HomeMy WebLinkAboutPE-36 • BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM FOR OFFICE USE ONLY PF 36
UNIQUE SITE NO. 10310,
DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION QUAD
NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECRE1 i]ON SERIES
ALBANY, NEW YORK (SM 474-0479 NEG. NO.
YOUR NAME: Town of Southold/SPLIA DATE: OctobPr 1986
YOUR ADDRESS; Town Hall Main Road TELEPHONE: ( 516) 265-1892
Southold, L. I. , N.Y.11971
ORGANIZATION (if any): Southold Town Community Development Office
IDENTIFICATION
1. BUILDING NAME(S): I.O. Fitz
2. COUNTY: Suffolk TOWN/CITY: Southold VILLAGE: Peconic
3. STREET LOCATION: On private road off Peconic Lane behind F.D.Smith
4. OWNERSHIP: a. public ❑ b. private I house
5. PRESENT OWNER: Blackburn _ ADDRESS:
h. USE: Original: Residence Present: residence
7. ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC. Exterior visible from public read: Yes ❑ No 130
Interior accessible: Explain
DESCRIPTION
8. BUILDING a. clapboard ❑ b. stone ❑ c. brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑
MATERIAL: e. cobblestone ❑ 1'. shingles ❑ g. stucco ❑ other: .shBsto
'1. STRUCTURAL a. woad frame with interlocking joints 91 over cedar shi-nalies)
SYSTEM: b. wood frame with light members ❑
(if kn(wn) c. masonry load bearing walls ❑
d. metal (explain)
e. other brick foundation - stone cedar
10. CONDITION: a- excellent ❑ b. good Ik c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated ❑
I I. INTEGRITY a. original site ❑ b. moved ® if so,when? 1885
c. list mayor alterations and dates (if known):
Moved in 1885 from the east side of Peconic bane.
PE-RSMXVIII -5 From south
12. PHOTO:Front (south) fagade 13. MAP:N.Y.S. DOT Sputhold Quad
Peconic
3•
o y Peconic
Sch
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'� .•PPe
1 f2 o Z
O_
25 z
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PE 36 ,
14. 'HIRLATS TO BUILDING: a. none known ® b. zoning ❑ c. roads ❑
d. developers ❑ e. deterioration ❑
f. other:
15. RELATED OUTBUILDINGS AND PROPERTY:
a. barn❑ b. carriage house ❑ c. garage ❑
d. privy ❑ e. shed ❑ f. greenhouse ❑
g. shop ❑ h. gardens ❑
i. landscape features: House has attached greenhouse
j. other:
16. SURROUNDINGS OF TUE. BUILDING (check more than one if necessary):
a.open land 0 b. woodland1
c. scattered buildings ❑
d.densely built-up ❑ e. commercial ❑
f. industrial ❑ g. residential L33
h.other:
17. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS:
(indicate if building or structure is in an historic district)
bRh ind
The Fitz house is on a private road/the main row of houses
on Peconic Lane. It is one of the old houses of this small
hamlet which was once known as Hermitage.
18. OTIIER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known):
Classic 12-story, 5-bay gable roof house facing south.
Projecting gable-roof centre-bay over square entrance
porch, supported on square paneled posts .isa later addition.
Fbr other Peconic artists see forms PE 21, P7 22 and PE 23.
SIGNIFICANCE
11). DATE OF INITIAL CONSTRUCTION: 1815
ARCHITECT:
BUILDER:
20, HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE:
Panel reads : William Overton House 1815
Moved by Silas Overton 1885
Home of Henry G. Fitz 1890
This house was the home of Henry Fitz Jr. who was a famed
telescope maker. A reproduction of his workshop with ori-
ginal tools and machines is in the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington B.C.
Suffolk County Business Notices in 1873 list H.G. Fitz,
Ma.nufr. of Telescopes.
Benjamin Rutherford Fitz (1855-1891) , the artist, lived
with his family in this house.
21. SOURCES:
Artists of_Suffolk County. Part I. Heckscher Museum
Catalogue, 1970.
Joy Bear. Historic Homes of the North Fork and Shelter
2. SlAffolk Counter's Ten Great Townships Island,1981)
of Long Island. Published by Super-
visors of Suffolk County. 1930
Form prppared by Rosr?mary Skye Moritt, research assistant.
w
ti
Pe 36
53. WM. HORACE OVERTON HOUSE 1815 55.
Moved by Silas Overton 1885
Home of Henry G. Fitz 1890 r
(Lewis Morse, tenant; Mrs. Willard H. Howell, owner,
Peconic Lane, Peconic)
On his marriage in 1815 with Major Gilbert Horton's D
daughter Martha, William Horace Overton built his hoine 1944, 1
t on Hermitage Lane (Peconic Lane). He was the son of Isaac a grea
and Abigail Vail Overton, born in the Isaac Overton home- rare t
stead on the Long Lane (North Road). The Overtons owned he kn
extensive lands in Hermitage (Peconic). Like his father Isaac, Patty
William Horace was a farmer. His grandson, Silas F. Overton, L
' son of Franklin H. and Esther Horton Overton, moved this centu,
house, around 1885, across Hermitage Lane where in c. 1890 for ti
i it became the home of Henry Giles Fitz ("Uncle Harry") and York
Mary Richmond, his }wife. Office
Many people have called this house "The house with the
telescope". Henry Gf was son of Julia Ann Wells (daughter 56.
of Giles Wells) and Henry Fitz, Jr., the famed telescope maker,
whose workshop, reproduced, may now be seen in the Smith-
sonian Institution, Washington, D. C. The original tools and
machines, some his own invention, are on permanent exhibit.
Ai
54. FORMER JEFFERSON STORE 1855 time
two
Peconic Hall, Post Office ,rorouu e
n
(Peconic Food Market, Paul Orlowski, owner, to fa
Peconic Lane, Peconic)
was
The Jefferson Store was built 1855 by Captain Horace
F. Prince who owned a lumber yard in Hermitage, and a
sloop which brought his lumber across the Sound from Con- thous
his his
necticut. James Fanning and James Richmond kept store there Vail.
but Robert and Lewis Jefferson were the owners long assn- who
' Those were the days of the pot-bellied stove
ciated with it. y
Hort
and of tall tales told by old Peconic-ers.
During the Cleveland administration Jesse Lewis Case was on h
Postmaster. The Post Office at different periods was located h
there. Frank D. Smith before he became "The Man Milliner in h
to
of Peconic" had a little shop at the rear. The upper floor was
ti
a hall for entertainments, dances, sociables, Sunday School ing
classes and dancing classes, with well-remembered teachers, Tow
Fannie Case and Charis Carroll. For years this was the famed ponc
at
community center of Hermitage-Peconic activity. Nostalgic
memories! zens
� 51u
1
Guide to Historic Markers.
Southold Historical Society. 1960,
Henry Fitz' son, Henry Giles Fitz,
bought the house in 1990 and continued
his father's work in the old shop.Today
many reminders of the Fits' telescopes
are used creatively about the house and
lot: flower beds are edged with grinding
rdisks; a child's jungle-gym rests on the
base of a shop machine;one kitchen sink ,
is made from Henry's old work bench, fitz)Pecoruc workshop
cabinet boxes lining a kitchen wall are'
r ` from the telescope factory; a ceiling is 1
a _ accented by a telescope case used as a �is mproouced Ill the
�. beam... `
I Sau,thsonan Institution
This house, unpretentious outside, is
- uniquely creative in many ways, as are
- y a its present owners, Bennett and Louise
Morse Blackburn- A solar collector is
turned into an attractive greenhouse with
ifrf hanging tropical planta.Its pebbled floor TIIis house was built in 1815 by William
+1Qa yt. `if"e r," 7 is actually to tons of rock serving as haat H.Overton,on the opposite(east)side of
storage.The second floor is reached by a Pe'conic Lane,once known as Hermitage
staircase whose bannister is a free-form Lane. It was moved to its present
sculpture of great beauty. Upstairs, as location in 1885 by his grandson,Silas F.
down, floorboards are original, random Overton.
width, some a spectacular21 inches
13
Overton—
■�Lp��f'►o a
across,Theupstairs bathroom
isfinished
V in driftwood picked up by the Blackburns In 18w it became the home of Henry
from beaches. Giles Fitz, Louise Blackburn's great
grandfather, and passed from him u
Fitz -Blackburn Louise Fa Howell, his daughter, itifrs
This crmtivity did nnf just happen. Slackbutvi was raised in this honor, n:
Bennett Blackburn is a young sculptor of was her mother.
consummate skill. Several of his sculp-
tures in wood adorn the spacious living
House This house was once the summer home room,and reliefs and carvings are found The Blackburn have an 18W's copy
of Henry Fitz, the famous telescope in unexpected places about the house. the Encyclopaedia Britannica which list
maker,and near it stood his workshop.A about 100 observatories around the work
reproduction of the shop,furnished with Itis in furniture designing that Black- in that day.More than 20 of them wcre
1815, Qeconic his original tools, today is a permanent burn's skill is spectacular. Chairs that described as having telescopes by Fitz.
exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in seem about to float are also designed for
Mr. and Mrs. Bcnnett Blackburn Washington, D.C. His actual workshop comfort, and are often highlighted with
still stands on the grounds of the house vibrant carvings. Bennett Blackburn's This home is set far back from the we.-
sketched.At the time of his death,Henry wood furniture is most often done on side of Peconic Lane,on a private drik
Fitz was working on a 13-inch lens, the commission, but it is museum quality about one-fourth block south of the ra
world's largest at the time. and special pieces are often exhibited. road.
Joy Bear. Historic Hames of the North Fork and
Shelter island. 1981
28
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PE 36
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LIFE;. Vol. 61., No. 26
D-c. 23, 1966
Sel f:purtrait of Renry Fit_Jr.
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34
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P7 36
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Peconic Lane
�f a•. t/� Smooth Ice, Great Pone
i
FITZ HOUSE
Fitz's Telescope, built 1874 -
- ,fin ._' •:�•w _ .!
"folk Counly'S Ten Great Townshi-as of LSI. "
Published by Supervisors of Suffolk County:, 1936
`;f
ow—
Pe 36
i the water that dripped from the
was missed the kindly miller, and
ut furnished sport for the children
cted building fell a prey to storms,
persons. The gates were no longer
i inlet began to fill with seaweed, r
gals.
the heart to look upon the fallen
mbedded in the sand, the towering
Fallen and broken. Ruin and desola-
f decay is working, and it is feared
ad tide will soon sweep the mill
from memory. For those who feel , , 1 t % t 1`
moved by the pathetic ending of
try. The busy world has outgrown
i its part faithfully and well.
we bid you goodbye, We regret 1` E I G 413
your power, your help, the happy
Peconic had an illustrious family in the Fitzes. Benjamin
R. Fitz, who died at the age of 36, attained fame as an artist.
His pictures have been hung in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. His water colors are delicate and lovely. He believed that
nudes did not need to be so voluptuous as many of the great
Italians painted them and his most famous oil painting is the
figure of a young, slender girl standing reflected in the waters
of a woodland pool.
George Fitz was a doctor and a professor of physiology
at Harvard. He had unusual ideas on child training and carried
his baby girl, Barbara, now Captain Switzer's wife, to Peconic
in an open black box which the local people thought looked
like a miniature coffin with rope handles. Her only punishment
was a piece of whalebone applied smartly to the soles of her
feet. He built a summer home at the Sound in Peconic and
eventually retired there. His sister, Mrs. Silas Overton, gave
a reception for them when they came to Peconic to live. One
of my most vivid memories is Rachel Fitz in a pale blue satin,
93
02
A Rose of the Nineties. R.C. Newell.
1962
extremely decollete evening gown. She was a tall, handsome only for unmoving objects and corpses. In the Smithsonian
woman with white skin and black hair and she was simply Institute in Washington, D. C. there is a room showing his
stunning. Her manner was sweet and gracious and the Peconic work. A wax figure of him dressed in the style of his time
ladies in their high-necked and long-sleeved dresses had only (1850's) stands at a lathe, working realistically as electricity
admiration for her,
activates foot and pedal. His inventions, his working instru-
One summer Dr. George instituted a crusade against flies. ments, lenses of his telescopes, cameras, and so on, fill the
The barnyard with piles of manure, the swill pails standing room. His grand-daughter Louise, (Mrs. Willard Howell) in
outside the back doors of most houses into which the house- 1959 was guest of honor at the dedication of this interesting
wives put the dirty dish-water and other slops from the house display.
were infested with flies, and he was horrified. In summer the Louise's father, Henry G. Fitz, was a teacher of freehand
back screen doors were covered with flies and of course many drawing in New York schools for many years, and a most
got into the house. Grandma used to cut long strips of paper ingenious craftsman at all sorts of things. Scientific, like his
and tie a bundle of them on the end of an old broomstick. She'd father, he built a special camera when a very young man, and
close the blinds to darken the room, prop the door open, and was sent to Italy to photograph an eclipse of the sun. Another
"shoo" the flies out toward the one spot of light which attracted member of this scientific American party was Langley, a
them. Another way of getting rid of them was to lay out big pioneer in aviation study for whom Langley Field is named.
sheets of sticky fly-paper which trapped hundreds, but what When Henry G. Fitz retired from teaching and spent all
a mess you were in if you happened to come in contact with + of his time in Peconic, he became the beloved sage of the com-
it yourself 1 munity.Whatever anyone wanted to know,he was told, "Go ask
To start his reform program Dr. George called a meeting Uncle Harry." If we children found a dead bird or killed a
in Peconic Hall and showed lantern slides of flies looking as snake, we carried it to him for identification. I remember that
big as Iions and as menacing. He lectured on the horrors of I finally mustered up courage to pick up a harmless milk snake
their disease-carrying habits. He formed a committee to handle and was surprised to find it dry and smooth, when I had always
a clean-up campaign, and offered prizes. imagined all snakes to be slimy and scaley.
Children collected flies by trap, poison and swatter. My Uncle Harry built a wind gauge, took barometric readings,
father was appointed receiver of the accumulations of their and forecast the weather. He operated the big telescope in-
efforts, and they brought him quantities of dead flies in boxes, herited from his father and showed us the craters of the moon,
bags, and tins. He couldn't possibly count them, but they Jupiter's satellite moons, and Saturn's whirling, glowing ring.
always knew the exact number they had killed. Little Ruth One day he came over to our house and showed nay father a
Vail (now Mrs. Everett Goldsmith) thrust a big canfull into small white object with metal clips on the sides. "Neat. isn't
his hand with, "Here's six thousand flies and they stink, tool'•• it?" he said, and popped it into his mouth. He'd made himself
She won first prize, $5.00. a false tooth!
The father of this talented Fitz family, HenryFitz had There is a favorite, true Peconic story about Henry, Senior,
been an outstanding scientist, the first commercial telescope missing the sailing packet from Greenport to New York. The
maker in the United States, and also interested in the develop- boat ran up Long Island Sound from the east end villages of
ment of photography. He was one of the first to take pictures Southold, Greenport and Sag Harbor, before the railroad served
of living persons with a camera. It had been used previously the area. As Mr. Fitz ran down the dock be saw that the boat
94 95 011
A Rose of the Nineties. R.C. Newell. 1962
4 '
f
f
had cast off and was underway, so he started on foot for the Ellie, "That off horse is kinda wild. I never know whether he's
city. He walked the 100 miles to New York and was on the going to balk or run array, and lie just won't back up." She
pier to help catch her lines when the boat came in the second eyed the placid old nag fearfully, and allowed they might just
day afterward. Quite a stunt. go up far enough to turn around in the north lot. Once past
Another Fitz brother, Robert, was a civil engineer who her, Ellie went on through and proceeded with his job.
laid out and built many of our roads. The town negotiated with
the land-owners and paid them for the rights of way through MORE NEIGHBORS
their properties, but the road builders ran into many problems The Smith family was dear to me. Aunt Hat, the old maid,
apart from construction. Rob's nephew, Frankie Overton, was a with her bright eyes and sharp wit often came to play whist
young surveyor with him, Ellie Bedell laid the dynamite, Frank at our house. She carried a square horn lantern with pointed
Young and Jack Carroll were on the construction work. It was top and a candle inside to light her way home in the evening.
all done by horse and hand power. Ellie told me that one One of her sayings was, "Them that criticize ain't so much
morning as they arrived for work at a swampy spot with the themselves!" How good her potatoes fried lightly in butter,
big wagons of shell for fill, there stood the landowner with a brown and tasty, were with the cold meat for sapper! In the
shotgun. "One step on my land and I'll pull the trigger," he country, families had their big meal, dinner, at noontime, and
said. Rob Fitz stepped forward, saying, "Why, you've been supper at six was an easily prepared meal, often warmed-up
paid for the land." "Keep off or I'll shoot" warned the man. left-overs, but good-tasting, and always fruit and cake for
Rob took another step, "Look here, you wouldn't want to do dessert.
that." Another step, "If you kill me, you'll burn," he admon- Archie, the bachelor brother, for whom she kept house,
ished. The man raised his gun a little. By now, Rob had edged ' was a poet of rough verse and an ardent admirer of Bernarr
up near enough to jump. He grabbed the gun, broke it open, MacFadden, the health fanatic. Archie subscribed to Mac-
and threw it into the marsh, where it sank in the black ooze Fadden's Physical Culture magazine. His niece, my little
and water. "Now!" he said, "If you don't want me to throw friend Emma, (Mrs. Stephen Meschutt), and I surreptitiously
you after that gun, you go home and hold your peace!" peeked at the pictures of barrel-chested athletes clad only in
Rob had no trouble with his laborers. A six-foot-two colored leopard-skin loin cloths, an unheard of exposure on any other
man got fresh one day and playfully knocked off the boss's hat. printed page!
Rob leaned over, picked up his hat, put it on his head, and said The men who hung around the store never let Archie
quietly, "How'd you like to do that again?" The man grinned forget the first time he encountered the telephone. Ir. Jeffer-
and, just as he lifted his arm, Rob's fist connected with his son, the store-keeper, had one of the first installed in our section,
chin stretching him out "cold." It took him a couple of minutes the wall-board type with a crank on the side to ring central,
to come to. He shook his head, got to his feet, made a lore bow, as the operator was called. A farmer, who wanted to make a
and said, "Mr. Fitz, ah suttinly has great respec' for you, suh. date ,vith Archie to slaughter pigs, knowing he went to the
Yessuh, Mr. Fitz." store for the evening mail, telephoned there. Air. Jefferson
Ellie was going through some property in East Marion to beckoned Archie over, put the receiver in his hand, and told
dynamite rocks and open up a road to the Sound. A woman him, "Somebody wants to speak to you." Archie held the
ran out in front of the horses shrilling, "Back up! Back up! receiver high in one hand, took off his hat with the other, made
You can't go through here!" "Look out, Lady," cautioned a polite born, and said, "Horn do you do?" to the telephone.
I'm
96 97 ch
A Rose of the Nineties . R.C . Newell. 1962