Historic and Natural Districts Inventory Form

Unless indicated below, this is a transcript of the original Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities/Town of Brookhaven survey form. Corrections to obvious typographical and spelling errors have been made. Corrections to factual errors, updates or comments on the information are either enclosed in [square brackets], or will be clearly indicated as updated material. Since most of the surveys were conducted in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, much of the information reflects that time period. Included in this category are sites for which some documentation may exist but are no longer extant often with little or no modern evidence at the site.

Sites which have a suffix of “S” are supplemental sites not included in the original surveys.

ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE INVENTORY FORM

Brookhaven Railroad Station

Archeological Site Inventory Form

Fire Place Manse or Parsonage Lands

 If checked, this is a Supplemental Form, not in the original surveys.
Inventory Code:   Br02.1-S 
Prepared Date:   2004-03-26 
Last Modified:   1970-01-01 
Submitter
Submitter Name:   John Deitz
Submitter Address:   7 Locust Rd.

Brookhaven, NY 11719  
Organization:  
Identification
1-Site Name:   Brookhaven Railroad Station 
2a-County:   Suffolk    2b-Town:   Brookhaven    2c-Village:   Hamlet of Brookhaven
Address:    
Ownership
   4a-Public Site    4b-Private Site
4-Present Owner:  Long Island Rail Road   5a-Address: 
Historic and Architectural Importance

The station was on the north side of the tracks near to the intersection of Old Stump Rd. and Bridge Pl. (both streets were, at one time or another, a.k.a. Railroad Street/Ave.) The Brookhaven Depot was built in 1884, it's agency closed in 1932. The building was remodeled in 1944, and the station was closed as a station stop on 6 Oct 1958, the same year as East Moriches' and many others.

Associated with the station was a small Freight house. According to the the 1888 map of Brookhaven Hamlet, a "Freight House" originally stood on the southeast corner of Old Stump Rd. (then called Railroad Ave.) and the railroad tracks.

This freight building was purchased and moved to the old Lefkowicz Duck farm on Old Stump Rd., probably sometime in the early 1970's. Later it was purchased by Ron Bush, a real estate broker in Patchogue who also owned a family farm in Holtsville. He later moved the building to his private museum at the old Robinson farm in South Haven, where he is doing preservation and restoration work.

  
6- Description, Condition, Evidence of Site
 

As was the early custom, a large tracts of land (called a manse, or parsonage lands) were set aside by the Town of Brookhaven for the benefit of the ministers of the Town church, in general as a farm to provide for their sustenance. Such a tract was provided in Fire Place for the Church at the South (the South Haven Presbyterian Church).  This tract included the section north of the northern boundary of the Corwin farm (the present LIRR right-of-way), between Old Town Road/South Country road on the west, the southern boundary of the Great Division of Lots (Montauk Highway), and east to Little Neck Run. (See map).

 6a-Standing Ruins

 6b-Cellar Hole with Walls  

 6c-Surface Traces Visible  6d-Walls Without Cellar Hole
 6e-Under Cultivation  6f-Erosion
 6g-Underwater  6h-No Visible Evidence
 6i-Other  
7- Collection of Material from Site
 7a- Surface Hunting By Whom:    Date:  
 7b-Testing By Whom:  Date:  
 7c-Excavation By Whom:  Date: 
 7d-None
7e-Present Repository of Materials  
8- Prehistoric Cultural Affiliation or Date
   
9-Historical Documentation of Site
 
10- Possibility of Site Destruction or Disturbance
Moved 1959. See below.  «»
11-Remarks
12- Map Location
    [If an original form, the source map images were not reproducible.]
12a- 7 1/2 Minute Quad. Name: 
12b- 15 Minute Quad. Name:   
12c- U.S.G.S Coordinates:   
12d- D.O.T. Coordinates:  (if known):   
Other Maps:   
13- Photographs
  Photos and images  
Supplemental Material

Some suggest that the passenger station building was sold in 1959 and relocated to the Miller property on Burnett Lane off of Beaver Dam Road, Brookhaven Hamlet, where it is currently being used as a small work shop. A comparison of this structure with historic pictures of the passenger station suggest that they are not the same structure.

Some older residents remember that the original passenger station burned sometime after it was closed, and that the structure now at the Miller residence was likely another auxiliary structure at the site. While I have searched The Patchogue Advance for some years after 1959, I have yet to find any record of the station being destroyed by fire; older members of the fire department are fairly certain that it did not burn but was moved.

Other older residents are certain that that the depot was purchased and moved to East Moriches (or perhaps Center Moriches), where it still may be found.

Long Island Advance, 11 February 2010, From the Archives of The Long Island Advance, 100 Years ago. [Feb 1910]:  "Fred Droche was held for the grand jury this week by Justice Price of Bellport for breaking into the Brookhaven railroad station.  Deputy Sheriff Addison H. Bumstead ran the culprit down with a bloodhound."

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Prepared By
  J. Deitz