SWEZEY HOUSE

'Nothing left to save': Historian

Owner says he will raze Swezey House

Newsday

January 19, 1989

Swezey House after the fire. Photo by Jim McMahon.

'Nothing Left To Save': Historian

Owner says he'll raze Swezey House

By Mitchell Freedman

A suspicious fire that gutted the pre-Revolution Swezey House in Middle Island last weekend left nothing of historic value salvageable, Brookhaven Town Historian David Overton said.

Overton who inspected the building yesterday said the fire destroyed the 1 ½-story wooden structure, which was built between 1717 and 1740. ' 'There's nothing left to save. The walls are all shot, nothing salvageable at all.''

The Saturday night fire was the second in a year at the site. Last spring, a barn on the property, which may have been older than the house, burned down. "They caught two kids [for that fire]" said Sal Malguarnera, owner of the Swezey House property. Malguarnera wants to build on the property through his Sala Development Crop.

The cause of the latest blaze is under investigation.

Among the oldest houses in Brookhaven, the Swezey house was considered one of the most historically important structures in the town because it remained on its original location, on Old Middle Country Road, the site of town's first colonial Post Road.

Last month, the town broad gave the Swezey House landmark status, a preliminary step toward forming a historic district that would have made altering the house more difficult. But that action would not prevent construction of a shopping center-office complex proposed by Malguarnera for the site. No town action was being planed to acquire the property for preservation.

Malguarnera said the Swezey house had been vandalized and graffiti covered the inside walls. "Most of the windows were broken. It needed work," he said.

The house had a cyclone fence around it, but a hole apparently had been cut in it. The electricity had been turned off, but late last year, several neighbors complained to town officials that children or vagrants had been using the house.

When the site plan for the proposed shopping center on the 23,380-square- foot lot was filed last summer by the Sala Development Corp, town officials complained the Swezey house was not on the map. They told the developer to redraw the map indicating the house's location.

Malguarnera said yesterday that the house was in fact sited on the plan but in a very light color that was difficult to see. The property is zoned for business use, and the proposed center would contain 2,900 square feet of retail stores and 1,625 square feet of office space. He said plans called for building the center without tearing down the house.

Now that it has been destroyed, he said that if the town declared it, an unsafe structure, he expected to raze it.

Malguarnera said the property's zoning would allow shopping center construction, but that he took no action on the land since filing the application because he wanted to see if the town would try to rezone it for residential use. "I lelt this piece alone," Malguarnera said. "If the town in its wisdom made it residential. I wouldn't have touched it."

Malguarnera said he gave the local civic association permission to put a fence around the property, and never asked for a key for the padlock on the gate.

In the 1960s, the property's previous owner, Emil Lengyel, operated a small museum next to the house. Town historical surveys say the Swezey house painted white with red shutters, had a gabled roof, two fireplaces, and five small windows under the front and rear eaves, an indication of Dutch influence in home construction in central Suffolk before the American Revolution.

HOWELL GENEALOGY

prepared

by

Mr. Donald Bayles

December 1999

HOWELL

Richard Howell, son of Margaret Howell, was born in England. His mother when widowed supposedly married Peter Hallock after his return from the landing at Southold with Rev. John Youngs in 1640. Peter returned to Long Island with Margaret and her young son Richard and settled at Aquebogue after the 1661 division of lots. However the accuracy of the preceding statements have been questioned in view of the information contained in the next paragraph.

Peter Hallock and his first wife had a son William born about 1610 in England. William Hallock married Margaret Howell about 1640 and in 1667 had a home lot in the Southold settlement. He moved to Aquebogue after receiving an allotment of land in 1661. He had a daughter Elizabeth born about 1642 who married Richard Howell.

Richard Howell married Elizabeth Hallock shortly before 1675 as that year William Hallock conveyed land in the Town of Southold to his "son-in-law" Richard Howell. Richard and Elizabeth had nine children including John Howell who was born May 24,1670. Richard died Nov. 9, 1709 and his wife Elizabeth died Jan. 29, 1734.

In 1690 John Howell married Margaret and they had a son John born the following year. Margaret died Feb.2,1708 and John married Hannah Parshall, John and Hannah had a son John born 1718. John died Jan. 20, 1734 reputedly by drowning at Riverhead and Hannah died Mar. 15,1768.

John Howell, born 1718 at Mattituck, son of John and Hannah, married Elizabeth or Hannah Reeve and moved to Middle Island in 1737 where he built a home. They had a son Reeve Howell born 1738 in Middle Island. John died Mar. 17, 1741 in Middle Island and his wife Hannah died in 1784 .

Reeve Howell born 1738 in Middle Island, son of John and Hannah Reeve Howell, married Bathsheba Clark in 1769. Bethsheba was born 1744 and died 1809. Reeve died Sept.3, 1802. Their children included:

Isaac b. 1769 mar. Mary. He died Oct. 27, 1813

James b. 1771 mar. 1795 Caroline Youngs and moved to New Village. He died Sept.28,1848

Daniel b. 1773 mar. Martha. He died Feb. 7,1808

Deborah mar. a Clark

3 others; Mary, Bethsheba, William

Isaac Howell inherited the part of his father's estate south of Granny Road to Middle Island Line. He had a daughter Hannah who married John Swezey,

Daniel Howell inherited the part of his father's estate from Howell's Pond south to Granny Road. That part of the original Howell land north of the pond had been sold before 1802, probably to Joshua Swezey Sr. Daniel's daughter Abigail inherited this land. She married John Buckingham and Apr. 1, 1861 their son Daniel Howell Buckingham sold the farm to William 0. Bartlett.