Editing Stony Brook, New York (section)

===Growth===
The [[Long Island Rail Road]] reached Stony Brook in the 1870s, creating an easy link between New York City and the citizens of Stony Brook. Stony Brook quickly became a popular summer resort for city dwellers attempting to escape the hazards and stress of urban life. The establishment of the [[Stony Brook Assembly]] in 1909 also helped to draw more residents to the local area. A number of these newcomers constructed houses and [[cottage]]s, many of which were either originally made for year-round use or have since been converted to such.

[[File:Stony Brook Post Office 2.jpg|thumb|left|The local post office, centerpiece of the [[Stony Brook Village Center]]]]Nevertheless, the majority of residences were local farmers and businessmen who depended on all necessities being in easy reach. Most businesses were then on the compact plot that would become the contemporary village green.  Unlike today, the shops in this area were utilitarian and haphazardly arranged.

The history of the unincorporated "village" is closely linked to that of [[Ward Melville]], a local businessman who owned what would become the [[CVS Corporation]]. At one point owned much of what his family coined as the ''Three Village'' area (consisting of Stony Brook, the hamlet of [[Setauket-East Setauket, New York|Setauket]], and the [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] village of [[Old Field, New York|Old Field]]).

[[File:Stony Brook Village shops.jpg|right|thumb|Shops in the [[Stony Brook Village Center]]]]Beginning in 1939 with the creation of his Stony Brook Community Fund, Melville used his wealth to begin the transformation of part of the hamlet into his idea of an idyllic [[New England]] village, the [[Stony Brook Village Center]], with white [[Clapboard (architecture)|clapboard]] buildings and quaint stores. The focus had been in the previous center of the village's commerce, which now consists of a village green and a crescent of stores embellished with stone walkways and seasonal gardening.  To accomplish this, Melville moved many of the existing shops in the plot into the crescent and modified their details for consistency, a design model similar to that of [[Colonial Williamsburg]].  As a centerpiece to the crescent, Melville built the [[Stony Brook Post Office]], decorated by a large eagle that flaps its wings to mark each hour.