Exhibits

Before the Village of Head of the Harbor was incorporated in 1928, the area was home to well-established communities. Our 2026 exhibit, “Three Sisters: Landscapes of Head of the Harbor,” explores the stories of the Indigenous and diverse peoples who lived here, George Washington’s 1790 tour through the region, the farming traditions that sustained local families, and the transformation of the area during the Gilded Age and the creation of the Village in 1928. Presented at Village Hall from June 30 thru October 29, this exhibition honors the enduring cultural and historic landscape of Head of the Harbor as part of Suffolk County’s 250 Anniversary Commemoration.

A note on the exhibit’s title: “Three Sisters” stems from the traditional Native American agricultural practice of companion planting corn, beans, and squash together, which allowed each plant to support and contribute to the other. Because early colonial surveyors and original patents frequently adopted existing indigenous field names or descriptive agricultural attributes for fertile valleys, “Three Sisters” emerged repeatedly in early region deeds to describe rich, arable hollows. Indeed, today’s Stony Brook Harbor was originally known as “Three Sisters Harbor.”