William Kissam Vanderbilt, the founder if the Vanderbilt Museum, loved&nbsp; nature&nbsp; and marine life, and dedicated a majority of his time to reseach and the collection of marine life, birds, invertebrates, and other cultural artifacts that&nbsp;were representative of his interests. Vanderbilt had collected these&nbsp;with the intent of creating his own personal museum on his estate. His collections were considerable. In fact, it was one of the largest of its kind.&nbsp;This extensive collection consisted of thousands of&nbsp;marine life and was exhibited in Vanderbilt's&nbsp;Long Island museum. He opened his&nbsp;private&nbsp;museum, which he&nbsp;called the Hall&nbsp;of fishes,&nbsp;to&nbsp;the public in 1922.&nbsp;Vanderbilt's collections extended beyond marine life. He had also&nbsp;acquired&nbsp;a&nbsp;substantial collection of wildlife and natural history. Because of William Vanderbilt's contributions to this discipline&nbsp;of history, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum spans about 34-acres, and includes multiple complexes that are opened to the public. Some of these include: the Eagle's Nest, a Spanish designed Mansion;&nbsp;the Vanderbilt Observatory, and&nbsp;the marine and natural history museum.

Official Website of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum 

Website

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is dedicated to multiple disciplines, and providing education for the public on these disciplines. This is realized through the multiple locations that serve as the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum. These locations include: a mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park. Furthermore, the museum strives to serve the greater public, not only the surrounding community. 

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum 

Drive to museums and surviving structures from Long Island's historical past, including churches, inns, homes, and mills.

This Tudor-style structure was built as a Carnegie library
in 1914. The Northport Library and Literary Union bought the land for $3,000
and was awarded a $10,000 construction grant from the Carnegie Corporation. It
was designed by architect Harry E. Donnell, a member of the prominent
Delamater/Bevin family. The building served as the Northport Library's
headquarters until 1966, when a new Library was built.

Thereafter, the Northport Historical Society, founded in
1962 by a group interested in preserving the community's history, began
mounting exhibits in the former library's showcase. The Village of Northport
purchased the Carnegie in 1974 with the intent of preserving it and providing a
permanent home and exhibit space for the Society. The building was acquired
outright by the Society in 1976 through a generous gift from Stephen and Frank
Cavagnero, two members of a prominent Northport family.

Today, the Northport Historical Society maintains a museum
and research library in the landmark building where artifacts associated with
the area's history are housed, curated and displayed. The Society has an eleven
member governing Board of Trustees. The part-time staff is comprised of a Director,
Museum Educator and Collections Consultant. The staff, in concert with a corps
of approximately three dozen dedicated docents and volunteers, work with
students and visitors to illuminate our local legacy through educational
programs, thoughtful exhibits and events.

Now home to the Northport Historical Society, this building served as the community library from the time of its completion in 1914 until 1966. The historical society was established in 1962 and worked to preserve buildings, artifacts, and collections of papers and other records. The historical society operates a small museum in this building in addition to a library that is full of materials for researchers and genealogists. 

Northport Historical Society

Kings Park State Hospital was built on Long Island in an effort to&nbsp;solve the issue of overcrowding at surrounding institutions. The patient&nbsp;population peaked at&nbsp;9,300 patients in 1954 before an emphasis on treating mental disorders with&nbsp;medications led to a gradual decline in the number of patients admitted. Kings Park State Hospital closed in 1996.

The Kings Park Psychiatric Center first opened in 1885 and began with a total of fifty-five patients. This psychiatric center was state owned by New York. After ten years the name of the institution changed to Kings Park State Hospital. The hospital was built on 800 acres of land it became a self-proclaimed farming operation. At one time the population inside the hospital was greater than the population of the nearby town. The population eventually grew to 9,300 patients in 1954. 

Kings Park Psychiatric Center 

Caleb Smith I (1724-1800) was the great-grandson of the founder of Smithtown, Richard "Bull" Smith (sometimes spelled Smythe), who died [d.] in 1692. Richard Smith was given a land patent for what became Smithtown by Richard Nicholls, Colonial Governor, acting on behalf of the Duke of York. In his will, Richard Smith left land to his six sons and two daughters; his son, Daniel [Sr., grandfather of Caleb; d. 1715] received the other half of the pasture south of his house, the westward part of it, and an equal share of land divided among all of his siblings. Richard Smith wished for all of James Neck to be kept in the family forever through his six sons. Caleb Smith married Martha Smith (not related) in 1755; the couple had four children. Both Caleb Smith and his father, Daniel Smith Jr. (1691-1763), owned slaves in the 1750s; Caleb owned one male enslaved person and Daniel Jr. owned one female. Of the 92 heads of families in Smithtown counted in 1776, 29 had a last name of Smith. Other common surnames in the town of 555 were Mills and Blydenburgh. After Caleb's death, the house passed to his son, Paul Theodore (1759-1813), and then to Paul T.'s son, Theodorus (1795-1876). The Caleb Smith House began as a two-story farmhouse and has been expanded several times since then by the gun club, but most of the original house survives, with new additions to the east and west. Caleb's initials were found inscribed in a brick in the chimney of the original portion of the house ("C S 1752"). The Brooklyn Rod and Gun Club was established in 1872. They purchased the Caleb Smith House, that had been passed on from father to son for multiple generations, in the 1880s. The club changed their name in 1893 to the Wyandanch Sportsmen's Club, after a sachem from the Nesaquakes who ruled 13 Native American tribes on Long Island. The property beyond the expanded farmhouse-turned-clubhouse was used by the club for fly fishing and bird hunting. New York State purchased the club's property in 1963 and added another 109 acres near the headwaters of the river in 1974. New York State opened the property as a park on April 1st 1974, originally calling it Nissequogue River State Park. Two branches of the river run through the park. The park includes a Blacksmith shop and an historic barn built around 1790 with a hewn mortise and tenon frame plus several additions. Other historic homes are within the park and are currently used as residences. The houses were built on former parts of the Smith estate that were sold off; the Brooklyn Rod and Gun Club bought back the properties. The Caleb Smith House and the historic buildings are part of the New York and National Register-listed Wyandanch Club Historic District, on the northwest side of Jericho Turnpike. While there is no charge for entry into the Caleb Smith House Museum, there is a fee to enter the park, and additional fees for some activities (see the link below). At the end of May, entrance fees go into effect any day the park is open. After Labor Day, park entrance fees will only be charged on weekends.

The historic home of Caleb Smith (1724-1800) was built in 1753 by Caleb and his father, Daniel Smith II. Caleb was a 1744 graduate of Yale who became a Suffolk County Judge and member of the New York General Assembly. Smith family ownership of the mansion ended in 1888; the Brooklyn Rod and Gun Club purchased the building and converted it into a 44-room structure for their clubhouse. Since 1963, the house and property has been owned by New York State, who opened the grounds as a public park in 1974. The Caleb Smith House now houses a nature and history museum as well as park offices of the Caleb Smith State Park Preserve. Hiking and fishing (Willow Pond is near the entrance) are popular pastimes in the 543-acre park.

Caleb Smith House Museum in Caleb Smith State Park Preserve

The Blydenburgh Park Historic District covers ten acres on both sides of New Mill Road within a nineteenth-century settlement called Bushy Neck, established by the Blydenburgh family around 1800. Isaac Blydenburgh (1775-1858) was the great-grandson of Joseph Blydenburgh, one of the first settlers of Smithtown. In 1798, Isaac Blydenburgh and two other men - Joshua Smith, Jr. and Caleb Smith II (the son of Caleb Smith I of the nearby Caleb Smith park and Clio entry) - agreed to dam the Nissequoque River as it passed their respective farms and build a grist mill and a saw mill. A lot near the mills was leased to Isaac Smith, who built the Miller's Cottage between 1801 and 1803. Joshua Smith sold his share of the enterprise to his two partners in 1811. Isaac Blydenburgh built the Blydenburgh Farmhouse around 1821. Caleb Smith II's share of the business went to two sons of Isaac Blydenburgh - Richard and Isaac W. Blyenburgh - by 1844. Richard Blydenburgh resided in the Gothic Revival style Farm Cottage, built around 1860. The brothers manufactured woolen cloth for uniforms during the Civil War. Richard owned his brother, Isaac's share of New Mill in the latter years of his life. After Richard died in 1873, the mills were run by Richard's son, Benjamin Blydenburgh, and Richard's grandson, Morgan, until 1924. The Blydenburgh Park Historic District is locally significant for its containment of the relatively unchanged Bushy Neck settlement and for its examples of 1900s Long Island architecture. There are nine historic structures in the historic district. Two are clustered together: the New Mill and Miller's House, in a ravine on the north shore of New Mill Pond. A broad, level area northeast of the mill complex contains the Isaac Blydenburgh Farmhouse, the Farm Cottage, and five wood frame farm outbuildings: a privy, corn crib, equipment shed, small barn, and carriage barn. The New Mill was in a deteriorated condition when documented in 1980, but the original framing was intact and some machinery remained inside. The two-story Miller's Cottage features a gambrel roof and Federal period styling; it is rare for this era's cottages to survive on Long Island. The two-story Isaac Blydenburgh Farmhouse is a typical style of gable-roofed Long Island farmhouse of its time. The privy is Gothic styled, like the nearby circa 1860 Farm Cottage; not many Gothic style residences have survived in Smithtown.

Within Blydenburgh Park, a Suffolk County-operated park since 1965, is an historic district with a mill, miller's house, farmhouses and farm outbuildings. "New Mill" is pretty old, and dates to 1798. The miller's house was built in 1802. The Isaac Blydenburgh Farmhouse dates to about 1820, while the Farm Cottage was constructed in 1860 or so. The entrance to the historic trust area of the park is at the south end of New Mill Road. The Blydenburgh family operated the mills until the 1920s. The LI Greenbelt Trail Conference conducts guided tours of the historic district on Saturdays at 1pm. Blydenburgh Park contains Long Island's second largest lake; you can take a five-mile long hike around the lake. The park is open year-round for Suffolk County residents and their guests.

Blydenburgh Farm and New Mill in Blydenburgh County Park

This parish is the first Presbyterian church to be organied in Smithtown and originated around 1675. The architect of the First Presbyterian Church building still standing in Smithtown was George Curtiss; the contract called for the buildnig to be modeled on a church in Patchogue. Curtiss was to be paid $825 for the labor and the Trustees were to supply the building materials. Curtiss wa expected to "take the timber standing in the woods for the frame" but the Trustees would "cart the same, either ot the mill for sawing, or on the spot for framing after same is squared in the woods." Reverend Ithamer Pillsbury officiated at the official dedication of the church in 1827. The old church building was put up for public auction. The seven members of the church in the 1820s were: Obadiah Smith, Susannah Smith, Goerge and Elizabeth Phillips, William Saxton, Dorcus Saxton, and Mary Blydenburgh. Soon, the church had fourteen new members with surnames of Newton, Norton, Wickes, and Platt. The Trustees of the church called upon Curtiss once again in 1835 to build the parsonage on land donated by William Blydenburgh. The congregation included 74 people by 1840. The architectural style of the wood frame church building is Federal, with a hint of Gothic influence in the corner spirelets of the three upper clock tower stages. A Palladian window above the entrance has an elliptical arch. One odd feature was the placement of the pulpit in front of the main entrance (no sneaking in late for services without everyone seeing!). The church organ was installed in 1909, and the building was first electrified in 1916. The Narthex (library) was added in 1898 to be a space for Sunday School, social gatherings and meetings. A Parish Hall was completed in 1950 to the rear of the church and an education wing was added in 1963. A low picket fence surrounding the churchyard was removed in the 1950s. Some wood frame horse sheds were still standing in the 1970s when the property was documented for New York State's historic preservation department; they had been moved further west in 1963. Commemorative plaques have been placed in the vestibule behind the pulpit and under the bell tower in the balcony. Historic photographs and documents are displayed in the Narthex. The church anchors the west edge of the Branch Historic District, along Main Street, with buildings dating from the 1720s to 1840s. West of this location, the modern-day commercial district of Smithtown was established along Main Street. There is limited in-person attendance at masses due to the pandemic, but services are being live streamed on Facebook, as of spring 2021.

The First Presbyterian Church, on the corner of E. Main Street and N. Country Road (Rt. 25A) in Smithtown, was constructed in the mid-1820s. The children of Richard Smith, the founder of Smithtown, donated the land for the church, and an earlier church building was moved here around 1750; the earlier church had been fired upon by the British during the Revolutionary War, while Reverend Joshua Hart was preaching. In April 1823, the parish hired George Curtiss to build a new "House of Worship of Amighty God." The new Presbyterian Meeting House was officially dedicated on September 9th 1827. The First Presbyterian Church building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977. The church is still open as part of a Presbyterian parish.

First Presbyterian Church

Thomas Hallock (sometimes spelled Halliock) - and later his descendants - ran the inn and tavern. The inn accommodated stagecoach travelers and hosted local social events. The tavern and inn was reportedly a popular place for the occupying British forces during the Revolutionary War. A Thomas Hallock living in Smithtown in 1850 was an 80-year-old farmer (born circa 1770), and may be the third generation of Hallocks at the inn. Thomas shared his home with his 49-year-old son, James; James' wife or sister, Margaret (45); James' sister or wife, Alma (46); and one child, Julia C. Hallock (9). Two ladies in the household, Emily Smith (23) and Cynthia Floyce (17), may have been servants. A Post Office was established in the Halliock Tavern by the 1850s; an 1858 map labels the building J. Halliock's Hotel and Post Office. Earlier, mail was carried across Long Island by a lone rider on horseback, and moved up to a one-horse wagon by the 1820s. The weekly stage coach across the island left Brooklyn on Tuesdays, carrying the mail along the main road by the inn (Middle Country Road); the overnight stops were at the Halliock Inn, with the stage coach returning to Brooklyn on Friday evenings. James Hallock still owned the inn by 1867. A large room on the second floor could be partitioned and became a local meeting room. The Masonic Lodge met here from 1806 to 1818, followed by the annual town meetings from 1832 to 1868. The first library in Smithtown was housed in the building up to around 1870, including over 300 volumes. The inn may have become a boarding house by 1870. James Hallock's (age 69) 1870 household consisted of his presumed daughter; Julia Roe (29); his grandson, John J. Roe (3), and two teachers: William F. Dickinson (27) and Emily Smith (36). A lawyer, Frank Haight (28) occupied the house, as did a servant, Fillmore Hunter (16, African-American). Three boarders also lived in the home: Samuel Blydenburgh (71); Amanda Smith (28); and Elizabeth Johnson (49). The Turrell family occupied the house after Dr. Guy H. Turrell bought the property in 1905. The doctor's son, Loring, wrote a book on the natural history of the Township of Smithtown in 1939; the Long Island Room of the main branch of the Smithtown Library contains a copy. A local historic preservationist, Virginia Turrell, was the last of the family to live in the Halliock Inn. The Hallock family - residents of Long Island since the 1600s and descendants of Peter Hallock, the first white settler on Long Island from the Connecticut colony - were still in Smithtown in the mid-twentieth century; Miss Sadie Hallock became the head librarian at the Smithtown Branch in 1944, which by then held 19,000 volumes. The exterior of the Halliock Inn was photo-documented in 1936 by an unknown photographer for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The front now features a small porch; in the 1930s, the front porch spanned the front of the house. For the last several decades, the property has been in the hands of Dr. Daniel Mayer, who operates his medical office from the building, specializing in allergies and immunology. The 2.38-ac property was listed for sale in 2021 for $2.2 million.

Halliock (or Hallock) Inn is located at 263 Main Street in Smithtown and dates to the eighteenth century. The building began around 1725 as three bays wide (part of the 2-1/2 story main section that faces the main road, also known as Middle Country Road). The western two front bays were added later. A 1-1/2 story wing was added to the rear, forming an L-shaped building. The architect of the building - also known as the Thomas Hallock Tavern - is not known. The building was an inn and tavern for many years, and later a library. Walt Whitman used to eat here at times in the 1830s while teaching in Smithtown. The building has been converted into medical offices by a doctor who bought the house several decades ago. Halliock Inn was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. 

Halliock Inn

The Long Island Museum's history originates in the early half of the twentieth century. Ward Melville, his wife Dorothy, and Robert Cushman Murphy established the Suffolk Museum to bring art to the public. The original building still stands today, however, the museum has since moved. The Suffolk Museum's collections grew through out the mid-twentieth century, and eventually they became too large for the space to house. Ward Melville purchased land for the new museum in 1955. This land was originally the site of lumber mills, and the sign of their presence there can still be seen today. Melville also purchased the D.T. Bayles Lumber Mill as the new museum building. The present location of the museum appears to be more of a village than a museum site. This is because that is what Melville had envisioned when purchasing the mill and surrounding land. It was constructed to look similar to a New England Village. This historic "village" opened in 1974, with the addition of the Carriage Museum in 1987. The Carriages had been apart of the original collection since 1952. The museum's collections continue to grow, and today,&nbsp;visitors to the site feel as though they have traveled back in time. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The mission of the Long Island Museum is "...dedicated to inspiring people of all ages with an understanding and enjoyment of American art, history and carriages as expressed through the heritage of Long Island and its diverse communities." The museum offers the public a chance to participate in a number of programs and learn from a variety of changing exhibitions. The Long Island Museum also includes The Carriage Museum as an extension of its own mission. 

Long Island Museum 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In November 1778, Major Tallmadge created a spy ring within&nbsp;New York City. The spy ring came to be known as the Culper Spy Ring. At the head of this spy circle&nbsp;was Abraham Woodhull with the alias Samuel Culper Sr.. The Culper Spy Ring operated for 5 years successfully providing information to the&nbsp;Colonial Army.&nbsp;Through the five years of operations, not one spy was captured or revealed. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Abraham Woodhull was born in Setauket, NY on Oct. 7, 1750. He was the son of a Magistrate. He was very involved in the community, from helping build the church to becoming Magistrate himself. He&nbsp;was&nbsp;Judge of Court of Common Pleas 1793-1799 and he was&nbsp;Magistrate and judge of Suffolk County, NY, from 1799-1810. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Members of the&nbsp;the Culper&nbsp;Spy Ring includes: Austin Roe, Caleb Brewster, Abraham Woodhull, and Anna Strong. Each member&nbsp;used an&nbsp;allias along with&nbsp;a sophisticated number system which&nbsp;allowed the spies to communicate through code.&nbsp;The names of these spies were so secretive that General George Washington did not even know the real names of the spies. &nbsp;&nbsp;

This is the grave site of Abraham Woodhull, America's first spy. George Washington came to Major Benjamin Tallmadge in November of 1778, asking him to create a ring of spies who would keep track of British movements. Major Talleyrand contacted his friends from Long Island to help with this task. He first contacted Abraham Woodhull making him the first American spy.     

Abraham Woodhull Tombstone

John R. Mather was born on November 20, 1814 in Port Jefferson (called "Drowned Meadow" then). His father, Richard, a shipbuilder, died in an accident while manning the ship Rogers at age 30, when John R. was two. Five years later, his mother, Irene (Willse) remarried to William R. Jones, another shipbuilder. John R. learmed the shipbuilding trade with his uncle in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and later worked in partnership with his stepfather in his shipyard until 1844 before establishing his own business in Port Jefferson. In 1840, John R. also served as Postmaster. John R. married Sarah Jane Wells, the daughter of a Stony Brook shipbuilder, in 1848. The couple's only son, John Titus Mather, was born on June 27th, 1854, and followed his father into the shipbuilding business. They also had two daughters: Irene Willse (borna bout 1850), and Sarah (born ca. 1851; later, the wife of Dr. M.L. Chambers). In 1860, the 37-year old ship carpenter owned real estate worth $3,000 and personal property valued at $1,500. The family shared their home with an African-American servant named Phebe Jones (age 40). During his career, John R. built many vessels, including the schooners Alfred E. Thorn (built in 1839), Excelsior (1840), Lady Suffolk (1849), John R. Mather (1851), Millard Filmore (1856), Willow Harp (1858), William H. Jones (1861), James Slater (1874), and Bessie Whiting (1883). In the 1860s, John R. was associated with a general store in partnership with Captain Thomas B. Hawkins and F.F. Darling, doing business as F.F. Darling &amp; Company. John R. later was a partner with William Jones (a half-brother?) in a lumber business, Mather &amp; Jones. In 1880, the Mather House was the home of John R. (age 63); his wife, Sarah J. (53); ad their three children Sarah D. (29); Irene W. (28); and John R. (25, a lumber dealer). John R. retired from shipbuilding in 1885. Sarah Jane Mather died in 1892. After being ill for only a few days, John R. passed away at his home in August 1899. The funeral for the beloved "Boss" Mather took place from the Mather home on Prospect Street. One of his obituaries noted that John R. was "always a staunch Democrat" and was a "warm admirer of Grover Cleveland." The only son, John Titus Mather, never married and died in 1928 while in Cuba. The philanthropist instructed in his will that a non-sectarian charitable hospital be funded by the estate. John T. Mather Hospital opened in the village of Port Jefferson one year later. The Mather House Museum offers guided tours; a donation is requested. Nineteenth-century furniture and household tools are on display in the home's parlor and kitchen, as well as nautical oil paintings by local artists, vintage shipbuilding tools and instruments, and half hull wooden models used by a local shipyard.

The Mather House was built in the 1840s or 1850s as the home of a shipbuilder named John R. Mather. The restored house has become part of a museum complex operated by the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson. The Mather House contains displays of shipbuilding tools and household antiques. The Country Store houses displays of vintage local items salvaged from a local store, barber shop (including the shaving mug of John T. Mather, the son of John R.), and butcher shop. Historic photos of the building of the sailing ship "Martha Wallace" in Port Jefferson are diplayed in the Marine Barn, with sails and sailmaking exhibits in the Sail Loft. The museum complex is open from late May to mid-October.

Northport to Smithtown to Port Jefferson Historical Driving Tour, North-central Long Island

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information