Jupiter Hammon Project Resources: Historical Documents

Christopher La Bella

York Hall is good step in the right direction! Kudos to PLI for your Endangered Historic Places program and Action Alerts bringing public attention to our Long Island heritage! In the township of Smithtown, more historic places deserve to be listed on the NR. For a quarter-century, from 1993 to 2018, not one building was nominated and listed NR in Smithtown township until the 2019 Nomination I wrote voluntarily, as a resident, for the Frederick and Annie Wagner Residence (1912, Gustav Stickley) and St. Patrick’s Church (Byzantine Catholic Church of the Resurrection, 1929, McGill & Hamlin), followed by the 2020 Nomination I prepared with SHPO for the Hauppauge United Methodist Church (1806, oldest in the township) and Cemetery, underrepresented churches and the first of their faiths in the township to be listed NR. Other places and even civic sculpture (the Smithtown Bull, Head of the River Park) I’ve researched resulting in NRE (Eligible) status, are waiting (years) for their owners (including the Town itself) to say ‘yes’ and be listed on the NR. There’s so much more to do to bring Historic Preservation in this township outside the fence line of the Historical Society.