Nathaniel Conklin House
N 40° 42.056 W 073° 19.345
18T E 641726 N 4506911
The historic Nathaniel Conklin House. The town was named Babylon in 1803 when this house was built on Main St. It was moved to this site in 1871.
Waymark Code: WMG9Y
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 07/03/2006
Views: 27
Babylon Town History
HOW BABYLON GOT ITS NAME
The first designation of this area as anything but "HUNTINGTON SOUTH" was in 1803. Nathaniel Conklin took his family with him and moved out of the hills northward and built a house on the northeast corner of what is now the intersection of East Main Street and Deer Park Avenue.
It was Nathaniel's mother who first termed her new home "BABYLON". Some say this was prompted by a reference to the quotation from the Psalms: "By the water of Babylon there sat we down; yea we wept, when we remembered Zion", for she was most unhappy when she compared this lonely place to the fine home in Dix Hills which they had left. There is a tradition in the Conklin family however, which assigns the naming of the town to another quality of that same biblical Babylon. They say that Mrs. Conklin, probably with the peace of the inland hills fixed in her mind, was not happy in a spot where her grandchildren would be brought up with a posting tavern as their neighbor, and compared their lonely lot to that of the Babylon captivity of the exiled Judeans.
Mr. Conklin was not as troubled at the prospect here as was his mother. It is reported that he replied to her wailing comment: "Oh, no Mother! It will be a New Babylon" and gave evidence of his faith in his new home by placing a stone tablet in the chimney front of the house inscribed:
NEW BABYLON THIS HOUSE BUILT BY NATE CONKLIN 1803
Street address:
Deer Park Ave.
Babylon, NY USA
11702
County / Borough / Parish: Suffolk
Year listed: 1988
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Periods of significance: 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874
Historic function: Domestic
Current function: Work in Progress
Privately owned?: no
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Hours of operation: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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