As with the rest of Long Island, New York, the history of Searingtown, New York, begins with the first residents of the area: Native Americans. Members of the Massapequa, Merioke and Rockaway tribes populated the region until they were devastated by diseases brought by Dutch and English settlers in the mid-1600s. Today, many place names in the region are based on their languages.

Early settlers purchased land from the native peoples and began transforming the region into farmland. The population slowly grew through the rest of the 17th and 18th centuries. The oldest remaining structure from Searingtown history, the Searingtown Methodist Church, was built in 1788. The church was named for the prominent Searing family. Today, ruins of this historic building still stand in the neighboring town of Albertson. Though the 1700s, the area was known as a prime spot for horse racing, and several colonial tracks graced the plains.

By the early 1800s, railroad tracks crisscrossed Long Island, expediting the growth of the communities around Searingtown. While the rest of the island was turning into a commuter suburb for New York City, Searingtown didn't boom until the 1940s. In fact, a map from 1942 shows that Searingtown itself mostly consisted of a few private estates, undeveloped land belonging to the Nassau County Boy Scouts, the Shelter Rock Country Club and Bloodgood Nurseries.

However, the end of World War II brought a wave of new residents to the area and Searingtown history was changed forever. As city-dwellers left urban New York for large, new homes in the Long Island suburbs, aided by the creation of creation of the Long Island Expressway, Searingtown's population swelled.

Unlike many other hamlets in the region, Searingtown remains almost completely residential. Even today, it has no major commercial district, but remains a quiet suburban community.