Tags Posts tagged with "Ward Melville Heritage Organization"

Ward Melville Heritage Organization

by -
0 110

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO)’s Stony Brook Grist Mill, a nearly 300-year-old building, has undergone a series of procedures to stop water from entering its basement. Groundwater around the foundation of the building has been leaking through the walls due to the hydraulic pressure from upstream for years.

To halt any further damage and repair the structure, Excav Services Vice President Dylan Governale was retained. Excav Services has already begun their work waterproofing the wall below the footing with black mastic against the foundation along the fiberboards and then protection board and installing drainage at the bottom of the trough, as well as installing three inches of clay material and fabric and then backfilling it. 90% of the water has stopped leaking. To find the remaining 10%, the interior wall was pressure washed to see where the water was coming from and then they will inject those spots with a compound to fully stop leakage through the walls.

The Stony Brook Grist Mill (c. 1751) is Long Island’s most fully operational mill. A mill is a place that grinds grains such as wheat, barley, corn and oats. Grist Mill has played a role in the development of Stony Brook since its original construction in 1699. It was once even a health food store and grain was shipped to 46 states. 

New stories have been uncovered about the Stony Brook Grist Mill, including ones about its patriotic owners during the American Revolution, a scandalous will and its suffragette owner in the early 1900s who sought an experimental child birthing experience.

People of all ages are able to experience the history and inner mechanics of the mill in the WMHO’s Dusty Program.

The Stony Brook Grist Mill will be open for the 2022 season on Saturday, April 16 and will be open on weekends through October starting the weekend of April 23, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for tours ($4 for adults, $2 for children), as well as its Country Store. For more information, call 631-751-2244 or visit www.wmho.org.

by -
0 1581
A production crew, above, was at the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook Feb. 18 filming for a documentary about the Green Brook. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization

For several decades in the 20th century, many who were Black would refer to “The Negro Motorist Green-Book” to find hotels, restaurants and more that would be accommodating when they traveled in a segregated United States.

Gloria Rocchio, president of WMHO, Rae Marie Renna, Three Village Inn general manager, Ja-Ron Young, documentary creator Alvin Hall and Chrissy Robinson. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization

Recently, Alvin Hall, who has hosted the “Driving the Green Book” podcast about various locations across the U.S., decided to find out if any of the sites on Long Island existed. During his research, he discovered that the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook was featured in the travel guide a couple of times, and he was pleasantly surprised that the hotel was still standing.

Last Friday, Hall and his documentary crew visited the Three Village Inn to film parts of a new documentary series and sat with The Ward Melville Heritage Organization president, Gloria Rocchio, and the inn’s general manager Rae Marie Renna.

The group talked about the travel guide released annually from 1936 to 1966 and published by African-American mailman Victor Hugo Green from Harlem, New York City. The guidebook was the subject of the 2018 movie “Green Book,” winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Mahershala Ali as classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen as his driver during one of the pianist’s Southern tours.

The guidebook was published in the spring before people tended to go on vacation during the warmer months, Hall said. It was small enough to fit into an old-fashioned glove compartment, and businesses were able to write in to request to be in it.

Hall said the production team found the Three Village Inn listed in the guide when they were looking at those issued around 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed. The inn was in the 1963 and 1967 editions, according to WMHO. Places such as The Garden City Hotel, Sky Motel in Lindenhurst and Meadowbrook Motor Lodge in Jericho, which were also listed and are still open, will be part of the series, too.

Hall said it’s impressive that places such as Three Village Inn and the other Long Island sites are still standing decades later as many places across the country listed in the Green Book no longer exist.

Hall’s “Driving the Green Book” podcast featured him traveling from Detroit to New Orleans to search for places listed in the travel guide.

“You discover in town after town that often the routing of the interstate highway system was critical to killing off a lot of these places,” he said. “It wasn’t just that the business went down. A lot of it was just that the city decided to build the interstate highway system or major roadway right through that part of town and a lot of it was to kill off the Black business areas.”

When he worked on his podcast, he was on the road for 12 days in 2021 and conducted 40 interviews. It took about a year to edit all the material for the podcast series. With the television documentary, the hope is that it can be completed in a few months.

The producer said the series looks to see what changed in the North after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, what stayed the same, and how the North and South differed. 

A photos of attendees at a music festival at Dogwood Hollow Amphitheater. Photo from Ward Melville Heritage Organization

“It just made sense when you heard some of the stories about Long Island during the time of segregation and Jim Crow in the U.S., and the redlining that banks did out there,” Hall said. “So, it became just an interesting place to explore as sort of emblematic of the larger America.”

Hall said while many thought the North was different from the South, “in reality, a lot of the communities were quite segregated.”

“When Black people came up from the South, they were often put in specific neighborhoods, and a narrative was created around their behavior, their attitudes and everything, and used to exclude them. And, Long Island was no different from the rest of America in that way. I think a lot of people came up from the South thinking it was going to be the land of milk and honey, and it turned out just to be another variation on the South.”

During the visit to the Three Village Inn, Hall along with comedian Ja-Ron Young and college student Chrissy Robinson, who also appear in the documentary, learned about Dogwood Hollow Amphitheater where a festival, featuring various artists organized by Ward Melville, was held. This 2,300 seat amphitheater existed, near where the Stony Brook Village Center’s Educational & Cultural Center is now located, from 1955 to 1970. Rocchio said at first it opened with 500 seats but on the first night 500 more people had to be turned away. Within a year, the occupancy increased. The venue offered shows with jazz performers such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. Entertainers, including Liberace and Tony Bennett, also graced the stage.

“We found the contracts in the safe,” Rocchio said. “We could never do what [Melville] did. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars each season, having people like Liberace, the King Sisters.”

It’s believed that the Three Village Inn was included in the book because the entertainers stayed there after shows, something that wasn’t the case in many parts of the country as many Black artists would perform in a venue, but then not be able to lodge or eat there.

Hall said it was a progressive move during the era to have a show such as the music festival in Stony Brook where white and Black people performed together and sat unsegregated in the audience.

“I think that by creating the Dogwood festival at the theater, having jazz and having the same people stay there, that was very unusual,” Hall said, adding the movie “Green Book” showed how Shirley’s driver had to use the book to find places for them to stay.

Hall said Young was surprised when he saw one of the photos from the festival where there weren’t segregated sections, something that was uncommon in the 1960s and earlier.

“He said he was amazed at how integrated the audiences were in the photographs,” Hall said. “He says when he plays clubs it’s either generally a white audience with a few Black people, or a Black audience with a few white people. He noted that back then, at that festival near the inn, that it was more integrated than he sees today. You could tell he was quite amazed by that.”

Hall said he included Young and Robinson to show them the journey many took in the 20th century.

“They not only hear the stories, but it’s very important that they hear how the people coped with it, but also how the people did not get trapped in bitterness about the situation,” Hall said. “And they emerged from the opposite side of this with grace, and they acknowledged what happened, and they clearly see it, but they did not get trapped in bitterness.”

Hundreds filled Stony Brook Village Center Sunday, Dec. 5, for the return of some old favorites.

Last year The Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Annual Holiday Festival had to be scaled back due to COVID-19 restrictions, and there were no visits with santa, parade and various activities. This year the event returned in full force for the 42nd year. From noon to 6 p.m., the shopping center was filled with activities including performances, music from WALK 97.5, a petting zoo and more.

Attendees were able to stop by Wiggs Opticians to see the holiday train display in the storefront window, and children could visit Santa sitting in front of the post office to take photos and tell him what they wanted this holiday season. This year, Santa sat behind a plexiglass shield to protect him from getting sick.

At 2:15 p.m., a parade led by the Ward Melville High School Band featured the annual Legends & Spies Puppet Procession that included the likenesses of former prominent Three Village residents such as Ward and Dorothy Melville, Anna Smith Strong and William Sidney Mount.

Later in the day, Santa got aboard a holiday float to begin the tree-lighting ceremony and cap off the night on a festive note.

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) presents a new seasonal walking tour titled “Winter Walks Through Time” that will feature stories passed down through the ages and new interpretations of Stony Brook Village from indigenous people to modern day marketing. 

Participants in the walking tour will enjoy new stories about Stony Brook Village and its former residents. This includes the history of winter whaling on Long Island, how Dorothy Melville saved Christmas, the design of Stony Brook Village by Ward Melville and Richard Haviland Smyth, and the history and magic of holiday window displays.

Tours will leave from the Stony Brook Post Office at 129 Main Street on Friday, Dec. 10 at 10:50 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. Tickets for this event are $15 per person, and includes hot chocolate from Stony Brook Chocolate. Reservations are required by calling the Ward Melville Heritage Organization at 631-751-2244.

Photo from WMHO

On Sunday, Dec. 5, participants of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s (WMHO) Holiday Tree Competition will bring festive cheer to the Stony Brook Village Center, 111 Main St., Stony Brook and decorate 50 premium balsam trees that will line the open-air center’s walkways at the 42nd annual Holiday Festival. 

One tree will be selected by votes from the public between Sunday, Dec. 5  and Monday, Dec. 20 to win a $150 gift certificate to Stony Brook Village and its establishments. 

The decorated trees will remain in the village for viewing until Jan. 3.

Sponsors include Roosevelt Investments, Damianos Realty Group, GSE Dynamics, Central Semiconductor Corp and Armor Pest Control.

To learn more about the Holiday Tree Competition, call the WMHO office at 631-751-2244.

A puppet of businessman and philanthropist Ward Melville at the Stony Brook Village Holiday Festival's Legends & Spies Puppets Processional. Photo by Heidi Sutton

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO)’s 42nd Annual Holiday Festival will return on Sunday, December 5th from noon to 6 p.m. at the  Stony Brook Village Center, 111 Main St., Stony Brook with Santa, performances, displays, activities and more. This is an entirely free event.

Photo from WMHO

The festival will feature music from WALK 97.5 throughout the day, Wiggs Optician’s Holiday Train Display, carolers, a performance from Roseland Dance Studio and a petting zoo. The Bethel AME Choir will be returning to help brighten spirits with a performance.

Children can write letters to Santa and mail them at the Stony Brook Post Office in the red “Mail for Santa” mailbox as soon as November 22. Letters can be mailed to Santa through the season.

WMHO’s Youth Corps Santa Fund fundraiser will include a scavenger hunt with the chance to win Stony Brook Village Center gift certificates, Discovery Cruise tickets and other prizes.  All proceeds will be donated to Long Island Adolescent to benefit children in need over the holidays.

Photo from WMHO

While the festivities are in full swing, festival goers can participate in the Holiday Tree Festival by voting for their favorite trees as they will be decorated that day. Ballots can be found in all establishments in Stony Brook Village. Voting will take place from December 5 to December 20.

At 5:30pm, Santa will arrive on a holiday float, and with some children from the community, will light  the holiday tree on the Village Green.

The sponsors of the 42nd Annual Holiday Festival and the 42nd Annual Holiday Tree Competition are Roosevelt Investments, Damianos Realty Group, GSE Dynamics, LIDL, Central Semiconductor Corp., The Suffolk Center for Speech and Myofunctional Therapy and Armor Corporation.

For more information about the Holiday Festival, the WMHO Youth Corps Santa Fund or the WMHO, call (631) 751-2244.

###

Founded in 1939, WMHO is a not-for-profit corporation that develops and fosters community enrichment through cultural and educational experiences.  WMHO accomplishes this by enhancing and interpreting its historic and environmentally sensitive properties and by utilizing state-of-the-art technology. For more information, please visit www.wmho.org  

Local elected officials join WMHO chairman and president, Richard Rugen and Gloria Rocchio and the Minuses' daughter Cynthia Ann Murphy at the ribbon cutting. Photo by Rita J. Egan

A near hurricane couldn’t keep T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park from being a focal point of Stony Brook village.

Photo by Rita J. Egan

After Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through Long Island in August of 2020, the park, which runs adjacent to Avalon Nature Preserve, needed several repairs. The storm knocked down more than a dozen trees and destroyed the park’s braille engraved handrails, the borders maintaining the park’s gardens, the walkways along the pond and more.

At a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 18, The Ward Melville Heritage Organization presented the first phase of rehabilitation, which included new pathways and memorial stones. The second phase will include the repairing of the braille handrails and sensory gardens on the north side of the 1-acre park by Harbor Road.

At the dedication, Richard Rugen, WMHO chairman and a retired chiropractor, remembered Minuse who was one of his first patients. Minuse was the right-hand man of philanthropist Ward Melville when the village was being built and in the early days of Stony Brook Community Fund, which is now known as WMHO. Rugen described Minuse as “a straight-arrow guy.”

He also remembered Minuse’s wife, Elinore, who he described as having perfect posture and with a crown of white hair. He added she was a lady who was equally comfortable arguing a bill with the local garbage carter and could have high tea with the queen.

He said he believed the Minuses would be pleased with the renovated park: “In my heart, I know if they had the capacity to look down on us today, they would both be happy and proud to see the rededication of the T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park in his honor.”

Photo by Rita J. Egan

Rugen added that WMHO was grateful for the residents and businesses that contributed to the fundraiser to restore the park, which was originally dedicated to Minuse Dec. 6, 1981.

Gloria Rocchio, WMHO president, said soon after she and her husband moved to Stony Brook, more than 40 years ago, Minuse announced he was retiring, and she interviewed for his job. She was one out of six or seven interviewees. Rocchio added that the board voted unanimously to hire her. Minuse stayed on as a consultant for a year and to help guide Rocchio through the various responsibilities of running the organization.

“I’ll never forget that man,” she said.

Rocchio added that recently WMHO staff began scanning documents, which will soon be on the organization’s website, and have learned more about Minuse.

Joining the WMHO trustees for the ribbon-cutting ceremony were state Sen. Mario Mattera (R-St. James), state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), Head of the Harbor Mayor Douglas Dahlgard and Cynthia Ann Murphy, the Minuses’ daughter, and her family.

Brewster House

Experience the transformation history of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO)’s Brewster House (c. 1665) and Long Island on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. in their new program, “A Taste of the Tavern.” 

Photo from WMHO

Taking place at the authentic Brewster House and Tavern in Setauket, “A Taste of the Tavern” is designed to bring participants on a journey through three centuries of life in Setauket and on Long Island. 

Interactive stories include the origins of the Brewster House, the role of Nathaniel Brewster in local and international history, the occupation of the British during the American Revolution, the Culper Spy Ring, 17th century witch trials, African slavery, indigenous indentured labor, and the history of Colonial women. 

Guests will also enjoy an authentic bohea tea, the notorious tea that culminated the Boston Tea Party.

Admission is $12 per person and reservations are required. In-person, masks required regardless of vaccination status.

For more information on “A Taste of the Tavern” and to reserve your spot, call 631-751-2244.

'Oogie Boogie' scarecrow Photo from WMHO
‘The Groomery’ by The Groomery of Lake Grove. Photo from WMHO

Time to vote! 37 scarecrows of all shapes, sizes and characters have been erected throughout the Stony Brook Village Center for the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s 31st Annual Scarecrow Competition. 

Winning scarecrows will win cash prizes based on the number of votes they receive from the public — voting is free and is now open! Ballots can be found in all the shops. Once completed, ballots should be returned to any shop to be counted in for voting. Voting is open until Monday, Oct. 25.

The winners of the Scarecrow Competition will be announced at the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s 31st Annual Halloween Festival on Oct. 29 at 3 p.m.

The sponsors of the 31st Annual Scarecrow Competition are as follows: Main Event Sponsor – the Suffolk Center for Speech and Myofunctional Therapy, the Black Cauldron Sponsor – The RJG Consulting Group, the Ghosts & Goblins Sponsor – Dr. Robert Quilty and the Candy Corn Sponsor – Gold Fish Swim School.

To learn more about the Scarecrow Competition or the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, call 631-751-2244.

The Country House Restaurant
Author Kerriann Brosky

Join author Kerriann Flanagan Brosky on Thursday, September 30th at the Country House Restaurant, 1175 North Country Road, Stony Brook for a Lunch and Learn program beginning at 12:30 pm.

Brosky will be joined by the proprietor of the Country House Restaurant, Bob Willemstyn, as they recount their experiences with the spirits and the strange happenings of the Country House Restaurant. Haunts of other local properties owned by the Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) like the Brewster House (c. 1665), and the Thompson House (c. 1709) which is featured on the cover of Brosky’s new book “Haunted Long Island Mysteries”, will be discussed. $45 per person, includes signed book, program and appetizer luncheon, plus tax and gratuity. Beverages are additional.

The Country House Restaurant was originally a residential home from 1710 to 1970. Annette Williamson, daughter of the family that owned the house, resided there before the Revolutionary War. She is said to haunt the restaurant, as she was murdered by local townspeople for supposedly being a British spy. In the late 1800s it became the home of a famous British actor, Thomas Haddaway – who would hold meetings of spiritualism, including séances to contact the dead, with local neighbor, artist and poet William Sidney Mount. The Country House Restaurant has been the destination of ghost hunters and those fascinated with hauntings for centuries.

To learn more about this Lunch and Learn program and to register, call the Country House Restaurant at 631-751-3332. To learn more about the Brewster and Thompson Houses, call the Ward Melville Heritage Organization office at 631-751-2244.