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

Original Site Brookhaven Fire Department

Archeological Site Inventory Form

Fire Place Manse or Parsonage Lands

If checked, this is a Supplemental Form, not in the original surveys.

Inventory Code:		Br04A.2-S
Prepared Date:		2009-02-19
Last Modified:		1970-01-01

Submitter

Submitter Name:	John Deitz
Submitter Address:	7 Locust Rd. Brookhaven, NY 11719
Organization:

Identification

1-Site Name:	Original Site Brookhaven Fire Department
2a-County:	Suffolk	2b-Town:	Brookhaven	2c-Village:	Hamlet of Brookhaven
Address:

Ownership

4a-Public Site	4b-Private Site
4-Present Owner:	5a-Address:

Historic and Architectural Importance

This was the site of the first fire house for the Brookhaven Fire Department, founded May 10th, 1923.

July 26th, 1926
Contract was signed with the Brown Brothers for $2,216.92 for construction of the first fire house.

October 5th, 1926
Ground broken for the Fire House. Mike Gillespie did the excavating with a horse drawn scoop shovel.

Patchogue Advance, 19 Dec 1941, p. 12: 15 Years Ago—Dec 14, 1926
"The new Brookhaven firehouse will be open for inspection and an old-time housewarming held tonight. The building, which stands on Railroad place [modern Bridge street], near Montauk highway [modern South Country road] is a frame structure 48 feet by 24 feet, one story high. John H. Morton, Samuel Bird and George Reeve onstitute the fire committee. George Waldron is chief and Fred D. Swezey, assistant chief."

December 15th, 1945
Fire house burns down with complete loss of both the houses and all equipment. All records were also lost except for the minutes of the four years of the company which John Morton had neglected to place in the fire house.

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

History of the Brookhaven Fire Department, http://www.brookhavenfd.com/history.htm

10- Possibility of Site Destruction or Disturbance

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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

Supplemental Material

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Prepared By

John Deitz