Fire douses plans to turn 200-year-old Coram house into a museum
A fire on Oct. 3 destroyed the Norton House, seen here in 2018. The 200-year-old Coram home is believed to have been a former post office. Credit: Gordon M. Grant
A fire that burned down a two-century-old Coram house appears to have snuffed out what little hope community leaders had for turning the historic property into a museum, officials said.
The fire at the Middle Country Road home, known to Coram residents as the Norton house, broke out at 11:27 p.m. on Oct. 3, Suffolk County police said in an email.
Suffolk Arson Squad detectives had not determined the cause of the fire, a police department spokesman said.
The fire dashed the dreams of Coram civic leaders who had hoped to turn the house — believed to have once served as a post office around 1900 — into a community museum.
But even before the fire, that plan had faced a multitude of challenges, including the building's structural deficiencies and what officials said was the reluctance of the site's owner to sell the property.
"That’s been squashed a long time ago," said Maryanne Douglas, president of the Davis Town Meeting House Society, which manages another historic Coram property. "We were all saddened by it. Everybody was, because we tried and of course it didn’t work out."
The blaze destroyed the long-abandoned structure, police said, adding no one was injured.
Damage from the fire was "heavy," the Brookhaven Town fire marshal's office said in an email, adding that the "entire structure is down to the ground level crawl space/basement." The house had been illegally occupied by a squatter before the fire, the fire marshal's office said.
Attempts by Newsday to reach Manhattan-based Cefalu Properties, the property's owner, were unsuccessful.
Town officials said they were unable to contact the company to discuss the fire.
Civic leaders believed the house was about 200 years old and was once owned by Nathaniel Norton, a veteran of the 18th-century French and Indian Wars.
Brookhaven and Suffolk officials had sought to buy the site from Cefalu Properties, but they said officials of the company were not receptive to their offers.
"Unfortunately, she was not a willing seller," county Legis. Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), said referring to an unidentified officer with the company.
Douglas said Brookhaven officials had made plans several times in recent years to demolish the house because it was unsafe. Supervisor Edward P. Romaine had intervened and postponed the demolition, she said.
Suffolk Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that Cefalu Properties owes $158,250.58 in back taxes dating to 2017 on the Norton house and an adjoining commercial property.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.
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