Jamesport salutes community center's 100th anniversary in July Fourth festivities

Holding a delicate corsage from a Sadie Hawkins dance in 1955, memories came flooding back to Rose Marie Doroski.

In a room at the George Young Community Center in Jamesport, her eyes lit up as she recalled asking Frankie Zaweski to the dance and her time as a student in the center, once the Jamesport Elementary School.

The trip down memory lane for Doroski, 81, was rich with nostalgia as she unpacked old photographs, field day medals, report cards and other school mementos displayed Tuesday during a celebration of the building’s centennial. The event coincided with the hamlet’s annual Independence Day ceremony and also marked the 75th anniversary of the Greater Jamesport Civic Association.

“I had this great big scrapbook I was looking through, and then I found another box of treasures,” she said, admiring the exhibit created with items from about a dozen former students. “It was a wonderful school.”

The school, which taught students up to fifth grade, was built in 1923 amid a growing need for a larger facility, according to town historian Georgette Case. School district voters in 1974 approved a proposition to give the school and 4-acre property to Riverhead Town at no cost to be used as a community center. It was renamed in 1997 for former Town Councilman George Young, who advocated for saving the schoolhouse rather than demolishing it during his tenure.

The building is still central to life in Riverhead, serving as the setting for summer camps, art and fitness classes, birthday parties and community meetings.

“That building is still providing for not only the Jamesport community, but the town of Riverhead,” said former Town Councilwoman Rose Sanders, who chaired the anniversary committee for the Greater Jamesport Civic Association and helped collect items for the exhibit.

During the July Fourth celebration that featured patriotic songs and veterans sharing what the holiday means to them, community leaders also spoke about the principles of freedom, democracy and civic engagement.

“[The Greater Jamesport Civic Association] has been instrumental in shaping the future of our community,” said Laura Jens-Smith, former town supervisor and current president of the association, founded in 1948. She highlighted several accomplishments of the group over its 75 years, from advocating for fire station outposts, traffic lights and lower speed limits in the hamlet to saving the community center from the wrecking ball and blocking condos from being built at Miamogue Point, now a waterfront park.

“It’s not just about getting things done, it’s about bringing people together,” Jens-Smith said.

That was evident as former students traded stories and reminisced about when Jamesport was a “sleepy town” of potato farmers.

Carl Gabrielsen, 64, remembered schoolyard baseball games and cramming into the basement for air raid drills during the height of the Cold War. Others gazed at their younger faces in faded photographs.

Daniel Griffin, 79, didn’t hesitate to name any of his peers in a class photo, recalling what street they lived on then.

“They all grew up, and got old,” he laughed.