Agency: Historic inn should be landmark

The Oyster Bay Landmarks Preservation Commission has voted unanimously to recommend landmark designation for the vacant Maine Maid Inn in Jericho, a 222-year-old building believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The vote Wednesday night moves the issue to the town board, which will hold a hearing within 90 days and then decide if the former Quaker farmhouse and restaurant is worthy of protection.

The restaurant has been closed for more than two years. The East Norwich Civic Association, which made the nomination to the commission, is fearful the inn will be demolished. Building owner Rajiv Sharma did not attend Wednesday's hearing or one held previously. No one opposed the nomination at either session.

The building, originally the home of a prominent Quaker, was built in 1789 and later served as a post office before it became a stagecoach stop and restaurant.

Although the house is in "sad shape," civic association president Matthew Meng told the commission that there are "good reasons to preserve this. Meng said he is trying to persuade Sharma to support designation and has been talking to Ciena Capital, the bank that holds the mortgage and has been moving toward foreclosure, about facilitating a sale to a new nonprofit group that would operate the property.

"We'd like to see our history preserved," Jericho resident Joseph Lorintz said. "There's very little of it left" after road-widening projects in the hamlet decades ago.

Commission member John Collins, an architectural historian who chaired the meeting, said the Maine Maid was a strong candidate for landmark status. "Even though it's not in pristine condition . . . the majority of the historic structure is there."

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