula recorded in Town of Huntington land records under the spellings Copiag, Copyag and Copiague.^[1][6] Before the modern name took hold, the area was also known as Powell's, Great Neck and East Amityville.^[2] Town sources differ on when the change occurred: one page states the name Copiague was chosen "around 1900," while another dates the choice specifically to 1901, when the Long Island Rail Road selected it for a new station depot; the Copiague Post Office was established in 1903 and assigned ZIP code 11726 when the US Postal Service introduced five-digit ZIP codes in 1963.^[2][7]

On April 21, 1790, George Washington visited the area, then known as Huntington South, during his tour of Long Island and dined at the home of Zebulon Ketcham, writing in his diary that it was "a very neat and decent one."^[3] In 1906, real-estate developer Giovanni "John" Campagnoli designated the section of Copiague north of the railroad tracks Marconiville, naming it for his schoolmate, wireless-telegraph inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who made two known visits to the neighborhood, in 1917 and 1927.^[4][5] Concrete letters reading "Marconiville" stood on the north side of the tracks into the early 1940s, and Marconiville residents twice petitioned railroad and postal officials to rename the station and post office Marconiville; the petitions were defeated.^[7] A 1925 fire destroyed the Marconi Hotel in Marconiville, one of the fires that later led residents to organize a dedicated fire district.^[9]

The 1920s brought a wave of bay-front development to Copiague, including the American Venice, Amity Harbor and Hawkins Estate communities.^[4] American Venice, created in 1926 by developers Victor Pisani and Isaac Meister, was designed to emulate Venice, Italy, complete with gondola rides and bridges linking its streets; the Town calls the area the American Venice Historic District in its own project materials, though no National Register or other formal historic-district listing was verified.^[14] The bridges were damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and, after reconstruction funded through the state's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program, were rededicated on September 24, 2021.^[14]

The Town of Babylon's own historical society, the Babylon Town Historical Society, was established in 2006 and represents the Town's hamlets, including Copiague, from its headquarters at the 1929 Van Bourgondien House.^[10] The Town separately operates the Town of Babylon History Museum and Office of Historic Services out of the Old Town Hall, built in 1918 as the Town's first town hall and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005; that museum is in the Village of Babylon rather than Copiague itself.^[10]

How the roads got here

The railroad line through Copiague was built in 1867 and the Long Island Rail Road assumed the line in 1876; the LIRR named the local depot Copiague in 1901, per a historical marker the Town of Babylon dedicated on the east side of Great Neck Road in 2018.^[11] In 1909 the South Shore Traction Co. established an electrified trolley line running about six miles between Amityville and Babylon, passing through Copiague along Oak Street and Great Neck Road before continuing west toward Lindenhurst; the Town marked the route's centennial with a historical marker dedicated June 11, 2010.^[12]

Sunrise Highway, the state highway that runs through the hamlet, is New York State Route 27, described by the state as running "on Sunrise Highway" from the New York City-Nassau County line east through Nassau and Suffolk Counties.^[24] Merrick Road, which becomes Montauk Highway toward Babylon Village, carries New York State Route 27A, which the state describes as running "on Carman Mill Road, Merrick Road and Montauk Highway to Babylon, Bay Shore, Islip."^[25] The Town of Babylon's own Roadways Guide lists both Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway among the New York State roads in the Town, and lists Great Neck Road among the Suffolk County roads, to be reported to the Suffolk County Department of Public Works rather than the Town.^[16] Marconi Boulevard, the residential street serving the former Marconiville section, does not appear on the Town's list of state or county roads, and under the Town's own classification rule, any road inside Town boundaries that is not a state or county road is a Town road maintained by the Department of Public Works.^[16]

In 1957 the 285-acre Johnny's All-Weather Drive-In, which the Town calls one of the nation's largest, opened along the south side of Sunrise Highway; the site is now the Home Depot and Target shopping center, marked with a historical sign dedicated in 2016 as part of the Town's "Booming 1950s" marker project.^[13]

Government, courts and policing

Copiague has no government of its own; it is an unincorporated hamlet under the jurisdiction of the Town of Babylon, which was set off from the Town of Huntington after the New York State Legislature approved the enabling bill on March 13, 1872.^[15] Road ownership in Copiague is split among three levels of government: Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and Merrick Road/Montauk Highway (NY 27A) are New York State roads, Great Neck Road is a Suffolk County road, and other streets such as Marconi Boulevard are Town of Babylon roads.^[16][24][25]

The Suffolk County Police Department's First Precinct, headquartered in West Babylon, "proudly covers the Town of Babylon," including Copiague.^[19][18] Traffic tickets and parking summonses arising in Copiague go to the Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency, created by county legislation on April 1, 2013 to adjudicate parking summonses, red-light-camera citations and moving violations in the five western towns of Suffolk County, of which Babylon is one.^[20] More serious matters go to the Suffolk County District Court, which along with the courts of Nassau County is described by the New York State court system as arraigning felony defendants and handling misdemeanors, lesser offenses and civil suits up to $15,000 in "the five western towns of Suffolk County."^[21] The seat of Suffolk County's trial courts, including the office of the Tenth Judicial District's Administrative Judge, is at 400 Carleton Avenue, Central Islip.^[22]

The Town's prior-written-notice law is codified at Chapter 158 of the Town of Babylon Code, "Notification of Defects." Section 158-1 bars any civil action against the Town for injuries caused by a defective, unsafe or obstructed highway, bridge or culvert (including snow or ice conditions) "unless written notice of such defective, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed condition... was actually given to the Town Clerk of the Town" and the Town then failed to repair the condition within a reasonable time; § 158-2 imposes the same written-notice requirement for defective Town sidewalks.^[23]

Railroad and transit

The railroad line that runs through Copiague on the Long Island Rail Road's Babylon Branch was built in 1867, and the LIRR assumed operation of the line in 1876.^[11] The station and surrounding hamlet took the name Copiague in 1901, when the LIRR chose it for the new depot; Marconiville residents' later campaigns to rename the station after their own neighborhood were unsuccessful.^[7]