Origins and Development
The first settlers arrived in Oyster Bay in the 1650s.[citation needed] Over the ensuing 350 years several important events in the religious, military, and social history of Colonial America and the United States occurred there. A few of these events and the people associated with them are celebrated in the History Walk.
Seven of the sites included on the History Walk are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The tour was designed through the collaborative efforts of historian John Hammond,, Oyster Bay Historical Society Director Thomas A. Kuehhas, and sound recording artist Claire Bellerjeau.
An audio commentary was created to accompany the maps to enable interested walkers to understand the significance of each of the sites on the Walk. These tracks were originally released under the title Talk of the Town, but the name was changed to the Oyster Bay History Walk in 2008 at the time of certification by the American Heart Association as the first Start! Walking Path on Long Island.
Sites on the Walk
Details of the locations of the site on the walk are available on the linked map.
1. Introduction
The Walk starts at the Baykery Cafe with a general introduction to Oyster Bay and its history.
orioles jerseyWhile many people know Oyster Bay as the home of Theodore Roosevelt there is, of course, much more to tell. Before the first arrivals of European colonials over 350 years ago the Matinecock Indians settled in the area at least a thousand years ago.[citation needed] Dutch and English merchants, fishermen, and shipbuilders later made this a lively center of maritime trade. One of George Washington most important spies Robert Townsend lived here. The notorious pirate Captain Kidd visited for a short time, as did Typhoid Mary.
2. Fleet's Hall
Oyster Bay ca. 1890. Snouder's Drug Store in left foreground, Moore's Building in right background, and Fleet's Hall to its right in foreground.
Main article: Fleet's Hall
Fleet's Hall is a building that once stood in Oyster Bay, New York. The building served as an important civic and social meeting place during the time that Theodore Roosevelt was a resident of Oyster Bay and served as Governor of New York State and later President of the United States. The building was used for events such as public meetings, concerts, receptions, dances, and dinners. It was also the site of the first moving picture screening in Oyster Bay.
3. Moore's Building
Moore's Building
Main article: Moore's Building
Following a fire James Moore built a new grocery store in 1901 incorporating portions of a brick faade first built in 1891. As well as the large ground floor he included two high-ceilinged upper floors for public meetings. It was in these upper floors that President Roosevelt located his Summer Executive Offices. Secretary William Loeb, Jr. and his staff conducted any business of the president here that did not require his personal attention. Direct "hotlines" connected to Sagamore Hill and the White House. In 1903 the first "round the world" cable was transmitted from this building. Moore's Building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
4. Oyster Bay Bank Building
Oyster Bay Bank Building
Main article: Oyster Bay Bank Building
This building was constructed in 1891 and served as the first bank in the town, it originally consisted of 3 stories as well as a basement. The directors of the Oyster Bay Bank leased the third floor to the Masons of Matinecock Lodge #806, the second floor to various doctors and lawyers, part of the basement to a pool hall and tobacco shop, and used the first floor for the bank.
When Roosevelt was Governor of New York in 1900 he rented several rooms on the second floor. In 1901 he became a member of orioles jersey the Matinecock Lodge, and attended meetings on the third floor.
Originally the building was set back from the sidewalk about ten feet with a flight of wide stops leading up to the entrance. However, in 1927 the building was lowered and brought forward to the street. As a result customers can enter the main floor directly from street level. Following this a 3 story extension was added to the back of the building. Recently, the building has undergone extensive renovation, both inside and out.
5. Derby-Hall Bandstand
Derby-Hall Bandstand
Main article: Derby-Hall Bandstand
The bandstand was once used by Roosevelt and others to give speeches. The original bandstand was removed in the 1930s and in 1981 a replica took its place. It is once again used for public speakers. The original intention was to dedicate the replica to Roosevelt's daughter Ethel Roosevelt Derby. However, her godson Leonard Wood Hall, a New York Congressman and Oyster Bay native, died shortly before completion. As he had been the principal organizer of the rebuilding project it was dedicated to him as well as Ethel.
There are three cannon around the bandstand.
The one facing the Town Hall is a Civil War era Dahlgren gun, named for its inventor Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren. At the base of this cannon is a tablet cast from metal recovered from the wreck of the USS Maine. The explosion that caused this wreckage contributed to the decision to begin the Spanish-American War of 1898 (in which Roosevelt
The cannon at the foot of the stairs is a circa 1861 Civil War trophy gun from the USS R. R. Cuyler. The R. R. Cuyler was a 1202 ton wooden steamship chartered by the Union Navy to enforce a blockade of Florida west coast. It is a 30 pound Parrott rifle and weighs 3,510 lbs. It was presented to Oyster Bay by the Navy and unveiled by President Roosevelt in 1903.
6. U.S. Post Office
Post office
Main article: U.S. Post Office (Oyster Bay, New York)
While there have been at least four site for the Oyster Bay Post Office, the current building was the first to be architecturally designed. New York architect William Bottomley designed this building to be a mirror image of the Town Hall building on the opposite side of the street. Building was completed in 1936. Several artists were then commissioned to decorate the interior. The artists included Ernest Peixotto, who with his assistant contributed several murals representing Oyster Bay's history, and Leo Lentelli, an Italian sculptor, who created terracotta panels above the interior doorways, a terracotta bust of Theodore Roosevelt, and a stone flagpole base on the grounds outside the Post Office. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
7. Long Island Rail Road Station
Oyster Bay LIRR station
Main article: Oyster Bay (LIRR station)
The Oyster Bay Railroad Station is the terminus of this branch of the Long Island Railroad. The first station was built in 1889 and then expanded in 1901 at the time of Roosevelt's election as President to accommodate the large increase in guests to the hamlet. A new station was built nearby in the late twentieth century to accommodate double-decker trains. The original building is currently being transformed into the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum. This building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
8. Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
Main article: Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
The land Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park rests on was originally a salt marsh used for raising cattle. Theodore Roosevelt once said of the area of the future park, wish that we citizens of Oyster Bay could make here a breathing place for all people of this neighborhood, especially the less fortunate ones. Only a few months after his death in 1919, the idea of making a park was agreed upon. Over the next six years land was acquired and work to build a park begun. A dedication ceremony was held in May 1928, attended by 5,000 people with a parade and a flyover by planes.
9. Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable
Turntable, beyond chain-link fence
Main article: Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable
Oyster Bay is one of the few remaining stations with an original turntable. It was built in 1902 to replace a smaller one that had been moved to Oyster Bay from Locust Valley at the time of the extending the line. The Turntable is listed by the National Register of Historic Places.
10. Waterfront Center
Main article: WaterFront Center
The area of the shore used by the WaterFront Center used to be the site of Jakobson Shipyard. During World War II minesweepers, tugboats, and mini-submarines were produced for the US Navy. Today educational and recreational facilities occupy the site.
A major feature of the educational facilities is the U.S. National Historic Landmark Christeen, which is moored at the WaterFront Center. She is the oldest oyster sloop in the United States having been laid down in 1883. After 30 years of harvesting oysters she was used as a cargo vessel and then a pleasure vessel. In 1989 she was abandoned. Then in 1991 she was bought by a group of Oyster Bay enthusiasts and restored.
Oyster Bay produces up to 90% of the oysters and 40% of the hard clams harvested in New York State[citation needed]. The Christeen serves as a floating classroom to educate students of all ages about the operation of historic vessels and protection of the marine environment of Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound.
11. Captain Kidd in Oyster Bay
Main article: William Kidd
Although Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont, had been instrumental in securing Kidd's commission as a privateer he later turned against Kidd and other pirates, writing that the inhabitants of Long Island were "a lawless and unruly people" protecting priates who had "settled among them."
In an attempt to avoid his mutinous crew, who had gathered in New York, Kidd sailed 120 miles around the eastern tip of Long Island, and then doubled back 90 miles along the Sound to Oyster Bay. He felt this was a safer passage than the high-trafficked narrows between Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Kidd arrived in Oyster Bay on June 9, 1699, and anchored offshore. Justice White and Doctor Cooper helped to transmit a message to Kidd's wife in New York, without exposing Kidd and his location. This secrecy was in vain, however, for his location in Oyster Bay was revealed, and just over a month later he was imprisoned in Boston before being shipped back to England for trial.
12. Wightman Memorial Baptist Church
Wrightman Memorial Baptist Church
Main article: Wightman Memorial Baptist Church
The first Baptist congregation started meeting in Oyster Bay in 1700 and it is the oldest Baptist congregation in the State of New York. The first minister, Robert Feeks was appointed in 1724 gaining him the distinction of being the first ordained minister in Oyster Bay of any denomination.
The original building was a plain unpainted wooden frame structure with flat planked pews and a small pulpit. During the Revolutionary War it was reportedly used to quarter occupying British troops, as were many other churches in the village. The congregation grew steadily and in 1806 a larger church was built on this site.
In 1882 this second building was moved back on the site and rotated 90 degrees to make room for the new church. In 1908, after several years of fundraising the church that is on the site today was completed. The 1806 building was then used as a Baptist church school.
Since the early 1980 the North Shore Assembly of God has made both the buildings their home, and have preserved the interior with all of its original details including carved pews and other woodwork, ornate pressed tin ceilings and walls, a built-in pipe organ, and the original stained glass windows.
13. Octagon Hotel
Octagon Hotel, c. 1910
Main article: Octagon Hotel
Luther Jackson built the Nassau House in 1851 to be a political and social meeting space. It was later called the Acker Nassau House. In 1884 the hotel was used for the coroner inquest into the murder of three women of the area, Lydia and Annie Maybee of Wolver Hollow and Charlotte Aurelia Townsend of Oyster Bay.
