The Peconic Bay Shopper • - Academy Printing Servicesacademyprintingservices.com/yahoo_site_admin/... · Gail F. Horton, Daniel McCarthy, Bob Kaelin, Norman Wamback A division of

————————————— The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • May 2013 —————————————————2

publisher/editor — Michael P. Hagerman art department — Rita M. Hagerman, [email protected] sales — Sherri Baker, 631-278-8526 office manager — Lori McKiernan: 631-765-3346 regular contributors — Antonia Booth, Southold Town Historian Gail F. Horton, Daniel McCarthy, Bob Kaelin, Norman Wamback

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www.academyprintingserv ices.comThe Peconic Bay Shopper is published monthly eleven months each year. (There in no January issue.)

STREETSCAPE: Can someone date this photograph? In the center, behind the pole, in the Reeve’s Building, is a storefront with a sign saying, “The Great Atlan-tic and Pacific,” and, under that, “self-service.” Better known as A & P, the com-pany that began in 1859 adopted the self-serve supermarket concept in 1936. To the left of the food market is Katz’ Children’s’ Store, then possibly a jeweler (?) and, far left, Hochheiser’s 5 & 10 cent store. To the right are Corwin’s Pharmacy and the Veterans’ Cigar Store.NOTE: The drug store is currently the Cheese Emporium! Only 3 buildings remain.

On the Cover

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Greenport residents contributed funds in 1844 to pur-chase its first fire engine. Through time equipment evolved from hand-powered, through steam, to motorized trucks and engines. Since 1881, the annual Washington’s Birthday parade has been an invitational event for fire departments all over Long Island. The journal shown celebrates hosting the southern New York volunteer firemen at a parade and tournament. The official program in 1952 costs but 25 cents and Mitchell’s Res-taurant offered parade watchers a deluxe roast prime rib dinner for only $3.50.

In this issue we continue with Antonia Booth’s story celebrating the 175th anniversary of the incorporation of Greenport Village. If you missed part one, download the pdfs at www.academyprintingservices.com

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————————————— The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • May 2013 ————————————————— 3

Many opportunities for employment existed in Greenport less than two decades after incorporation. By 1857, there were three shipyards, four wharves and many fish factories. It’s little wonder that Greenport was the commercial center

of Southold Town. A host of other businesses catered not only to residents but also to ships anchored in its harbor. For example, ship chandleries: James P. Grady had one at 208 Main Street which he later moved to Front Street. S.T. Preston and Son, ship chandler and grocer, began business in 1883, the same year the present St. Agnes Church was built. There were sail lofts and marine railways. Also grocery stores, bakeries, and butcher shops, most of which delivered in horse-drawn carts. Several of these businesses were owned by members of the Webb family: Silas, David and Edward. In his book, An Island’s Trade; Nineteenth-Century Shipbuilding on Long Island, Rich-ard F. Welch has an appendix listing wooden shipbuilders and the approximate time they were in business. For Greenport Welch mentions: Richard Benjamin, active about 1855 to 1865; Harmon D. Bishop, active about 1850; Hiram Bishop, active about 1839 until 1855, Oliver H. Bishop, active from 1860 to 1882; Cornelius Ketcham, only one year-1860; Hiram Ketcham, twenty years from 1860 to 1880; and Charles M. Smith, listed as active from 1867 until 1882. Welch notes that, of all the locations in which wooden shipbuilding flourished on the island, the records of Greenport’s builders were the “most elusive.”

Greenport’s 175th Anniversary, PART TWO by Antonia Booth, Southold Town Historian

VAN TUYL MAP OF VILLAGE: The late, great Jack Sherwood dated this map as around 1931. Note the Oak Grove dance casino to the left. Dances were held there three nights a week until World War II ended the diversion. Also note Greenport High School and the Theatre, both on Front Street and the Townsend Manor Inn and Eastern Long Island Hospital close to Sterling Basin.

Continued on page 6...


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OLD POLICE HEADQUARTERS: This photo shows part of Main Street, Greenport, with the police headquarters in the right rear. The station contained public toilets, making it popular with shoppers, and was housed in what was once the kitchen of the historic Clark House built in 1831 for Captain John Clark. The distinguished hostelry was torn down in 1935 when the village acquired the property for a municipal parking lot


Almost all the buildings in the downtown commercial part of the village were made of wood and there were many disastrous fires throughout Greenport’s history. In 1849, a fire company was formed known as the Game Cock Fire Com-pany, No.1. The Phenix Hook and Ladder Company was organized in 1860, and Eagle Hose and Relief Hose were both organized in 1871. The Star Hose Compa-ny organized in 1898 while the Standard Hose Company was established in 1911.

Continued from page 3...

GRAMMAR AND HIGH SCHOOL: Greenport established a kindergarten in 1897, moving an old school from the North Road down near the Third Street firehouse. In the same year a high school was registered with New York State but was not built until 1905. The 1880 wooden grammar school was designed by architect George Skidmore.

For advertisers (all those competing businesses!) and social notes, the Suf-folk Weekly Times was begun in Greenport in 1857 by 27-year-old John J. Rid-dell. While Riddell served in the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion, Cordello D. Elmer ran the paper. Other owners of the Times in the nineteenth century were Buell David (1866), William R. Duvall (1870) and Llewellyn F. Terry (1875). During this time period the Times was known as a Republican


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newspaper while the opposition supported the Democratic Party. Terry was still running the paper in 1888, the year of the famous blizzard. Around the time the huge storm paralyzed eastern Long Island, Terry moved the newspaper plant from Front to South Street. The new location became known as “Printing House Square.” Education was not neglected. The first school in Greenport was probably

GOOD SPORTS: Greenport has always been sports oriented. Here is the 1938 semi-pro football team, the Greenport Rams. In the rear, left to right: Manager, Dr. Leo Goldin, Let Wells, Don Salner, Walt Hanff and Gus Lellman. Front row: W. Angell, Bud Green, Ted Fiedler, Ev Corwin, Howdy Valentine, Fred Boutcher, Meyer Bogashewicz, Wes Blados and Woody Dean. (Spelling as written by Mr. Valentine.)

the one built on the North Road in 1818. In 1861, the village voted to establish a union free school and the trustees were urged not to pay any teacher more than $500.00 per year in salary. By 1878, property was bought for a new gram-mar school. Christian Jetter of Riverhead was hired to erect a three-story frame building on it. In 1904 a high school building was added on the east side of the grammar school and an even larger building was added in 1910. The academic


department of the high school has had a graduating class every year, except in 1886, when the course of study was changed from three to four years. There’s so much to be said about Greenport that it’s easy to miss im-portant elements such as the Greenport Pottery where Thomas Hempstead began offering his wares for sale in 1857. The same clay beds that made pottery-making possible also were responsible for two large brickyards estab-lished around 1870, Sage and Sanford’s, producing up to one and a half mil-lion bricks a year. The brickyards gave employment first to Scottish and Irish workers and then to many Italians and Poles. There were restaurants like Claudio’s; well nothing’s quite like Claudio’s, one of the oldest in the country. J.E. Horton and his son, S. B. Horton, established a combination of funeral parlor and furniture store before 1862. The village had the first national bank outside of New York City in 1864. The first hospital east of Mineola, Eastern Long Island Hospital, opened on June 24, 1907. Sidewalks, which began as packed dirt and graduated to Belgium paving blocks, were replaced by cement sidewalks in 1894. Greenport had its own municipal electric power plant by 1898. Vivid, turbulent and exciting, Greenport evoked fierce loyalty among its residents and had a sense of community that was celebrated in 1988 through the work of a committee called together by Mayor George W. Hubbard and the village board of trustees the year before. One of the first decisions of the committee was to publish a journal. On the book committee were David Abatelli, Antonia Booth, Nancy Cook, William Gillooly, Gail Horton, Marie Kaslow, James Monsell, Marilyn Shepish and Lillian White. Contributors to the journal were Judy Ahrens, Robert White and Angela Wippert.** The logo on the cover was by Vincent Quatroche. Some members wrote several articles touching on local history, others sold ads which provided money for the calendar of events beginning in April of ’88 and ending in October with a giant parade and fireworks. There was a dance at the American Legion Hall, Burton-Potter Post. Coincidentally, the Legion hall is on the same site as the celebration that was held after the Long Island Rail Road reached Greenport. The late George Costello, Sr. was the person spearheading restoration of the

AND MORE GOOD SPORTS: This time in the ‘70s, the Father-Son football awards at Greenport Fire House #1. Coach Dorrie Jackson stands between Jim Sage and Craig Geier with All County League trophies.

rundown Legion hall and its roller skating rink. That work still continues. **Other members of the 150th anniversary committee were Linda Levine Livni, Veronica Diver, James Brehn, Ruth Yoskovich, Mayor George Hubbard, Pat Forrest, Kala Langone, Pete Harris, Richard Hulse and Gabe Grilli. Those not on the committee who wrote articles for the anniversary journal were Jerome McCar-thy, Village Historian; Walter Mengeweit, who told the story of menhaden fishing; Joey McClellan on whaling; Esther Sperling who co-wrote a story about Floyd Me-morial Library; Bessie E. Swann on C.A.S.T. and the North Fork Housing Alliance; Elsie K.Drosihn about Sandy Beach; and Monroe Burt on ship-building. Trustees at the time of the 150th Anniversary Celebration were Stephen L. Clarke, Jeanne M. Cooper, David S. Corwin and Gail F. Horton. The village clerk


was Nancy W. Cook and the treasurer, Mary E. Thornhill. Representing the merchants of the village were Veronica Diver and Pa-tricia Forrest. Elliot Gorman represented Engine No. 39 and Joseph Henry the Chamber of Commerce, Sue Reeves was there for Youth Activities and Thomas Monsell for the Stirling Historical Society.

We could go on. Have we mentioned the America’s Cup races or the Hur-ricane of 1938? And how about World War II and the mine sweepers? The Mari-time Festival? The Tall Ships? Mitchell Park and the Carousel?

Enough. We wish the village of Greenport a Happy 175th Anniversary.

150th CELEBRATION COMMITTEE: (l.to r.) Dave Abatelli Linda Levine LivniJames MonsellVeronica Diver James Brehn Marilyn Shepish Lillian White Ruth YoskovichGeorge Hubbard (Mayor)Pat ForrestRobert WhiteGail F. Horton (Trustee)

Kala LangoneAntonia BoothSouthold Town Historian

Absent from picture: Pete HarrisRichard HulseGabe Grilli

Sources for this article include Greenport by Antonia Booth and Thomas Monsell, Trawling My Town: Glimpses of Southold Past and Present by Antonia Booth with Mark Terry, and the Timeline of Greenport History, written by Antonia Booth, directed by Gail F. Horton. — More photos follow....


ONE OF THE BIGGEST PARADES EVER

Below: Members of the Greenport United Methodist Church which was founded in 1828, before the village was incorporated.

FLOYD MEMORIAL LIBRARY: Passes by the Mills Building across from the Coronet Restaurant. Poppy Johnson, left, and then director Donna Kraft carry the library’s banner on Front Street. There was also a fund-raising Grease Band dance and a spirited Anniversary Dance both at the American Legion Hall.

In addition to the parade, the USS Petrel was in Greenport Harbor and a huge fireworks display was held.


SCOUTS AND BROWNIES: Wish we had the names of these girls who proudly marched in the 1988 parade. Their banner says it all: Happy Birthday Greenport!

FYI – The first Girl Scout troop in Greenport was organized in 1924.

ONE AND A HALF CENTURIES: Led by Greenport Police Chief Robert E. Walden, the department steps out. In 1988 it was comprised of: P.O. Philip T. Charters, P.O. Ray-mond Van Etten, P.O. Erick Heins, Detective John P. Schott, P.O. Carl Blasko, Jr., P.O. Gary C. Blasko, P.O. Gary M. Charters, P.O. Stephen J. Ryan and P.O. William Moore.

Visit the Village of GreenportBusiness Improverment District website

to watch for celebrtation eventsthroughout the year!

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The Peconic Bay Shopper • - Academy Printing Servicesacademyprintingservices.com/yahoo_site_admin/... · Gail F. Horton, Daniel McCarthy, Bob Kaelin, Norman Wamback A division of