The district has a very storied and old history, dating back to 1657. The very first school that would one day result in the Huntington Union Free School District of today was set up by members of the community in a home. Shortly thereafter in 1660, the first schoolhouse was built. In 1763, what was the predecessor of today's school district's school board was formed. In 1793, what was then the Huntington Academy was opened on what is today 100 Main Street in Huntington and the Huntington Town Hall. The Huntington Academy was a private school which was open for over half a century, before being torn down in favor of the new Union School. Opening in 1858, it was open for fifty years and experienced great growth over the following decades. It became the first Huntington High School, serving students up to 17 years old and officially changed the name to Huntington High School in 1897. In 1857, the year before the opening of the Union School, the district was officially formed. They received the "Huntington Union Free School District" name nine years later in 1866. [4] [5]
Students from other districts
Due to the district being one of the earliest formed in the area, the district received students from several other growing ones for many years. Before the formation of the modern Harborfields Central School District, students from Centerport and Greenlawn got their secondary education from the district until Huntington was overwhelmed and could no longer withstand them, kickstarting the process that formed the modern Harborfields district forming in 1956. [6] A very similar situation occurred with the modern Cold Spring Harbor Central School District, where before it's formation students would go to one of three high schools after eighth grade: Huntington High School (known as Simpson at the time), Walt Whitman High School, or Oyster Bay High School, depending on where they lived. Again, the district could not handle these students anymore, causing the modern Cold Spring Harbor district to form in 1958. [7]
