Stock certificate issued by the American Mining and Milling Company. Note the signature of Thomas Girvan, Silas B. Dutcher’s successor as the corporation’s president. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
What was happening at the entrance to Port Jefferson Harbor?
Between 1887-88, the American Mining and Milling Company had built some kind of a plant on the beach adjoining the harbor’s east jetty, but the secretive corporation had not told villagers what it planned to do at the factory.
Located on land in what is now McAllister County Park, the complex included three frame structures containing engines and machines, a track for railcars, stables, a dock and housing for laborers. Pipes brought fresh water to the works from an offsite well.
This chart, prepared by the United States Army, Corps of Engineers, June 30, 1884, shows the beach adjoining the Port Jefferson Harbor East Jetty where the plant was built. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Led by its president, prominent Brooklyn financier and politician Silas B. Dutcher, the AMMC had cobbled together the property by leasing shorefront on the east side of Port Jefferson Harbor from Brookhaven Town and the 1200-acre Oakwood estate from the Strong family.
Thomas Girvan, the superintendent of the plant and Dutcher’s successor as the AMMC’s president, was pressed by Port Jefferson’s residents and local newspapers to reveal the corporation’s intentions, but Girvan was not forthcoming. In addition, the AMMC’s employees were sworn to secrecy and worked behind barricaded doors.
The mystery only fueled wild rumors in Port Jefferson where villagers speculated that the AMMC was digging for Captain Kidd’s treasure, extracting aluminum, manufacturing roofing materials or making fine glass.
The AMMC was actually experimenting with a new method for grinding stone and sand. Seeing enormous profits in the venture, management was guarding the process from potential competitors.
The finished product, as fine as flour, was sold for filtering purposes, while byproducts, such as bird gravel, were marketed as well.
Not enjoying much commercial success, the plant closed in summer 1892, its income insufficient to meet the AMMC’s significant outlay of capital and labor. Lawsuits quickly followed, creditors demanding monies due and employees back wages.
After the works was sold at a sheriff’s sale, limited operations at the plant resumed in Dec. 1892, but attempts at reviving the flagging business were dashed on Sunday, Jan. 15, 1893, when a spectacular fire of undetermined origin destroyed most of the complex.
The American Mining and Milling Company’s factory was located on land in what is now McAllister County Park. A rare 1890 photo by Elmer P. Smith. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Without insurance on the plant, the new owners removed what could be salvaged from the ruins of the blaze and closed shop in Port Jefferson.
In the years following the fire, there were reports that some of the former employees at the AMMC’s complex had contracted a fatal lung disease, perhaps brought on by continually inhaling stone dust, marking a deadly end to the plant’s operations 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
Crowds gather at Port Jefferson’s Bayles Landing awaiting the departure of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the yawl Myth II. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his 1932 campaign for president of the United States by sailing from Port Jefferson across Long Island Sound into New England coastal waters.
Roosevelt had accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on July 2, 1932, at the party’s convention in Chicago.
Returning to New York where he was governor, FDR announced he would be going on a week’s cruise with his sons and departing from a secret Long Island location, later revealed as Port Jefferson.
Escorted by state troopers, Roosevelt motored from his home in Manhattan to Port Jefferson, arriving in the village around noon on July 11, 1932.
As seaplanes roared overhead, FDR was greeted by the tooting of boat whistles, screeching of car horns and the cheers of the hundreds who had lined Water Street (East Broadway).
Roosevelt made his way to Bayles Landing and boarded the Myth II, a 37-foot yawl rented for the trip from Prescott B. Huntington of St. James, New York.
Offering sleeping accommodations for six and a galley with a two-burner range, the unpretentious vessel had a black hull, orange deck and white cabin. With no auxiliary engine, the Myth II was solely dependent on her three sails for power.
Before casting off, FDR chatted with two local boys, Randall Woodard and Gilbert Kinner, who would become instant celebrities in Port Jefferson when they appeared in dockside photos and newsreels with the presidential nominee.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York State Governor and Democratic presidential nominee, is pictured aboard the yawl Myth II as he prepares to leave Port Jefferson on a vacation cruise with three of his sons. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Getting underway, a launch captained by E. Post Bayles pulled the Myth II into the choppy waters of Long Island Sound where the tow was parted, and the yawl caught the wind.
At the helm, Roosevelt laid a course for Connecticut, backed by a crew of three of his four sons, as well as friend George Briggs, who kept the ship’s log.
The luxury yacht Ambassadress, chartered by FDR’s supporters and advisers, and the motor yacht Marcon, packed with newspapermen covering Roosevelt’s voyage, followed in the Myth II’s wake.
Ostensibly, the vacation cruise was to provide FDR with rest and relaxation before beginning his campaign for president, but the trip was more about politics than recreation.
Roosevelt anchored at several ports during his “holiday” including New Haven, Connecticut; Marblehead, Massachusetts; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
At these locations, FDR worked to bring dissident Democrats into the fold, meeting with political leaders from New England who had supported former New York State Governor Alfred E. Smith as the party’s presidential nominee.
During each stop, political heavyweights attended strategy sessions aboard the Ambassadress and Roosevelt held daily press conferences with the reporters tagging along on the Marcon.
A victory for the Democrats, the extensively photographed cruise showed Roosevelt as a vigorous leader who was prepared to command the “Ship of State” as well as he captained the Myth II, countering claims that FDR was a helpless invalid crippled by polio.
Roosevelt would go on to defeat Republican candidate and incumbent President Herbert Hoover in the Nov. 8, 1932 election, marking the end of a campaign that began on a summer day aboard a sailboat in Port Jefferson Harbor.
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.
A steam locomotive is shown in August 1878 at Port Jefferson’s original LIRR depot and freight house situated west of Main Street (Route 25A). Photograph by George B. Brainerd; Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive.
After the Long Island Rail Road brought a branch to Northport in 1868, a group of prominent Port Jefferson businessmen lobbied for extending the north shore branch eastward to their village.
Although a leading wooden shipbuilding center in the years following the Civil War and blessed with one of the finest harbors on Long Island, Port Jefferson was surprisingly isolated for so important a village.
Going to New York City by train involved a tedious stage ride from Port Jefferson to Medford, the nearest station on the LIRR’s main line, followed by a rail trip to Long Island City and a ferry run across the East River to James Slip in Manhattan.
Stock certificate for the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, which was absorbed by the LIRR. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Port Jefferson Harbor often froze over during the winter and limited travel by packets, steamboats and other vessels engaged in waterborne commerce.
Hoping to make Port Jefferson more accessible and boost its economy, a committee of villagers was formed and charged with inducing the LIRR to bring freight and passenger service to Port Jefferson.
The diverse group included realtor William Fordham, publisher Harvey Markham, druggist Holmes Swezey, and tinsmith John Lee. They met regularly from 1868-1870 with representatives from St. James, Setauket, Stony Brook, and other communities where support for extending the Northport branch was strong.
Following lengthy discussion, a proposal was submitted to and accepted by the LIRR. The Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, organized in 1870, pledged to raise the money necessary to construct the 18-mile extension from Northport to Port Jefferson. Upon completion of the project, the LIRR agreed to lease and operate the franchise for 20 years.
Respected Port Jefferson shipbuilder James M. Bayles was elected president of the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, and Robert W. Wheeler, who ran a flour/saw mill in Port Jefferson, served on its board of directors. The corporation had an authorized capital stock of $200,000, divided into shares of $25 each.
After surveys were completed, rights-of-way secured and contracts finalized, construction began on the 18-mile road. Gangs worked from 1871-1873 on separate parts of the route. The eastern, or Port Jefferson section, employed 200 men under the direction of Captain John Scully.
On Monday, Jan. 13, 1873, the first train left Port Jefferson at 6 a.m. with 24 passengers for the over three-hour, 58-mile trip to Long Island City. The fare on the inaugural run was $1.90.
The terminal at Port Jefferson, including a depot, freight house, turntable, and platform, was located on the west side of today’s Main Street (Route 25A).
The coming of the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, which was absorbed by the LIRR in 1892, raised property values in Port Jefferson and eased travel to and from the village.
The railroad also brought tourists to Port Jefferson, hastened the village’s transition from a shipbuilding center to a vacationland, lessened Port Jefferson’s dependence on sea trade, and made the village a transit hub.
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.
The Bay View Pavilion, left, and Wilson’s Sail Loft, right, are pictured on the waterfront off Port Jefferson’s East Broadway. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Once a lively Port Jefferson hotspot, the Bay View Pavilion was located in the village on the north side of Water Street (East Broadway).
The building was situated on shorefront property leased from Brookhaven Town by the Ladies Village Improvement Society (LVIS) of Port Jefferson, which also funded Bay View’s construction.
The two-story pavilion was 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, open on all four sides and protected from shoreline erosion by a stone seawall.
Bounded by a small lawn on its east and west, the building was painted green and adorned with a decorative sign, “Bay View,” donated by gifted local artist William M. Davis.
Opening to the public on July 4, 1901, the pavilion soon became a village landmark and well known for its summertime activities including ice cream socials, bazaars, cake sales, band concerts, dances and church outings.
Bay View Pavilion was located on the north side of Port Jefferson’s East Broadway. Shown decorated for Old Home Week, 1911, the building was the center of summertime activities in the village. The site of the former pavilion is known today as Mary Bayles Park. Photo by Perry; Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Water carnivals were also held at Bay View’s public dock which had been built by LVIS in cooperation with the Port Jefferson Yacht Club.
During the Old Home Week celebrations of 1908 and 1911, the pavilion hosted swim meets, boat races, diving contests and other aquatic activities.
Because of its prime waterfront location near Wilson’s Sail Loft, the Harbor View Hotel, F. F. Darling and other establishments, people were drawn to Bay View where they took in the ever-changing sights, but unfortunately the pavilion was also a magnet for rowdies.
The situation had gotten so out of control by 1924 that Leopold Cordier, who ran a paint store next door to Bay View, was appointed a deputy sheriff with authority to keep order at the pavilion.
Bay View also suffered from neglect and was in such poor condition that in 1927 the Port Jefferson Business Men’s Association called for the pavilion’s immediate removal.
After the Bay View eyesore was razed, the plot where it had stood remained largely unimproved until 1943-1944 when Brookhaven Town developed the property as parkland and the Suwassett Garden Club of Port Jefferson landscaped and maintained the grounds.
The site of the former pavilion is known today as Mary Bayles Park.
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.
Members of the Brookhaven Town Police Department are pictured in front of 2nd Precinct headquarters on Port Jefferson’s East Main Street where they were based from 1950-1960. Photo from Beth Pranzo Collection
Alarmed by Port Jefferson’s growing descent into lawlessness, a group of concerned residents met in 1886 to consider building a lockup within the village.
Port Jefferson’s citizens were troubled by the rise in vagrancy, burglaries and vandalism in their community and disgusted with the increasing numbers of drunks on the village’s streets.
At the same time, Port Jefferson’s constables were hampered from carrying out their duties because there was no place in the village to detain persons pending their court appearance.
An attempt to fund the lockup’s construction by private subscription failed, but in 1891 Brookhaven Town appropriated money to finance the project.
Completed in 1893, the spartan Port Jefferson lockup was situated in the “salt meadow land” off what is now the village’s Wynne Lane, comprised of two cells and provided with heat, water, light and basic furnishings.
In the years following the lockup’s opening, most of the arrests in Port Jefferson were for public intoxication, although at times the village’s jail held those charged with more serious offenses including arson, fraud, murder and assault.
While the overwhelming majority of the accused were men, two females broke the pattern and were taken into custody in 1895 for being prostitutes at a notorious “disorderly house” on West Tuthill Street, today’s Maple Place.
From 1937-1949, the Second Precinct of the Brookhaven Town Police Department operated out of a combination lockup and station house on the north side of Port Jefferson’s Arden Place. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
By 1909, the lockup was in such poor condition, once even toppling on its side when high tides undermined the structure’s foundation, that Brookhaven Town appropriated $1,000 to purchase land and build a new “cooler” on the property.
Located within what is now Port Jefferson’s Resident Parking Lot on the north side of Arden Place, the four-cell lockup opened in 1910 and from the outset was plagued by escapes and repeatedly criticized by the Department of Correction, Prison Commission and other State agencies for being unfit for human habitation.
The situation had so deteriorated by 1933 that the village lockup was closed but remained opened as a “hoboes hotel” for the homeless, while persons arrested in Port Jefferson were transferred to either the Riverhead jail or Patchogue lockup.
With the creation of the Brookhaven Town Police Department, the former Arden Place lockup was refurbished and served from 1937-1949 as a combination jail and station house for the 2nd Precinct.
The precinct moved briefly to the Odd Fellows Building on East Main Street near the foot of Thompson Street before finally settling at another East Main Street site.
Beginning in 1950, officers from the Second Precinct were based in a one-story building on East Main Street constructed adjacent to Port Jefferson’s former First National Bank and operated out of this place until Jan. 1, 1960 when the Suffolk County Police absorbed the Brookhaven Town Police.
Afterwards, the space was occupied by the Brookhaven Town Tax Receiver and has housed retail stores in recent times.
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.
The wreck of the sloop Emperor, pictured on the east shore of Port Jefferson Harbor, is no longer visible. The packet sailed between New York City and Port Jefferson carrying freight and passengers. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive.
Sailing from Port Jefferson, the sloop Emperor reigned in local waters from 1829-1898.
Contracted by Captain Caleb Kinner of Port Jefferson, the 60-foot Emperor was built in Derby, Connecticut, by Zephaniah and Israel Hallock.
Launched in 1829, the Emperor ran as a packet, carrying freight and passengers on regular trips between Port Jefferson and New York City.
At the Emperor’s inception, Port Jefferson was without rail service, the packet providing a vital link between the village and the metropolis.
The Emperor typically left Port Jefferson on Tuesdays and returned on Fridays, distinguishing itself during New York City’s cholera outbreak in summer 1832 by transporting panic-stricken people fleeing the epidemic and escaping to the country.
While steamboats eventually replaced the Emperor on the profitable Port Jefferson-New York route, the sloop remained a moneymaker in the coastal trade, sailing from Long Island to ports as varied as New Haven, Connecticut, and Haverstraw, New York.
The Emperor, left, is shown anchored off the east shore of Port Jefferson harbor. The packet was the subject of a poem by William M. Davis. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive.
Although tossed on the beach during a September 1892 storm, and reportedly “wrecked beyond repair,” the battered Emperor was on the Sound the next month bound for New York with a load of cordwood.
Described as a “decrepit, played-out sloop” in “Old Drown’ Meadow Packet,” an 1895 poem by William M. Davis, Port Jefferson’s foremost painter, the Emperor was still considered a good buy in spring 1895 when she was purchased by Captain Caleb Norton of Mount Sinai, New York.
The tired, sea-soaked Emperor somehow held together until 1898, the last year she was listed in Merchant Vessels of the United States, ending her days as purportedly the oldest sloop then afloat in Brookhaven Town.
The wreck of the Emperor, long a subject of amateur and professional photographers, sat for years on the east shore of Port Jefferson Harbor, but is no longer visible.
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.
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.
The Old Homestead stood near the corner of what is now Port Jefferson’s Winston Drive and Crystal Brook Hollow Road.
Photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
What is now Belle Terre, coupled with an area in today’s Port Jefferson, once comprised the 1200-acre Oakwood estate.
Surrounded on three sides by water, the property featured a country house, tilled land, woodlots, a hothouse, fruit and nut trees, sheepfolds, springs, an icehouse, a dairy, pigpens, barns and outbuildings.
The estate even included a private cemetery, the Sugar Loaf Burying Grounds, where some of Oakwood’s workers and their family members had been interred.
Mary B. Strong, known as “Lady Strong,” presided over the estate. In 1880, she was considered the wealthiest woman in Brookhaven Town, where she numbered among its largest taxpayers.
Oakwood is depicted on this portion of J. Chace’s 1858 Map of Suffolk County, L.I., New York. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
William A. Hopkins and Charles A. Davis, Miss Strong’s trusted overseers, supervised day-to-day operations at Oakwood, everything from milking cows to cutting cordwood.
Lady Strong and her servants lived at the estate’s Old Homestead which stood near the corner of what is now Port Jefferson’s Winston Drive and Crystal Brook Hollow Road.
A short walk from tranquil Mount Sinai Harbor, the country house was the scene of elegant parties hosted by Miss Strong and surrounded by grounds lovingly tended by a gardener.
Responsible outdoorsmen were welcomed at Oakwood, where they hiked its shaded paths, hunted, trapped and gathered berries. Vacationers from Bridgeport, Connecticut sailed across Long Island Sound and pitched tents on the property at Camp Woodbine, while day-trippers picnicked on the estate at Saints Orchard.
After Lady Strong’s death on April 9, 1885, Oakwood reverted to her nephews, but through neglect, the once well-maintained estate went to ruin.
In spring 1901, surveyors were seen marking Oakwood’s boundaries and that winter advertisements had appeared in the New York Times announcing the property’s sale.
The Old Homestead stood near the corner of what is now Port Jefferson’s Winston Drive and Crystal Brook Hollow Road. Photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Clinton L. Rossiter, vice president of the Long Island Loan and Trust Company, purchased Oakwood from Mary B. Strong’s heirs in 1902. Rossiter represented a group of investors who planned to build a “private residence park,” known today as Belle Terre, on the land.
Over the ensuing years, the site was developed, and the Old Homestead was destroyed in a suspicious fire, leaving only street names such as Oakwood Road as reminders of Lady Strong and her vast estate.
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.
Lester H. Davis’ Ice Plant was located along the waterfront on the north side of East Broadway. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Parker’s Pond was an artificial body of water located in Port Jefferson, west of Main Street, directly across from today’s First United Methodist Church.
Long filled in, the man-made pond was created by stonecutter Andrew J. Parker, who in 1861 — along with his wife and children — settled in Port Jefferson where the opening of Cedar Hill Cemetery two years earlier had brought job opportunities for tombstone sculptors.
In 1865, Parker bought a house and meadow land at the foot of Port Jefferson’s Spring Street and established a marble works on the site.
Not just a stonecutter, Parker was also a blacksmith skilled in building ploughs for harvesting ice.
Parker’s Pond, also known as Crystal Lake, was located west of Main Street, directly across from today’s First United Methodist Church. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Natural ice was a valuable commodity during the 19th century. Collected in winter from frozen ponds, lakes and rivers, the crystal treasure was stored in icehouses until the warmer months. The ice was then sold and used in domestic and commercial settings to preserve food, cool drinks and prepare ice cream.
In 1869, Parker presaged his entry into the lucrative ice trade by purchasing Port Jefferson meadow land neighboring his business and cobbling together the separate parcels into one large tract.
A stream originated in the hills above Parker’s newly acquired property, ran north through his land, flowed into Port Jefferson’s salt meadows, joined the village’s Old Mill Creek, and discharged into Port Jefferson Harbor.
Parker created a pond by damming the stream as it crossed his property, first clearing the land and then in partnership with Josiah Randall building an icehouse to serve the site.
In winter 1873, ice was first harvested from the pond by Parker’s Crystal Lake Ice Company, the names Parker’s Pond and Crystal Lake soon becoming synonymous.
Over the years, the pond and its icehouse were leased to various parties who cut the ice and stored the crop. In 1881, Crystal Lake reportedly yielded 600 tons of quality ice.
In 1891, directing his energy to the temperance movement, Parker sold his two-acre pond to investor John Davis.
Davis leased the pond in 1893 to the Nassau Trout Association. The freshwater anglers stocked Crystal Lake with fry but abandoned the venture in 1894.
In 1901, butcher Lester Davis opened an ice plant on the north side of Port Jefferson’s East Broadway, effectively ending natural ice harvesting at Crystal Lake. At Davis’ factory, artificial ice was manufactured year-round, unaffected by the vagaries of weather and safer than the products of suspect waters.
While Port Jefferson moved from old to modern technology, idyllic Crystal Lake remained a popular attraction among skaters. On some winter days, upwards of 100 people glided along on the frozen pond.
A scenic landmark in Port Jefferson, but no longer important to the ice trade, the pond as well as Parker’s former home were sold in 1910 to Fred Griswold, who also purchased Athena Hall (Theatre Three) in a separate transaction.
In 1911, Griswold’s North Shore Electric Light and Power Company reclaimed ground from Parker’s Pond and built a powerhouse on what is now Maple Place.
The landscape surrounding Crystal Lake continued to change as other structures rose near its waters. In 1927, the Port Jefferson Fire Department laid a cornerstone for its new station north of the pond on Maple Place.
In 1930, Griswold began showing “talkies” at the Port Jefferson Theatre, formerly Athena Hall, which he remodeled to seat 600 people. Griswold also provided free parking at the cinema, where patronage had increased following the introduction of movies with sound.
Lester H. Davis’ Ice Plant was located along the waterfront on the north side of East Broadway. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
The parking lot was entered from Maple Place, could handle 200 cars, and made by dewatering Parker’s Pond and covering its exposed bed with cinders. As the dumping of fill continued, evidence of the former pond gradually disappeared.
Located in a declivity, Griswold’s parking field was subject to storm water runoff, but the construction of a box culvert in 1934 channeled the area’s surface waters and eased the situation.
In a village bedeviled by inadequate public parking, the theatre’s lot was eyed as a prime location for a municipal parking field.
In 1961, a local committee proposed the creation of a Port Jefferson Parking District, which would have entailed the building of a parking lot at what was once historic Parker’s Pond. Facing spirited opposition from villagers, the scheme was abandoned.
In September 1980, New York State’s Department of Transportation presented a proposal to build a parking field at the former Crystal Lake site.
Spokesmen for the Port Jefferson Fire Department argued that blacktopping and elevating the property would cause flooding at the firehouse on Maple Place.
Although the State later scrapped its plan, the Port Jefferson Fire Department bought the parcel, thus insuring the Department’s stewardship of the lot. Landscaped and seeded, the acreage is now used by the village’s volunteer firemen for training and recreation.
While there is no marker indicating that the site was formerly an ice pond, fish farm, skating rink, scenic landmark, and parking field, the soggy feel underfoot hints of earlier times.
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.
Above: Sitting in a decorated touring car, Abram Bentley, Port Jefferson’s last surviving Civil War veteran, leads the village’s 1930 Independence Day Parade accompanied by his wife Marion. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
On Memorial Day, we honor America’s fallen sailors and soldiers and decorate the graves of the men and women who served in the nation’s armed forces.
Among the comrades-in-arms buried at Port Jefferson’s Cedar Hill Cemetery, Abram Bentley was the village’s last surviving Civil War veteran.
Known locally as “Uncle Abe,” Bentley was born in Manhattan on Sept. 4, 1844 and apprenticed at a carriage factory while in his teens.
At the age of 20, Bentley enlisted in Company I, 39th Regiment, New Jersey Infantry, which fought the Confederates in Virginia. He was soon promoted to corporal and then sergeant.
After his discharge and return to civilian life, Bentley married Marion Wilson of Newark, New Jersey, on Dec. 9, 1866. Days later, the newlyweds traveled by the steamer Sunbeam from New York City to Port Jefferson, where a job awaited the groom.
Skilled as a wheelwright and an upholsterer, Bentley worked at Effingham Tuthill’s carriage shop on Main Street. After Tuthill left Port Jefferson in 1874, Bentley continued operating the establishment with Aaron Coles and John Baldwin. By 1886, as his partners withdrew from the business, Bentley became the sole proprietor of the company.
Besides running a manufactory, Bentley was active in Port Jefferson’s Baptist Church on East Main Street, today’s Harborview Christian Church. He was the superintendent of the Sunday School, a member of the choir, secretary/treasurer of the bible class, and a deacon.
He was also a Republican party stalwart, served on the election board and completed four terms as Brookhaven Town Auditor.
Never forgetting his time in the military, Bentley was a founder and later commander of Lewis O. Conklin Post 627, Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veteran organization with a “camp” in the village.
Under Bentley’s leadership, the Post organized Port Jefferson’s annual Decoration Day ceremonies which typically began with religious services at the Baptist Church. The GAR members, followed by a contingent of townspeople, then marched to Cedar Hill Cemetery.
After listening to a stirring patriotic address and martial music played by the Port Jefferson Brass Band, the veterans adorned the graves of their lost brothers with flowers, wreaths, crosses, and flags. Among those interred at the cemetery, there are over 40 soldiers and sailors who served with the North during the Civil War.
Below: Civil War veterans, Lewis O. Conklin Post 627, Grand Army of the Republic, are shown during Decoration (Memorial) Day ceremonies at Port Jefferson’s Cedar Hill Cemetery. Abram Bentley is fourth from the right. Photo by Arthur S. Greene. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Bentley also represented Port Jefferson at the GAR’s regional encampments, was a familiar figure at the head of the village’s Fourth of July parades and was drill master of the local Boys’ Brigade, a semi-military organization founded “to develop Christian manhood” among Port Jefferson’s youth.
“Uncle Abe” died at his home on Thompson Street on June 25, 1934. He was predeceased by his wife who had passed the previous March. They had been married for over 67 years.
On the day of Bentley’s funeral, the destroyer USS Lea (DD-118) was anchored in Port Jefferson Harbor to take part in the village’s 1934 Independence Day celebrations. The warship was named after an officer killed during the Civil War.
An honor guard from the Lea escorted the caisson carrying Bentley from the Baptist Church to his final resting place in Cedar Hill Cemetery, a fitting end for one of Port Jefferson’s beloved citizens.
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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