Footnotes to Long Island History
Old Landmark Being Demolished
by
Thomas R. Bayles
By Thomas R. Bayles
Another historic landmark
being demolished in the way of progress, Pfeiffer's Store, which is
going under the wreckers hammer, was built about 1735 by one of the
Brewster brothers, a grandson of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, first minister
of the old town church in Setauket in 1665. The floors of the old
building have been removed first, exposing the large hand hewn beams
supporting them, which apparently are going to be salvaged.
This building
was for many years a stage stop and overnight tavern for the stages that
ran through the middle of the Island from New York to the east end
villages before the railroad was opened to Greenport in 1844. Alexander
Hamilton, in his book “Gentleman's Progress”, published by the Institute
of Early American History and Culture in 1948, describes his stop at
“one Brewsters” in Middle Island, July 11 1744. “After riding 10 miles
through woods we arrived at 8:00 pm at one Brewster's where we put up
for all night, and in this house we could get nothing either to eat or
drink, so were obliged to go to bed fasting and supperless. I was
conducted upstairs to a large chamber. The people in this house seemed
to be quite savage and rude.”
For about 150
years until 1957 this was a country general store, which supplied all
the needs of the farmers living for miles around. It was really a
department store as it carried besides groceries, hardware, boots and
shoes, clothing, dry goods, feed and grain. At the old hitching rail in
front of the store the farmers horses and wagons were tied, and they
brought their butter and eggs to trade for groceries.
This was the
social center for the community and the men and boys gathered around the
old pot-bellied stove in the rear of the store, where the fate of the
nation was argued and the old checker board was kept in daily use.
Those who didn't get there during the day made it in the evening, as the
store was kept open till 9:00. The post office was located here from
1901 to 1964.
Now the
country store has given way to the supermarket and the property has been
sold to the Shell Oil Company.
The corner
across the road has also been sold to the Mobil Oil Corp. for another
gas station, which will make four gas stations withing 500 feet of the
Middle Country road. Just why the Town Board grants permits for so many
gas stations which are not needed is a mystery. “Time marches on and
the old order changeth.” Is it all for the better?