Brookville is is an incorporated village located in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York. The Village spans about four square miles and hosts an approximate population of 3,000 (675 families) with a population density of 750 people per square mile. A Village with a history rooted in farming and woodland and horses, Brookville transitioned to a Gold Coast enclave with wealthy New Yorkers building mansions in the early 20th century, setting the stage for the Brookville that was to come.

The Village of Brookville was formed in two stages. In 1931, it was incorporated, and at the time, it only consisted of a narrow tract of land that was centered along Cedar Swamp Road. It wasn't until the 1950s when the northern part of the area, known then as Wheatley Hills, was incorporated into the Village which nearly doubled its landmass. But Brookville was an active community long before 1931. In fact, the Village can trace its roots back to the mid-17th century... 

FIRST THERE WAS THE MATINECOCK INDIANS   

Like the rest of the Brookville area, what is now our Village, was purchased in 1653 by the Town of Oyster Bay from the Matinecock Indians. it was known as Succo’s Wigwam. Most pioneers were English, many of them Quakers. They were soon joined by Dutch settlers from western Long Island. Almost everyone in colonial Brookville lived off the land or worked at related trades like weaver, carpenter, horse trader or blacksmith. While an occasional general store or tavern may have existed, the area never developed a commercial center of its own.

In 1732, the Dutch bought the property at the intersection of what we know as Wheatley Road and Brookville Road to establish a church. There were many springs and a brook on the property, and it is said that the wolves gathered at the spring-fed Shoo Brook to drink. Thus, the Dutch called the area Wolver Hollow (now Upper Brookville). Four different structures have been built over the years and the present beautiful little white church was dedicated in 1924. It was renamed the Brookville Reformed Church and still stands on the original site and is considered to be one of the oldest existing church congregations in the country.

In the days of the American Revolution, Brookville was divided between Patriots and Tories, and spent most of the war under British military occupation. Some local men belonged to Captain David Layton’s Wolver Hollow Militia Company which fought with the American Army at the Battle of Long Island in 1776. Local youth also went off to fight in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and later conflicts.  

For a long time, Brookville actually had no name of its own, but was considered to be part of neighboring communities like Cedar Swamp, Wolver Hollow, Jericho and Wheatley. Around 1800, the heart of the Village came to be called Tappentown, after a well-known local family. Fruitledge Road was the old Tappentown Road, and the adjacent Tappentown Lane still carries on the name.

Perhaps because the countryside boasted many brooks, the area became known informally as Brookville. It wasn't until after the Civil War that Brookville became the preferred name and was used on 1873 maps. At that time Brookville was in the County of Queens until the County of Nassau was incorporated in 1899.

By the mid-1800s, descendants of the original farmers were selling much of their corn to a starch factory in nearby Glen Cove, where the manufacturing residue was excellent cattle fodder coveted by farmers who came from as far away as Hicksville to purchase it. Another occupation that grew up in the area was the breeding of trolley car, brewery and delivery horses for New York City. These horses were bought to Long Island to be broken and then shipped to New York, either by train from Greenvale or by boat from Glen Cove, Sea Cliff and Glenwood Landing. (Even if they went by train, they still had to be ferried across the East River from LI City to 34th Street as the LIRR ran only as far as Greenvale. Later it expanded to Glen Head and Oyster Bay.)

Throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries, the area remained virtually unchanged, being farmland and woods with abundant wildlife. In the early 1900s, the beauty of the area as well as the accessibility to New York City attracted many wealthy city residents to the North Shore. These people bought the farmland from the descendants of the Dutch and English farmers. Unlimited sums of money were spent on lavish mansions with beautiful landscaping. The North Shore of Nassau County, including Brookville, soon became known as the "Gold Coast." The neighboring hamlets of Westbury, Oyster Bay and Hicksville were a source of gardeners and household staff for the Brookville estates. In 1923 there were approximately 22 large estates in the area that was to become the Incorporated Village of Brookville. Many of these estates were broken up after World War II, but  Brookville has always retained its quiet elegance with zoning that bans commercial developments and requires at least two acres for residential property.

In 1931, estate owners banded together to win village incorporation to head off what they saw as undesirable residential and commercial development in other parts of Nassau Country. The first Mayor was W. Deering Howe. 

One of the most prominent estates in Brookville (and which is still standing) was the Broadhollow, owned by attorney-banker-diplomat Winthrop W. Aldrich. The 108-acre spread estate held a 40-room manor house and stunning wooded areas. Following Aldrich's ownership, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. became the second owner of the Broadhollow Estate. Vanderbuilt Jr., a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family, was the owner of the Belmont and Pimlico racetracks. 

A neighboring estate holder, and the world’s wealthiest woman at the time, Marjorie Merriweather Post, daughter of cereal creator Charles William Post, and her husband Edward Francis Hutton, the famous financier, built a lavish 70-room mansion on 178 acres named Hillwood. Around 1950, Merriweather Post sold her grand Brookville estate to Long Island University for $200,000, which established the C.W. Post Campus on the property's acreage. From the day the campus was dedicated to the end of the 1960s, Mrs. Post would occasionally attend college functions, football games and student socials. The campus is commonly recognized as the home of the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, a 2,200 seat concert theater on the campus that offers jazz, rock, folk, orchestra, chamber music, dance and lectures by prominent figures.

During the summer of 1940, Prince Felix and the royal family of Luxembourg visited Brookville. They later sought refuge in Brookville after their country was invaded by Nazi forces.

Also built on former estates is the DeSeversky Conference Center of the New York Institute of Technology. The center was formerly Templeton, the mansion of businessman Winston Guest and his socialite wife, C.Z. Guest. Templeton was later used as one of the settings for the Dudley Moore film, Arthur.

The Chappelle de St. Martin de Sayssuel, also known as the St. Joan of Arc Chapel, was where Joan of Arc prayed prior to engaging the English. In 1926, the chapel was acquired by Gertrude Hill Gavin, daughter of James J. Hill, the American railroad magnate.  She had it dismantled stone by stone and imported from France to her estate in Brookville. The chapel is now located at Marquette University in Wisconsin.

Brookville was also home to:    

Arthur Scott Burden, president of Burden Iron Works
Joseph E. Davies, second U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union
Alfred I. du Pont, inventor, philanthropist
Percy Uris, real estate investor, builder
Angie Dickinson, actress
Edward Francis Hutton, co-found, E.F Hutton & Co.
Mary McFadden, fashion designer, writer
Dina Merrill, actress
Marc Anthony, singer & actor
Jennifer Lopez, singer & actress
Billy Joel, singer

Most Brookville homes are located in the Jericho Union Free School District, serving students in grades K-12. The JSD is regarded as one of the top performing school systems in the country. In 2024 it was ranked the #1 public school district in New York and #6 in the country.

Brookville has a four-acre bird sanctuary and a 19-acre passive parkland nature park with walking paths, horse trails, benches and outdoor art.

As of March 2025, the Mayor of Brookville is Daniel H. Serota, the Deputy Mayor is Caroline Z. Bazzini, and the Village Trustees are Caroline Z. Bazzini, John A. Burns, Edward J. Chesnik, and Robert D. Spina. The Village is protected by the Brookville Police Department, which was established in 2022 and is headed by Chief Kenneth Lack, formerly head of police patrol for Nassau County.