Southold Town Houses on the Move Since They were Re-Located!
BY DANNY McCARTHY
Southold friend Jay Dempsey who is also a Times-Review Newspapers’ Golf Gazette reporter seeked information Sunday, June 30 {2019!} about homes in Southold that were moved. Jay added: “What amazes me is how way back then homes were regularly moved from one location to another.?They certainly didn't have the equipment or technical know-how that is used today. Boggles my mind.”
The Peconic Bay Shopper dated June 2012 featured my article about the hamlet of Cutchogue. I was so proud to include this entry:
“One of the oldest historic homes in Cutchogue is known as ‘The Old House.’ Prosperous settler John Budd built his house in Southold in 1649 and the house stood on Tuckers Lane in Southold. He built another house in Southold in the Antigua style he loved and that house was located on the western end of the Main Road in Southold. Anna, one of his three daughters, married Barnabas Horton’s son Benjamin and John Budd gave the couple his former Tucker’s Lane house to the couple as a wedding gift. Benjamin Horton’s brother Joshua was a carpenter and arrangements were made with him to move their Tuckers Lane home to Cutchogue in 1660. The building was restored and furnished in 1940 during the Southold Town Tercentenary. In 1962 it was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark.”
THE SOUTHOLD FREE LIBRARY WHITAKER HISTORICAL COLLECTION includes this description of an Old House photograph within its archives:
????“It is the Case, Horton, Landon, Wickham House of Cutchogue after it was moved there in 1661 from Southold. Previous to that removal it was the John Budd house. It was built originally in 1649 on the north side of the Main Road and Tuckers Lane, Southold. It now sits on the south side of the Main Road in Cutchogue, at the back of the Cutchogue Library. In 1853 it was owned by the Congregational Society of Cutchogue.”
The OLD HOUSE is located on the Village Green of THE CUTCHOGUE-NEW SUFFOLK HISTORICAL COUNCIL which owns THE OLD HOUSE:
NOW GET READY …
I offer sincere appreciation to Steve Wick and the participants involved in his The Suffolk Times 04/12/2018 North Fork History Project: When was Cutchogue’s Old House built? article - as it does so definitely claim answers to The Old House having NOT been moved. Here’s a link:
Now, according to the Southold Historical Society Guide To Historic Markers FIRST LIST OF HISTORIC MARKERS PLACED IN SOUTHOLD, PECONIC AND ARSHAMOMAQUE. - which was published in 1960, on pages 29-30 in the Guide To Historic Markers … volume is this:
“PROBABLE JOHN BOOTH HOUSE
c. 1656 – 1658
Southold’s Much Moved House”
Page 30 has this portion:
“… add to the interesting story and character
of this old house.”
DID YOU CATCH THE ENDING PHRASE from THE GUIDE TO HISTORIC MARKERS … {?} ~
“old house” is entered at the ending of that John Booth House discussion. That is a combination of words used in general terms and does not mean THE OLD HOUSE in Cutchogue which JOHN BUDD ALSO OWNED.
Just for the sake of it: Here’s a link carrying the availability of that volume from Southold Historical Society:
Southold Historic Society Museum Gift Shop is located adjacent to the Treasure Exchange at 54325 Main Road, Southold. {In case you do need the main telephone of Southold Historical Society, here it is: (631) 765-5500.}
BY SEARCHING THE SOUTHOLD FREE LIBRARY WHITAKER HISTORICAL COLLECTION, I was able to locate related information on the topic so definitely hoping to find answers.
THE GINGHAM DOG AND CALICO CAT TEA ROOM AND GIFT SHOP …
The Whitaker Historical Collection has a gray-scale postcard of The Gingham Dog and Calico Cat Tea Room and Gift Shop with a description for that object in the Collection:
“It was the old Vail homestead and was moved from West Main Street.”
????In going online and locating the Thursday, June 12, 1947 entry of THE SCRAP BOOK column By Clarence Ashton Wood I was able to spot “’read-ily’” the entire story behind” the existence of that Tea Room and Gift Shop.
????Download the below link and then enjoy the test.:
???When you get to the seventh paragraph within the second column, you’ll see this:
????“The Salmon-Vail house was moved in 1926, to the south side of Main Street between Hobart Road and Cottage Place, where it now stands. A tea room known as the Gingham Dog and Calico Cat was conducted in the house on its original site and later at its new location after June 20, 1926. The tea room was first conducted by Dorothy H. Jones and Eleanor S. Moore and later by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sayward who came from Oswego.”
“HUTTINGHURST”
A photograph of the “Huttinghurst” house named by the Jonathan W. Huntting family who became its owners is part of the Whitaker Historical Collection. From 1861-1891, Huttinghurst was home to the Southold Savings Bank. In 1872, room was rented to the Lyceum Association’s library. Prior to 1908, Huttinghurst stood on the corner of Tuckers Lane and the Main Road in Southold, until it was moved to its present location on the east side of Tuckers Lane south of the LIRR tracks.
????According to The Long Island Traveler-Mattituck Watchman dated June 23, 1988, the column titled Story Retold On Moving Safe To Savings Bank Building gives a bit of a further update about Hunttinghurst:
???“Preparatory to moving into their new quarters, the great safe of the of the Southold Savings Bank was moved from the J. W. Huntting homestead, where the business of this institution had been carried on for more than thirty years to the handsome new brick building just completed. …
???The Huntting homestead stood approximately on the site of the present dwelling of Joseph Czartosieski on West Main St. near the monument. It was later known as Hunttinghurst.”
????The Bank was founded April 7, 1858 and opened for business July 5th of that year, in the second story back room, of the residence of Edward Huntting. Later, the bank’s activities were moved to the main floor of the dwelling. …
… It is remembered that prior to the inception of the bank, Mr. Huntting, as Postmaster, received sums of money for safekeeping and this custom evolved into the {Southold} Savings Bank.”
HIGH HOUSE
The High House was located on Indian Neck Lane in Peconic in 1954. It was moved from Aquebogue in the 1800s.
????The Long Island Traveler-Mattituck Watchman dated February 6, 1964 included the typical Cutchogue column and it was by Mrs. Walter Kaelin, Editor, where she stated:
????“Correction on a nickname. High House Josh was not a person but a house. This house was moved, I believe, to Fleet’s Neck via water.”
????The Long Island Traveler-Mattituck Watchman dated February 13, 1964 TELLS ALL ABOUT HIGH HOUSE in the issue’s Cutchogue column:
????“We received a call about that house mentioned {last week about the High House} That house called High House was the former home of Joshua Wells in Jamesport. Edwin W. Prellwitz had it move to Indian Neck by barge. His residence is now a beautiful old house.”
JEREMIAH VAIL HOUSE
The Jeremiah Vail House was originally built in 1656 on the site of Catholic Church grounds; later moved up Tuckers Lane becoming the first LIRR station in Southold. In 1953, the original kitchen wing was in the present house located on the northeast corner of Main Road and Laurel Avenue in Southold and was owned by Robert Lang.
I KNOW … You Can So Definitely Refer to My Linkedin.com Post About Jeremiah Vail:
THE WICKHAM FARMHOUSE
There happens to be a group of photos featuring various images of the Wickham Farmhouse in the Whitaker Historical Collection. The House originally stood on the Main Road west of Cutchogue and was moved to the North Road and then in 1964 the building was moved and donated by the Wickhams to the Village Green in Cutchogue.
I was able to locate online a website link Arcadia Publishing Images of America – Cutchogue and New Suffolk book compiled by Zachary N. Studenroth. Download the below link taking you to page 12 for information about Wickham Farmhouse:
BAYVIEW SCHOOLHOUSE
Traveler-Watchman’s Tim Kelly took a photo of “The day the Old Bay View Schoolhouse was moved to the Southold Historical Society grounds.” His caption read: “The last dismissal bell rang in 1925, but Howard Terry still recalls his days in the Bayview Schoolhouse. Terry was on hand Monday when the old building was moved to the Southold Historical Society grounds, there to be restored as part of the town 350th anniversary.” The photo is from an undated Traveler-Watchman edition {but the Southold 350th Anniversary was 1990!} and is yet another Whitaker Historical Collection archives item.
Yes … Another One of My Linkedin.com Posts is about the Bay View Schoolhouse:
The January 25, 1962 Traveler … article re: Little House Next Door Being Moved to Orient “tells the tale” of New York City Dalton School faculty member Miss Beverly Eastman who purchased “{t}he little while Cape Cod house which has stood next to the Traveler Office on Traveler St. for many years” from David A. Rothman. “Miss Eastman contracted with Mr. Zaleski of the Mattituck Movers to dismantle the house and move it to Browns Hills in Orient. Miss Eastman plans to restore the house in the new location.
????The very early history of the house is uncertain. It is thought to have been the residence of William Wells, who was the first Town Clerk or Recorder. The very old timbers and the old boards, many of them 18 inches or more in width, give credence to this theory.
????According to the researching of the late Wayland Jefferson, Southold Town Historian, the house was owned in the 1700s by Gamaliel Bayley. At that time the house stood on the exact spot now occupied by the home of Miss Edith Prince, and her brother, Mr. Fred Prince, just west of the Southold Savings Bank. Their father, Henry W. Prince, had purchased the property from Col. John Wickham. After the Civil War, George W. Hommel purchased the house and contracted with B. W. Hawkins of Bellport to move it to the present location on Traveler Street. It is known that the foundation under the house on Main Road was of old stone and rock. It was set in a brick foundation when it was moved to Traveler Street. …”
NEW SUFFOLK SUMMER GIRL Owner Kim along with her husband Danny presently own the white building that is alongside the Traveler-Watchman building {!!!}
HERE’S A MOST DEFINITE ANSWER JAY DEMPSEY AND YOU ALL TOO ABOUT THE ACTUAL “PROCEDURES TAKEN” TO MOVE A Town of Southold home:
????I was able to “luckily locate” The News-Review – A Consolidation of The Riverhead News and The County Review article dated Thursday, July 21, 1955 titled Greenport House Is Moved By Barge – 215-Year-Old Inn Where “George Washington Slept” Takes Trip To Orient – Purchased By George Latham of Westbury – Will Restore House Built In 1732 in doing my research from the Whitaker Historical Collection.
????The story is about the Captain Webb House.
????According to the article by EUNICE TELFER JUCKETT, George Washington “is reported to have stopped briefly on his 1775 tour of eastern Long Island” in Greenport at the Captain Webb House in Greenport. “The Inn has now moved, for the second time in its 215 year history. And not only has the former Captain Webb {two-and-a-half-story}, nine room house with its columned portico been moved, but it has taken to the water. In fact, it made the ‘sea’ journey last week on the same barge which {in March of that year} transported a Napeague Coast Guard station from Napeague Harbor to {Montauk on Star Island}.
????The Webb house, built in 1732 by Captain Joseph Booth and used as an inn in 1775 by Lt. Constant Booth, was purchased recently by George Latham of Old Westbury who had his eye on it for nearly 40 years. Mr. Latham is having the old house moved to Latham property off Skipper Lane, Orient, near several other stores and buildings which he has purchased and restored.
????Since the old house {that was} formerly located on Route 25 is nearly 40 feet wide, it could not be moved along the highway, but had to be taken ‘across lots’ to Sterling Creek. Here it was taken out over the mud flats and loaded onto the barge. Like the Coast Guard project {previously mentioned}, the Webb house moving has been under the supervision of Curtis Davis of the Davis Engineering Co. of Blue Point. The {half-mile} trek across a potato and a corn field took less than a week and the {five-mile} marine journey but an hour.
????In addition to the Washington legend, the Captain Webb house that was sold by the Booths to Orange Webb in the late 1700s has another claim to fame. When the Rev. George Whitfield visited here in 1763{,} he is given credit for using a diamond to inscribe ‘One Thing is Needful’ on one of the panes of glass in an upstairs bedroom. This has been kept intact and is now a part of the {Long Island} Historical Collection in Brooklyn. …
????“… The house has six fireplaces, and two Dutch ovens. The original shingles are believed still to cover the eastern exposure while the west side and the rear have an unusual narrow beaded siding, covered in recent years with tarpaper to make the house more comfortable during the winter. {Mr. Latham grew up in Orient having since becoming a lumber dealer in Mineola. His plans are to restore the Webb house for opening in the summertime for “interested visitors.”}
HERE’S AN UPDATE ABOUT THE WEBB HOUSE, OKAY?
August 20, 1959 Long Island Traveler-Mattituck Watchman states that the Webb House was “located on Sterling Creek, near the Presbyterian Church in Greenport. …” {Aha! Greenport Presbyterian Church? – Yet Another Idea for Yet Another Linkedin.com forthcoming post for me!}
… In 1757{,} Colonel George Washington stopped there, en route from Boston to Virginia.
????In 1800, the house was acquired by Orange Webb, later by the Jerome family, then the Youngs, and later by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sinuta.
????At this time Mr. Webb took possession, he had the house moved to a location on the north road next to Porky’s. …
????… The Woman’s Society of Christian Service of the Methodist Church in Southold {will be} given the privilege of a tour of this interesting house on Thursday, August 27. …”
A Long Island Traveler-Mattituck Watchman “randomly dated 1959” talks about this Historic House {that is} “now located on Village Lane, Orient” {that was “formerly the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sinuta”} was having an Open House that Sunday, August 2nd by Mr. and Mrs. George Latham.