Biohazard Cleanup Near North Orient Orient, NY

Orient is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Southold in Suffolk County, at the eastern end of Long Island's North Fork — it is the easternmost community on the North Fork.

Orient was originally named Poquatuck, after the Native American tribe that lived along the inland waterways, and was later called Oyster Ponds (or Oysterponds) because of the abundant oyster beds nearby.

What is now Orient was known as Lower Neck, while East Marion was called Upper Neck; the two communities separated in 1836, and the name Orient was chosen to reflect the area's easternmost position on the North Fork.

The hamlet was originally settled by five families given a land grant by the King of England in the 17th century, and their surnames — King, Terry, Glover, Latham, Tuthill and Vail — still exist in local families today.

During the American Revolution, Orient was used as a base of operations by British commanders such as Benedict Arnold and local Tories to conduct raids on Yankee-held Connecticut.

Many of Orient's older structures are included in the Orient Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and the hamlet's homes span three centuries in a distinctly New England style.

As of the 2020 census, Orient had a population of 999, up from 743 in 2010; at the 2000 census there were 709 people and 330 households in the CDP.

Orient covers about 6.1 square miles in total, of which about 5.1 square miles is land and roughly a square mile is water.

Orient Beach State Park, a 363-acre New York state park in the hamlet, has extensive frontage on Gardiners Bay and a rare maritime forest of red cedar, blackjack oak and prickly-pear cactus; its Long Beach sand spit was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1980.

Orient Point, the physical tip of the North Fork within the hamlet, is the Long Island terminal of the Cross Sound Ferry, whose boats cross Long Island Sound to New London, Connecticut in about 80 minutes.