Huntington History

Just a month after assuming the Presidency following the assassination of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt was accused by a southern newspaper of perpetrating “the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United States” when he invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House.  (Washington was not the first African American to meet with a President in the White House.  Frederick Douglass had met with Abraham Lincoln.  However, Washington was the first invited to dinner at the White House.)

Just two days after that dinner, the educator gave a speech at the Huntington Opera House entitled The Negro Problem in the South to “one of the largest lecture audiences the local Opera House ever held.” (The Long-Islander, May 31, 1907).  This appears to have been Washington’s first visit to Huntington, but he would later develop a close and affectionate connection with the place.

In 1901, Washington was the leading African American in the country.  He had just published his autobiography, Up From Slavery, and was becoming an informal presidential advisor.  Washington was born into slavery in 1856 in Virginia.  Following his emancipation at the end of the Civil War, he worked in salt furnaces and coal mines before putting himself through school.  He was a well-regarded teacher at Hampton Institute in Virginia in 1881, when the Institute’s president recommended him to the founders of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as that school’s first leader—a position he would hold for the rest of his life

An important part of his duties as leader of Tuskegee was to raise money.  Initially such efforts were focused in the Boston area, but later concentrated on New York City.  By 1907, Washington was looking for a summer home on Long Island, where he would be near the wealthy philanthropist who supported his school.  The Van Wyck farm on West Neck was offered to him for a seasonal rental.  The farm’s owner, Helen Van Wyck Lockman described the place in a May 7, 1907 letter:

“The Huntington place adv. on Sunday is charmingly located by the Harbor side with no road or nuisance of any kind between.  It is a double old-fashioned house with parlor, large living room, large dining room with three windows on the water and eight bedrooms.  An extra could be provided for a man in one of the outbuildings.  There is a private lane leading down a hillside to the house.  Perhaps three acres of land are enclosed within it.  I own 600 feet to the waterfront.  There are 4 stalls in the barn.  I have another barn on my land should extra stalls be required.  The modern improvements are being put in now.  Possession June 1^st. Rent for 4 months or longer $1000.”

Four days later, Washington’s agent sent Mrs. Lockman a $100 deposit for the $750 rental.  At the end of the month, The Long-Islander reported that Washington would be spending the summer at the Van Wyck farm and would be working on a book—perhaps My Larger Education, which was published in 1911.  In July, he gave a speech to 1,000 Huntingtonians at the Opera House entitled “Education as the Solution of the Race Problem.”

Washington told The Long-Islander that he came to Huntington for two reasons: to work and to rest.  He also said that he found that nature and man had worked together well to produce such a beautiful spot as Huntington.

Washington returned to the Van Wyck Farm in 1908 and in August of that year  “delighted a large Huntington audience at the Opera House Monday night, [August 17^th] the proceeds of the entertainment being to assist the Huntington Sewing & Trade School.”   Washington’s support of the Trade School is appropriate because the guiding principle of Tuskegee was advancement through education—not only of academic subjects but of trade skills as well.

Washington returned to the Van Wyck Farm in 1909 and 1910.  The Long-Islander later reported that he proved to be “a most delightful neighbor.”   Early in June of 1909, he lamented at being away from Huntington for so long and reports that his niece and nephew pester him every day about returning to Huntington.

After four summers renting the Van Wyck Farm, Washington decided to purchase a house.  He selected a secluded spot in Fort Salonga overlooking the Long Island Sound.  The house was picked out by February of 1911, but Washington hadn’t seen it.  He asked Mr. & Mrs. Philip Payton to look it over for him and to let Mrs. Washington know what it was like so that she would know what to provide to furnish the house.  He described its location:

The house is right on the Sound and about 1/8 of a mile from the post office Fort Salonga.  You get off the steam cars at Northport and take the trolley to Northport Harbor and from there you have to take a team to the house.  A party named Brown, I think, occupied the house last summer.  I think it is called the Snyder place.” (BTW papers, Vol. 10, page 588-9)

Through a series of transactions, intended probably to disguise the identity of the ultimate purchaser, Washington acquired the house in April.  The New York Times reported that the house was in “one of the finest sections of Long Island—a neighborhood where many wealthy New Yorkers have large estates.”  The Times continues that “it was at first thought that Dr. Washington contemplated the erection of an institution similar to Tuskegee Institute on his newly acquired Long Island tract, but it is not now thought that he will carry out such a project, as it is not large enough for an institution of any size.”

The Times also reported that “it was said that there was no objection when it was learned that the negro educator had brought land upon which to build himself a Summer home, but when the rumor spread that he intended to add enough land to his holdings to erect an institution similar to Tuskegee for the education of negroes there was considerable dissatisfaction.”  (In fact, the house was already built when Washington acquired the property.)  The Times reported that neighbors formed a syndicate and offered to buy the property from Washington for $1,500 more than he had paid for it and to offer him another tract of land on the Sound not far from the property.  Washington had given a mortgage of $5,000 apparently in connection with the purchase of the property, so $1,500 would have been a substantial premium.

The Long-Islander seems to have out-reported The Times because the local paper made clear that the house will be used by Washington as his summer home and not for his “great educational work.”

There is little known about Washington’s time in Huntington.  A recently published biography includes only one sentence:  “Booker bought a summer house on Long Island where the family spent summers, although he traveled and spoke much of the time the family was relaxing on the beach.”  [ Norrell, Robert J., Up from History, The Life of Booker T. Washington (Cambridge, The Belknap Press 2009)]

While in residence in Fort Salonga, Washington addressed the congregation at the Presbyterian Church and St Paul’s Church in Northport. And reportedly, taught Sunday school at Bethel AME church in Huntington.

Washington’s tenure in Fort Salonga was short-lived.  He sold the house to Henry S. Brush in May 1914.  He contemporaneously purchased a house in Huntington Village from Brush.  The house on Green Street is now the location of Finley’s restaurant and was apparently purchased by Washington as an investment because in May 1914 he expressed his hope that the house is rented and kept rented because he did want to lose the income.  Later that year, the financial condition in the south was depressed because there was no market for cotton.  As a result, Washington says, it is necessary for him to realize something soon on the house in Huntington.   Washington died in 1915 at the age of 59.

The Fort Salonga property came into he ownership of the Huntington Land Company (of which Henry Brush may have been a part) and in 1915 was transferred for nine acres of shorefront property in Centerport.  Eventually, a family from Forest Hills acquired the property and used it as a summer residence for many years.

In 2005, the Town of Huntington, at the urging of former historical society trustee Thelma Jackson Abidally, designated the property a local historic landmark.  When the last member of the Forest Hills family died, the property was sold to a local contractor who had plans to build an addition.  Those plans were never realized and the house continues to sit vacant.

The contractor sold the house in 2007 to another local resident who in 2009 applied to have the landmark designation revoked so that he could demolish the historic house and build a new house on the site.  The owner was convinced to drop that application and has instead developed plans to relocate the house closer to the road, where it will be more visible, and to build his new house behind the relocated historic house.  Although moving historic houses from their original location is generally not favored, it should be noted that in this case the house had previously been moved at least once already to protect it from the severe erosion.