American painter William Sidney Mount created some of his most memorable scenes from inside an attic studio at this large, rambling 18th century homestead. Located at the intersection of North Country Road in Stony Brook, Mount’s ancestral family home, the Hawkins-Mount House, was built around 1725, and substantially enlarged over the centuries.
Mount, his mother, and his four siblings moved to the house in 1814. The barn and outbuildings at the back of the property also featured prominently in his genre work. Living year-round in the house by 1847, Mount had a skylight installed in the ceiling of his garret studio to improve the lighting.
It is a 2 1/2-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and shingled exterior. The main entrance is sheltered by a shed-roof porch and has a four-light transom window. The interior of the house has more than twenty rooms. The most notable of these is its original kitchen, which has been restored. The oldest part of the house is the left side of the main building. It was built in 1725 by Eleazer Hawkins. He was William Sidney Mount's grandfather. Mr. Hawkins built it as an "ordinary," which was like a tavern or inn. Travelers could stop there for food and a place to stay. The kitchen from this old tavern is still preserved today.
The house remained in family hands until just after World War I and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The house is now owned by the Long Island Museum and is occasionally opened for tours.
Sources:
“William Sidney Mount House Facts for Kids.” Kiddle, 17 Oct. 2025, kids.kiddle.co/William_Sidney_Mount_House
“William Sidney Mount House.” Historic Artists’ Sites of Long Island, www.lihistoricartistssites.org/detail/william-sidney-mount-house. Accessed 27 Dec. 2025
“William Sidney Mount House.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 July 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidney_Mount_House
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