Shelter Island Ferry/Mineola Building

Greenport-Shelter Island Ferry and Landing (Photo From Nassau County Museum Collection, Long Island Studies Institute / )

The two ``History Mystery'' photos on this page were solved quickly by Newsday readers. The ferry landing at right reminded many (including us) of scenes on the North Shore: Nine different locations were cited, none of them correct. Other detailed replies confirmed that it showed the Greenport-Shelter Island ferry and landing. The photo was taken from White Hill on Shelter Island, looking northeast, wrote Bernard Jacobsen, general manager of the North Ferry Co. and the Shelter Island Heights Property Owners Corp. The ferry, wrote Converse W. Sweetser of Huntington, is ``the Menantic, a side-wheel walking-beam steamer; she was retired about 1920 ... In the left foreground is the bathing beach, with a platform containing a high-dive and a slide; I used them both in my youth.'' Helen Wallingford of Shelter Island Heights wrote, ``The upper left-hand corner shows a bit of the LIRR dock. On the right shows a portion of the breakwater.'' The building shown below ``is one of the most important buildings in the history of Mineola,'' wrote Jack Hehman, president of the Mineola Historical Society. Built in 1787 and known as the ``old brig,'' it was the first Queens County courthouse and later a home for the mentally ill. The building was at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road until 1910, when it burned to the ground.