In anticipation of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the incorporation of the village, a group of local history enthusiasts began meeting in January 2002 under the direction of the village historian Barbara Ferris Van Liew. The goal is to prepare a supplement to her Fifty Years 1928-1978 Head of the Harbor (copies available in the village hall) focusing on the people and places important in its history.
Using material Mrs. Van Liew has amassed over the past twenty-five years together with sources in the Smithtown Library's Long Island Room and local historical societies, committee members are putting together brief biographies and estate histories. They are interviewing residents, collecting old photographs and taking new ones.
Residents with photographs or stories about ther houses are invited to contribute them (be sure to keep the originals, please). The village clerk maintains a secure repository for such material.
Anyone interested in joining the committee is welcome.
Village Historian Annual Report
The Village Historian has answered the many questions about people, genealogy, buildings, and land use during the last years.
The Historian has researched and written a history of Avalon park and Preserve, a new private preserve that projects a scenic and historic section of the village development.
Also, the Village Historian has written various pieces and reports about the significance of NY State Route 25A in our village as it is one of the last sections of the original route followed by President George Washington in 1790 when he toured Long island. The roadside ambience survives relatively unaltered.
We have not yet determined how to restore and protect a vandalized private cemetery that is close to a house on someone's private property. It had been vandalized before they bought the property.
An informal Historians Committed has been formed for two purposes. One objective is to prepare short biographies of some of the early residents of the village in the hope of publishing a supplement to our village history of 1978.
Also, this committee will be sorting and filing the source material that is available for research and reference purposes. the files will beheld in acid free hangers in a horizontal file with rails, which has been given to the village.
The committee has been working with the local private school to expand the teaching of Smithtowns history to raise historical awareness.
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