Captain Will Graham, an Irish sculptor and marble worker arrived in America in 1888. Graham built Ye Anchorage Inn in 1897 on the northwest corner of Montauk Highway and Kennedy Avenue in Blue Point. Graham even chronicled his adventures in a personal magazine called The Log, filled with stories, poems, and artwork he created himself.
In the early 1900s, Graham built the Great Sphinx, a 45-ton, one-seventh-scale concrete replica of its Egyptian namesake, as a grand roadside attraction to lure travelers to his retreat. He placed a plaque on the feet of the Sphinx. “She who climbs to the Sphinx’s head a millionaire will surely wed.” Legend has it that Graham and his friends would spend lazy afternoons on a bench nearby, hoping to catch a glimpse of any adventurous young lady who took the challenge.
The inn played host to a who’s who of the era: President Theodore Roosevelt, silent film stars Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. Graham was a master promoter. He staged a faux bullfight that drew two thousand spectators and even built an early aeroplane on the grounds.
Will Graham died of pneumonia inside his inn on February 20, 1920, at the age of 57. After his wife passed away, the inn burned down in 1927. The Sphinx, however, survived. It was moved to the side of the property, where the Ferri family operated a gas station from the early 1930s to 1973.
In 1974, the land was sold to a gas station chain called Power Test. During the construction of a new facility, a bulldozer demolished the original buildings and the body of the Sphinx. The massive 10,000-pound head was severed at the brow and neck.
Lou Fontana, who owned a concrete business in Bayport with his brother John happened to be driving by as the destruction occurred. He intervened and asked the bulldozer operator to save the remains of the head. Remarkably, the man agreed. Lou loaded the colossal concrete noggin onto a truck and transported it to his yard on Montauk Highway, where it sat, deteriorating and hidden from public view for seven years.
In the fall of 1981, the Fontana brothers began the painstaking task of restoring the monument. Their efforts drew significant attention, leading to a featured article in Newsday and a broadcast story on WABC-TV in New York City. After nearly two years of hard work, the restoration was completed in May 1983.
Today,
the Great Sphinx sits proudly in front of Fontana Concrete Products in Bayport.
The inscription at its base still
promises matrimonial wealth to any daring climber, though a modern sign now
bluntly adds: “Please KEEP OFF Climbing Sphinx is Prohibited.”
Source:
“The
Great Long Island Sphinx: A Tale of Concrete, Celebrities, and Second Chances.”
Sayville Alumni Association, Inc., 29 July 2026,
sayvillealumni.org/the-great-long-island-sphinx-a-tale-of-concrete-celebrities-and-second-chances/.
