Four Fountains House

The Four Fountains House, also known as the Tyng Playhouse was designed by well-known architect Archibald Brown for Ethel and Lucian Tyng as a playhouse and cultural center. Their main residence was across the road. The building, which boasted a soaring, arched main room measuring 40 feet square, was intended to be part of a larger compound that was completed in 1928.  The original Four Fountains property comprised an apartment garage, guest house, and gardener’s cottage on 7.5 acres located between Southampton Art Village and the Atlantic Ocean. Most of these components were arranged around a square, flagstone-paved forecourt whose four corners were each anchored by a fountain. 

In 1942, the Tyngs sold Four Fountains to Archibald Brown. Brown’s wife, Eleanor, the founder of the interior design firm McMillen Inc., converted the playhouse into a summer home over the course of a year. In 1978, television executive William S. Paley purchased the property.  Several years after Paley’s 1990 death, the investor Bruce Bockmann and his wife, Maria, acquired the property. Both owners undertook additions and renovations to the compound. In later years, Australian designer Paul Bangay oversaw stewardship and redesign of the landscape.

The main house was torn down in 2020 as it was deemed untenable due to a combination of flood risk and regulatory constraints.

 

Source:

Sokol, D. (2020, January 15). The Historic Four Fountains Home in Southampton has been Demolished. Architectural Digest. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-historic-four-fountains-home-in-southampton-has-been-demolished

Albert's Inn - Plainedge

Albert’s Inn was owned by Albert Pirowski and his wife. It was located on the corner of Hicksville Road & Hempstead Turnpike. The house was three stories, resembling a castle with a turret. The restaurant was located on the first floor. Albert previously owned the Jericho Inn. That inn was a stopover for farmers on their way to sell produce in New York City. In 1921, Albert bought the property where the Inn was located. The house had 23 rooms and was bordered by copper beeches, alders, and elm trees.

The house itself had a grand staircase, parquet floors, stained glass windows, and fireplaces in each room. The restaurant was open seven days a week. Albert’s wife did all the cooking and baking. The family had an orchard with pear, breadfruit, quince, and apple trees which they canned. The building was sold in 1947 due to health reasons.

Sources:

Hencken, Sophie. “Plainedge Historical Photos & Documents Gallery.” Life at Albert’s Inn in Plainedge, Plainedge Public Library, Mar. 2021, www.plainedgeinfo.org/live/zenphoto/historical-photos/documents/booklets/alberts_reduced.pdf.php. 

Plainedge Public Library

Huntington Arsenal

 Built in 1740, the Huntington Arsenal on Park Avenue just south of Main, is thought to be the only one left of its kind on Long Island. 

Joseph Wickes built the original portion of the house, which sat on 1.5 acres of land, and used it to store grain.  Wickes then sold the building to Gershom Sexton who remodeled and converted it into a livable dwelling. The six-foot extension included a room with a fireplace and another to the back of the house.

The arsenal used during the American Revolution and it was also the residence of Job Sammis and his family from 1748 to 1789.  A weaver by trade, Sammis settled in the home with his wife Elizabeth Kellum and many children.

In 1765, Sammis made additions of his own to the house to make it larger. He added another small room on the north side and built a second story which was accessed from the fire room by ladder. It is said he helped the Suffolk County Militia by storing weapons and gun powder in the added space. 

When repairs were made to the building in 1930, a small cache of colonial muskets were found in the original walls, most likely hidden by Sammis prior to the British occupation of Huntington on September 1, 1776.

Sammis died in 1792 and Elizabeth passed away four years later. The Town of Huntington purchased the arsenal in 1974 and it is now a restored house museum, furnished as it was in the 18th Century. It is open for special events and, by appointment. The Arsenal is also the headquarters of the Order of the Ancient and Honorable Huntington Militia.

 

Sources:

“The Arsenal.” The Arsenal - Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York, huntingtonny.gov/content/13747/99530/16525/default.aspx. Accessed 26 July 2024.

 

O’Connor-Arena, Melissa. “A New View: The Old Town Green Series - The Arsenal.” Huntington, NY Patch, Patch, 22 May 2010, patch.com/new-york/huntington/a-new-view-the-old-town-green-series-the-arsenal.

Massapequa Lake & Preserve

The man-made lake at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Merrick Road began being constructed in 1837. As the lake bed began to take shape, more and more soil was piled around the perimeter of the project. At the conclusion of the excavation work, the water from the dammed and diverted Massapequa Creek was allowed to flow into the scooped-out area. David S. Jones had the Massapequa Creek that flowed from Bethpage to the Great South Bay, diverted in order to cut down trees and remove stumps and brush to create the lake for his third wife Mary Clinton. Jones created the island in the center and named it Mary’s Island. Spillways were built and the water was allowed to flow to the Great South Bay under South Post Road, known now as Merrick Road. The Jones family lived in a mansion near the lake. During the 1940s, the Richard A. Corroon family took up residence in the mansion. It was also known as the Corroon Estate by the residents and the lake as Corroon’s Lake. 

The Peter J. Schmitt Massapequa Preserve was originally part of the New York City water supply property and was acquired by Nassau County in 1981. The preserve is divided into three sections bounded by major roadways. The southern section, from Merrick Road to Sunrise Highway, contains the most diverse and ecologically valuable lands. Freshwater swamps, marsh, stream, lake and sandy-bog area provide habitat for many rare and endangered Long Island plants, including orchids, carnivorous sundews and bladderworts. The longest hiking trail in Nassau County, the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail, begins at Merrick Road and Ocean Avenue and continues through the length of the preserve, ending at Cold Spring Harbor. 

Sources:

Meyer, John H. “A Lake in Massapequa Made Just for Mary.” Massapequa Post , 4 Jan. 2019, www.massapequapost.com/articles/a-lake-in-massapequa-made-just-for-mary/. 

“Peter J. Schmitt Massapequa Preserve.” Peter J. Schmitt Massapequa Preserve | Nassau County, NY - Official Website, www.nassaucountyny.gov/2905/Peter-J-Schmitt-Massapequa-Preserve. Accessed 16 July 2024. 

Kissam House - Huntington

 Dr. Daniel Whitehead Kissam came to Huntington from Glen Cove in 1795 to practice medicine. In 1661, John Wescott built a house here and sold it to Thomas Powell in 1663. The house passed through several different owners and may have been used to quarter British troops during the revolution. Timothy Jarvis, a housewright, acquired the property and built the present house for Dr. Kissam. In 1840, Dr. Charles Sturges, the son-in-law of Dr. Kissam, added a “modern” kitchen wing and converted the old kitchen to a formal dining room. 

Sometime in the 1830s, with two families living in the house, it was remodeled. The back parlor had been converted into an apartment for Dr. Kissam and his wife. In order to compensate for the lost room and to adhere to the new fashion, the kitchen was converted into a dining room with Egyptian Revival details. An extension was built to the rear to accommodate a new, modern kitchen. Dr. Kissam died in 1840 and left to house to Charles Sturges.

The Sturges’ turned the original kitchen into a formal dining room and added the “new” kitchen to the rear of the house in 1840. They lived in the house until 1857, then it was owned by the Owen, Fuller and Taylor families until the Huntington Historical Society purchased it in 1967 from Hilda Taylor.

Today, the house, which has been restored to its 1830s appearance, and barn are used for educational programs, tours and festivals. Restoration and reinterpretation of the interior was begun by the Society in 1984. The home is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:

Blough, Kay. “No. 88: Dr. Daniel W. Kissam House Museum.” Huntington, NY Patch, Patch, 20 Apr. 2011, patch.com/new-york/huntington/no-88-dr-daniel-w-kissam-house-museum. 

 “The Dr. Daniel Whitehead Kissam House .” Town of Huntington, www.huntingtonny.gov/filestorage/13747/99540/16499/Dr._Daniel_Whitehead_Kissam_House.pdf. Accessed 17 June 2024. 

“Kissam Property.” Huntington Historical Society, www.huntingtonhistoricalsociety.org/kissam-property.html. Accessed 17 June 2024. 

Pagan-Fletcher Restoration

 In June 1834, the Pagan family, which included Robert, his wife Ellen, and their four young children, immigrated from Scotland. Pagan purchased 78 acres in Valley Stream. Pagan took up farming and grew rye, buckwheat, oats, corn, and potatoes.

In the early 1850s, Pagan opened a general store on his property. Also around that time, Ellen, a devout evangelical with Methodist leanings, opened her home to fellow worshippers, and conducted religious services. From the late 1850s through the 1870s, Pagan’s son-in-law, William Fletcher, married to Pagan's daughter Catherine, bought land that once belonged to Pagan. The final family to live in the homestead were the Fairchilds; related to the Pagans through marriage. The Fairchild family, fourth generation Americans, owned Fairchild Publications, the publishers of "Women’s Wear Daily.” 

In 1942, the Louis Fairchild family left, and another brother, Emil (not married to a Boyd sister) moved in full-time. Emil, Martha, and their three grown children: Donald, Gordon, and Jane, all lived in the house. Donald, the eldest, crayoned murals on the third floor landing, hall, and bathroom. 

In 1948, a year after Emil’s passing, the house, and remaining 10 acres were sold to the Lynwood Housing Corp. Between 1949 and 1950, Lynwood built Lynwood Gardens, a mid-century community of 49 homes. Lynwood used the old Fletcher estate for storage and office space. During Lynwood’s occupancy, many of the original features of the home were stripped, damaged or destroyed. 

In 1977, the Village of Valley Stream, under the leadership of Mayor Dominick Minerva, authorized the purchase of the home, which had foreclosed, for $40,000; rescuing it from demolition. In 1983, the Fletcher estate was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. From 1988 to 1992, the building was renovated and restored.  The Pagan-Fletcher Restoration is operated by the Valley Stream historical society and maintained by the Village of Valley Stream.

Source:

“Pagan-Fletcher Restoration & Tours.” Village of Valley Stream, www.vsvny.org/index.asp?SEC=17E2184D-D1F2-402C-8953-35B0520559EA&DE=7B89F47B-4238-4245-BF3D-EC35458038CC. Accessed 28 May 2024. 

Big Duck

In 1931, Riverhead duck farmer Martin Maurer commissioned some local builders to create this 10-ton eye-catcher using concrete (technically, "ferrocement") applied over a wooden frame. Taillights from a Model T Ford became its eyes, glowing red at night. Maurer sold ducks and eggs from the shop in its belly.  The builders Smith and Yeager completed the concrete finish work on the Big Duck which was featured in Atlas Cement's 1931 calendar. In 1937, Martin Maurer moved the building to Flanders, where it occupied a prominent location near the duck barns and marshes of Maurer's new duck ranch.

Maurer patented his fowl creation, and the Duck became the darling of vacationing New Yorkers -- particularly husband and wife architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who invented the term "duck architecture" in their 1972 book, Learning From Las Vegas. This explain why, in the world of architecture, any building shaped like its product is called a "duck." 

The Big Duck -- 30 feet long, 20 feet high, and 18 feet wide -- has shifted locale a few times. In the 1980s, when the land on which the Duck sat was earmarked for development, giant duck preservationists and the Friends for Long Island's Heritage campaigned to save it. The Duck was donated to the county. On January 27, 1988, it was moved from Flanders to Hampton Bay along Route 24, to the entrance of Sears-Bellow County Park. However, by 2007 it was clear that the original land would not be developed, so the Big Duck was moved back to its Flanders spot.

The shop still operates -- now as a tourism center for the East end of Long Island, selling duck souvenirs to flocks of city weekend-trippers. The interior of the Duck offers a small display of Duck artifacts, photos, and news clippings, and if you time your visit just right you'll find a volunteer manning an exhibit in an adjacent barn about duck farming.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Sources:

“Big Duck.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Duck

“The Big Duck, Flanders, New York.” RoadsideAmerica.Com, www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2173. Accessed 16 May 2024