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Early settlers in Brookhaven were fishermen, whalers and farmers. Unusually for Long Island, the town of Brookhaven is the only town that stretches right across the island and includes both the north and the south shore. It was founded in the mid seventeenth century and its original town seal features olive branches and whaling tools. Much of the work revolved around the town’s coastal location, whaling was the most lucrative means of business at the time. It was almost a decade after the town was founded in 1655 that Brookhaven (also known as Setauket) became officially a part of the Province of New York, prior to this time it was part of Connecticut.

In the nineteenth century it was shipbuilding that led the town through a period of growth. Two major villages that thrived at this time were Port Jefferson and Patchogue. When the railroads improved the infrastructure of the island, suddenly the dynamic changed and Brookhaven had a secondary income from tourism. Brookhaven tutors say that once the railways were established this lead to city folk venturing out from Manhattan in the summer season, looking for a coastal retreat. This demand led to many communities growing along both the North and South Shore due to the increase in popularity. It was a few more years until the North Shore villages of Belle Terre and Old Field became very highly sort after and highly fashionable for the “jet-set” to ‘summer’ at in elaborate and sprawling mansions.

The famous Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla had a research center in Brookhaven’s Shoreham. The site is currently under construction as the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. Tesla conducted extensive experiments and testing in the last few decades of the 19th century in order to explore his theories on alternating current. Brookhaven tutors recall that Tesla’s pursuit “to know more of this wonderful force” began when Tesla attended high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium in Karlovac, and was mesmerized by the demonstrations of electricity during Physics classes. Tesla avoided compulsory enrollment into the Austro-Hungarian Army by going off the grid into rural Croatia, to a village that today boasts a population of twenty-six in total. It is said that he spent this time fully recovering from cholera, and expanding his mind by reading many bodies of work. When he returned to civilization, he attended Austrian Polytechnic and was according to Brookhaven tutors, one of their best students, his record of attendance was flawless and he excelled at exams. His teachers were actually concerned that he devoted too much time to his studies, and urged his parents to help him ease off his self-imposed schedule and to instead engage in other recreational activities.