Oakdale is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States, situated on the South Shore of Long Island.

It has been home to Gilded Age mansions, the South Side Sportsmen's Club, the main campus of Dowling College and the Long Island Sharks hockey team.

The community originated with a tavern owned by Eliphalet (Liff) Snedecor in what is now Connetquot River State Park Preserve.

Soon after its founding in 1820, Snedecor's Tavern began drawing New York bluebloods and business barons who wined and dined in remote joy when they weren't fishing and hunting nearby.

The writer added: "and the two are only second to his mint juleps and champagne punch; whoever gainsays either fact deserves hanging without benefit of clergy."

Meanwhile, William Bayard Cutting, a lawyer, financier and railroad man, built his estate next door in Great River, New York which had once been west Oakdale.

Around that time, cow stalls, pig pens and corn cribs on the farm portion of Idle Hour were converted into a short-lived bohemian artists' colony that included figures such as George Elmer Browne and Roman (Bon) Bonet-Sintas as well as sculptor Catherine Lawson, costume designer Olga Meervold, and pianist Claude Govier, and Francis Gow-Smith and his wife Carol.

In 1897, Frederick Gilbert Bourne, who began with 438 acres (1.77 km2) but later owned land reaching to West Sayville, completed his mansion, Indian Neck Hall, on the east side of Oakdale.

The eastern part of his estate now comprises the West Sayville County Golf Course and the Long Island Maritime Museum, while much of the middle portion is developed with homes.

Six years later the mansion, on the western end, became the site of La Salle Military Academy, operated by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order.