By the early 1850’s the reputation of the central part of Long Islands pine belt became known as a healthful environment. Brentwood is situated in the center of Long Island in the pine region. It is forty miles from New York City and is accessible by train on the main line of the Long Island Railroad. In 1854 a young man from Ohio came here who was diagnosed with an incurable heart condition. In one year he recovered his health and he lived here until his death at the age of eighty years old. His recovery corroborated the fact that the conditions in the Pine Belt were beneficial and that a health resort could prosper here. In the late nineteenth century many well-to-do people became interested in having access to health resorts. Brentwood was located forty miles from New York City on the main line of the Long Island Railroad in the heart of the curative pine forests and had the climatic conditions that were considered to be natural therapeutic agents. In 1898 Dr William H. Ross purchased 68 acres of land located on Suffolk Avenue where he founded the Ross Health Resort. It grew from a capacity of 2 patients to one hundred. It had a staff of 6 physicians, a consulting surgeon, ten nurses and an equipped operating room. The health resort was not a place to treat people with contagious or mental illness. It was truly a health resort where people came to recuperate and maintain health by means of favorable environment and climate conditions. Adele Bennett -- July 2007 -- Local History Newsletter