By Beverly C. Tyler
As the shipbuilding era was ending in Stony Brook and East Setauket in the 1870s, the Long Island Railroad was completing the North Shore Line to Port Jefferson. The coming of the railroad made it possible for people and products to travel quickly overland and opened the Three Village area to tourism, especially from New York City
Until the railroad came, most travel and commerce to and from Long Island ports was conducted by ship. As the railroad became more efficient and reliable, tourism began to increase, especially during the summer months. Hotels, tourist homes and summer cottages opened in Stony Brook and Setauket, as they did throughout Long Island, to accommodate the influx of visitors.
By 1902, there were six hotels or tourist homes in Stony Brook and ten in Setauket-East Setauket which offered weekly rates. In Stony Brook, the Pine View House, run by Israel Hawkins, advertised as a family recreation summer boarding house with accommodations for 25 guests. Guests at the Pine View had the use of a beach house at West Meadow Beach.
In East Setauket, Shore Acres was a large boarding house overlooking Setauket Harbor. Shore Acres was run by Mr. and Mrs. William D. Oakes and had 30 rooms and one bathroom with a wash basin in each room. “In the large dining room on Sundays, the meal was usually chicken, slaughtered on Saturday evening, fresh garden vegetables and homemade ice cream.” (Long Island Museum 1981 exhibit Summer at the Shore). Boating and bathing were popular activities during these summers and Shore Acres had its own docks and boats for the use of guests. As noted by Barbara Russell, “Later, Mr. Oakes had a motorboat and would take boarders over to Whitehall Beach to spend afternoons.” (Down the Ways – The Wooden Ship Era)
In Setauket, the Lakeside House, now the Setauket Neighborhood House, had accommodations for 25 guests at $6.00 to $8.00 per week. The Lakeside House was run by my grandfather Captain Beverly Swift Tyler.
In 1879, he was master and 3/8 owner of the “Willow Harp”. She was a coastal schooner and carried coal from New Jersey to East Setauket. Beginning about the turn of the century, Captain Tyler, who then spent much of his time running the Lakeside House, would take guests on sailing outings on his catboat “Madeline” which was anchored in Setauket Harbor.
After he married my grandmother Edith Griffin in 1912, who first came to Setauket to stay a week at the Lakeside House with her sister Carolyn, she became the Lakeside hostess and manager of the kitchen and boarding house staff. Lucy Hart Keyes, born 1900, commented that she worked at the Lakeside house as a young girl and that Mrs. Tyler was “an easy person to work for.”
In 1906, my grandfather built the catboat “Setauket” in an area behind the Lakeside House. The “Setauket” was the second boat he built, the first being the “Madeline,” which, according to Roger Tyler, Captain Tyler’s nephew, “was built with the comments and help of friends and neighbors whose advice he took and later regretted. When the ‘Setauket’ was being built and comments were again offered, Captain Tyler this time pointed out that the ‘Madeline’ was their community boat and that he was building the ‘Setauket’ by himself.”
Sailboats and the harbors and inlets of the Three Village area were part of the attractiveness of the community at the turn of the century. Captain Tyler used the “Setauket” to take guests on excursions on the Sound and around Setauket and Port Jefferson Harbors. The “Setauket” was also built to race in local competitions in Port Jefferson Harbor. When the “Setauket” was built, Captain Tyler sold the “Madeline,” which was a fairly good racing catboat. Roger Tyler said that the “Setauket” was raced in Port Jefferson and was a consistent winner against all competition including the “Madeline.” Tyler commented that, “it got to be so that they wouldn’t tell Bev when a race was to be run and a few times he found out about them only just and hour or so before the race, but raced and won anyway.”
The tourism era in Setauket and Stony Brook continued strong until World War I. Captain Tyler sold the Lakeside House to Eversley Childs in 1918. Childs, who – the story goes – only wanted the tourist home for its liquor license, which he transferred to the St. George Golf and Country Club gave the Lakeside House to the community for its use. A number of other tourist homes in the Three Village area continued into the 1930s.
Beverly Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the Three Village Historical Society, 93 North Country Rd., Setauket, NY 11733. Tel: 631-751-3730. http://www.TVHS.org
