FAIR HARBOR, LONG ISLAND

Fair Harbor, Long Island

Fair Harbor is a community located in Suffolk County on Fire Island, Long Island, New York. It is within the Town of Islip between the communities of Saltaire to the west and Dunewood to the east. The neighborhood is a very quiet, family-centered community not just like a party town Ocean Beach. Fair Harbor is cuddled between the wide expanses of the Atlantic Ocean providing cooling ocean breezes during the summer in Great South Bay only about one hour from New York City. It is approximately 47 miles by car to the ferry dock in Bay Shore and 6 miles across the water by ferry to Fair Harbor. The latitude of Fair Harbor is 40.639N. The longitude is -73.184W. It is in the Eastern Standard time zone. Elevation is 3 feet.

The area was first designated in the late 1800's. In 1923, a seafaring developer made the land into a housing development for the working families of Bay Shore, the town just across the Great South Bay that separates Fire Island from Long Island. The harbor could only be considered fair, with just a few slips for boats, a ferry dock, and ragtag sailboats pulled up on the beach. Today, Fair Harbor is a friendly community with many young and middle aged parents and mature groups plus a lot of people in between. The Ocean Beaches are wide and glorious; the Bayside provides space for boating, be it sailing, windsurfing, jet-skiing.

Fair Harbor is a perfect place to stay where families bring the kids for swimming and has lifeguards during the summer months. The neighborhood has also attracted many "refugees" from Kismet. As a result, much of the 30's and 40's crowd has moved up the beach to Fair Harbor especially single. One house is even called "Kismet East" because it was started by former Kismetites. Most residents have had homes there for generations and take pride in their rustic beach-shack ambience that is a true escape from the outside world. Fair Harbor has only one local grocery store, one hardware store, one liquor store, and one restaurant on the bay side of Fair Harbor. For safety and health, every resident’s there are protected by the Fair Harbor volunteer Fire Department. Fair Harbor is known for being a “barefoot community”. During summer, the town has a doctor, whom it shares with Dunewood, an even smaller community, but at any time of year, people with serious injuries have to be flown to a Long Island hospital by helicopter. Saturday night is considered a major ritual time of the weekend for a sunset dock party where Fire Islanders from Fair Harbor as well as surrounding communities meet at the dock during the hour or so before sunset to meet, schmooze, scope out the new faces, enjoy a drink, and just enjoy the stunning sunset.