Cuomo: State grant to pay for Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve kiosk

A new kiosk with display panels that can be regularly updated will greet visitors to Huntington’s Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, thanks to a nearly $35,000 state grant Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday.

The grant won by the Caumsett Foundation is one of 22 awards, totaling $450,000, that Cuomo is directing to nonprofits that help modernize long-neglected state parks.

“These dedicated groups raise private funds for capital projects, perform maintenance tasks, provide educational programming and promote public use of parks through hosting special events,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The Caumsett Foundation will help pay the rest of the approximately $75,000 cost of the new kiosk, a sum that includes adding pavers connecting it to the park offices created last year out of an old calf barn on the estate, Janet Barone, foundation president, said by telephone.

The kiosk will give visitors “a brief orientation, give you a little history" of the former estate of department store heir Marshall Field III, she said.

“And bulletin boards will give you information on upcoming programs, tours and different things to do in the park,” she said.

The park covers 1,600 acres, featuring gardens, hiking and bridle paths, fishing, and views of the Long Island Sound.

Work on the new kiosk — an open-air structure like the current one — should start after the road and parking lots are repaved, and be finished by September, she said.

The initiative first was put together by a former member of the Caumsett Foundation, Gordon S. “Skip” Hargraves, before his death in 2012.

Architect Eduardo Lacroze designed the kiosk at no charge for the foundation, Barone said.