You can still observe old-fashioned boatbuilding and sail making in the 1898 Chandlery Building which is being renovated into a community center for lectures and workshops. This is part of the newly refurbished Waterfront Park with a playground for kids, trails for runners and a front row seat from which you can watch all the harbor activity. The active Long Island Seaport & Eco Center organizes fishing lessons, educational marine research and boatbuilding clinics as well as their Harbor Day festivities in September.

An involved local community hosts various artistic and cultural events from art exhibits to outdoor film screenings to an Irish Festival and the famous Tate of Port Jefferson with 25 area restaurants with all types of cuisine participating. Or you can kick back and relax in the local coffee house or peruse the book store or antique shops. Thanks to Theatre Three, there is live theater all year featuring Broadway shows, one acts, musical evenings and children's theater.

The dedicated Historical Society, housed in the John Mather Museum, provides maps for self-guided walking tours through tree-lined streets. You can view examples of Greek Revival, Federal, Victorian and even “Steamboat Gothic” architecture of the wealthy shipbuilders and entrepreneurs who called this home in the 1800s. Even the famed P.T. Barnum lived here and was one of the founders of the Port Jefferson-Bridgeport Ferry Company which operates to this day. Visiting the village is a chance to experience the maritime version of “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

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