www.mphistorical.org

home Local History Timeline

Start	Native American tribes (the Algonquin) flourish on Long Island.
1600	European explorers arrive in the “New Land”, Henry Hudson arrives at Long Island in 1609. The Dutch settle the western end, while the British settle in the eastern regions.
1640	America’s Colonial whaling industry begins on the shores of Long Island in the area of Southampton. Soon after, Brookhaven settlers would hunt and process whales off the shore of Fireplace (now Brookhaven Hamlet).
1655	Brookhaven township is established by a small group of English settlers and the whaling industry promotes growth. “Old Town Road”, likely a native American trail, is created to move settlers from Setauket south through Coram and ends in FirePlace (now Brookhaven Hamlet) just to the west of the Mastic Salt Hay fields.
1657	Richard Woodhull makes the first purchase of land on behalf of the town from local Native Americans. The purchase covers two necks of land on the Mastic Peninsula.
1664	The "Old Purchase at South” was made from Tobaccos, a chief of the Unchechaug Indians, which included the western part of South Haven, Brookhaven and Bellport. This was purchased from the Indians for four coats and about $16 in cash, and the deed is still among the town papers at Patchogue. In addition to getting hay in this part of the town, men came here from the north side settlements to go whaling at an early date, as the oil could be used in their lamps and whalebone was a versatile material. –Thomas R Bayles
1691	On May 25, 1691 Col. William "Tangier" Smith purchased from the Indian, John Mayhew the enormous acreage, later to be known as the Manor of St. George. He then set aside 175 acres of the land occupied by the Unkechaug Indians on the west side of the Mastic (Forge) River at Poosepatuck Creek to be theirs for the annual rent of two ears of corn. The Poosepatuck Indian Reservation is still in existence today, however it has shrunk to 55 acres due to unscrupulous land dealings by early officials. –by Van R. Field illushis
1700	By this time, the Mastic area is controlled by the aristocratic families of the name Smith, Floyd, Nicoll, and Woodhull.
1709	The Manor House at St. George is built for William “Tangier” Smith.
1717	The Old South Haven Presbyterian Church is established and attended through the years by area residents such as the Floyds, General Nathaniel Woodhull, Judge William Smith and Colonel Josiah Smith.
1718	Richard Floyd ll purchases over 4400 acres of property from William Tangier Smith of the Manor of St. George. The property stretched six miles north from Moriches Bay and approximately one mile west from the Mastic or Forge River. It included use rights for the Great South Beach on what is now Fire Island. Richard Floyd II gave this property to his youngest son, Nicoll Floyd (1703-1755).
1722	Famous Revolutionary Patriot Nathaniel Woodhull is born.
1724	Nicoll Floyd, Father of William Floyd, moves onto the property and builds the first part of the estate, also referred to as “The Old Mastic House”. The original home was a two-story, six room shingled wood frame house. He developed the land into a prosperous plantation, using both slave and free laborers to raise grain, flax, sheep, and cattle.
1734	William Floyd, delegate and signer of the Declaration of Independence, is born on December 17.
1738	Construction of the first road through Mastic is complete and leads to the Manor of St. George.
1755	William Floyd inherits Mastic Plantation at the young age of 20 from his father, Nicoll Floyd.
1761	Richard Floyd Mansion and property consisting of approximately 3000 acres is established.
1776	William Floyd, a member of the Continental Congress, signs the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd, and will not be able to return to his estate for another 7 years. The British seize his home and property after defeating the colonial army during the Battle of Long Island. …famous portrait of William Floyd Nathaniel Woodhull is captured by the British and dies from his wounds after being imprisoned. He is buried at his home in Mastic.
1780	The Battle of Mastic, using whale boat warfare. On November 21, 1780, Col. Benjamin Tallmadge and his dragoons, 80 strong, rowed across the Long Island Sound under the cover of darkness from Fairfield, Connecticut to Mt. Sinai, New York. The next day they proceeded to the south shore where they captured and burned down the Manor of St. George, which the British turned into a fort, and captured the soldiers within. On their march back to Mt. Sinai, Tallmadge stopped in Coram and ordered the burning of 300 tons of hay which the British had been stockpiling for the winter. They then returned to Connecticut. Benjamin Tallmadge, pictured with a sword, at Fort St. George in Mastic. Vance Lock Mural- Setauket School In 1780, Samuel Carman Sr. bought the mills along the lower Carmans River and later opened a store, tavern and Inn. Over the course of the next century the Carman family became quite wealthy and influential, and, by the mid-1800s, owned much of the land on the west side of Carmans River. Sam Carman Jr. had 12 children; in the 1840s, one of them, Joseph Henry, was given about 30-acres that included Squassux Landing. -Marty Vanlith Samuel Carman Homestead Carmans Mill
1783	After suffering much damage from the British occupation, William Floyd returns to rebuild his estate.
1784	The Original Richard Woodhull Estate, believed to have been located between Hemlock and Daisy Drive in Mastic Beach, is destroyed by fire during the month of April. It would later be rebuilt by his widow Ruth Woodhull at the corner of Corn Ct. and Washington Drive in Mastic Beach. The Richard Floyd estate, known as “Pattersquas” was conveyed by the Commission of Forfeited Estates to Benjamin Floyd, his brother, and then eventually winds up in the hands of William Smith, owner of the Manor of St. George
1789	William Floyd elected to the First United States Congress (1789-1791).
1790	Dr. Daniel Robert who had married into the Tangier Smith Family, moves into the Richard Floyd Estate and begins running the Pattersquas property. In October of 1779, Richard Floyd relocated to New Brunswick Canada as England lost the Revolutionary War.
1791	Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, good friends of William Floyd, visit his estate.
1803	In 1803, at age 69, William Floyd left Long Island with his family to establish a new home in Westernville, New York. Upon his death in 1821, he leaves the Mastic Property to his son Nicoll Floyd, II
1813	The Brookhaven Township is divided into school districts for the various villages and hamlets. ..Thomas R. Bayles, History of Patchogue
1827	The Moriches Post Office was established with James M. Fanning as postmaster. Originally located in a hotel conducted by the Fannings, it would later be moved to the country store of Edmund Hallock (shown below) in 1837. The Suffolk Club (now Southaven County Park) is formed by Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren and others. The property is first leased then purchased from the Carman family and utilized as a private hunting and fishing preserve located just north of the “goin-over” (wooden bridge over the Carmens or Conneticut river) and running up to the area known as Yaphank.
1830	The Floyd-Murray House (aka The Petty House) is recognized as an area residence that provided shelter for Colonial age estate workers.
1834	The first one room school opened in Moriches. photo: Rita Rech
1835	The Roberts Family, in-laws of the Smiths, take ownership of the Richard Floyd Patersquas estate with the drafting of a formal deed which is held privately and not filed until the year 1883.
1849	Moriches Life Saving Station established. One of three on Fire Island in this area (see entries for 1871 ad 1872). The purpose of these life saving stations were to make water rescues when ships ran aground in the surf or off shore. This station existed until 1954. The photo below is the “SS Oregon” which went down off Fire Island in 1886.
1862	The Great Fire of 1862 started in Smithtown, burned south to the Moriches Bay, and caused severe damage to local area property.
1871	Forge River Life Saving Station established on Fire Island opposite the mouth of the Forge River. Existed until 1948. The ship the “Charlie Hickman” ran aground in 1884 ½ mile east of this life saving station. The rescues were handled by all three life saving stations.
1872	Smith Point Life Saving Station established on Fire Island opposite Smith Point. Existed until 1937. The photo below is the “Bessie White” which ran aground off Smith Point in 1922. The Smith Point Station was not in service at this time. The crew managed to launch life boats and were able to make it to shore.
1880	The large and extravagant estate known as “Moss Lots” is built by Wiliam Buck Dana for his wife Kitty Floyd Dana. William Dana was a lawyer and instrumental in dividing up the Floyd Property, owned at the time by John G. Floyd, among his five children. Nicoll Floyd homestead established. August Floyd homestead established.
1881	The South Side Railroad (now the LIRR) comes to Mastic with a station put in on the east side of Mastic Road. The station was moved to Shirley and the old building torn down in 1960.
1896	On October 9^th, Walter T. Shirley, real estate developer, is born in Brooklyn.
1896	Frank and Hannah Lawrence buy 225 acres located in Mastic Beach between Pattersquas and Odells creek, which become known as the Lawrence estate.
1911	Tolfree Estate (Island View Manor), built by Fred J. Quinby as a spec house for his ill fated Tangier development. It was used by a Rose Quinby until the early 1920's when the Smiths repossessed the land they sold to Quinby's Tangier Manor Corp. It was soon resold in 1922 to Edward and Aline Tolfree Real Estate Investor Fred Quinby has 1^st wooden Tangier Bridge built to cross from Smith Point to Fire Island.
1912	Author Henry Lanier purchased the Richard Floyd Estate also known as Pattersquas and “Doctors Point”.
1916	J. F. Knapp buys property from the Lawrence family that would become known as the Knapp Estate and Mansion.
1917	The Third Unit of the Aerial Coast Patrol was established at the Knapp Estate in Mastic (Beach). Camp Upton, pictured below, was built in 1917 as an induction and training facility for new soldiers who were to fight in World War I. The camp was named after Major General Emory Upton, a Union general in the Civil War. In 1944, Camp Upton was used as a hospital to treat wounded veterans of the war.It also served as a Prisoner of War Camp, when in May of 1945, 500 German prisoners were sent to Camp Upton.
1918	Walter T. Shirley is stationed at Camp Upton during World War I, and gets his first glimpse of the land south of the area that he would later purchase and develop.
1918	Joseph Allen Titmus and Josiah Smith Robert established the “Swift Stream Duck Farm” on both sides of the Forge River in Mastic and Moriches.
1919	Jurgeilewicz Family Duck farm on Barnes Road is established.
1920	Radio broadcasting takes off and a transmitter is stationed at Radio Point in Moriches. Anson W. Hard purchased the outstanding shares in the Suffolk Club (now Southaven Park) from other members, and used the property as a private estate. After WW I, Anson's son Kenneth established a hunting and fishing lodge, known as the Suffolk Lodge Game Preserve. It later became the first Suffolk County public park.
1920’s	Mastic Park from Montauk Hwy to the bay developed by Arthur and Warren Smedback and the Brooklyn Citizen. Lots, typically 20 x 100 feet, were sold for Summer bungalows (shown below) which would later become permanent year round homes for the communities we know today.
1920’s	Mastic Park General Store & Post Office is built. The business would later be called McCleans Market in the 50s and 60s.
1920’s	Smith Point Beach used for several desert films. Desert movies were made wildly popular in the 1920's by Rudolf Valentino's portrayal of The Sheik (1921) & sequel Son Of The Sheik (1926). The 1910 bridge's construction that allowed cameras, camels and crew to cross the narrow bay, was supervised by local resident Michael Gillispie of Tangier (now Shirley) for Quinby's Tangier Development Company. According to historian Van Field, it was mainly the movie companies who kept repairing the bridge when it would get torn up by winter ice. ..Ken Spooner
1922	Texaco Gas Station owned by Lewis Parr established (now Mastic Liquors).
1925	Mastic Fire Department established. It was organized by Russell Ferrer, Anthony Tebbens, Harold Lukert, Joseph Titmus and Thomas Eyton-Jones (1^st Chief, in photo in white hat).
1926	Brooklyn Citizen purchases the J.B. Lawrence estate and it’s subdivided into lots for sale to the public.
1927	Mastic Beach Property Owners Clubhouse was built by Arthur Tebbins. The 15 room Mastic Beach Hotel is built just behind the Clubhouse by Paul Schulte. The Smadbeck Brothers purchase the Pattersquas estate and property from Josephine Lanier.
1930	Home Guardian sells the Pattersquas Mansion to Playwright John Howard Lawson. 1930 The Lane Cemetery was located on the north side of Montauk Highway at Titmus Dr. in Mastic. Daniel Lane (1801-1865) had a large farm at that location and had a family cemetery located there. Daniel had 10 children. Members of the family and others were buried in the Lane Family Cemetery. In the early 1930’s, the tombstones in the cemetery were moved to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in East Moriches. The exact spot where the Lane Cemetery was located is still being investigated.
1933	Paul Schulte’s Tavern opens with the end of prohibition and is situated along side his corner market. The tavern itself is a converted barn from the Knapp estate.
1935	Mastic Beach Fire Department is established, and headed by Jules Jacobs.
1936	St. Andrew’s Church is established in Mastic Beach.
1938	The 2^nd General Woodhull homestead is torn down on Memorial Day by Willie Schluder. Some of the wood would be used in construction of a home in the Hamptons.
1938	The hurricane of 1938 causes massive flooding and destruction to the Mastic-Shirley area.
1938	Successful Investment Banker Maurice Wertheim purchases 1800 acres of property straddling the Carmens river as a private hunting reserve and for waterfowl conservation. He calls the property Stealaway. (now known as the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge).
1940	Mastic Beach Property Owners Association (MBPOA) established on July 30^th. A deed was filed between the Home Guardian Company and the MBPOA for the sum of $1. The MBPOA assumed all the public land held by the Home Guardian Company.
1941	The area of Shirley is divided into quarter acre plots and sold as summer retreats for the working classes of New York City. Mastic Beach already has over 1000 property owners and a summer population of more than 4000 residents.
1944	Mastic Flight Strip (now Brookhaven-Collabro Airport) built to provide logistical support for U.S. Army Corp. Title of the airport was transferred to New York State after the war. In 1961 the airport was acquired by the Town of Brookhaven. It was later renamed in honor of Dr. Frank Calabro, an important figure in the airport's development.
1945	Mastic Athletic Club (aka Macs) The first organized baseball club in the Mastics. Founded by Ernest Stanzoni (kneeling on left). The team played in The Western Suffolk Baseball League. (note: Carl Yazstremski played in that league before going on to the Boston Red Sox. Many others went on to play in the minor leagues.)
1946	First meeting of the Mastic Beach American Legion.
1946	Dr. Frank Calabro purchases the Pattersquash Estate Mansion (original estate of Richard Floyd) and turns it into the Bayview Hospital.
1946	Pat Messinetti and Mike Dipierro’s Texaco gas station built at five corners intersection in Mastic Beach.
1947	Maurice Wertheim donates approximately 2000 acres to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The property becomes the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. Camp Upton is replaced by Brookhaven National Laboratory, to conduct scientific research. The lab remains in operation to this day with funding from the Department of Energy.
1949	St. Jude’s Roman Catholic Church is established in Mastic Beach.
1953	Shirley Drive-In (pictured below) opens. It was located at the commercial property now called SouthPort shopping center. Prior to the development of the Drive-In by Walter T. Shirley, it was used to train horses and had a track and stables.
1956	Mastic Beach Hebrew Center established.
1957	Work begins on the Sunrise Highway extension through our area.
1958	Carman’s Mill torn down to make way for the Sunrise Highway extension. Located just below the mill pond at Southaven Park.
1959	The Knapp Mansion burns to the ground in February of that year. Smith Point Bridge officially opened on July 4^th.
1961	In 1961 the Mastic Flight Strip was acquired by the Town of Brookhaven. It was later renamed in honor of Dr. Frank Calabro, an important figure in the airport's development and is now known as the Brookhaven-Calabro Airport.
1964	Smith Point County Park opens on Fire Island. Fire Island National Seashore was established as a unit of the National Park Service on September 11, 1964. Fire Island National Seashore (FINS) is a United States National Seashore that protects a 26-mile section of Fire Island, an approximately 30-mile long barrier island separated from Long Island by the Great South Bay.
1965	The William Floyd Estate, which was authorized as an addition to Fire Island National Seashore in 1965, is located on the mainland of Long Island in Mastic Beach, New York. The estate contains the ancestral house, grounds, and cemetery of the William Floyd family. William Floyd, a Revolutionary War general and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in the house in 1734. In 1977, the Floyd family donated the contents of the house to the National Park Service, and transferred the remainder of the property to the National Park Service in 1991.
1969	Moss Lots, a large and extravagant home on the Dana Estate property, now called Old Mastic, burns to the ground on September 5^th.
1974	The Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library is established.
1980	Old Mastic receives Historic District designation from the Town of Brookhaven.
1996	On July 17^th, at approximately 8:45pm, TWA Flight 800 explodes over the Atlantic a few miles off the coast of the Moriches Bay communities.
1999	Mastic Peninsula Historical Society founded by Rita Rech with the help of Edward Romaine.
2010	Mastic Beach becomes an Incorporated village.
2011	Jurgeilewicz Duck Farm closes August of 2011, the last of what was once a strong and thriving industry for the area.
2011	Tropical Storm Irene travels over Long Island on August 29^th and causes major wind and flood damage to the tri-hamlet area.
2012	Floyd-Murray House receives historic landmark status from the Town of Brookhaven.
2012	Tropical Storm Sandy causes major flood damage and destruction to area residents.
2013	Wood from General Woodhull’s home which was sent to the Hamptons (see 1938 entry) was returned to the Village of Mastic Beach to be reused in a visitor’s center.