UPDATE! The Village of Port Jefferson acquires William Tooker House, a rare pre-1750 structure in Port Jefferson Station with strong ties to Long Island’s colonial past.
The Willam Tooker House, the oldest known structure in Port Jefferson Village still located at its historic building site, had been threatened by neglect, demolition, and urban renewal. In 2021, Preservation Long Island included the site in our Endangered Historic Places Program. We are pleased to report that on October 3, 2022, the Village executed a Contract of Sale to purchase the property from the current owners.
This is a positive step in the process of preserving the William Tooker House. Because the New York State Historic Preservation Office had already determined this property eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020, as the new owners, the Village can now apply for the designation and become eligible for tax credits, financial incentives, and technical assistance to help support rehabilitation work at the site.
Click HERE to learn about additional actions and resources that can be pursued to preserve the site and support future public programming.
The William Tooker House (built before 1750, pictured above in 2020) is the oldest structure still located at its original site in the Village of Port Jefferson. Due to some later alterations that partly obscured its original historic character, the property remained largely overlooked and unstudied until 2019.
Preservation Long Island’s Endangered Historic Places Program is made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
