Stump Grinding in Dix Hills

Settlers traded goods with the Indigenous Secatogue tribe for the land that became Dix Hills in 1699. The Secatogues lived in the northern portion of the region during the later half of that century. The land was known as Dick’s Hills. By lore, the name traces to a local native named Dick Pechegan, likely of the Secatogues. Scholar William Wallace Tooker wrote that the addition of the English name “Dick” to the indigenous name “Pechegan” was a common practice.

Tooker wrote that Pechegan’s wigwam and his planted fields became the hilly area’s namesake, known as the shortened “Dix Hills” by 1911. The area was mostly used for farming until after World War II.

In the 1950s, Dix Hills and its neighbors Wheatley Heights and Melville, along with the area known as Sweet Hollow, proposed to incorporate as a single village. This village would have been known as the Incorporated Village of Half Hollow Hills, would have had an area of roughly 50 square miles (130 km²), and would have embraced the Half Hollow Hills Central School District (CSD 5). The plans were unsuccessful, and these areas would remain unincorporated.