Understand
Set on the Atlantic Coast, Amityville has been a popular tourist destination since the early 1900s. However, it is perhaps best known as the setting for the novel, and subsequent films, The Amityville Horror, which was based on the 1974 murders that occurred in the town; though the scene itself tries hard not to be a tourist attraction for that reason alone.
The population was 9,441 at the 2000 census.
History
Huntington settlers first visited the Amityville area in 1653 as a source of salt hay. Chief Wyandanch granted the first deed to land in Amityville in 1658. The area was originally called Huntington West Neck South (it is on the Great South Bay and Suffolk County, New York border in the southwest corner of what once called Huntington South but is now the Town of Babylon. According to village lore, the name was changed in 1846 when residents met to find a better name for its new post office. The meeting turned into bedlam and one participant was to exclaim, ``What this meeting needs is some amity." Another version says the name was first suggested by mill owner Samuel Ireland to name the town for his boat the Amity. The place name is strictly speaking an incident name, marking an amicable agreement on the choice of a place name.
In the early 1900s Amityville was a popular tourist destination with large hotels on the bay and large homes.
Annie Oakley was said to be a frequent guest of vaudevillian Fred Stone. Will Rogers had a home across Clocks Boulevard from Stone. Gangster Al Capone also had a house in the community.