Tyron Hall/FortNeck

 Built in 1770 by David Jones, Tryon Hall was named after William Tryon, Governor of New York. It was a spacious building, 90 feet in length, overlooking South Oyster Bay. The entrance hall was 36 feet long by 23 feet wide, floored in southern pine, with a freestanding stair that was noted by everyone who entered. There was also a drawing room, a library, kitchen and a formal dining room on the first floor. There were five bedrooms upstairs and servants’ rooms on the third floor.

Thomas Jones, by then a Judge, used Tryon Hall to entertain fellow supporters of the King and also allowed them to stay there for their safety, earning the name “Refugee House.” It was renamed Fort Neck House after the American Revolution.

Unfortunately, Thomas Jones did not enjoy his mansion for very long, as he was forced into exile in England after the Revolution. By a 1781 Act of Attainder, naming him and 52 other Tory supporters, his property was seized by New York State and eventually given to his sister Arabella (he had no children), on condition that her husband append Jones to his name. He was David Floyd of the Patriot Floyd family and readily agreed, with the result that their first son became David Richard Floyd-Jones, confirmed by the New York Legislature in 1790.

Several generations of the family occupied Fort Neck, the latest being George Stanton Floyd-Jones. He became involved in establishing the Floyd-Jones Cemetery in 1892, reinterring not only the bodies of Thomas Jones and his family, but several of his relatives who had lived in Tryon Hall and were buried in a family plot behind the Hall. He spurred construction of an ornate Victorian-looking Massapequa train station in 1890, replacing a plain building put up by the railroad in 1880.

By the end of World War I, George Stanton Floyd-Jones had moved to Sewan (current site of Massapequa High School) and his family sold Fort Neck to Richard Corroon. Mr. Corroon converted the building into a roadhouse, expanding the kitchen and installing indoor plumbing for the upstairs rooms. The venture was not successful, however, and he allowed the building to remain idle and deteriorate. By the mid 30s there was talk of tearing it down, but the Nassau County Historical Society spurred efforts to save it.  These efforts led nowhere, however, and the building remained unoccupied until October 18, 1940, when a fire gutted it.

 The Historical Society of the Massapequas erected a historical marker to recognize the significance of Fort Neck/Tryon Hall in 1992.

 

Sources:

George Kirchmann, et al. “Massapequa's First Mansion.” Massapequa Observer, 9 Feb. 2015, www.massapequaobserver.com/massapequas-first-mansion/.

Kirchmann, George. “TRYON HALL/ FORT NECK HOUSE.” Massapequa, NY Patch, Patch, 9 June 2013, patch.com/new-york/massapequa/tryon-hall-fort-neck-house.