Baywood

During the first half of the 19th century, most of the population lived in cities; a century later, the suburbs were just starting to get steady on their feet. Take Baywood, for example. This neighborhood started out as an offshoot of a bedroom community. Bay Shore, the coastal town to the south, was a popular suburban hamlet populated by city commuters. After World War II, when young service members returned from the theater of war, they were lured to communities like Baywood by an influx of new housing with low costs.

Since Baywood is in the middle of the island, removed from the coast and almost entirely residential, housing prices, on average, are slightly lower than neighborhoods with bayfront and lakefront properties.

In early 2023, you could get a four-bedroom house on a quarter-acre lot for under $400,000. Prices top out at around $815,000 for a fully modernized, six-bedroom neo-colonial house on nearly half an acre of land. "There are mostly modest, single-family houses in Baywood,” says Edmond Ryan, owner of Ed Ryan Real Estate Group in West Islip, “but you get a lot of land.” Also notable about this area is that homes are set far back, which gives residents a feeling of privacy and security.

Ryan says that homebuyers like the peace and quiet that comes with living in Baywood. “There’s no downtown,” says Ryan, which means no loud restaurants and bars and no traffic-clogged streets. “But when you do want to go shopping, there’s plenty of that in the surrounding towns.” In fact, Tanger Outlets Deer Park is just half a mile east of Corbin Avenue. Shops include Coach, Banana Republic, Nike and Columbia. If you get hungry or parched after a long day of retail therapy, get a burrito at Chipotle followed by an ice-cold draft at Miller’s Ale House. The restaurant and sports bar is known for its “value beverages” list, with drinks starting at $3.99 and hand-breaded buttermilk chicken tender “Zingers.” For something a little bit more sophisticated, you can try Popei’s Clam Bar & Seafood House, a family-owned and operated eatery that specializes in surf-and-turf cuisine.

Baywood is part of the Brentwood Union Free School District. In the category of teacher performance, Niche gave Southwest Elementary School a B and West Middle School a B+.

There are a few neighborhood parks very close to Baywood. Birchwood Park on Sunburst Drive has baseball fields, multi-use athletic fields, a playground and free Wi-Fi. Clarissa Drive Park is a popular gathering spot for pickup soccer games. Benton Park has a basketball court, fields and picnic tables. But when you really want to burn off some steam, forget about those pop-up parks and head to Edgewood Oak Brush Plains State Forest, a free, year-round recreational park and preserve. You can use its 2.7-mile hiking loop through a pine barren forest and a combined, 12.3 miles of trails specifically for biking and maintained by Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicyclists, also known as CLIMB.

Of course, Baywood is next door to Bay Shore, where, in about 20 minutes, you can drive to Robert Moses State Park beach on Fire Island via the Great South Bay Bridge. Or save your gas and parking money and buy a round-trip ticket on the ferry to residential beach towns like Kismet, Saltaire and Fair Harbor.

For more mission-specific outings close to home, you can practice your golf swing at Heartland Golf Park, located on Long Island Avenue on the north side of the neighborhood. Not only do they have an executive nine-hole, par-3 course that’s designed to mimic famous courses, but there’s also a mini golf course, which is designed to entertain the whole family. In this same industrial complex is a Sky Zone Trampoline Park.

No one knows how Baywood got its name. Some believe it’s a mashup of “bay” and “woods.” It could just be a case where the legend becomes the truth.

Written By

Riki Markowitz

Photography Contributed By

J. Michael DeMeo

Video By

Zoe Sarris