About the Society:

The Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson was founded in 1967. Its purpose is to discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about the history of the Greater Port Jefferson area. Monthly meetings with historical presentations are held from September to June. The Society prepares annual exhibits and maintains the Mather House Museum at 115 Prospect Street. A fund-raising auction is held every autumn.

Mather Museum is open from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day. The hours are June: Sat. and Sun. 1 - 4 p.m. July and August: Tues., Wed., Sat. & Sun., 1 - 4 p.m. For information: (631) 473-2665 You are cordially invited to become a member.

About Port Jefferson:

Incorporated in 1963, Port Jefferson was originally called Drowned Meadow because the downtown area was tidal and "drowned" by the tide twice a day. Today’s Main Street was created when Capt. William L. Jones built a causeway across the 22 acre salt marsh in 1836. The marsh was then gradually filled in. Today’s Main Street was first called Jones Street. Its businesses supplemented the village’s shipbuilding industry which was the largest in Suffolk County. Four out of ten ships built in the county were constructed here. The village was the home of coastal schooner captains, blue water sailors and seamen. Most families had at least one or two members building ships or at sea.

1. J.R. Mather House
   115 Prospect Street
   The original part of this house was built about 1840. The front of the house faced west toward the Mather Shipyard. The addition with Roman Classical broken pediment details on the wraparound columned porch was added in the 1860s. J.R. Mather and his son, John Titus Mather, were leading shipbuilders of the area from 1836 to 1902. J.T. Mather's will provided an endowment for the construction of the John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, built in 1929. The house is presently a museum run by the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson.
   
   
2. Capt. Charles E. Tooker Home
   114 Prospect Street
   (circa 1852) Capt. Charles E. Tooker, along with P.T. Barnum and others, was a founder of the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Steamboat Company in 1883. Tooker was a captain on the first ferries.
   
   
3. Billy Brown Residence
   116 Prospect Street
   (circa 1858) This eye-pleasing house is locally called "Steamboat Gothic" because the porch resembles a Mississippi riverboat. Billy Brown, a well-known village character, bought the house in 1869. He ran a horse drawn stage service to the train station and to Patchogue and hauled machinery for the shipyards in his horse drawn freight wagon.
   
   
4. Saxton House
   121 Prospect Street
   (prior to 1873) This folk Victorian house has delightful Carpenter Gothic detailing on the singular gabled roof with a continuous scallop motif along the eaves. The porch supports are open rectangles with a butterfly shaped upper flanking scroll.
   
   
5. Sylvester Wines House
   401 High Street
   (circa 1855) Sylvester Wines was married to Maria Bayles, sister of James Madison Bayles and Charles Lloyd Bayles, of the leading shipbuilding family of Port Jefferson. Wines himself built five schooners during the time of the Civil War. This charming house has elements of Greek Revival architecture with a full-width entry porch supported with columns. The door surround has a narrow line transom and sidelights; the windows are six-over-six with simple lintels. An interesting feature in this house is the porthole window.
   
   
6. James L. Tooker House
   309 High Street
   (circa 1873) Inspired by farm house designs of the Italian countryside, Italianate houses became popular between 1840 and 1855. This house has the cube shape and central cupola, low-pitched roof, widely overhanging eaves supported by decorative brackets typical of the style. The stucco finish is over the original shingling. The windows of the upper story are original. The Tooker family was one of the many seafaring families of the area.
   
   
7. J.J. Cassidy House
   305 High Street
   (circa 1890) Thought to have been lived in originally by a ship hand who also delivered milk, this house was later occupied by the J.J. Cassidy family. One of the few Democrats in town at the time, J.J. was appointed postmaster by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. J.J.'s fourth child, born in 1934, was named Franklin Delano after the President. The house is a front-gabled, two story Folk Victorian style. Its porch has splendid post Victorian detailing.
   
   
8. B. Tooker — Capt. Baker House
   301 High Street
   (circa 1820) Unique in many ways, this house is an outstanding example of the Second Empire style, named for the reign of Napoleon III. The style features a mansard roof with dormer windows and decorative brackets beneath the eaves. However, this house has supporting columns on the porch which are an elaborate expression of Carpenter Gothic. Originally built by a member of the Tooker family, the house was later owned by Capt. Baker who was a barge captain.
   
   
9. Dr. Deale Residence
   206 High Street
   (1880) The most distinctive architectural feature of this Queen Anne style house is the shell and bead glass design around the front door sidelights. Built on the former cemetery site of the original Methodist church, only five families have owned and lived in it. Dr. Leroy Deale, a dental surgeon, owned the house from 1907 to 1954. His office was on the second floor of the present day Suffolk County Bank Building on East Main Street.
   
   
10. Little Red Schoolhouse
    124 Thompson Street
    (1836) The upper story of this structure served as the "Little Red Schoolhouse" from 1836 until 1850. The village residents met in the schoolhouse on March 7, 1836 and voted to change the village's name from Drowned Meadow to Port Jefferson. The first story was raised and a new first story was built under it when the schoolhouse became a private residence. It is Folk Victorian in style with Queen Anne type turned spindles on the entry porch.
    
    
11. Apollos Dayton House
    119 Thompson Street
    (circa 1841) One of the first homes on Thompson Street, the house has low beamed ceilings with large fireplaces equipped with cranes for cooking utensils. Capt. Dayton's son, George, was master of the Bessie Whiting, a coastal schooner plying the waters between New York and southern ports. The Greek Revival columns were added during the 1940s by Capt. Dayton's granddaughter, Mrs. Robbins, who ran a boarding house for local school teachers.
    
    
12. Mather — Bedell House
    121 Thompson Street
    (circa 1812) Believed to be the home of Richard Conklin Mather, first of the Mather shipbuilding family, the building is Federal style with rough-sawn and hand-hewn timbers, mortise and tenon joinery and hand-cut nails. Roman numerals are written of the rafters. Such markings were a very old building technique. The front of the house faces the harbor and looks directly down on the site of the Mather shipyard.
    
    
13. Luke Minor Tooker House
    107 High Street
    (prior to 1863) This Greek Revival home is known locally as "The Clock House". The house was in the Tooker family for over 100 years. It was sold to the Potters, then to the Spinneys in 1963. The Spinneys' extensive clock collection is well known in the community.
    
    
14. L. Frank Tooker House
    108 High Street
    (prior to 1854) This simple structure was the boyhood home of L. Frank Tooker, author and editor who introduced the writings of Joseph Conrad to the American literary scene. L. Frank Tooker married Violet Swezey.
    
    
15. Petty — Hawkins House
    126 East Broadway
    (circa 1700)This Federal Style house is one of the oldest houses in the village. The second story of the house was raised to build the first story under it. The east end of the first story was built in the 1700s. Mr. Petty ran a market. Several members of the Hawkins family, who later owned the house, were shipbuilders in the early 1800s.
    
    
16. Capt. Cornelius Silbon Home
    124 East Broadway
    (circa 1920) Capt. "Corny" Silbon was a professional yacht captain for Felix Warburg, a multimillionaire. Capt. Silbon built this house from a Sears and Roebuck House Catalog in the 1920s. It is in the "Prairie Box" or American Foursquare style.
    
    
17. Capt. Thomas Hallock House
    122 East Broadway
    (circa 1847) Capt. Thomas Hallock ran a packet ship on a regular schedule, transporting goods and passengers between Long Island and Connecticut in the 1850s prior to the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Steamboat Company. The house had been changed by many owners. The "lie-on-your-belly" windows and brick foundation are clues to its early building date.
    
    
18. Capt. Taylor — Buffet House
    201 East Broadway
    (circa 1820) This charming house has a Swedish gambrel roof with a rounded arch tracery window flanked by quarter-round lights which are Dutch Colonial in style. The main entrance has a small portico with a broken pediment (Roman Classical in style) and square columns. The house is a fine example of eclectic architecture.
    
    
19. Bryant Norton House
    111 East Broadway
    (prior 1873)This house is listed on the 1873 map as belonging to Bryant Norton, who was a real estate developer. It is a fine example of the Italianate style with the cube shape and the cupola on the roof. The double brackets and the fine filigree woodwork testify to the then developing technology of woodworking and the use of the steam drill.
    
    
20. Federal Style House
    116 East Broadway
    (circa 1800) The Federal style, developed from 1775 to 1820, was the first truly American style. It evolved for the Colonial styles the early settlers brought from Europe. Completely symmetrical, simple and refined in character, this house used the locally plentiful woods in place of brick. The roof balustrade is make of windows rather than the classic frieze. The foundation of this house is of sandstone, carried as ballast on ships entering our port.
    
    
21. Kinner — Wilson House
    110 East Broadway
    (circa 1835) This handsome house with Greek Revival features was built by the Kinner family. The third owner was Fred Wilson, son of Reuben Wilson who built the sails for the yacht America when it won the first America's Cup in 1851. Wilson's son and grandson followed in the sail making business.
    
    
22. Abither Gerard House
    111 Thompson Street
    (circa 1826) The older part of this house built by Abither Gerard has locust tree trunks supporting the basement. The Capt. Charles E. Tooker family owned the house from 1917 until 1992. Mike Stillman, architect, redesigned the house to include a full portico with paired pediment dormer windows and an elegant "Union Jack" stick style balustrade on the upper balcony.
    
    
23. Victorian House
    106 East Broadway
    The broken pediment roof line with the one-story entry porch and shuttered windows of the Roman Classicism style and shuttered windows with simple lintels of the Colonial style is delightful in its Victorian color scheme. The porch and side addition are decorated with dentil molding. A cottage garden fills the front yard surrounded by a picket fence.
    
    
24. Bell — Hulse House
    102 East Broadway
    (circa 1802) The Colonial style has a transom with side lights around the doorway. The pediment on the wrap around porch with dentil molding faces the harbor. Capt. Thomas Bell built three sloops and a gunboat for the U.S. Navy between 1802 and 1817. Lewis Hulse, the second owner, built seven ships and was one of the first merchants in the village.
    
    
25. Bayles Shipyard Site
    Three generations of the Bayles family built over 140 wooden ship between 1836 and 1917 in this now open area. Cargo vessels, whale ships and fine luxury yachts were built here. Bayles Dock and the Chandlery were part of the shipyard. The large steel building was erected by the U.S. Shipping Board in 1917 when two large steel freighters as well as steel tugs were built here. Large fuel storage tanks were on the site from the 1930s until 1991.
    
    
26. Bayles Chandlery
    101 East Broadway
    (1898) Part of the Bayles Shipyard, the chandlery carried a full stock of ship stores and supplies. The building is one of the last two standing 19th century structures on the waterfront. It was built in 1897 to replace the original chandlery that burned in a waterfront fire that year. It is one of the best remaining examples of its architectural period and thus worthy of preservation.
    
    
27. Danfords Inn
    25 East Broadway
    The inn, built in 1986, incorporated some existing structures. The west end, built in 1870, has been a blacksmith ship, boxing emporium, social club, ice cream parlor, paint store and lastly, a gift ship owned by Mary Bayles. The 1938 hurricane blew out the back of the shop but strangely left the crockery on the shelves. The dock is Bayles Dock.
    
    
28. Mather Shipyard Site
    The Mather Shipyard and docks were located here. The Mather family built some 54 vessels, including the Martha E. Wallace (half-hull is in the Mather Museum) which was the largest sailing vessel built in Port Jefferson. The original Nonowantuc and Park City, two of the earliest ferries to run between Port Jefferson and Bridgeport, were also built by Mather. P.T. Barnum was one of the founders of the ferry line as was Capt. Charles E. Tooker of Port Jefferson. The line has been in continuous operation since 1883.
    
    
29. Roe House
    118 West Broadway
    (circa 1682) Built for John Roe, a shoemaker and the first resident of Drowned Meadow, this house is saltbox in design. Moved to its present site in 1982, it now serves as a community information center, maintained by the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.