Executive Director's Note | |
I am excited because fall is upon us! We are preparing for the holidays, and the weather is cool, crisp, and inviting!
The Pickle Festival was a great success. You may have heard the lines were crazy, so the GCHA is revamping the event to make it more enjoyable next year. Also, we need more volunteers at all of our events. If you are interested in volunteering, please email me.
We are trying to do more for the Centerport community. The GCHA had our first Dine and Discover event on Centerport history. Thank you to Dave Clemens for being our presenter. We learned all about Centerport Mill Pond: Then and Now.
We will host a “Spooky Train Rides & More” at the John Gardiner Farmhouse property. Lollipop Train, hay rides, craft, and food will be great fun! We are selling tickets in advance. No tickets will be available at the door. To purchase your tickets, click here.
I hope you will join us at the newly researched lecture, “Vaudevillians of Centerport and Greenlawn.” It is here at the Harborfields Library, and we also have an exhibit about the vaudevillians. It will be up through November.
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Spooky Train Rides & More! | |
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Buy your tickets now! No Tickets will be sold at the door!
Non-Members: Click Here
Members: Click Here
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Vaudevillians of Centerport and Greenlawn | | |
Historical Article: Mill Pond
By: Robert C. Hughes, Town Historian
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This building served as the servants quarters for the Charles M. Whitney House next door to the east. Whitney was a lawyer in New York as well as a musician and composer. In the 1890s, he formed the Mozart Sextet comprised of him, his wife and their four children. The group toured throughout the country playing classical music, including some of Whitney’s own compositions. In 1897, Whitney rented the Francis Cottage at the head of the Centerport mill pond. He purchased the property soon thereafter and by 1903 had completed the construction of his new country home, which he called Castle Wigemore, the name of the Whitney ancestral home in England.
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The servants quarters were built immediately to the west. Although no date has been established for its construction, it does appear on the 1909 map. Whitney died in 1920. His son inherited the house, but lost in a foreclosure action in 1923. The property was purchased by Willard Baylis.
In the 1920s, the main house was used as a hotel by James LaTorre. In 1929, LaTorre sold the property to Walter Jankus, who operated Walter’s Inn. The Inn was in operation as early as 1929, apparently in the old Whitney Mansion. Some time before 1934, Jankus moved his inn to the servants quarters building, which was remodeled with “a rustic front.”
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A “Grand Opening” of Walter’s Inn was advertised in May 1933. This is probably the date when the inn was moved to the servants quarters building. A fire in 1936, seriously damaged the roof of the inn. The reverse gables facing the street and millpond were rebuilt with a straight gable end rather than a Jerkin Head as it originally appeared.
| Walter’s Inn was reportedly the subject of the first zoning trial under Huntington’s new zoning code. In 1934, Jankus was cited for operating a restaurant in a residential zone. Jankus argued that “the building had been used as a restaurant for 60 years in connection with [the] larger building on the same property.” (Brooklyn Times Union, October 24, 1934, page 24). The reference to 60 years is probably a typo. Although Jankus clearly won the case because the restaurant continues to operate there, a copy or report of the decision has not been found. | | |
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Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association Mug
$12.00
Click here!
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Centerport
Discover the Deco estates, summer camp spots, and stunning landscapes that Long Island's North Shore coastal community of Centerport has to offer.
Once known as Little Cow Harbor, the coastal community of Centerport on Long Island's north shore is rich in natural resources, including a beautiful harbor with several freshwater streams surrounded by wooded hills. Centerport was originally the site of several important mills, but in the late 19th century, it became a summer retreat for both the rich and the not so rich. Youth camps, most notably the Franciscan Brothers' Camp Alvernia; guesthouses; and resorts as well as popular restaurants dotted the shoreline. In the early 20th century, large estates were established by the Vanderbilt, Van Iderstine, Burling, Morse, DeBrabant, Whitney, and Corbin families on the Little Neck peninsula. As the 20th century progressed, modest and generously sized houses replaced the small farms and many of the large estates. The unspoiled natural beauty and rich history has for centuries drawn residents whose love of Centerport continue to make our village a great place to live.
$20.00
Click here!
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Greenlawn: A Long Island Hamlet
From the archives of the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association comes this striking visual history of the north shore Long Island hamlet of Greenlawn.
Originally known as Oldfields, the area was settled in the early 1800s by farmers. The extension of the Long Island Railroad through the farmlands in 1867-1868 provided the impetus for the development of a profitable pickle and cabbage industry, the growth of the community, and the arrival of vacationers, many of whom soon became year-round residents. Greenlawn includes stories of the Halloween eve conflagration, the Adirondack-style vacation retreat, the opera house, the farmhouse murders, the vaudevillians, and the Pickle King, among others. Today, houses cover the old farmlands; yet Greenlawnwith -one main street of small shops, a railroad crossing that halts traffic throughout the day, and many historical buildings-still retains its small-town charm.
$20.00
Click here!
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Join and Rejoin the GCHA!
Please renew your membership or join because your annual dues give the future of Greenlawn Centerport Historical Association a steady foundation to maintain its two historic properties, the John Gardiner Farmhouse, and the Suydam homestead, and the preservation of paintings, photographs, documents, and ephemera at the Russell B. Brush Research Center. As members, you get a discounted admission rate on every one of our programs. We thank you for your continued interest in helping us to preserve your history for the future.
Click here to join!
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