In addition to being unincorporated, not having formal government and taxing
authority, I believe that there was also a technical requirement the
population of the entity be less than 3,000 people.

I can say with certainty, that at one time the Farmingville, in the Town of
Brookhaven, in Suffolk County, was, but is no longer a hamlet.

Since I'm 20 years removed from Farmingville, please understand that what I'm
about to explain is a somewhat distant memory.

As to tax structure, while there was never a "Farmingville Government" which
included a council, aldermen or selectmen, there were numerous local real
estate type taxes.  Fire Districts were established.  Lighting Districts were
established.  Sanitation and water districts were established.  And certainly
school districts were established.  However, if the boundries of these
districts actually conformed the geographic boundries of the hamlet, it was
only by coincidence.

For instance, the fire district included the hamlets of both Farmingville and
Holtsville and was known as the Farmingville-Holtsville Fire Department.  Few
areas in the hamlet had municipal street lights.  The area I live in did.  It
was known as the "College Park Lighting District."  The tax was imposed
exclusively upon the residents of the district which included an area far
smaller than the entire hamlet, and was collected by Brookhaven Township.
The school district, known as the Sachem Central School District, encompassed
primarily the towns, villages and hamlets of Farmingville, Holtsville,
Holbrook, Lake Grove, Ronkonkoma and Lake Ronkonkoma.  Very minor pieces of
the Connectquot and "Village of Brookhaven," very small pieces (maybe a house
or two) of Medford and Patchoge, were included in the school district.  As
crazy as this sounds, all of those little towns, villages and hamlets were a
part of Brookhaven Township, although Connectquot and parts of Ronkonkoma
were a part of Islip Township ... so I don't know how the school taxes were
actually collected !  <smile>

Eventually I know that the population of the hamlet far exceeded 3,000 by the
late 1960s and Farmingville's designation as a hamlet was lost.  I'm
reasonably certain that the population today could well exceed 20 times that.

Hope this is helpful.

Joe