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BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM FOR OFFICE USE ONLY SD 153
UNIQUE SITE NO. /0 316. &�Pv 51/1,
DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION QUAD
NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECREATION SERIES
ALBANY,NEW YORK (518)474-0479 NEG. NO.
YOUR NAML: Town of S uth ld S DATE:_March 1987
YOUR ADDRESS: Town Hall, Main Road TELEPHONE:( 516) 765s-1892
Southold L, I. , N.Y. 11971
ORGANIZATION (if any): Southold Town Community Development Office
IDENTIFICATION
1. BUILDING NAME(S): Thomas Storrs Lester/Harper house
2. COUNTY: Suffolk TOWN/CITY: Southold VILLAGE:Smithold
3. STREET LOCATION: Private road on Calves' Neck
4. OWNERSHIP: a. public ❑ La private KI
5. PRESENT OWNER: Cannon ADDRESS: same
b. USE: Original: residence _ Present: residence
7. ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC. Exterior visible from public road: Yes F11 No ❑
Interior accessible: Explain
DESCRIPTION
g. BUILDING a. clapboard ❑ b. stone ❑ c. brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑
MATT RIAI.: e. cobblestone ❑ F_ shingles IX g. stucco ❑ other:
1). STRUCTURAL a. wood frame with interlocking joints. EX
SYSTEM: b. wood frame with light members EX
(i1` kn(wn) c. masonry load bearing walls ❑
d. metal (explain)
e. other
10. CONDITION: a, excellent ® b. good ❑ c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated
L INTEGRITY: a. original site b. moved ❑ if so,when'
c. list major alterations and dates (if known):
East wing was added after circa 1912.
SD RSM XVII-15
12. PHOTO: From north wast 13. MAP: N.Y.S . DOT Southold Quad
Front {north} and west elevation
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III —,�-� �,� .i � �+. +♦,•`
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Harpers
i.rJ f �• 9O Pt 3
I
SP 153
14. THREATS TO BUILDING: a. none known ® b.zoning ❑ c. roads ❑
d. developers ❑ e. deterioration ❑
f. ether:
15. RELATED OUTBUILDINGS AND PROPERTY: _
a. barn IX b. carriage house ❑ c. garage U
d. privy ❑ e. stied ❑ f. greenhouse ❑
g. shop ❑ h. gardens ❑
i, landscape features: pergola, with trellis
j. otherlarge L-shaped barn in fine condition.
16. SURROUNDINGS OF THE BUILDING (check more than one if necessary):
a.open land CZ b. woodland fX
c.scattered buildings ❑
d.densely built-up ❑ e. commercial ❑
f. industrial ❑ g. residential 17
h.other: on hill overlooking TowA Creek
17. INTFRRFLATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS:
(Indicate if building or structure is in an historic district)
The house stands on a rise and offers an impressive vista
as it is approached . The house itself overlooks 'Town
Creek.
IS. OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known):
2j-stony, 3-bay side entrance plan, gable roof house with
paired interior brick chimneys on thtd . Heavy pilasters
at corners of main facade. Large 2-story wing on west has
semi- wrap-around porch. Entrance has sidelights and
Tuscan columns - ( two "in antis" ) . 6/6 windows.
SIGNIFICANCE
19� DATE OF INITIAL CONSTRUCTION: Circa 1784 & additions
ARCHITI C`i :
BUILDER:
20. HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE:
A plaque reads. "Thomas Storrs Lester house . Possible
origin 1784 , one of Hon. Ezra Z' Hommedieu' s holdings.
George Harper 1889'Cr`
The paired end chimneys suggest a date ca. 1830 for the
main central unit of this house .
This was the home for many years of Judge and Axs.
Barron Hill. Mrs. Hill was a Harper.
21. SOURCES: Guide to Historic Markers . Southold Historical
Society. 19;0
.AHC N1)..
Form prepared by 'rosemary Skye Moritt, research assistant .
3D 153
loca- Landon; to Richard L. Peters and wife Catherine A. Magee,
Several daughter of James Henry Magee and Amelia Ann Warner;
i Yonges to Rebecca L. Peters Downs ("Aunt Becky Downs") and her
e schools husband, Sheldon R. Downs, and the Downs family to the time
versmiths when Miss Emma Rutzler and others came into possession.
This is nne of S.-)uthold's rnogt inter!:rtir.7 old houses
There a3e recoac,tions of `its p.nderoua ... — _j 7 n $ xc"
at the base, its massive fireplaces, the large cupboard filled
with crockery and the many small window panes of hand-blown
glass". The house has been pictured and described many times
h; in print.
in Yonges (m) HISTORIC HEAD OF TOWN CREEK
A TOWN SPOT OF EARLY SETTLEMENT ACTIVITY.
`s man of Along the northerly, nearby shore of this creek in the 1640-
2ev. John 1700 period there were the homes of Capt. Charles Glover and
ated Feb. Lieut. Samuel Glover, shipbuilders; the hoarse, warehouse and
c were his landing stage of Col. Isaac Arnold, port collector, later of
skiing full Carteret Gillam, mariner; Mariner John Yonges' house and
placed as wharf and Capt. John Yonges' warehouse. Across the creek
lay Calves Neck, common wood and pasturage land; sur-
iiscovered veyed by Thomas Mapes and allotted, 1658.. to the freemen of
the house the settlement. The creek ran deep as a river, continuing west-
-essel,who erly into the town, passing creek.-thatch and the rear homesite
.ogy he is lands of Rev. John Yonges, first pastoral leader in the colony.
scendants. fly long boats and vessels with cargo pried this waterway.
s built in (Location of Roadside Marker: Youngs Avenue, beside the
esearch-on Town Creek Park.)
trt will be for
art will 19. THOMAS STORRS LESTER HOUSE 1815
Possible Origin, 1784, one of Ezra L'Hommedieu's holdings.
is traced. George Harper, 1884
.-)weer. He (Hon. L. Barron Hill, Youngs Avenue,
e Ledyard, Calves Necke, Southold)
j_dyard and This homestead, finely preserved, has a very old part which
.;tinguished has its earliest origin not definitely defined. Historians have
War• said it might be one of the earl ar onages, or part of one.
'oved son Its age of construction shou a low it to be of the latter 18th
Peters, of century or older. Therefore it could have been on the forty
the family acres Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu purchased in 1784 on Calves
the house. Necke, one of his several holdings in the town. Ezra L'Hom-
and wife, rnedieu, Southold's leading citizen of his period, died 1811 in
it (Moore) his homestead which was on Town Harbor Lane near the
23 r�
Guide to Historic markers,
SouthoTd His--to-ricalociety — 1960
SD 153
s
harbor often referred to as the L'Hommedieu Mansion (no sin;
longer existent). -a
Thomas Storrs Lester, his friend, legal associate, (son of
Sylvester Lester) whose wife was Mary Halsey Albertson, rer-
purchased, four years after Ezra L'Hommedieu's death, the the
L'Hommedieu Calves Necke property. Lester died 1817 and
Thomas S. Lester, his young son, became the inheritor of )or
Calves Necke. He later built a ome on the roprty• Sal
An old house remaine a art ofjt, Tom Lester lived here Sr.
until his death in 1885. He was donor of the Town Clock in All.
' 1884.
In 1889 George Harper from Brooklyn purchased the put
homestead and estate from Lester heirs, bringing his family sm,
to live in Southold. This east part of Calves Necke for many mo
Har-
years was known as Harper s oo s an Point. orge Har- met
...per's grandd titer resides now in this home with her hus- bac
band, on. Barran and son, Edward. The Woods hav
and Point have become a residential section of the village. tha
In the early settlement all the woodland called Calves at
Necke lying between the two creeks (Town and Jockey or
Dickerson's was common land, a part of the "Southside" of F 21
the town which in 1658 by order of a Town Meeting was sur-
veyed by Thomas Mapes, Town Surveyor, and allotted to
"every man his portion as it shall fall out by lot to him."
The
20. OLD COUNTRY STORE Ian(
Capt. Sherburne A. Beckwith 1864 Pea
Built in Much Earlier Period
Stevens Building, Dr. H. E. Stevens, owner, Main Street,
Southold; Joseph B. Hartranft's Studio and Arthur F. Gagen,
Insurance, tenants.) The
Captain Sherburne A. Beckwith hailed from Salem, Con- mee
necticut. After marriage with Nancy Case Glover, 1849, he had (Lo
a ship chandlery in Greenport. Retired from his coastwise
voyages, he settled in Southold. In 1864 he purchased four Sou
acres of George P, Horton, This gave him lands east and west
of the present Beckwith Avenue, which street he subsequently 22.
opened up. The building which became his store was on the
property and he built his home next west of it, the present (F
Dr. Harry E. Stevens residence. Captain Beckwith was a very
religious man. There are those who recall buying crackers be t
from his cracker barrel and that he always would start up ;
24
� Guide to Historic Markers.
19. Thomas Storrs Lester House 181$.
Southold Historical Society. 1960
y}y
SD 153
SuffoZ�K and on Long Island to elect its trustees and file its
of incorporation. He also helped establish Southold's first
Crary In 1797,
Agriculture waz one of his interests all of his life, but it
--1s during his later years that he could pursue it wt more thoroughly
.nd engage in agricultural experiments, As early as 1256 Ezra was
;ranted by the commoners rights to j of the creek thatch which might
dk fi,.5." °l H-064.,s N&A,fii,-Abel:,A.-4i e_..e,V,,,& .400--
iy art and industry be caused #o grow4, This was used for roofing,?"',Z-.
.s a rasher for cattle, and as fertilizerm/die awned and �pparentl
.armed all of Halloek" s Neck ( currently Founders Landing) and ; 6
aloes Neck (owned or formerly owned by Judge Lo Barron Hill) In
.790 he presided at a meeting of important men which had been
:ailed to organize a Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts,
.nd ,Manufactures, This organization still exists as the State
.g_-icultural Society and it meets in Albany once a year,, As well as
rn
e'_n.g on the comm-Ittee to draft rules and regulations, he was elected rn
he first vice-president, Robert R. Livingston was elected president, =
lc$CO
HH
h'L,s was a practical organization which requested the submission of 0 �
+3 CO
,apers on practical sub�ectso Their stated purpose was "to promote o
,ithin the state agriculture, manufacture, and the arts." They
0-14
)finned to make a collection of communications which would set forth (D M
ro �
a:.uable knowledge in these fields e They did not watt speculati ve w 'H
t
ls;iays or works of mere ingenuity or performances to display literature
,r erudition, but rather a humbler type of writing of useful intention -
a)
,h _ch would help to supply the wants and relieve the necessities
f mankind, and thereby to render human life more comfortable , to ,
o 04
u .tip17 the productions of the land, to shorten or facilitate the x
o'.ls of the laborer and to excite a spirit of honest induetry, C u
Whitaker, Epher, History of Southold® (Privately printed, Southold,
Pq
1882) _
Transactions of the-�ocietr dor `the_Promotion of�riculture.Artss
`scT-lvariizfaetures9 (Ful , Albany, 1801, second edition) poi _
u SR'y r .
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