The name "Planting Fields" comes from the Matinecock Indians who cultivated the rich soil in the clearings high above Long Island Sound. The English explorer Henry Hudson landed at Coleman's Point on Long Island in 1609 on his way to discovering the river that bears his name. The island was later settled by the Dutch, who named the land Lange Eylandt - Long Island. Dutch and English settlers shared the land and developed a strong whaling industry on the Island until 1664 when Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Netherlands to the English, The tympanum above Coe Hall's front entry who renamed the colony New York. Oyster Bay was an early Dutch farming settlement, and one that was a strong voice in the American Revolution when the Oyster Bay Sons of Liberty protested the British stamp tax in 1766. Throughout the 19th century, Long Island's farming, whaling, and fishing industries grew to supply goods to the expanding city. Once the Queensboro Bridge opened in 1867 and the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, Long Island's sleepy settlements became villages, villages became towns, and towns became small cities of their own. Light industry grew on the Island and farms prospered with the new ease of access to the great marketplace of New York City. The great wealth produced by the Gilded Age and the growing congestion of New York City sent the well-to-do across the bridges to Long Island's lush countryside, where country clubs and grand estates quickly replaced small farms and untouched wilderness.

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