Bayport Blue Point Heritage Association: ~ August 2023 Newsletter ~

Welcome August 2023

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer! We hope you are enjoying your summer and all that it has to offer! The BBPHA has been busy with lots of summertime events and planning for even more.

House Tours of Meadow Croft are happening every weekend from 2:00-4:00. Come check out the summer home of J.E. Roosevelt and what life was like in 1900. Lots of updates, displays and additions.

Our General Membership meetings will continue in September-November. Check out the dates and schedule below. We have our Historic Sunset Boat Cruise happening on August 2nd. This event has just sold out! The rain date is August 3rd. Make sure you are on the ferry at 5:45 for check in. Always a wonderful event!

Our traditional Autumn House Tour is in the planning stages and we still need a couple of homes to round out the day. If you have a historic or architectural significant home, please consider your home for our tour. Contact us for more information.

Finally, our yearly signature event, Christmas At Meadow Croft will be held on December 2nd & 3rd this year. The theme this year is "Jolly Ole St. Nick" and our planning begins now. We are in need of musicians (pianists and violinists) for the event. If you are interested, please reach out to our chair; Leanne Berg at 631-235-1702. Mark your calendars for another festive event.

More information on all of these events can be found on our webpage or below. Mark your calendars for these wonderful community events!

General Membership Meetings

Save the dates! The following general membership meetings are open to all. Held at the BBP Library from 2:00-4:00. Light refreshments served.

Women in Long Island’s Past

September 17, 2023

2-4pm

Presented by Natalie Naylor

Nationally notable women and local leaders have been part of Long Island’s history but nearly invisible in the records and local history books. Authors, artists, suffragists, pioneering pilots, and innumerable other women have left their mark on Long Island’s past. Historian and author, Natalie Naylor presents an overview of Long Island women’s roles in Native American culture, colonial settlements, the Revolution, art, aviation, civic and other activities. Women with national reputations include multiple first ladies with Long Island roots as well as others who are important locally such as physicist Gertrude Goldhaber of Bayport . Based on her book; Women in Long Island’s Past: A History of Eminent Ladies and Everyday Lives.

The October meeting will be as follows:

The Cuban Giants: the 1st professional Black Baseball Team

October 15, 2023

2-4pm

Presented by Mary Casone

Sayville Library Visits Meadow Croft

We always love to share the rich history of the Roosevelt’s and their summer home Meadow Croft. So when Sayville Reference Librarian, Peter Baumann asked us to set up a tour for the Sayville library patrons we were eager to oblige. So on July 20th, 16 guests came to the estate, some down the long dirt drive and some by kayak, and they were given a full history and tour of how the Roosevelt's spent their summer days and nights in Sayville in the early 1900’s. We just want to say to thank the Sayville Library for bringing a lovely group to Meadow Croft.

”History shared is History Remembered”

If you’d like to book a tour for a group (10 or more), email us at bbphistorical@gmail.com

Thank you!

Special thanks goes to Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks & The Ed Travers Band for two terrific concerts at Bayport Memorial Park this summer. The BBPHA was proud to provide these two FREE concerts to our communities. It was beautiful weather and the crowds had a ball, enjoyed some great music, and enjoyed this FREE community event. Special thanks also go to Dave Harenberg for arranging these performances. See you next year!

Historic Bike Tour

On a warm, sunny, Saturday morning in July, local historian, Frank Giebfried led 6 curious bicycle riding history lovers through the quaint streets of Bayport and Blue Point and shared with them the history of some of the magnificant homes.

Beginning at Meadow Croft they weaved their way through the back streets stopping often at different homes to hear Frank tell these great stories of a former summer hot spot for the rich and famous. These localities have been home to Nobel Prize recipients, actors, singers, entrepreneurs, and famous families and leaders. Did we mention we are the home of the best beer and oysters??

If you love our two towns and want to learn about its history, consider joining us on our next ride. Watch for the next date to be announced. It is an easy, slow paced ride.

Blue Point's Business Section

This article was first printed in the Bayport Blue Point Gazette and were written by Gene Horton. It are reprinted here with permission.

February 2008

This is the way "downtown" Blue Point looked around the 1950's. The center of town from around 1940 until around 1971 was Bob Brown's Food Market. Adjoining Bob's store to the north was the Candy Store, The smaller building on the right was the Blue Point Post Office. Today, that building houses JAMS Hair Salon. Just over the roof of the post office building, the peak of the Blue Point School can be seen in the distance.

Actually, over the past 50 + years, these buildings haven't changed too drastically. The second-story glassed-in porch over Bob Brown's store has since been enclosed. The Blue Point Avenue fire hydrant seen in the old postcard view is gone today. And the windows in the old post office building have changed.

Today, Firehouse Deli occupies Bob Brown's Market and In Sync Video is located where the candy store used to be. Cloth awnings were popular on homes & businesses in those pre-air-conditioning days.

This old postcard view of Blue Point's "Business Section" was postmarked 1957.