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

History

A prior name recorded for the Babylon area was Sumpwams, which the Town of Babylon's official history describes as a Native American term meaning "straight walker," referring to an "upright or just person."^[8] English settlers had established farms on the South Shore since the late 1600s, and some historians place one of the area's first residential homes, built by the Heartte family, around 1760 on East Main Street.^[8] In 1803 Nathaniel Conklin moved his family from Dix Hills to the then-undeveloped southern part of the Town of Huntington; after his mother complained that their new home stood next to a tavern and proclaimed the area another "Babylon," Conklin inscribed "New Babylon" on a stone tablet in his home's chimney.^[1] The name caught on, and in 1830 the federal government changed the local post office's name from Huntington South to Babylon.^[1][8]

The South Side Railroad's first train reached Babylon Village on October 11, 1867, after which hotels including the Sherman House and the Watson House opened for visitors.^[7] The Argyle Hotel, built in the village in 1882 by Long Island Rail Road president Austin Corbin, was the birthplace in 1885 of the Cuban Giants, described by the Town as the first professional Black baseball team.^[7] In the fall of 1902 the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company opened a wireless station and training school on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon Village.^[7]

As Huntington South grew, a dispute over a Huntington Village road project whose costs were charged to the whole town, including the south, fed a movement for separation.^[2] Henry Livingston, founder of the South Side Signal newspaper (begun in Babylon Village in June 1869), made the first printed call for division in its February 12, 1870 edition, citing the south shore's rapid growth and the Village of Huntington's control of the Town.^[2] On January 27, 1872, voters chose a two-town split over rival plans by more than a two-to-one margin.^[2] Assemblyman John S. Marcy introduced the enabling bill in the State Legislature on February 17, 1872, and it was approved on March 13, 1872, creating the Town of Babylon.^[3] Democrat Elbert Carll defeated Republican John Robbins, 364 votes to 349, to become the Town's first Supervisor, and the new Town Board's first resolution appropriated $1,500 to support the poor.^[3] The Town's villages incorporated in succession — Babylon Village in 1893, Amityville in 1894, and Lindenhurst in 1923 — and Town government, which had met at hotels and members' homes, moved into a purpose-built Town Hall on West Main Street in Babylon on November 6, 1918; the present Town Hall at 200 East Sunrise Highway, North Lindenhurst, was dedicated October 18, 1958 and remains in use.^[4]

How the roads got here

The South Side Railroad's arrival in Babylon Village on October 11, 1867 fixed the settlement's commercial center around its depot; a second depot, built in 1881, stood until 1962, when it was demolished as the Long Island Rail Road elevated its tracks through the village.^[7]

New York State's official route description for NY 27, Sunrise Highway, carries it through Massapequa Park, North Babylon, Great River and North Patchogue as one continuous South Shore corridor.^[14] NY 27A, Montauk Highway, branches off Sunrise Highway to run through Babylon Village, Bay Shore, Islip and East Islip.^[15] NY 109 crosses Sunrise Highway in the hamlet of West Babylon.^[16]

Southern State Parkway and Sagtikos Parkway, the town's high-speed connectors, are maintained by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as state reference routes NY 908M and NY 908K, respectively, as is the Robert Moses Causeway (NY 908J), which runs south from the town through Captree Island to Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island's western tip.^[17] The state's official touring guide separately documents a Suffolk County road's bridge over the Southern State Parkway at Exit 34 in Babylon.^[18] The state park's own website describes its oldest developed section, Field 3, as established in 1908, and places the park "at the southern end of the Robert Moses Causeway."^[21][22] Passenger ferry service to Fire Island's car-free communities departs not from Captree but from the neighboring Town of Islip: Fire Island Ferries' terminal and its roughly 30-minute crossing to the National Seashore are in Bay Shore.^[23]

Law and legal history

Since July 1, 1980, when the Town Board adopted Local Law No. 2-1980, Chapter 158 of the Town Code has barred any civil suit against the Town over a defective highway, bridge, culvert or sidewalk — including snow and ice conditions — unless written notice of the specific defect was actually given to the Town Clerk (or, after 1995 amendments, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Works) and the Town then failed to repair it within a reasonable time.^[9][10] The Town Clerk must keep an indexed record of every such notice, and the DPW Commissioner must act on it within ten days.^[9]

The Appellate Division, Second Department applied that law in Prucha v. Town of Babylon, 138 A.D.3d 1083 (2d Dept. 2016): after a plaintiff tripped on a sidewalk raised by a curbside tree's roots, the court affirmed an order allowing her suit to proceed, holding that a Department of Public Works foreman's written inspection report of the defect, entered into the Town's records and used to generate a repair work order, satisfied the prior-written-notice requirement even though her original notice of claim had not alleged it.^[25]

In Infinite Green, Inc. v. Town of Babylon, 201 A.D.3d 892 (2d Dept. 2022), the Second Department reversed a trial court order that had declared the Town's rental-permit law, Town Code Chapter 153, unconstitutional. The court held that requiring a landlord to choose between a Town building inspector's inspection and a licensed engineer's compliance certificate before renting a unit did not compel a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and it awarded the Town summary judgment on that claim.^[24] The decision cited the Court of Appeals' 1981 ruling in Pashcow v. Town of Babylon, 53 N.Y.2d 687, that a municipality may not penalize a landlord for refusing a warrantless inspection as a condition of a rental permit — a rule the panel found the amended Babylon law satisfied by offering an inspection alternative.^[24]

Government, courts and policing

From the Town's creation in 1872 until 1966, four (later two) elected Justices of the Peace doubled as Town Board members while hearing local civil and minor criminal matters; the Justice Court was abolished January 1, 1966 and superseded by the state District Court system.^[5] Elected Highway Commissioners, and after 1909 a single Highway Superintendent, ran the Town's roads from 1872 until the office was eliminated in 1995 and its functions folded into the Department of Public Works.^[6] Suffolk County's Traffic and Parking Violations Agency, created by county legislation on April 1, 2013, adjudicates parking summonses, red-light-camera tickets and moving violations for the "five western towns" of Suffolk County, which include Babylon.^[13]

The Suffolk County Police Department's First Precinct, headquartered at 555 Route 109 in West Babylon, sits inside the town it patrols; the department's Third Precinct is headquartered at 1630 5th Avenue in Bay Shore, in the neighboring Town of Islip, not in Lindenhurst.^[11][12] Road ownership follows the pattern documented above: Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway are New York State highways, while the Southern State, Sagtikos and Robert Moses parkways are maintained by the state parks agency rather than the Department of Transportation.^[14][17]

Railroad and transit

The South Side Railroad, later absorbed into the Long Island Rail Road, reached Babylon Village on October 11, 1867; its 1881 depot stood until 1962, when it was razed as part of the branch's track elevation through the village.^[7] Robert Moses State Park, at the causeway's southern end on Fire Island, is also reachable by car with a bus connection from the Babylon train station, according to the park's own site.^[22]