Editing Northport, New York (section)

===Growth, change, and shipbuilding===
[[Image:Woodbine Avenue Northport.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Woodbine Avenue and Northport Harbor, circa 1900]]
In the early 19th century, Great Cow Harbor was still a rural farming community. By the 1830s, the village contained only eight dwellings.<ref name="Suffolk">{{cite book | last = Bayles | first = Richard Mather | title = Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Suffolk County and Its Towns, Villages, Hamlets, Scenery, Institutions, and Important Enterprises: With a Historical Outline of Long Island, from Its First Settlement by Europeans | year = 1874 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historicalandde00baylgoog/page/n166 162]–164 | url = https://archive.org/details/historicalandde00baylgoog | publisher = The Author }}</ref>  But a new industry of [[shipbuilding]] brought rapid change and growth. The village shifted away from its farming roots as shipbuilding became the community's primary industry. By 1837, the village was being referred to as Northport.<ref name="Newsday"/>

The 1860 [[census]] listed Northport's population at 1,016. By 1874, it had become the most flourishing village on Long Island's [[North Shore (Long Island)|North Shore]], with three ship yards, five sets of marine railways, two hotels, and at least six general stores.<ref name="Suffolk"/>

Northport's shipbuilding boom lasted fifty years, but waned at the end of the century as steel-hulled ships began replacing the wooden vessels produced in the village.<ref name="Newsday"/>