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Home My WebLink AboutPE-37 BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM FOR OFFICE USE ONLY PE-37 + UNIQUE SITE NO. Iv3lo. da 1 DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION QUAD NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECREATION SERIES ALBANY,NEW YORK (518) 474-0479 NEG. N0. YOUR NAME: Town of Southold/SPLIA DATE: October 1986 YOUR ADDRESS: Town Hall, Main road TELEPHONE:(516) 7 5--1892 Southold, L. I. , N.Y. 11971 (ORGANIZATION (if any): Southold Town Community Development Office IDENTIFICATION I. BUILDING NAMHS): TP. D, Smith,, milliner 2. COUNTY: Suffolk TOWN/CITY:SD_uthold VILLAGE: Peennie 3. STREET LOCATION:Ppinnnie Lan_P,awest. side 4. OWNERSHIP: a. public P b. private FKJ S. PRESENT OWNER:JMrs.Buddith CantwelllADDRESS: Peconic Lane h. USI..: Original: Millint�r's shop Present: Residence 7. AC(,FSSIBILITY TO PUBLIC: Exterior visible from public road: Yes ® No El Interior accessible: Explain DESCRIPTION H. BUILDIN(. a. clapboard ❑ b. stone ❑ c. brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑ MATERIAL: e. cobblestone ❑ f. shingles IN g. stucco ❑ other: 11. STRUCTURAL. a. wood frame with interlocking joints ❑ SYSTEM: b. wood frame with light members (if known) c. masonry load bearing walls ❑ d. metal (explain) e. other 10. CONDITION: a. excellent ❑ b. good FK1 c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated ❑ 11. INTEGRITY: a. original site ❑ b. moved ❑ if so,when9 c. list major alterations and dates (if known): Original storefront facing the street was removed and replaced with two windows. PF,-RSM III-13 From Fast 12. PIIOTO:Front -Cease) fagade 13. MAP: N.Y.S. DOT Southold Quad Peconic ``� '• ��+ 3• CSS /: - __i - •0.6 uF' o ti Peconic fJ Sch ti L _ +M � e 10• D •�E 0 25 Z F s'ai 8 M a n O p PE-37 14. THREATS TO BUILDING: a.none known ® b, zoning ❑ c. roads El 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: j, other: 16, SURROUNDINGS OF THE BUILDING (check more than one if necessary): a.open land ❑ b. woodland ❑ c. scattered buildings ❑ d,densely built-up ❑ e. commercial 12 f. industrial ❑ g. residential L2 It.other: 17. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS: (Indicate if building or structure is in an historic district) This house stands on Peconic Lane which is the main road of the Hamlet of Peconic , known in the nineteenth century as Hermitage. It is a historic district. 18. OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known): 2-story, 2-bay gable roof, gable end to the street house with entrance on the north side. SIGNIFICANCE V). DATE OF INITIAL. CONSTRUCTION: ARCHITECT: BUILDER: III HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL 1MPORTANCF. Was the Frank Davis Smith tailor and millinery shop. This old store adds to the historical interest of the street. Jefferson (form PF 33) occupied this buildingbefore Smith. 21, SOURCES: R. C. Newell. Rose Remembers. 1976, P- 9 Beers, Comstock. Atlas of Long Island. 1973. Ja,yy Bear. '"In Retrospect"' . News Review1 Weekender. 7/14/1983 31. THt MF. Form prepared by Rosemary Skye Moritt, research assistant. PF 37 Weekender July 14, 1983 Page 15 VA - wn " 5-01,8VI I n Retrospect Town records of Smith-Cantwell House sold Smith a lot adjacent to the south side of his store. It was 50 by 126 feet,and cost S3oo.On this site Smith built By JOY BEAR his second store,with the same large-paned windows on In the days when the wasp-waisted Gibson Girl look either side of the front door. This building may also be I was in fashion,many ladies felt that the most important seen on Peconic Lane, where people treasure their part of a woman's costume was her hat. historic old homes. Frank Davis Smith was a milliner of that era, whose Today Mrs-Buddith Cantwell owns the home that was dazzling creations brought ecstatic ladies to his shop in Frank's first store. She refers to it as "my large yellow Peconic from all over the North and South Forks and as colonial."The display windows and porch are gone, but far away as New York City, the house has undergone few other changes. Mrs. Smith started his millinery business in the house Cantwell, a geriatric nurse, calls it an "incredible sketched here, Robert Jefferson, owner of the general house" because the floors and walls, for all their age, I store still operating next door,was an earlier occupant. are firm and even, and the white oak staircase is in The house was in existence at least in 1873, as shown in nearly mint condition. the Beers,Comstock and Cline atlas of that year.Frank Several evergreens and a magnolia that blooms twice opened up large show windows on either side of the front a year shield the porch from the parking lot to the north door,and was in business in the 1870's. where, during the 19th century, buggies and curries Diane Perry of the Suffolk County Historical Society is parked. Mrs. Cantwell thinks Smith must have been a a great-great-niece of Frank Davis Smith. She has friendly man, for his porch and front room were often researched the house, and her mother, Mrs Arthur filled with boys and men -- "This was the local Perry, has many memories of it from her Southold hangout!" childhood, Most of this article is based on Diane's Rosalind Case Newell, the Peconic author, ` research• remembered as a child standing in her grandmother's Smith was an enterprising man who was adept at living room and looking down the street at Frank tailoring as well as millinery,and he rented his upstairs Smith's house, Rose remembers Smith as meticulous rooms for extra income. A newspaper item of April 4, about his appearance.He was always carefully dressed, 188o, stated: "Ed Bennett and wife have returned to she says,and his glossy black hair curled about his face Southampton after spending the winter here, thus with the aid of a curling iron which he heated over the leaving rooms over F.D. Smith's tailor and millinery chimney of his kerosene lamp. In "Rose Remembers, shop vacant,awaiting a tenant." Mrs.Newell writes: The Traveler of May 2, 1890, reported: "The store "Off the back of the store was a pleasant sitting room occupied by Frank D. Smith was struck by lightning where Frank and his niece, Geneva Sayre, worked. during the thunder storm last week." The following Each sat by a window but,on dark wintry afternoons not week the paper elaborated further: "... on Wednesday one, but two blazing oil lamps gave them light. There morning F.D. Smith had orders for 34 hats ahead, was a foot-pedal sewing machine in the room, but most engaged to be trimmed. What a lucky thing that the of the fancy bows, flowers and feathers were put on by lightning in its skippping about Friend Frank's store, hand." came no nearer to a barrel of kerosene than about 12 One may see a collection of Frank Davis Smith's hats inches." at the Southold historical Museum. The house sketched Expanding the Business here is on the west side of Peconic Lane, Peconic, the In 1892 Smith wished to own his own house. Southold second building south of the railroad tracks, "WQPkPnder" , NPWS R.pviRw. July 14, 198 _ -_ -- PE7 sewing machine in the room for plain stitching, but most of the fancy bows, flowers and feathers were put on by hand. A couch and a rocking-chair completed the furnishings of the room for ie cen- the accommodation of the frequent callers, especially Aunt Ida e clus- who loved to go over for an afternoon chat. of the After he retired—he must have been close to eighty—Frank rd and occupied himself by making a quilt in Log Cabin style from ith the the glowing pieces of velvet of all colors which were left from end the his trimmings. It is very handsome and the Southold Museum also a often displays it. )e shod ed into Smith, -rations, picture, ith, un- FRANK DAVIS SMITH'S STORE Brook- ch gives •, man. It r - Long Is- ty, there x 9 :he most Smith, x a baby's t aessful is �- ustomers . 1I to River- - dr ng Open- from thea .. •�� yn on the n � � n. sough the hats have w. t Left to Right: Arnold Danz, Nate Sayre, Frank Smith, Unknown, orn where Harry Smith, Joe Case. by a win- R.C. Newell. Rose Remembers. 1976 vo blazing toot-pedal