The Greenport Burton Potter Post #185 - Named after an Orient NY Veteran, this American Legion Home WAS & IS NOW TOO "A Good Place for a Good Skate!"

By Danny McCarthy

According to a January 22, 1953 Traveler article, Sterlington proprietor Charles Lellman discovered a fire shortly after midnight at the Greenport Skating Rink and he turned in an alarm. Greenport Fire Department trucks were at the scene plus engines from the Southold and East Marion Fire Departments were summoned. It started at the northeast corner on the large wooden structure which had caught fire from an unknown source. When the fire apparatus arrived, the building interior having few partitions was a mass of flames. A lack of wind and light fog had fortunately meant that the fire was confined to the area. However, nearby, the Greenport Theatre as well as the roofs of the Sterlington and the Wyandank and several dwellings had embers land on them.

    The owner of the building, Burton Potter Post, American Legion, lost all equipment in addition to the destruction of the building. The items included roller skates, an electric organ, kitchenware, plus records of the past 30 years.

    The Skating Rink building was used as a Legion but was also “a place for public dances and entertainments and a community center.” It’s rewarding to note that in the 1950s the Post provided roller skating to the children of the community.

    The building was constructed in 1939 and was located on the east side of Third Street in Greenport. It was a one-story structure “with an obstructed rink floor of 126 by 75 feet.”

Money Talks

The Post in 1953 had just spent considerable money on repairs and equipment, among which included roller skates and other articles. These items were to be used for community center purposes. As a matter of fact, November 1952 saw that Burton Potter Post had celebrated their ownership of the building “by holding burning ceremony.”

    Record has it that the loss was estimated at $80,000 and was partially covered with $51,000.

    Burton Potter Post in Greenport is a unit founded in 1920 that has borne the name of resident Burton Potter who was born March 20, 1897 in Orient. He died on May 28, 1918 in “Schrapnel Valley” (France) during World War I. Burton Potter was the first North Fork World War I casualty. He is buried in Orient Central Cemetery.

    According to an August 24, 2000 Suffolk Times article by Julie Lane, Burton Potter worked in Connecticut having lived in Orient and he enlisted in the National Guard in New Haven, Connecticut. “He was a member of F Company, 2nd of the 102nd Regiment of the Yankee Division {who} was stationed 200 yards from the front in Seicheprey, France, in what was known as ‘Schrapnel Valley.’ It was there that he was fatally injured on May 28, 1918.”

    There is some doubt about Burton Potter’s rank. “He was buried as a private. But other records indicate he was a .” When I went online, his rank was not listed.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11333462/burton-potter

Below to "network-together" is a link carrying my Greenport Basin & Construction Company post that includes a discussion of the Burton Potter Post holding an event for the Greenport Basin & Construction Company:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/im-just-trying-so-shore-myself-share-what-ive-learned-dan-mccarthy/

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