Editing Port Jefferson, New York (section)

===Development as a shipbuilding village===
In 1797, when the entire town had five houses, its first shipyard was built. By 1825, several shipbuilding firms were located there, which attracted new residents and commerce.<ref name="Pelletreau" />

During the [[War of 1812]], British interference on Long Island Sound upset local shipping routes. On one occasion, two British warships, the frigate [[HMS Pomone (1811)|HMS ''Pomone'']] and brig HMS ''Despatch'' sent their boats into the harbor under cover of darkness, capturing seven [[sloop]]s.<ref>Port Jefferson Historical Society Newsletter, October 2000 to January 2001, confirmed using the ship's logs in the British National Archives.</ref> To protect local interests, a small fortress was set up on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor.<ref name="Bayles">{{cite book| title=Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Suffolk County and its Towns| url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldescri00bayl_0| author=Bayles, Richard Mather| pages=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldescri00bayl_0/page/n445 223]–281|year=1874}}</ref>

In 1836 the local leadership initiated the community's transition from a "swampish hamlet" to a busy port town. The 22 acres of the harborfront, which flooded at high tide, were brought to a stable elevation with the construction of a [[causeway]]. The village changed its name from "Drowned Meadow" to "Port Jefferson", in honor of [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref name="newsdayportjeff">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist0084,0,3771667.story|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041124175335/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist0084,0,3771667.story|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 24, 2004|work=[[Newsday]]|title=Port Jefferson: Ships Were King in 'Drowned Meadow'|access-date=July 14, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=1463|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030716150939/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=1463|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 16, 2003|title=Profile for Port Jefferson, New York, NY|publisher=ePodunk|access-date=October 4, 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Mather Shipyard Crew, 1884.jpg|thumb|left|Mather Shipyard in 1884]]

Numerous shipyards developed along Port Jefferson's harbor, and the village's [[shipbuilding]] industry became the largest in [[Suffolk County, New York|Suffolk County]]. Two [[whaling]] vessels were built for New Bedford at Port Jefferson in 1877 (ship ''Horatio'' and bark ''Fleetwing''), and a Port Jefferson-built schooner (''La Ninfa'') was later converted into a whaling vessel at San Francisco.<ref>Starbuck, Alexander, History of the American Whale Fishery, Originally Part 4 of the Report of the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries, Washington, DC, 1878, Reprinted by Castle Books, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1989</ref><ref>Hegarty, Reginald B., Returns of Whaling Vessels Sailing From American Ports, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, 1959</ref> Port Jefferson's primary role as a port in the 19th century was to build and support vessels engaged in the coastal [[ship transport|freighting]] trades. Many of Port Jefferson's remaining homes from this period were owned by shipbuilders and captains. This includes the [[Mather House Museum]], a mid-19th century home once owned by the Mather shipbuilding family that now serves as the center of a museum complex and headquarters for the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson.
[[File:Historical postcard of Hotel Square in Port Jefferson.jpg|thumb|Postcard of Hotel Square, corner of Main and East Main, with labels displaying the Townsend House hotel and the village's first post office in the late 19th century]]
[[P. T. Barnum]], the famous circus owner, owned a tract of land which ran through the village. His intention was to make Port Jefferson the home base for his circus, founded in 1871. The residents blocked his plans, and he eventually sold his land. Barnum Avenue now runs through the area that was once Barnum's.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.88844ferry.com/about-us/history/ |title=History |work=The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company |access-date=April 18, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.88844ferry.com/about-us/a-look-at-the-fleet/ |title=A Look at the Fleet |work=The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company |access-date=April 18, 2021 }}</ref>

The section of town at the intersection of the two streets, then known as Hotel Square, became an active center of Port Jefferson's early tourism industry in the mid-19th century, with a variety of hotels and restaurants. This included the John Roe house, which was converted into the Townsend House hotel. The village's first post office was added to this intersection in 1855.<ref name="images of America">{{cite book |title=Images of America:Port Jefferson |first=Robert |last=Maggio |year=2013 |pages=65–70 |isbn=978-0738598178 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing}}</ref>

With the 1923 sale of the Bayles Shipyard to the [[Standard Oil]] Company and demolition of all but two of its structures, Port Jefferson's shipbuilding industry came to a close. This resulted in an economic downturn, and the closing of many of the grand hotels in Hotel Square, as tourism declined along with the industry. Port Jefferson Harbor then became a depot for the oil transportation and gravel industries, and, since the 1940s, the site of a [[Long Island Lighting Company]] [[Port Jefferson Power Station|coal-fired power plant]]. The harbor also had activity as a [[rum-running]] center during the [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition era]]. Decades later, Port Jefferson's economy had recovered, with tourism as its base.