Riverhead, New York
town and county seat of Suffolk County, New York, United States
Riverhead is a town in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the north shore of Long Island. Since 1727, the hamlet of the same name within the town has been the county seat of Suffolk County, though most county offices are in Hauppauge. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,902. The town rests on the mouth of the Peconic River, from which it derives its name. The smaller hamlet of Riverhead lies within it, and is the town's principal economic center. The town is 166 miles (267 km) southwest of Boston via the Orient Point-New London Ferry, and is 76 miles (123 km) northeast of New York City.
In the beginning of the 20th century, the town saw an influx of Polish immigrants. This led to the creation of Polish Town, a section of the town and county seat where the popular Polish Town Fair is held annually.
Riverhead is the agricultural apex of Long Island, with 20,000 of the 35,000 acres of the island's farmland located within the town. The town is also home to four separate beaches which are open year-round.
“Riverhead, New York” enters the record as town and county seat of Suffolk County, New York, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Riverhead, York and town can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Riverhead, New York” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Riverhead, York and town provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1770518. VIAF identifies the subject as 64145424514386831342. Authority coordinates are 40.968, -72.703. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1727 and 2020.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Riverhead, New York”, its source revision and the description used here.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Riverhead, New York” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.