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Our Houses: A Chronology

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1649: Old House, Cutchogue, built for Anna Budd and Benjamin Horton in Medieval English style brought to East End by 17th-Century settlers. House descends into Wickham family, until forfeited after Revolution; converted to a barn in 19th Century and restored for Southold tercentenary.

1652: English shipping merchant Nathaniel Sylvester purchases Shelter Island for 1,600 pounds of sugar and builds a manor there. Destroyed by fire, it is rebuilt in 1733 by grandson and last lord of the manor, Brinley Sylvester.

1680: Van Nostrand-Starkins House, Roslyn, built in medieval English tradition, with steep pitched roof and white oak framing. Probably Nassau County's earliest surviving house.

1690: Manor of St. George, Mastic, rises on 20,000 acres on a bluff overlooking Great South Bay -- Col. William (Tangier) Smith's reward for service to the British Crown. Residence changes over the years; a new house was built in 1810 to replace one destroyed during Revolution. Smiths live on manor until 1854.

1692: Construction begins on Sagtikos Manor, West Bay Shore, later called ``one of the most distinguished houses in the United States.'' Built in three sections: one between 1692 and 1697 by Stephanus Van Cortlandt, another circa 1772 by Isaac Thompson, a third by Frederick Diodati Thompson in 1905 under supervision of Riverhead architect Isaac Green.

1720: William Floyd Estate, Mastic. Compound occupied by eight generations of Floyds, including William, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Dynasty begins with Nicholl Floyd, who builds shingled wood-frame house. After Revolution, Floyd enlarges house. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison visit in 1791.

1738: Raynham Hall, Oyster Bay Hamlet, home to generations of Townsends, including merchant Samuel Townsend. British occupy five-bay center-hall salt box during Revolution.

1767: Joseph Lloyd Manor House, Lloyd Harbor, completed by Connecticut housewright Abner Osborn. Lloyd descended from James Lloyd, first lord of the manor of Queens Village.

1781: Quaker farmer Richard Kirk builds Cedarmere, Roslyn Harbor. Later home to poet and publisher William Cullen Bryant, who in 1865 commissions architect and artist Frederick Copley to build cottage with overhanging pitched roof, bay windows and pinnacles at each gable.

1814: Brooklyn Heights, ``the first suburb,'' created with establishment of regular ferry service from Manhattan.

1820: Conklin House, Greenport. Considered an American ``cottage temple,'' a sign that even humble domestic structures, not just public buildings, could borrow architectural elements from Greek temple form.

1837: Completion of Cleveland-Charnews House, Southold, one of LI's earliest architect-designed houses. Created and built by William D. Cochran with segmental-arched dormers that were probably not in pattern books of carpenters of the day.

1847: Deepwells, Saint James, Greek Revival country house built for Joel L.G. Smith, descended from the Smiths of Smithtown and a founder of the Saint James Episcopal Church. NYC's ``reform'' mayor, William J. Gaynor, later acquires house, lives there until his death in 1913.

1864: James W. Beekman's manor, The Cliffs, completed in Mill Neck. Arguably, first of the 1,000 great country houses built across Long Island between 1864 and 1940.

1869: Department-store magnate A.T. Stewart purchases 7,000 acres of Hempstead Plains to launch unprecedented planned community for employees. Architect John Kellum oversees design and construction -- homes, stores and carriage drives surrounding 30-acre park with hotel. Calls it Garden City.

1884: Sagamore Hill, Cove Neck. Having spent childhood summers in Oyster Bay, future President Theodore Roosevelt commissions Queen Anne-style house for its proximity to hunting, fishing and hiking.

1884: Architect Stanford White marries Bessie Springs Smith, daughter of Judge Lawrence Smith of Smithtown, and purchases house and land in neighboring Saint James. Remodels original farmhouse in 1886, 1892 and 1902. Called Box Hill, summer cottage includes pebble-dashed stucco walls and elaborate neo-colonial detail; eclectic interiors include walls covered with split bamboo.

1892: Painter William Merritt Chase launches an art ``school on the sands'' in Shinnecock Hills; architects McKim, Mead & White design his nearby Shingle Style house.

1897: Construction begins on Bayberry Point Houses, Islip, experiment in cooperative living among the wealthy. Planned by sugar magnate H.O. Havemeyer, who digs canal and constructs bridge between the Bayberry Point peninsula in Great South Bay and the 10 summer residences. Moorish-style stucco homes designed by Forest Hills Gardens architect Grosvenor Atterbury.

1899: Construction begins on Harbor Hill, Roslyn residence of Clarence Mackay, perhaps the most important of LI's country houses. On Katherine Mackay's orders, architect Stanford White designs sumptuous but severe style. Final cost: $781,483, plus art, outbuildings, landscaping and library remodeling; down the tubes in 1947 when house is demolished.