Suffolk

Formed November 1, 1683 (8^th county)

Suffolk County (1,525,936), Riverhead* (14,993), Lindenhurst (27,146)

The 1929 masonry courthouse was enlarged in 1963 and 2004.  The courthouse is on Griffey Drive at Court Street.  New York State Highway 24 is one block north of the facility.  The courthouse was designed by M. Vollney Liddell.  A County Complex was built in 1975.  There are augmenting courthouses in Central Islip, Hauppauge, Huntington, Lindenhurst, Patchogue, and Ronkonkoma.  The county was founded on November 1, 1683 as an original county (8^th county) with Riverhead as the only county seat.  There was also an 1854 courthouse.  Suffolk County is named for Suffolk, England.  The county seat’s name comes from its location at the mouth of the Peconic River.

Suffolk County government consists of a sheriff and 18 Legislators.  Eleven County Court Judges, Nine Family Court Judges, Three Surrogate Court Judges, and Twenty-one District Court Judges serve Suffolk County.   Suffolk County is on the eastern end of Long Island.  New York City, New York is west of the county. 

The area of the county is 2373 square miles.  It is 2 out of 62 in the state.  It ranks 4 out of 62 in population in the state.  It has a density of 643.0 persons per square mile making it 11 out of 62 in the state.  Suffolk County has 8.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 495 originates in the county and travels west into Nassau County.  The county is shaped like the head of a crawfish.  Riverhead is located slightly east of center in the county.  Lindenhurst is in the southwest corner of the county.  Riverhead is the county seat and Lindenhurst is the largest city.  Riverhead is 1.0% of the county population however it is unincorporated.  Lindenhurst is 1.8% of the county population.  The county center is in Riverhead .6 miles North-Northwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Connecticut and the Atlantic Ocean and Nassau County.  This county is in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.