Brentwood, New York

In 1844, the area was established as Thompson Station and Suffolk Station, two new stations on the expansion of the mainline of the Long Island Rail Road.[2]

On March 21, 1851, it became the utopian community named Modern Times. The colony was established on 750 acres (3.0 km²) of land by Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews. In 1864, it was renamed Brentwood after the town of Brentwood, Essex, in England.

By contract, all the land in the colony was bought and sold at cost, with 3 acres (12,000 m²) being the maximum allowable lot size. The community was said to be based on the idea of individual sovereignty and individual responsibility. Individuals were encouraged to pursue their self-interest as they saw fit. All products of labor were considered private property. The community had a local private currency based upon labor exchange in order to trade goods and services (see Mutualism (economic theory)). All land was private property, with the exception of alleys which were initially considered common property but later converted to private property. Initially, no system of authority existed in the colony; there were no courts, jails or police. This appears to have given some credence to Warren's theories that the most significant cause of violence in society was most attributable to policies and law which did not allow complete individuality in person and property. However, the modest population of the colony might be considered a factor in this characteristic. The Civil War, as well as new residents that did not share the colony's philosophy, are said to have contributed to its eventual dissolution. Almost all of the original buildings that existed in Modern Times have been destroyed, aside from two Octagon houses, the original schoolhouse and a residence.[3]

During the first half of the 20th century, Brentwood was home to the Ross Health Resort Onehtah, managed by Dr. William H. Ross. Onehtah was a place where a person could escape the pollution of the city. It was thought that the smell of pine needles brought a person good health.

Brentwood is the site of Pilgrim State Hospital (once one of the world's largest hospitals and psychiatric institutions), now known as Pilgrim Psychiatric Center. A 52-acre (0.21 km²) portion of the psychiatric center was converted into the Brentwood State Park athletic field complex, which officially opened in 2009.[4]

Brentwood's Centennial Celebration was on June 16–17, 1950.[5] The 150th anniversary of the community was commemorated on May 9–11, 2007.[6]

Brentwood High School has a nationally recognized boys soccer team that won national championship in 2019.[7]

Brentwood is located at 40°46′54″N 73°14′39″W (40.781805, −73.244060).[8]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 10.1 square miles (26.1 km²).

The Brentwood Fire Department was started in 1898 when local residents banded together to combat brush and forest fires that threatened their homes and farm land. On August 28, 1899, land was purchased from Mrs. Elvira S. Studley and the Brentwood Fire District was incorporated. The Department was first known as the Brentwood Hook and Ladder Company. A firehouse was built in 1900 and a used fire apparatus was purchased from the Islip Fire Department.

In 1926, the department was reorganized and Theodore Freund was elected as the first Fire Chief. On March 30, 1928, the original firehouse burned down and many records were destroyed. The old building was replaced with a two-story brick house on the same site which is still in use today as the department gym. In 1932, the name "Brentwood Fire Department" was formally adopted and in 1937, the hamlet's first fire hydrants were installed and the fire district's political boundaries were enlarged a year later. In 1955, a new fire house was built on Fourth Street, around the corner from the old firehouse. The Brentwood Fire Department continues to serve the residents of the Brentwood community, answering an average of 1,500 calls a year. The Brentwood Fire Department is regularly recognized as one of the busiest fire departments in Suffolk County. The Brentwood Fire Department is part of the Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services (FRES) system. It holds department identifier number 3-2-0. [10]

The Brentwood Fire District (District) is a district corporation of the State, distinct and separate from the Town of Islip and the County of Suffolk in which it is located. The District covers nearly 29 square miles and services approximately 16,000 residential properties and 2,300 commercial properties. It has a wide variety of structures including; single and multiple family dwellings, Suffolk Community College Campus, C.W. Post, Pilgrim State Psychiatric Facility which has 25 to 30 non fire proof buildings with many converted into private businesses, 20 Brentwood Public School buildings, many taxpayers and commercial structures, nine garden apartment complexes, and the St. Joseph's Academy Complex.

The District is governed by an elected five-member Board of Fire Commissioners (Board). The Board is responsible for the overall financial management of the District, including establishing policies and procedures to ensure that assets are properly safeguarded. Additionally, the Board is responsible for approving an annual budget to ensure the District's resources are efficiently used. The District Treasurer is the District's chief fiscal officer, appointed by the Board, and is responsible for the receipt, custody, disbursement, and accounting of District funds. The District's total expenditures for 2010 were approximately $5.8 million.[11]

Firehouses within the district include Quanahasset Engine Company #1, Pines Engine Company #2, Ames & Elliott R.A.C. Company #3, Sagtikos Engine Company #4, Central Engine Company #5 and Edgewood Engine Company #6. There is also a Hook and Ladder Company #1 and the Fire Prevention Company #9.

Brentwood Legion Ambulance was founded and established by William J.A. Seymour in 1959. That year, he was badly injured after being involved in a motor vehicle collision in Brentwood. He was the sole survivor of the accident. Because Brentwood did not have its own ambulance service at the time, it took almost two hours for one to arrive from a neighboring town. As a result, Mr. Seymour ended up being driven to the hospital in a private vehicle despite having sustained serious injury. Mr. Seymour recognized that this was a problem affecting his neighborhood, so he decided that changes needed to be made.

That year, Mr. Seymour gathered members from the American Legion’s Joseph Loeffler Post 1006, based in Brentwood. The ‘Legion’ portion of the department’s name is to honor the dedication of the members from the local American Legion Post that played a monumental part in establishing the ambulance service. Mr. Seymour and the members of the American Legion Post together were no more than 25 volunteers, giving their time to help their neighbors. They purchased a 1948 Cadillac hearse and converted it into an ambulance. Over the course of over 50 years, the Brentwood Legion Ambulance has expanded to over 250 members from all across Long Island, New York. The department has made upgrades to state-of-the-art equipment and vehicles since obtaining their first ambulance from 1948 all those years ago.[12] Today, BLA has 8 advanced life support ambulances, a rehabilitation trailer equipped with 8 advanced life support patient care stations onboard, and 8 first responder vehicles. The department has a wide variety of personnel trained in emergency medical services, including certified first responders, basic life support emergency medical technicians, and advanced life support paramedics. All officers in charge that respond to medical alarms are certified providers by the New York State Department of Health.

Serving the communities within the Brentwood fire district borders, Brentwood Legion Ambulance responds to neighbors in their home and apartment dwellings, individuals in commercial and public spaces, students and faculty of the Brentwood Public School District, Suffolk Community College’s Grant campus, C.W. Post’s Brentwood campus, and St. Joseph’s Academy Complex, and patients residing at Pilgrim State Psychiatric Facility. Brentwood Legion Ambulance responds from their headquarters on Third Ave in Brentwood. The department does not have satellite stations, but instead houses all of their day-to-day operations and dispatch center in their headquarters. In 2019, the department responded to over 8,300 emergency medical alarms. Brentwood Legion Ambulance is the busiest volunteer emergency medical services agency in New York State. Brentwood Legion Ambulance is part of the Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services (FRES) system. It holds department identifier number 3-25-0.

• Dyson, Verne (1950). A Century of Brentwood. Brentwood, Long Island, NY: Brentwood Village Press.
  • Brentwood History Collection Photo and Brentwood History Collection Photo
• Dyson, Verne (1953). A Century of Brentwood, with the Afterpiece: Supplement and Index. Brentwood, Long Island, NY: Brentwood Village Press.
  • Brentwood History Collection Photo
• Freeman, Christian. 1852. Letter from Rev. B. F. Bowles. Brentwood History Collection Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• Martin, James Joseph. Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908. Colorado Springs, Colo., Ralph Myles, 1970.
• Spurlock, John Calvin. “Anarchy and Community at Modern Times, 1851–1863,” Communal Societies 3 (1983), 29–47.
• Wunderlich, Roger. Low Living and High Thinking at Modern Times, N.Y. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8156-2554-5