HomeMy WebLinkAboutOR-9 FOR OFFICE USE ONLY
BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM
UNIQUE SITE NO- L0_*-6 v 71-C
DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION QUAD OR 9
NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECREATION SERIES
ALBANY,NEW YORK (518) 474-0479 NEG. NO.
YOUR NAME: Town of Southold/SPLIA DATE: October 1987
YOUR ADDRESS: Town Hall, Main Rd. TELEPHONE: 516 765 1892
Southold, LI, NY 11971
ORGANIZATION (if any):S'outhold Town Community Development Office
IDENTIFICATION Brown's Bill Burying Ground
1. BUILDING ) (ft
2. COUNTY:Su v TOWN/CITY: ou DiCL VILLAGE: orient
3. STREET LOCATION: north of Main Rd . , near Munn Ln.
4. OWNERSHIP: a. public ❑ b. private ❑ undetermined
S. PRESENT OWNER; undetermined ADDRESS:
6- USE: Original: _ cemetery Present: cemetery
7. ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC: Exterior visible from public road: Yes ❑ No 21
Interior accessible: Explain Ves
DESCRIPTION
S. BUILDING a. clapboard ❑ b. stone IN c. brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑
MATERIAL: e. cobblestone ❑ f. shingles❑ g. stucco ❑ other: Slate
l)- STRUCTURAL. a.- wood frame with interlocking joints ❑
SYSTEM: b- wood frarne with light members ❑
01' kn<aernl c. masonry load bearing walls ❑
d. metal (explain)
e- other gravestones
10. CONDITION: a. excellent ❑ b. good ® c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated
11. INTEGRITY: a. original site X1 b. moved ❑ if so,when?
c. list major alterations and dates (if known):
Some stones broken, including some dating from early
18th century. Most in esxcellent condition, with angel,
cherub, and skull heads clearly visible. Other decor-
12- PHOTO: ative elements in exc?�Iq)at condition.
neg: KK 111-22,, fm W NYS DOT Orient quad
�Y � - '�, •i to J
N
3 ]r 0 _•y,
Terry
22 pt;
Ter +� = ,''
/ r VVV Lake "r
. Wlege
Cem
6 .'Orient
• 25 �•; .fir.
2
is 14 b
? 7
06ent
rT Yacht Club i
ORIENT
16
HARBOR N a
4
OR 9
14. THREATS TO BUILDING: a. none known ❑ b.zoning ❑ c. roads ❑
d. developers ❑ e, deterioration FA
f. ether: vandalism, dense undergrowth.
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: stone walls
j. other:
16. SURROUNDINGS OF THE BUILDING (check more than one if necessary):
a.open land ❑ b. woodland K)
c. scattered buildings ❑
d.densely built-up ❑ e. commercial ❑
f. industrial ❑ g. residential L
h.other:
17. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS:
(Indicate if building or structure is in an historic district)
This historic cemetery is located in a heavily wooded area
north of Main Rd. , in a small vale. Long Island Sound to
the north, in a low density residential area. Dense low
undergrowth (vines ) within the cemetery.
18. OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known):
The Brown's Hill Burying Ground contains about 54 graves .
The cemetery is maintained by the Oysterponds Historical
Society.
SIGNIFICANCE
111. DATE OF INITIAL CONSTRUCTION: 1690
ARCHITECT:
BUILDER:
'0. HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE.
This cemetery was used from about 16199 until about 1766 .
Many of the tombstones are remarkable. Here will be
f found Suffolk County's oldest gravestone , that of William
Wells , November 13 , 1671 .
211, SOURCES:
B.F. Thompson, History of Long Island, Vol . I , 1843 , P. 386.
R.M. BaylesHistorical and Descriptive ,Sketches of Long
Island, 187 , . �_
73. THl_N11: Historic Orient Village, 1976, p. 41 .
Historical Review, Oysterponds Historical Society, 1959 .
Smithtown dtar, 9/4/63 , p. 4.
Form prepared by Kurt Kahofer, research assistant .
Brown's Hill Burying Ground CSP 9
Orient
+;,
1
y'
11':11) o r V", )I
Flo
see page 34
_ Stones cut by the Stevens family,
'�� clockwise from top left the Abigail
King stone. 1716. with open-mouthed
soul effigy. the Elizabeth Beebee
stone. 1716. with elaborate 17oral
work, the Hannah Townsend stone,
1740, with a haleful expression on
the image. the Capt John Sands
stone, 1712, on which the hair is
styled in Roman manner; the
Nathaniel Smith stone, 1767, a con
ventional "haired" version: and the
Samuel Huntting sione, 1773, which
boasts an eighteenth-century wiX.
The Gravestones of Early Long Island, by Richard Welch , 1983 .
IS
Brown's Hill Burying Ground OR 9
Orient
I V correspond with the "classic" period of the American gravestone-cutting
tradition.
T e oun er of the dynasty was John Stevens I, who left Oxfordshire,
England,at the age of fifty and landed at Boston where he married a woman
known only as "k4arcy." While he lived in Boston, in 1702 his son, John
Stevens 11,was born. John Stevens I was a stonemason by trade,-a builder of
chimneys,cellarg, and foundations. After he moved to Newport in 1705, he
added to his skills that of gravestone cutter. Stevens cut death's heads (see
1�
page 13) and strange, sinister-looking soul effigies. On Long Island, these
stones are entirely confined to the Brown's Hill_Burial Group¢ in Orient.
The earliest dates of these soul effigies,and the earliest-dated soul effigy
' on the island, is the Gideon Youngs stone, 1699, certainly a backdatcd
example. This weathered and partly broken stone utilizes curiously
elongated breast/gourd symbols on the pilaster borders. A much better
example of this type is the Sarah-Paigc stone, 1716 (illustrated). Here, the
unpleasant, squared-off face born aldit by narrow wings, reminiscent of
Royal Air Force insignia,can be seen more clearly.The borders are cut with
an embryo-shaped, foliate design which terminates in a zinnia-like flower
1 in the finial.The Abigail King stone, also 1716 lillustrated), is a smaller
f - _ version of the same general pattern with the exception of a slightly open
mouth from which it seems almost possible to hear a moan escaping. On
t the footstones which accompany these somber"cheroboam,"as he referred
to them in his day book,' John I frequently carved his idiosyncratic
childlike death's heads.
John Stevens I cut one other style of soul effigy, much happier in
' t appearance and fashioned in a more plastic, three-dimensional style. The
only example of this pattern on Long Island is the Elizabeth Beebee stone,
1716, also found at Brown's Hill (illustrated). This stone, carved on black
slate, is marred by broken border finials and deterioration of the face.
t F Nevertheless, the essential features of this rounded-faced soul effigy can
still be seen. The face is surrounded by twelve rolled curls and is carried
aloft by two large wings. The lateral and bottom borders boast elaborate
floral work with several stems and vines rolling up into sections which
contain tulips or some other petaled flower.This type of stone bears a close
resemblance to the John MacKintoshe stone, 1710, The Granary, Boston,
Mwhich was carved by the Scottish immigrant gravestone cutter, James
Gilchrist.
j
John I died in 1736 and the shop was taken over by Jon 11 who 5ad
probably been carrying most of the responsibility for some years previously.
I John II carved death's heads and soul effigies of his father's design,but went
t ; on to develop a soul effigy which proved so popular that it is the most
common slate soul effigy found on Long Island. These soul effigies have an
egg-shaped head flanked by two high, lurching wings. Typically, the eyes
+ are narrow and slanted, and,the modib'fowntumed, producing a most
i baleful expression. The pilaster borders are carved with thick scrollwork.
} The Hannah Townsend stone, 1740,Oyster Bay, is an excellent example of
The Sarah Paine stone. 1716, with this type (illustrated).
I soul effigy and embryo-like foliate de- The common pre-Revolutionary soul effigy—for this is what John U's
sign, was cut by John Stevens 1. effigies deserve to be called—exhibits httle individuality other than the
presence or lack of hair.On the Captain John Sands stone, 1712(backdated),
(illustrated), Stevens carved a soul effigy with hair combed forward in the
Roman manner, a style greatly favored by his son. However, the usual John
I 34
The Gravestones of Early Long Island , by Richard Welch , 1983 ,
f
i �
OR 9
20 THE TREES OF LONG ISLAND NATIVE TREES
f Other historic Long Island trees are; the -wo giant Japanese
} Pagodatrees in Sag Harbor brought back from the Orient by a LC
whaling captain in a 1800's and planted in his backyard;
the big Sycamore at Orien hick bears a plaque stating that it was
there on July 4, 1 Black Locusts adjacent to the Washington It has been c
Manor at Roslyn, which evi ent y were plante at a corners when settler cut down i
the building was erected, and date back to the early 1700's shortly from wilderness i
after Captain John Sands introduced this species o Long Island (one accurate and coml
of these trees has an S inch diameter Cherry tree growing out of the Island has never 6
top of its broken trunk) and the largest Norway Maple in New York effect of the white
State, 16 feet 3 inches in girth, in rowns urying round at altogether and obl
7t"�w�iere the first English sett ers o eastern ong s an are records were corn
/'� buried. This last tree may have been brought from England and Nevertheless,
planted in this cemetery in the middle 1600's, antedating the first of information av,
nursery introduction. However, due to heartrot its exact age cannot provide at least a f
be determined. tion of Long Islan
this has been done
The earliest
a
Island trees is a cI,
z� t o€ Plandome
, Nasse
Y 1 listed forty-one treti
At throws some recorc
shown; today this n
time it referred to t
papyrifera (Paper I
tion Betula populif,
Shortly afterw;
growing spontaneot
1843,-Torrey publis
A f though Torrey w.
cite "Long Island" a
a tree's exact local r:
ing metropolis of B,
had wrought major i
Torrey's records.
1 Herbarium sho
itative records altha
LOPPED WHITE OAK AT MIDDLE BLANDor or plant is
In colonial days, sprouts from partly cut and bent over trees foemed fences herbarium specimen;
and boundary lines. Today grotesque specimens may still be found in War but they are fe
Suffolk County. H. W. Young made
'eters. The Trees of Tione Island . 1973