Oyster Bay N.Y.,USA.

LIVING IN / Where Everybody Knows Your Name / Oyster Bay retains a small-town spirit.  By Carol Hernandez Staff Writer, Newsday

SET LIKE A GEMSTONE on the ring of Oyster Bay Harbor is a community where neighbors wave hello to each other in the street and parents feel safe letting their children go cycling outside.

The affluent hamlet of Oyster Bay, nestled on the hilly northern shore between Mill Neck and Oyster Bay Cove, is like a living time capsule, with its quaint downtown business district and charming Colonial and Victorian-style homes. Close to Nassau County's eastern border, Oyster Bay Village, as many locals call it, is easily reached by heading north on Route 106, also called Oyster Bay and Pine Hollow Roads.

But the real gem in the neighborhood is the historic downtown district, where you can wander past 17th-Century buildings such as Raynham Hall Museum, browse in the shop windows that once served as President Theodore Roosevelt's summer offices and now house the red brick Book Mark Cafe, or nosh on a homegrown delicacy: oysters harvested fresh from the harbor served at Canterbury Ales Oyster Bar and Grill on Audrey Avenue.

For lighter fare, you can drop in at Oyster Bagel or join the long line of customers waiting to buy homemade Italian ices from the Bonanza Stand, a little family-run shack that's been around for generations.

Once a year, the downtown area flaunts its appeal with The Oyster Festival, two days of oysters and fun when more than 200,000 people flock into town. Next year's street party, the 14th annual one so far, is on Oct. 18 and 19.

On warm weekends, Roosevelt Memorial Park, on the water's edge just over the train tracks, is crowded with people playing tennis, volleyball, football and Frisbee or just sunning themselves as they gaze out into the deep, blue harbor. A favorite for sailing, on summer days the harbor sparkles with hundreds of white sails.

Named for its abundance of oysters, which you can still sample in local restaurants, Oyster Bay was established in the 1650s by English settlers who came to Long Island by way of Massachusetts. Then known as the "town spot," it was purchased from the Matinecock Indians. The price: a collection of hatchets, hoes, kettles, valuable shells, knives, stockings, shirts and spears.

 BY CAROL HERNANDEZ. STAFF WRITER