Welcome June!
Welcome to summer! Briny breezes, longer days, flowers blooming, graduations and the sun shining! All vivid images of a great season ahead. At the BBPHA, we are excited to begin what we consider our most exciting time of the year.
Summer House Tours:
June 1st & 2nd start the Meadow Croft Estate house tours. They are given every weekend starting in June and running through October. Trained docents will be showing the estate on Saturdays and Sundays from 2:00-4:00. There have been many updates and changes in recent months as the BBPHA volunteers work tirelessly to make your experience at Meadow Croft even better. Come check out the work that was done to restore some rooms in the servants quarters. How did the help for the Roosevelt family live? We welcome you to join us and find out.
If you would like to plan a tour for a group of 10 or more, email us to set a date: bbphistorical@gmail.com
If you would like to learn more or become a docent please contact Jen at 631-235-9342
John Hodge Art Display at Meadow Croft Written
By Gene Horton
The following was written by Gene Horton about the talented artist, John Hodge. An
exhibit of his work will be on display at Meadow Croft. The house will be open from 2-4
on weekends for tours. Stop by and view these beautiful pieces of art.
John Hodge was one of the most talented people ever to reside in Bayport, Long Island. He is remembered today primarily as a local folk artist, painter and wood carver. John Hodge was born in New York City in 1868 but spent most of his life in Bayport. In 1889, he joined the New York City police department. He worked at the Eldridge Street Station as a patrolman. However, he decided early-on to give up that job and return to Bayport.
Throughout his life, John Hodge’s employment was varied and sporadic; a jack-of-all-trades. At various times, he was an interior and exterior house painter. He also painted outdoor signs. In 1897, he opened a bicycle repair shop in Bayport with Sanford Weeks. He joined the Bayport Fire Department and, in 1898, organized and led a fife and drum corps in the department. John Hodge was musically talented.
On August 13, 1900, John Hodge married Elizabeth Bennett of Blue Point. The Bennetts owned and operated a large greenhouse business (on the site of the present Bayport-Blue Point Public Library). However, Elizabeth Bennett’s parents did not approve of their daughter marrying John Hodge. But John and Elizabeth went ahead and were married anyway. Rev. George T. Freeman conducted the 1900 nuptials in Bayport. Sadly, it would not be a happy, bliss-filled marriage, although they did have four children. The marriage had its ups, downs and separations. John and Elizabeth Hodge’s home, now gone, was located on the northeast corner of Fairview Ave. and Academy St. John Hodge, however, would emerge over the years as a super-talented man known especially for his combined painted and carved works.
One particular Bayport establishment, Gene Amann’s Bayport House, became the depository of an extraordinary number of John Hodge’s carved images. Gene Amann had befriended John Hodge and eventually employed him as a handyman. The tap room at the Bayport House became John Hodge’s unofficial showcase…everywhere you looked you could see John Hodge’s work displayed on the walls and hanging from the ceiling: birds and ducks everywhere, geese and birds in flight, fish attracted by a shiny lure, a native American in a canoe spearing salmon, hunting dogs pointing, a deer in flight from a fire, brown trout, a moose, hunters in a canoe…all in 3-D… carved and painted on boards and odd pieces of wood or even on the inside of wooden salad bowls…these were all John Hodge’s subjects and his artist’s focal point.
In 1938, through Gene Amann, John Hodge’s work was displayed at the National Sportsmen’s Show in NYC’s Madison Square Garden. The following year, 1939, John Hodge also had samples of his work displayed at the Long Island Exhibit at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. Sadly, in 1938, Elizabeth Hodge died, aged sixty. She’s buried in the Blue Point Cemetery. In 1942, John Hodge was appointed a uniformed ‘special constable’ by the Islip Town Board. Later, he was a crossing guard at Bayport High
School. John Hodge continued to carve and paint even as his health began to fail. By 1955, he entered the Firemen’s Home in Hudson, NY due to ill health. John Hodge died at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson on June 19, 1957, at the age of 89. He’s buried in the Firemen’s Cemetery in Hudson, NY.
Do you have artwork from John Hodge? We’d love to hear your story and tell us how you acquired it.
Bbphistoricl@gmail.com. We’ll share the story on our social media pages.
FREE Concert in the park
The Bayport Blue Point Heritge Association is proud to sponsor our first FREE Summer Concert of the year! We have received all of the permissions and permits and are excited to welcome all of you to Bayport Memorial Park on
June 13th from 6:00-8:00 (weather permitting)
for some wonderful music featuring Jack's Waterfall.
Please bring lawn chairs or blankets, refreshments and bug spray! This is for families of all ages. Dancing is encouraged. We hope you can join us for our first FREE concert!
Save the date: The next FREE concert will be on July 18
and feature The Lazy Bunny Band!
Event Information
Free Concert
Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, 06:00 PM
Where?
Bayport Memorial Park, Paulanna Avenue, Bayport, NY, USA
Merchandise for Sale
Be on the lookout as there will be a table set-up at our FREE concerts this summer where the BBPHA will be selling brand new items for sale! There will be; t-shirts, hoodies and vinyl stickers. All sizes available. Local history books by our late town historian Gene Horton will also be on sale. Make your purchase by cash, charge or PayPal.
Support the BBPHA and purchase one of these items on June 13th at our first Summer Concert. Thanks!Memorial Day Parades
The weather was gray and overcast but the Bayport and Blue Point communities honored all those who served and sacrificed for our freedoms. Special thanks go to members of the BBPHA for marching in the Bayport and Blue Point parades. This is a tradition arranged and started by the fire departments in our communities over 75 years ago.
Both Bayport and Blue Point have had community members pay the ultimate sacrifice since the Civil War and we will never forget their devotion and service. May we remain worthy of all they have given us. As John F. Kennedy had so eloquently expressed, "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them."
If you would like to book a tour for a group of 10 or more, please email us to set up a date.
The BBPHA is pleased once again to be awarding a $1000.00 scholarship to a deserving HS student from the BBP High School. This award is given to a graduating senior in the name of our dear friend, local historian, and former director, Gene Horton. More information will be printed in the July newsletter after the award has been presented to the winner at an award ceremony held at the end of June. Good luck and congratulations to all who are graduating!In the News!
The BBPHA recently made headlines as this article appeared in Newsday! Check it out!
