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Ken Brady

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Ken Brady. Photo by John Griffin

By Philip Griffith

I was sorry to read in The Port Times Record [Oct. 25] that Kenneth C. Brady Jr., born April 17, 1943, passed away on Oct. 24.

Ken inherited Rob Sisler’s title, Port Jefferson village historian. Brady was the quintessential explorer of our Port history. He leaves us a legacy of 17,500 priceless photographs, numerous articles, eloquent historical lectures, fascinating artifacts and public exhibitions. A wise Irish patron of a local pub advised me, “Always expect the worst. You’ll never be disappointed.”

It was my pleasure to meet Ken as a co-writer and editor of The Echoes of Port newsletter distributed by the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson. He taught me much about accurate research and reporting. Along with me, Brady was a founding member of Port Jefferson Conservancy and later became its president. He worked tirelessly to preserve our village history, architecture, parks and surrounding waters of the Long Island Sound.

Beyond Port Jefferson, he served as president of the Suffolk County Historical Society. His books on Belle Terre and photographs of Arthur S. Greene are gems. I especially enjoyed his many photographic exhibits at the Port Jefferson Village Center and at our annual dinner of the Port Jefferson Historical Society at Port Jefferson Country Club.

In addition, Ken was a frequent contributor to The Port Times Record, best known for his Hometown History series. TBR News Media named him as a 2013 People of the Year winner.

I visited Ken many times in his archive office, which he designed and created on the second floor of the Village Center. He was always gracious about my interrupting his work and generous with sharing information for my research. Ken was a walker and often greeted residents on his journey. My grandson Jack lived on South Street, and Ken always gave him a high five and a smile. When Jack went ice skating at The Rinx adjoining the Village Center, he always went upstairs to visit Ken, who offered him a few peppermint candies to enjoy.

A retired Sachem teacher, Ken loved children and Jack loved him — as all who knew him did.

Ken had a great sense of humor. He was a kind, intelligent, unassuming gentleman. You’d see him in his Montauk sweatshirt, a place where he spent many days at his second home. In this small resort village called “The End,” and the location of seven Stanford White homes, Ken spent many hours with his good friends, Mike and Claire Lee. The surrounding ocean waters beguiled them. Ireland, the land of his ancestors, is noted for its saints and scholars. In my judgment, Ken qualified for both categories.

It is ironic that days before Ken’s death, I met Mike Lee at the Colosseo Pizzeria in Port Jeff Station. As I frequently do, I asked Mike, “How is Ken?” He replied, “Fine.”

There’s an old Hasidic adage that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for the next week.” At 11 a.m. on Oct. 27 in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Kenneth C. Brady Jr. was laid to rest before more than 100 friends and neighbors. The Methodist Rev. Charles Van Houten conducted the solemn graveside service. Van Houten and attending mourners offered prayers.

Mike Lee made a fittingly concluding remark. I made a fittingly concluding remark, too. I said, “Ken, you are now a part of Port Jefferson’s history.”

Rest in peace.

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Local historian Kenneth “Ken” Brady died peacefully on Tuesday, Oct. 24. He was 80 years old.

Brady served as Port Jefferson village historian for nine years and was a longtime member of the Port Jefferson Historical Society. Brady was also president of the Harbor Conservancy. He was a retired schoolteacher at Sachem High School, where he taught for 33 years.

In addition to his community service work and historical research, Brady was a frequent contributor to The Port Times Record, best known for his “Hometown History” series. TBR News Media named Brady as a 2013 Person of the Year.

A graveside service will take place on Friday, Oct. 27, at 11 a.m. at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Port Jefferson. A pastor will officiate the service.

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Above, Celebrated local artist Louise Brett, left, and Theresa Emery, right, are pictured on the bridge that crosses over the LIRR tracks at Sheep Pasture Road, February 1948. Note the sign for McDonald turkeys. Photo courtesy Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

McDonald Farms, once the largest turkey breeding farm in New York state, was located south of Sheep Pasture Road and the LIRR tracks in Port Jefferson Station.

Established in 1939 by the William P. McDonald Construction Company, the farm was tucked away in the woods nearby McDonald’s sand mine on Sheep Pasture Road.

In 1944, Ledkote Products Company, the corporate predecessor of now-shuttered Lawrence Aviation, purchased McDonald Farms and continued raising turkeys on the property.

Retaining the name McDonald Farms, the business flourished after World War II, creating a demand for poultrymen who were offered $30 per week and lodging as compensation.

In 1947, the farm had 5,000 breeders and raised over 20,000 Broad Breasted Bronze and White Holland turkeys, advertised as the “undisputed monarchs of the entire turkey kingdom.” 

Above a Thanksgiving postcard. Photo courtesy Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

The business boasted everything necessary to ready birds for the market, including incubators, nurseries, floor brooders, houses for the hens and toms, ranges planted in clover and dressing rooms.

A leader in the poultry trade, McDonald Farms hosted the regional Northeastern Turkey Growers Convention in July 1947. The two-day event featured a tour of the farm, a banquet at Teddy’s Hotel and Restaurant at the intersection of Main and East Broadway in Port Jefferson, and agricultural programs at Port Jefferson High School.

McDonald Farms generously donated turkeys to needy individuals and charitable organizations, not only on Thanksgiving but throughout the year. 

The business also welcomed field trips from students in all age groups, reaching youngsters in the lower grades as well as upperclassmen in John E. Berney’s vocational agriculture class at the high school.

A roaring fire destroyed a four-story feed hopper at McDonald Farms in April 1955, but fortunately no fatalities or serious injuries resulted from the blaze.

Beginning in 1959, Lawrence Aviation began manufacturing titanium sheeting at what was formerly the McDonald Farms property, marking the site’s transformation from agricultural to industrial use.

Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of the village.

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Interior view of Fort Moultrie, Charleston, South Carolina, April 1861, where Scanlan served during the attack on Fort Sumter. Photo from a stereograph; Library of Congress

Cedar Hill Cemetery is located in Port Jefferson on a commanding site high above the village’s downtown and harbor.

Among those at rest in the cemetery, there are over 40 soldiers and sailors who served with the North during the Civil War.

Capt. C. A. Scanlan is also buried in the cemetery, but he fought against the Union forces in the South’s Lost Cause. His tombstone is inscribed with “C.S.A.,” the initials representing the Confederate States of America.

Who was this former Rebel officer and how did he become one of Port Jefferson’s permanent residents?

Charles Anthony Scanlan was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1825. Married twice, he had a daughter with his first wife.

Scanlan worked as a shipsmith on the docks in Charleston, South Carolina, worshipped at the city’s First Baptist Church, was a Freemason, and belonged to the local militia.

Scanlan’s tombstone at Port Jefferson’s Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Photo by Kenneth C. Brady

After South Carolina seceded from the Union, Federal troops transferred from the garrison at Fort Moultrie to the stronger Fort Sumter, both part of Charleston’s harbor defenses. Scanlan was among the Carolinians who then occupied the abandoned Fort Moultrie.

Scanlan began his duties at the emplacement on Jan. 1, 1861, served as an acting military storekeeper and readied the stronghold’s guns and ordinance for what would become the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

The action began on April 12, 1861, when a ring of Confederate batteries around Charleston Harbor hammered Fort Sumter, the barrage announcing the start of the Civil War. Described as a “sergeant” in a later account of the assault, Scanlan led a detachment of six men in Fort Moultrie’s magazine, one of the emplacements blasting the Union forces

Following the evacuation of the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, Scanlan was assigned to Fort Walker on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island. In official accounts of the battle, Scanlan was identified as a “lieutenant” and commended for his work in the citadel’s magazine.

After tours at South Carolina’s Castle Pinckney and Fort Beauregard, Scanlan was assigned to Fort Sumter, where he was wounded in August 1863 during the Union’s bombardment of the Confederate stronghold.

Scanlan ended his days in the military as a captain. He returned to Charleston where he resumed his work as a shipsmith, later pursuing an entirely new career.

Phosphate rocks, which existed in large quantities near Charleston, were used in the manufacture of commercial fertilizer. Scanlan fabricated machinery that improved the dredging of the valuable rock from South Carolina’s riverbeds. Securing patents on his inventions in 1877 and 1883, Scanlan profited handsomely from the extensive phosphate digging in the Ashley River region.

During the mining operations, fossils were found in the phosphate deposits. Fascinated with natural history, Scanlan began gathering the specimens, amassing the largest private collection of fossils in South Carolina and among the largest in the nation.

Following the death of his second wife Eliza in 1890, Scanlan moved to Port Jefferson to live with his daughter Mary Estelle who had married Henry Randall, a prominent Port Jefferson businessman and banker.

The Randalls spent summers at their house on Port Jefferson’s Myrtle Avenue and winters at their home in Brooklyn, with the elder Scanlan joining in the seasonal move.

Scanlan quickly became well-known in Port Jefferson. In 1893, he exhibited portions of his fossil collection at the village’s Athena Hall (Theatre Three) and later in many of Port Jefferson’s storefronts.

But two events brought Scanlan even wider acclaim. His fossils were displayed at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and at the Agricultural Palace during the Charleston Exposition, both shows earning Scanlan rave reviews for his superb collection.

Interior view of Fort Moultrie, Charleston, South Carolina, April 1861, where Scanlan served during the attack on Fort Sumter. Photo from a stereograph; Library of Congress

Besides providing his fossils for public viewing, Scanlan donated items from his collection to universities and museums in the United States and abroad, where paleontologists used the specimens in their studies of early forms of life.

Growing older, Scanlan reflected on his years in the military, thinking that at the time of the Civil War he had been “in the right” to support disunion, but later coming to believe he had fought in a “mistaken cause.”

Although he had once worn Confederate Gray, Scanlan was treated respectfully in Port Jefferson by his former foes. During Decoration Day ceremonies at Cedar Hill Cemetery in May 1905, he was among those honored by Lewis O. Conklin Post 627, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a Union veteran organization with a “camp” in the village.

Scanlan died in Brooklyn in 1907. Following Baptist services held at his son-in-law’s Port Jefferson home, Scanlan was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

In 1913, Scanlan’s massive collection of fossils, amounting to over nine barrels of diggings, was sold by his estate to Connecticut’s Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History where Scanlan’s legacy lives on.

Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as s well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.

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Port Jefferson’s salt meadow land is depicted west of Jones Street, today’s Main Street, on this portion of E. Belcher Hyde’s 1909 Atlas of Suffolk County, volume two. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

Typhoid fever broke out in Port Jefferson in 1919, 1921 and 1924, sickening scores of villagers, claiming the lives of others and revealing shortcomings in the public health system.

Although uncommon in the United States today, typhoid fever is contracted by eating food or drinking beverages that have been handled by someone who is shedding Salmonella Typhi or if sewage contaminated with the bacteria gets into the water used for washing food or drinking.

The symptoms of typhoid include sustained fever, weakness, stomach pain, headache, diarrhea or constipation, cough and loss of appetite. 

The communicable disease struck Port Jefferson during September and October 1919, resulting in 29 cases and one death. The State Health Department concluded that the outbreak was probably due to the “infection of the milk supply by a typhoid carrier.” Officials who investigated the epidemic found other unsanitary conditions in Port Jefferson.

Sewage was disposed in the village’s downtown by surface drains which emptied on the salt meadows located west of Jones Street, now Main Street. The marshes flooded during high tide, carried human waste over a wide area and polluted soil and water. 

Port Jefferson’s salt meadow land is depicted west of Jones Street, today’s Main Street, on this portion of E. Belcher Hyde’s 1909 Atlas of Suffolk County, volume two. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

The salt meadow land, referred to as the “swamp section” in local parlance, was used as a public dump, known for its horrible stench and avoided by villagers during low tide when the unsightly filth hidden by high water was exposed.

As early as 1894, members of the Ladies Village Improvement Society had urged Brookhaven Town to build modern sewers in Port Jefferson, but a new system was still not in place during the 1919 typhoid outbreak.

The dread disease returned to the village in fall 1921, left 14 dangerously ill and took the life of prominent Port Jefferson businessman Gilbert E. Loper. Once again, a dairy employee was suspected of being a typhoid carrier. 

Charles L. Bergen, former chief of the Port Jefferson Fire Department, fell victim to typhoid in August 1924 when the disease struck the village and sickened 31 others. Health officials surmised that the typhoid outbreak was likely “milk-borne,” adding that the offending milk was unpasteurized and that local dairies were not regularly inspected.

The epidemic also showed that Port Jefferson was unprepared to handle the surge of typhoid victims. St. Charles Hospital then specialized in the care of disabled children and Mather Hospital was yet to open.

The Catholic sisters from the Daughters of Wisdom had graciously proposed to establish an annex on the grounds of St. Charles Hospital for typhoid sufferers alone. Out of an abundance of caution, their kind offer was not accepted because there was a dairy nearby the planned site.  

When a critically ill patient from Port Jefferson was transported to a private hospital in Patchogue for medical treatment, some of the latter’s merchants decried the move, contending it might frighten away summer vacationers during the height of the tourist season.

Jacob Dreyer, editor of the Port Jefferson Times, attacked the Patchogue Argus, alleging that its slanted coverage of the typhoid outbreak was no more than an attempt to boost Patchogue at the expense of its stricken sister village. 

The Port Jefferson Business Men’s Association was also concerned about the impact of the outbreak on the local economy, arguing that the metropolitan newspapers had exaggerated conditions in the village and that the negative publicity had dampened sales in Port Jefferson. 

The city papers countered that both the Port Jefferson Echo and Port Jefferson Times had suppressed news of the epidemic and sugarcoated the harsh reality of the outbreak.

As no new typhoid cases were reported in Port Jefferson and life returned to normal in the village, there were calls for a county hospital, model health laws and full-time health officers. 

The epidemic also stoked long-simmering tensions between Patchogue and Port Jefferson and revived calls for Port Jefferson’s incorporation and the village’s right to govern independent of Brookhaven Town.   

More important, the outbreak led to improvements in Port Jefferson’s sewerage system, frequent inspections of local dairies, the filling in of the village’s lowlands and other prevention measures, effectively ending the scourge of typhoid fever in Port Jefferson.  

Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.

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The Schooner Restaurant was once a familiar sight on West Broadway in Port Jefferson. Formerly the yacht Ilikamo, the vessel was brought to the village in 1946, placed on land and converted into a distinctive eatery. The restaurant was razed in April 1968. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

By Kenneth Brady

The Schooner, once advertised as Long Island’s most novel restaurant, was a waterfront landmark in Port Jefferson from 1946 through 1968.

Located on the south side of West Broadway (Route 25A), the eatery was the brainchild of brothers Charles and Elmer Mapp who had found the schooner yacht Ilikamo languishing in a Riverhead, New York, boatyard.

Taken with the Ilikamo’s graceful lines, the Mapps purchased the 44-ton ship, which they had towed to the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor and brought ashore for remodeling.

Transformed into a distinctive restaurant, the Ilikamo was then moved to a site on West Broadway and placed on a concrete foundation.

Sitting on land, her days on the seas over, the Ilikamo had reached her final destination, but surprisingly the ship’s last voyage was not her first to Port Jefferson.

Built in 1899 at Rice Brothers in East Boothbay, Maine, the Ilikamo was formerly the yawl Regina. In 1901, the 61-foot Regina was converted into a schooner yacht at Port Jefferson’s Bayles Shipyard, just one of the pleasure craft’s many ties with the village.

Later renamed Sita and ultimately Ilikamo, the luxurious schooner yacht regularly visited Port Jefferson during the early twentieth century, often returning to Bayles Shipyard where she was hauled out for repairs and laid up for the winter.

Over the years, sailing under her different names, the ship cruised along the east coast of North America, never straying too far from Long Island’s waters.

By summer 1940, the Ilikamo was under the command of William J. Marshall of Greenport, anchored in Southold Bay and being used as a training ship for Sea Scouts, the maritime branch of the Boy Scouts.

Marshall enlisted in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) before America’s entry into World War II and died of natural causes in 1944 while serving as a lieutenant. He was the Ilikamo’s last documented owner before the Mapps brought the ship to Port Jefferson.

Sensitive to the yacht’s rich and varied history, the Mapps were careful to preserve many of the craft’s original features while preparing the ship for its new life as a landlocked restaurant. With the yacht’s character intact, the Schooner opened on Oct. 26, 1946.

The entrance to the dining room, as well as a service counter for takeout, were located on the port side of the restaurant. The menu featured standard fare with the emphasis on short-order selections with nautical names, such as “Sea-Pups (small meatballs).”

Adding to its curb appeal, the sides of the Schooner were painted in gleaming white. Two masts towered over the restaurant; their “sails” outlined at night by strings of electric lights that could be seen by ships passing in Long Island Sound.

In 1949, the Mapps sold the Schooner to Rose Ceperano of Poquott, who over time made several changes at the eatery. Among the improvements, she expanded the menu, enlarged the kitchen, added a covered patio for outdoor dining and constructed small outbuildings on the grounds. Ceperano also closed the restaurant during the winter months, reopening in the spring.

Although she initially ran the Schooner as a family business, Ceperano subsequently leased the establishment. Called “Tom’s Schooner,” the eatery broadened its menu to include Italian cuisine.

Wer-Kay Realty Corporation purchased the Schooner from Ceperano in January 1968. After the eatery was razed that April, the New Schooner Restaurant was built on the cleared land. The site is now home to SāGhar Indian Fusion Restaurant.

Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.

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Flames shoot out from the O.B. Davis furniture store on Port Jefferson’s East Main Street. The building was fully involved when volunteers from the Port Jefferson Fire Department arrived at the scene. PJFD Collection

By Kenneth Brady

A ferocious fire erupted at the O.B. Davis furniture store on Port Jefferson’s East Main Street at 6:20 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 26, 1960.

Erwin McMullen, whose East Main Street grocery was across from the furniture store, heard the sound of shattering glass hitting the sidewalk as windows in O.B. Davis were blown out by the intense heat.

Irving Lee, chief of the Port Jefferson Fire Department, and his wife Laura were driving on the village’s Main Street heading toward the Elk Restaurant when he saw the mass of flames. Not wasting a second in turning his car around, Lee quickly shifted into reverse, backed all the way to the firehouse on Maple Place and took command of the situation.

“The store was fully involved when units arrived at the scene,” recalled Mike Lee, who witnessed the blaze as a teenager and would later become chief of the PJFD. “Flames were shooting out of the upper floors of the building.”

The volunteer firemen spent hours battling the fire and protecting exposures at the Presbyterian Church, Port Hardware and nearby homes before bringing the roaring blaze under control.

Despite the best efforts of the PJFD, plus mutual aid from neighboring fire departments, the building was completely destroyed in the inferno.

Volunteer firemen battle the roaring blaze at the O.B. Davis furniture store on Port Jefferson’s East Main Street. The ferocious fire claimed one life and destroyed a village landmark. PJFD Collection

The savage fire also claimed the life of Clifford Ivines, the store’s watchman and an over 50-year employee of O.B. Davis, whose body was later found in the building’s ruins.

“Not only did Port Jefferson lose a life and a landmark building in the devastating fire,” said longtime villager Barbara Schroeder who owns a prized desk bought at the O.B. Davis furniture store, “but also part of Port Jefferson’s history.”

O.B. Davis traces the firm’s origins back to 1858 when Elbert A. Raynor bought the late Ambrose T. King’s funeral parlor/furniture shop. The building was located approximately across from today’s Bridgeport-Port Jefferson ferry landing on East Broadway.

Raynor moved the firm in 1898 to East Main Street at Hotel Square. Upon Raynor’s death in 1914, Orlando B. Davis took over the business.

The company’s furniture and funeral divisions separated in 1935. The former continued its activities at Hotel Square while the latter began operations in a new home at 218 East Main Street.

In 1939, the existing furniture store was remodeled, and an addition was constructed to the west of the original quarters.

Built of steel frame and cinder block with stucco on the outside, the three-story addition provided elevator service, 15 model rooms and 17,000 square-feet of floor space. The front was faced with black porcelain and featured three show windows.

“At the time of the fire, one of the show windows at the furniture store included a beautiful canopied bed with white ruffles that I thought of buying for our newborn daughter Brenda,” remembered former Port Jefferson Mayor Sandra Swenk, “but the flames reduced everything to ruins.”

The twisted wreckage of what was once the largest retail furniture store in Suffolk County was hauled away after the fire. The Sil-Flo Building at 407 East Main Street, which houses the local United States Post Office, now occupies the site of the blaze.

Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.

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