Shirley, NY

William Floyd Parkway runs through Shirley to Smith Point County Park, placing an ocean beach and campground at the southern end of the hamlet's main north-south road. Shirley is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the Town of Brookhaven on Long Island's South Shore. Its population was 26,360 in the 2020 census. The area was once called Tangiers and had summer bungalows in the early twentieth century. Developer Walter T. Shirley gave the community its present name after planning thousands of modest houses near Mastic Bay in the 1940s. The Mastic-Shirley Long Island Rail Road station provides a rail connection on the Montauk Branch. Large public landscapes lie on both sides of the developed community. The 2,550-acre Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge protects oak-pine woodland, grassland, and fresh, brackish, and saltwater wetlands along the Carmans River.

Its Shirley visitor center has an interactive exhibit hall, and nearly six miles of trails support wildlife viewing and hiking; refuge programs also include fishing and environmental education. At Smith Point, Suffolk County maintains a lifeguarded Atlantic beach, campground, fishing and boating access, a playground, and permitted outer-beach vehicle access when conditions allow. The Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library reopened its main Shirley building in November 2024 after several years of branch-based service. Its current work extends beyond lending and summer reading: the library reserves study and meeting rooms, provides literacy and citizenship preparation, and held its fifteenth annual Celebration of Literacy in June 2026. Twenty-one participants in its citizenship class became U.S. citizens during 2026, bringing the program's total since 2009 to 251.