Holbrook, NY real estate market

Holbrook takes its name from a stream, called in old accounts either Old Brook or Hollow Brook. The land was once part of the 51,000 acre Islip Grange estate, picked up in 1697 by William Nicoll. It stayed rural until 1848, when Alexander McCotter bought 5,000 acres here and platted the community, four years after the Long Island Rail Road had reached the area in 1844. St. John's Lutheran Church, built in 1863, still stands and is the oldest building left from that period.

Growth came in fits and starts, then all at once. Holbrook counted just 321 people in 1931. It held around 2,500 residents by 1965, then jumped to 15,000 by 1975, once the Long Island Expressway reached the community in 1969. Long Island MacArthur Airport grew up along the hamlet's western edge during that same stretch, and the two events together shaped most of the housing you see now. The old Holbrook train station closed in 1962, so the rail line that helped build the place no longer stops here.

Holbrook is split between two townships, which matters more than it sounds. Most of the hamlet sits in the Town of Islip, but the section between Portion Road and the LIRR tracks falls under the Town of Brookhaven. Main roads worth knowing include Route 27 along the southern border, Portion Road on the north, Nicolls Road on part of the east, and Exit 61 off the LIE for expressway access. If you are buying here, check which side of Portion Road a property sits on before you assume which town hall and tax rate applies to it.