All Tied Up Jeanne Salucci Art

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1 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Historic Yaphank - Where the Past Greets the Present May June, 2015 Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year Robert Hawkins House P.O. Box 111 Yaphank, NY Swezey-Avey House Main Office Hawkins House Gift Shop Meetings: Third Thursday of the Month; 7:30pm, Swezey-Avey House. Newsletter Editor: Peggy Judd Inside this issue: President s Message 2 Another New Piece of Yaphank History Board of Directors President - Robert Kessler Vice President - Peggy Judd Treasurer - Audrey Kessler Recording Secretary - Kayann Donaldson Corresponding Secretary - Marie Desch Librarian - Olive Archer Historian Tricia Foley Historian Emeritus - Karen Mouzakes Curator - Helen Kalbach 3-Yr. Trustee - Liz Horan 2-Yr. Trustee - Kathy Schmidt & Mindy Hausman 1-Yr Trustee - Jim Vavrina & Tony Germano 3 The S.S. Yaphank 4 Furniture of G. Hunzinger 5 Iron Railroad Fence Update 6 Upcoming Events Calendar... 7 All Tied Up Jeanne Salucci Art Swezey-Avey Open House Sunday, June 7th, 1:00-5:00pm We will also be celebrating the Town of Brookhaven Historic Landmark Designation for the Swezey-Avey House. Historical Society exhibit rooms will be open & light refreshments will be served. Long Island Scenes Sunday, June 7th, 1:00-5:00pm, At the Swezey-Avey House Please join us for a Special Art Exhibit & Sale featuring works by local plein air artists, Jeanne Salucci & Chris Taylor. Jeanne is the founder of PALS, the Plein Air Limner Society, a local group of artists who travel weekly to different, scenic, and historic locations on Long Island. They paint outdoors (en plein air), and capture the amazing beauty of local barns, buildings, beaches, lakes, and trees. Spring Community Yard Sale The Yard Sale will be held on the Hawkins House lawns on Saturday, May 16 th (no rain date). The sale will begin at 9:00am and will close at 4:00pm. We are requesting a donation of $5.00 per table with funds going to support the operations of the Society. Bring your own table, chairs, and treasures and set up shop. We usually have a large crowd of customers and our location right on the main road attracts a continuous supply of shoppers. Call or if you have any questions; someone will return your call.

2 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Page 2 Letter from the President My letter today contains a brief overview of our plans for the Yaphank Historic District. We have accomplished much to date, but we have a lot more to do over the next couple of years. Our main priority right now is the HOMAN-GERARD HOUSE. We have an architect on board and they are getting very close to getting us a final set of plans. Once this is done, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works can put out a Request for Proposal to hire a contractor to begin the next step in the restoration of the house. This step is the removal of all of the temporary beams that are in the house. This will be a major step forward with our restoration plan. Along with the restoration of the house we are also going to build a parking area at the rear of the house. This will be parking for the HOMAN HOUSE, the CANOE and KAYAK LAUNCH, and for our NATURE TRAIL. We also are going to be working on converting the HAWKINS HOUSE into a strictly period-appropriate Museum. This project will be conducted over a long period of time. We will eventually be doing period-appropriate paint colors, period furniture, and period landscaping. We are also considering putting Paddock fencing around the entire rear portion of the Hawkins House property. Recently the BOOTH HOUSE was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We are planning to eventually remove the bay window from the side of the house to bring it back to the way the house looked when it was built. Period-appropriate furnishings will continue to be sought. We will be building a new trail leading from the Booth House to the Saint Andrews Church cemetery and then have the trail continue on to the Octagon House foundation. Our old trail connects to the Octagon House foundation from the original entrance by the Homan House and this new portion would create a nice loop from the Booth House back to the Homan House. We are in the process of getting a permit to put a WELCOME TO THE YAPHANK HISTORIC DISTRICT sign on the corner of Yaphank Avenue and the Long Island Expressway. We also would like to put Paddock fencing from the sign down to the spillway to welcome people to the District. Work on the SWEZEY-AVEY HOUSE continues both inside and outside. Extra storage space is being built for our increasing archives. We are going to try and get the House listed on the National Register this year. Landscaping work is scheduled as well as parking lot improvements. Robert Kessler Welcome New Members Anna & Mario Triantafillou, Jersey City, NJ Robert Rubinstein, Fort Pierce, FL Mary Hamilton Hawkes, Brookhaven, NY Funds for this newsletter were provided by the Suffolk County Legislature, Kate Browning, 3rd Legislative District. Thank You! Renewal Dues Reminder Your membership is important to us. Dues are currently payable for the Yaphank Historical Society membership year. Please see current member types and current dues rates on page 7 of this Newsletter. Please include your current address when you send in your dues. We look forward to hearing from you soon. If you have already submitted your dues, your payment is much appreciated.

3 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Page 3 In the last forty years, there has been a renewal of interest in exploring family stories. As an octogenarian, I freely confess that I like history and its twin, genealogy, whether of my own or someone else s family. I have spent years researching family history, lately on ancestry.com, and have uncovered one surprise after another. Recently, a name came up in my family research and bells began ringing! The name was Younges belonging to the Rev. Christopher and his wife Margaret Elvin Younges. He was Vicar of St. Margaret s, Reydon/ Southwold, located in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk, Diocese of Edmundsbury and Ipswich, England, in the 16 th century. Suddenly I remembered that they are Susan Maria Jones Weeks sixth great grandparents and found that they are my tenth great grandparents. Surprise! Another New Piece of Yaphank History By Richard C. Chapin * Susan descends through their eldest son, the Rev. John and his wife Joan Herrington Younges who emigrated to Long Island where he became the founding minister of First Presbyterian Church, Southold in John was part of the Puritan movement, in his case from the Church of England to Presbyterian, from Southwold, Suffolk, England to Southold, Long Island. According to the history of Southold online, a good part of his congregation from England came with him. We knew that Susan s mother was Kezia Youngs, wife of Maj. William Jones. Their home at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory stands today, as does the home in Oyster Bay where Kezia grew up, and which was visited by President George Washington in See Susan s section of Five Generations of the Weeks Family in Little Susy s Church on the Yaphank Historical Society website ( for me that does not detract from the discovery that William, Clara, Francis, and Little Susy, and all the rest of the Weeks family are my cousins. Not exactly kissin cousins, but relatives nevertheless. All of this, of course also applies to Susan s sister, Eleanor Jones, wife of William Sydney Smith, of Longwood. It s safe to assume that those of us who belong to historical societies are interested in history in contrast with other perfectly normal people. When our oldest grandson was a child I presented him with a list of Interesting Ancestors. He responded: Grandpa, those are all dead people. As an adult, he now sees it differently and is a student of history. I think Lucille Stroud, Olive Williams, Bea Kollett, Henry Overhoff, and a few others who were members of St. Andrew s would be pleased, and Wally Stroud, for those who remember him, might ask why it took me so long. Olive remembered Aunt Clara from visits to The Lilacs with her mother. And after thirty years research into the Weeks / Jones family history, I already felt that I knew each family member. blessing. It makes this new discovery an additional *Father Richard Chapin served as Vicar of St. Andrew's Church from 1972 to 1995, before that as Rector of St. Paul's, Patchogue, from 1959 to Formerly a priest of the Episcopal Church, he is now a retired priest of the Diocese of Quincy, IL, in the Anglican Church in North America, living with his wife Jean, in Susquehanna County, PA. In 1988, St. Andrew's became a state and national historic landmark and its history, entitled My connection with Susan runs through my paternal grandmother back to Col. Christopher and Little Susy's Church, was published in Priscilla Elvin Younges. He was a younger son of Christopher and Margaret, brother of the Rev. John Younges, emigrating to Salem, Massachusetts in Susan Maria Jones Weeks and I are 7 th cousins 4x removed. Now I fully realize that by the tenth generation, our grandparents number just over a thousand, and they have more descendants than we have grandparents, but The research involved the founding families of James and Susan Jones Weeks, and recent work on his own family history in ancestry.com has uncovered the surprising discovery described in this article. Father Chapin is a long-time supporter of the Yaphank Historical Society and most recently donated a 1906 Concord Runabout, familiarly called a Doctor s Buggy, to the Society (see the January/February, 2013 Issue of the Newsletter).

4 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Page 4 Historic Landmark Designation for Swezey-Avey House In February of this year, the Town of Brookhaven Historic District Advisory Committee (HDAC) voted unanimously for the designation of the Swezey-Avey House in Yaphank, circa 1873, as a Town Landmark. This designation recognizes the historical importance of this house, noting that it is a distinct contribution to the community within which it resides. The Landmark Designation further ensures that the Swezey-Avey House is protected from future neglect, threat of demolition, or any other compromising force. The HDAC strongly recommended that the Town proceed with this Designation and a Resolution to the Town Board was drawn up and submitted. At the March 26th Town Board Meeting, the Landmark Resolution vote was held and passed unanimously. The Swezey-Avey House has been officially designated as a Brookhaven Town Historic Landmark. The Society sincerely thanks Councilwoman Connie Kepert and Brookhaven Town Historian, Barbara Russell, for their help and support in obtaining this award for the Swezey-Avey House. Celebrate with us, on June 7th (see page 1). The S. S. Yaphank By Karen Mouzakes Thousands of cargo ships travel the seas and from 1919 through 1945, the S.S. Yaphank carried its share of goods to ports all over the world. Launched in July of 1919, into the Kill van Kull off Staten Island, New York, the Steam Ship Yaphank was feet long and weighted in at 7,814 tons. Shipbuilder Wallace Downey presided over the ceremony. This ship was the 9th of sixteen cargo ships that he would build. Downey would later move his company from Staten Island to Arlington, New York. On July 11, the Staten Island Daily News reported, that though the day was rainy, the crowd was enthusiastic. The wife of Army Captain Lemuel Miller was given the honor of smashing the traditional bottle of champagne over the S.S. Yaphank s bow. The very name of Yaphank leads us to conclude that the vessel s name paid tribute to our own Yaphank, home of Camp Upton (where Captain Miller may have served or visited during his military career). The S.S. Yaphank changed hands many times throughout the years. She was sold to Willpolo Shipping Company in 1920, then to Pan American in 1933, Atlas Shipping in 1937, and finally the S.S. Yaphank was wrecked in It seems remarkable that a tiny place called Yaphank should be the namesake of a cargo ship, proving once again that Camp Upton put Yaphank on the map. The S.S. Yaphank S.S. Yaphank Makes Front Page News

5 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter The Furniture of George Hunzinger ( ) (Our Hunzinger Chair, a Hawkins House Treasure) By Peggy Judd Page 5 Born in Germany in 1835, George Hunzinger began his apprenticeship with his father, a cabinet maker. He also continued in this field by working as a journeyman in Geneva. In 1855 he immigrated to the United States at age 20 and joined the rapidly growing German community in Brooklyn, New York. He settled there, worked for several different furniture makers before starting to manufacture his own furniture. He moved to Manhattan in George Hunzinger married in 1859, shortly after arriving in New York. He and his wife raised a large family of two sons and six daughters. George Hunzinger is one of the foremost designers of patent furniture. His proto-modern furniture designs incorporated new materials and technology in construction. Over his career, he secured 21 technical patents for innovative table, chair, and bed designs. His designs do not conform to a particular historical style, but are embellished with detail one expected in 19 th century objects. Hunzinger pieces are frequently branded with his name and patent date. This technique proved to be more than an identifying mark, turning out to be a very useful marketing tool. Hunzinger appealed to the 19 th century taste for both novelty and American ingenuity. He also offered a consumer choices over a wide economic range, thereby attracting consumers of different tastes and budgets, resulting in an increasing name recognition and popularity. The originality of his progressive, pared-down designs was also well suited to machine production and made his furniture affordable to a large audience. Hunzinger s furniture is among the earliest to have parts that often resemble machine parts pipes, screws, bolts, and cogs. A machine esthetic, such as Hunzinger s designs, would not appear in domestic design for another 50 years. This drawing represents Hunzinger s most enduring chair design, with diagonal cross bracing on the legs to the back of the chair for strength. Other trademark elements of Hunzinger pieces are a unique front diagonal brace, conical terminations, decorative balls, carved and incised circular medallions, metal banding for seats and seat backs, and the use of new and different materials, e.g., woven wool and cotton wrapped metal cording for a seat instead of the more typical natural cane fiber. Articulated joinery, standardized machine-turned components, and the spare efficiency of frame were true modern design aspects. Many of his pieces included upholstered seats and/or seat backs with the upholstery varying in style and price. Such chairs were incorporated into the Victorian interior as pull-up occasional chairs within a parlor of overstuffed seating. Wire Seat Side Chair, c. 1875, George Hunziger. Maple, polychrome, cotton and wool covered metal strips.(6 th patent awarded for braided wire seat.) Hawkins House Hunzinger Rocking Chair, c Mahogany, cording seat and back. Our own museum-quality Hunzinger chair, pictured above, was purchased by the Yaphank Historical Society in 2009 at an estate sale in Riverhead managed by Jane Danby. It is a wonderful example of a folding rocking chair with a cording seat and back. The wood is mahogany. Our chair is signed by George Hunzinger and dated The chair is completely original except for a couple of minor repairs (one small piece of wood and some seating cording). Our chair sits in one of the children s rooms at the Hawkins House.

6 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Page 6 More News about the historic Iron Railroad Fence As we reported in an earlier issue of the Newsletter (November/December 2014), the historic iron LIRR fence that used to front the Hawkins House property has been donated to the Railroad Museum of Long Island. (RMLI) located in Riverhead. The Museum will soon be featuring an article written by the RMLI President, Don Fisher and Karen Mouzakes, YHS Historian Emeritus, in their member newsletter, The Postboy. The article will thank the Society for our donation and will include the history of the fence and the installation plans for the fence at the Museum. RMLI will send extra copies of their newsletter to the Historical Society upon publication. Installation of the iron fence was completed this spring and the fence surrounds the operating train set, the Allan Herschell G-16 park train that ran at the New York World Fair at the Long Island Rail Road pavilion. 132 visitors heard the story of the fence and enjoyed a ride on the G-16 park train at the season opening of the RMLI. Plans are underway to sandblast and paint the fence this spring, further protecting the iron from the elements. They also plan on installing a sign that will tell the story of the train as well as the history of the iron fence. President Fisher closes his upcoming article this way We thank the Yaphank Historical Society for entrusting this wonderful Long Island Rail Road artifact to the RMLI and for permission to reprint Karen s wonderful article. Not only are we saving and exhibiting a piece of LIRR history, we are using this fence again in the manner for which it was made, to protect pedestrians from a railroad right-of-way! Nothing could be finer. Installed fence around the G-16 park train Spring Opening visitors enjoying a ride on the G-16 park train. Old Sign Returns Home Kayann Donaldson, our resident archive sleuth, purchased a sign labeled Old South Haven Church at a yard sale 20 or 30 years ago. The sign was stored in her attic for all these many years. Recently, Kay gave this sign to Marty Van Lith, Brookhaven Historian, who will see that the sign returns to its rightful home. Marty is donating the sign to the current South Haven Church trustees. The Old South Haven Presbyterian Church, circa 1740, has a long history which can be read about at the website, oldsouthhavenchurch.org. It is very likely that this sign was at one time standing in front of the Church.

7 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Page 7 Yaphank Historical Society MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2015 UPCOMING EVENTS Spring Community Yard Sale Saturday, May 16 th, 9:00am 4:00pm (no rain date) Donation: $5 per vendor Set up on the Hawkins House Lawns Call or with questions. May General Meeting Thursday, May 21 st, 7:30pm, Swezey-Avey House Guest speaker will be Robert Sturm, Author and Historian Program: History of The Long Island Railroad Company--- from 1834 to 1965 Refreshments will follow the meeting. Swezey-Avey Open House Sunday, June 7 th, 1:00 5:00pm Long Island Scenes, Special Art Exhibit & Sale featuring works by local plein air artists. Also celebrating the Town of Brookhaven Historic Landmark Designation for the Swezey-Avey House. Historical Society exhibit rooms will be open. Light celebratory refreshments will be served. June General Meeting Thursday, June 18 th, 7:30pm, Swezey-Avey House Guest speaker will be Richard Welch, Author & Suffolk County Historical Society Board Member Program: General Washington s Commando Benjamin Tallmadge Refreshments will follow the meeting. July General Meeting Thursday, July 16 th, 7:30pm, Swerzey Avey House Guest speaker will be Howard Kroplick, President of the LI Motor Pkwy Preservation Society Program: The Vanderbilt Cup Races and the LI Motor Parkway Refreshments will follow the meeting. Summer House Tours Hawkins House and Booth House Museum Tours Docents will be available at both Houses for tours and to answer questions. Sunday afternoons in July and August From 1:00pm 4:00pm Spirit Walks on Historic Main Street in Yaphank July 12 th and August 23 rd, 2:00pm, meet at Hawkins House Walks led by Balee, noted local psychic Donation: $5.00 per person. Keep current with all our events and projects by visiting our website August General Meeting Thursday, August 20 th, 7:30pm, Swezey-Avey House Elections for YHS Board Members; Voting by members only. Refreshments will follow the meeting.

8 Page 8 Yaphank Historical Society Newsletter Thank You To Our Supporters If you are interested in having your business card printed in the Yaphank Historical Society newsletter, you may do so for a $50 donation per year. Please leave a phone number message at the Swezey-Avey House, (631) OR (631) Our members support our local businesses. St. Andrew s Episcopal Church 244 E. Main Street Yaphank, NY Sunday Services: 8:30 & 10 A.M. Sunday School at 10 A.M. Service 494 Long Island Ave., Medford, NY Showroom: Millwork Factory: Automotive Products, Inc. 14 Todd Court Extension Yaphank, NY