The recent buzzworthy major motion picture, “Babylon,” starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, which catapulted, larger than life, onto the big screen in 2022, may have prompted some to ponder how the idyllic Babylon Town got its legendary and evocative name. “Babylon” is a movie, which left anyone who saw it picking their proverbial jaws up off the floor at its raw brazenness. The tale of boundless ambition—and over-the-top extravagance—“traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood,” according to the synopsis found on imdb.com, about the more than three-hour-long film aptly named after Old Babylon.

Babylon was one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BCE and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, when the city was at apex of its grandeur. Due to Babylon’s historical salience, as well as the enigmatic reference to it in the Bible, the word “Babylon” has taken on, in various tongues, the generic meaning of a large, bustling, diverse city with all its awe, freedom, and temptation. It is also a name synonymous with mystery.

While Long Island’s Babylon is a long way from Hollywood excess, in its Golden Age, it still has a rich and colorful origin story worth telling. The Town of Babylon website gives a detailed background into the birth and growth of “New Babylon,” and this is some of what can be gleaned from a deep dive into this singular intersection between local history and timeless myth.

Records uncover that in 1710, Captain Jacob Conklin built the first home in the Town of Babylon, in the area which is currently called Wheatley Heights. Conklin was an intrepid adventurer who sailed with the notorious pirate Captain Kidd. It remains a mystery whether Conklin was forced into service by Kidd or was a willing accomplice. One version of the lore claims that Conklin fled from Kidd, while the buccaneer’s ship was docked, in Cold Spring Harbor, hiding among the Native Americans, and subsequently purchased land from them with his stowed away treasure. In a contradictory variation, Conklin was fully on board with Kidd’s capers and simply chose to end his voyage when the ship reached this beautiful spot, on Long Island—and put his youthful folly behind him—to set up a home. What can be ascertained, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that following his service with Kidd, Conklin possessed a large sum of money, which he used to purchase vast tracts of land.

Conklin’s Son, Platt Conklin, was a dedicated patriot, serving proudly in the Revolutionary War. He went on to marry Phebe Smith, and they had one child, Nathaniel. It was their only son, Nathaniel Conklin, who named Babylon in 1803. Conklin was a pioneering man—perhaps inheriting more than a little of the corsair spirit of his grandfather, Jacob—who relished the challenges of frontier life. It is this legacy which may have inspired him to move his family from their comfortable home in Dick’s Hills (now Dix Hills) to start again and pivot by paving his own path on the largely uncharted and undeveloped southern portion of Huntington Town.

It was an offhand remark that was the impetus for the audacious name with which Conklin chose to christen his new land. Upon discovering that their new home would be next door to a tavern, Mrs. Conklin, Nathaniel’s mother, hyperbolically called the town “New Babylon.” Instead of protesting, Conklin must have been amused by the allusion to him settling in this so-called den of iniquity, because he summarily inscribed these words in stone, on a tablet, in the chimney of his new home. The name “Babylon” took off like wildfire, and in 1830, the federal government proffered legitimacy to the de facto moniker, bestowing official recognition by changing the name of the post office from Huntington South to Babylon.

As the railroad brought a rush of people to Babylon, in 1842, when it reached Deer Park, and again, in 1867, when it ran directly into Babylon Village, the arrival of the revolutionary invention, the automobile— after the turn of the 20th century—resulted in a significant impact on the town’s government. At this time, the need for a centralized locus of government became apparent.

There were suggestions that a building intended for town business should be located as close to the geographic heart of town as possible. While others stated that in as much as Babylon was the town’s name, it would be apt to place it in the Village of Babylon. This latter case was victorious, and on a plot of land located on the northwest corner of Main Street and Cottage Place—donated by the family of David S.S. Sammis—the taxpayers, in 1917, voted 667 to 462, on Proposition 18, to erect a Town House, or, as it was later known, a Town Hall.

Supervisor John Clinton Robbins served as master of ceremonies, on March 13, 1918, for the ceremonial laying of the building’s cornerstone. After a concise but powerful oratory, he laid a copper box within the stone that held copies of the four newspapers, published in the town, a Liberty Quarter (the gift of the supervisor), specification of the building, photographs, and other symbolic items.

It seems that Mother Conklin’s words of admonition stuck—without any printed declaration—as the proposed new town seems to have been universally referred to as the Town of Babylon, which was the dominant community on the South Shore. Following the referendum, a commission of prominent citizens convened, and within a week established the boundaries of the new town, which were suggested by James T. Morris of Amityville. Judge John R. Reid of Babylon was instructed to draft the bill to create the Town of Babylon. J.H. Woodhull and Daniel Carl were named to take charge of the bill and secure its passage. On Feb. 17, 1872, the newly elected Suffolk County assemblyman John S. Marcy introduced the bill to the New York State Legislature. The bill was approved on March 13, 1872.

The legislation stated that the inaugural annual meeting of the Town of Babylon would “be held at the hotel of P.A. Seaman and Son in the Village of Babylon on the first Tuesday in April,” according to townofbabylon.com. The Seaman Hotel was, in fact, the historic “American House.” Inexplicably, a little more than a year after hosting the new town’s first meeting, the hotel was destroyed in a fire of unknown origin. 

If you have an idea for a local historical story, mystery, or legend you would like to see featured in this column, message shanabraff@optonline.net