Cold Spring Harbor

Suffolk County’s Cold Spring Harbor is a lot like Putnam County’s Cold Spring. Both are charming and sleepy, without too many reminders of the crass modern age in which we live. Cold Spring is on the Hudson River and Cold Spring Harbor is on the Long Island Sound, but both have the same feeling of scenic beauty and old-time tranquility. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that I grew up ten minutes from one, and now live ten minutes from the other.

Cold Spring Harbor is a four-square-mile hamlet within the Town of Huntington, home to about 5,070 people. Once a whaling town, it became known as a resort area after the death of the industry. It is now known for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (though the lab is actually in adjoining Laurel Hollow), a research and education non-profit which specializes in cancer, neuroscience, quantitative biology, plant biology, bioinformatics, and genomics. Renowned for both research and education, it operates the DNA Learning Center, a science center that sponsors class field trips, summer day camps, and teacher training workshops, all devoted to genetics education.

There is a lovely little protected marina and beach club, and right down the road is the Cold Spring Harbor Library & Environmental Center, a big, bright, wonderful place that offers - besides educational seminars, workshops, and everything else you’d find in a modern library - yoga, pilates, Tai Chi, and music performances.

The Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery and Aquarium, originally a trout hatchery and now over a hundred years old, has become a non-profit education center. They have two aquarium buildings, eight outdoor ponds, and the largest living collection of New York State freshwater reptiles, fishes and amphibians. Visitors can either feed the trout, or “Catch and Keep” them. The Hatchery offers a summer kids’ camp that I can tell you (from personal experience) is an awesome place, and one that can instill a life-long appreciation of nature.

The Whaling Museum slides gracefully from the area’s bloody history to its modern appreciation of the sea and the incredible creatures who live there, offering all kinds of programs, outreach, overnights, and field trips. Move inland and you’ll find the Uplands Farm Sanctuary, an old dairy farm-turned Nature Conservancy headquarters, with its meadows, forests, and old pastures.

History and decorative arts lovers should head to the Main Street gallery of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, which has changing exhibitions and programs. The Society owns three historic houses, including Joseph Lloyd Manor in nearby Lloyd Neck.

Main Street is filled with shops, boutiques, and restaurants. If you’re hungry, check out Cold Spring Harbor Plaza Delicatessen, The Gourmet Whaler, Grasso’s Restaurant, Sweetie Pie’s on Main, or Harbor Mist.

If you’re itching for more action, you’ll have to drive to Huntington, which is only five minutes away but far more connected to the modern world.

Cold Spring Harbor Central School District contains the Goosehill Primary School (k-1), West Side and Lloyd Harbor Schools (2-6), and Cold Spring Harbor Junior/Senior High School (7-12). The schools are excellent, with the high school consistently ranked in the top 100 of the nation’s schools.

The median household income is $133,209; the median house value, $783,916.

Not exciting, not diverse, not everyone's cup of tea - but not without its charm.