Grant may help preserve old Smithtown farm

A $400,000 grant from the state could help preserve a historic Long Island farm and protect a highly coveted 23-acre plot of green space.

The Peconic Land Trust was awarded the money last month to aid in its purchase of Ships Hole Farm in Smithtown. The group's goal is to restore the rolling, picturesque property to a small-scale working farm, preserve the character of its 1800s-era farmhouse and barns, and create a nature trail on the property, which abuts the Nissequogue River.

"What Ships Hole Farm represents is a bit of the history of agriculture," said John Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, which is working to preserve open spaces and give farmers around Long Island access to affordable farmland. "So much of the agricultural production that used to be on most of Long Island is not as apparent in Western Suffolk as it is on the East End."

The trust plans to lease portions of the property to multiple farmers, who would sell their products commercially.

The grant -- part of $101.6 million given to various "transformative" projects across the Island -- will help purchase the property, which the owners plan to sell to the trust for $1.45 million, said project manager Stephen Searl. So far, the trust has raised more than $550,000, including the grant and a contribution from the owners, the Nicodemus family.

"I am concerned that people sort of have gotten away from their roots -- away from where food comes from, away from respect for the land, away from understanding the relationship between the land and their lives," said Chris Nicodemus, 54, who grew up on Ships' Hole Farm and shares ownership with his two older sisters. The family is now scattered around the country; Chris Nicodemus lives in New Hampshire.

He said he hopes that entrusting the farm to the Southampton nonprofit means it will be carefully preserved and provide educational opportunities for people to make a hands-on connection to agriculture.

The bright but musty farmhouse has been fairly quiet since father Richard Nicodemus, the last family member to work the land, died in 2005. Currently, one tenant farmer rents an apartment in the east wing of the house. She grows vegetables and raises chickens and a herd of sheep.

Members of the Nicodemus family visit from time to time. Tess Gadwa, 35, one of Richard's grandchildren, spent every childhood summer on the farm, taking the train from Connecticut. She remembers helping to milk cows, canoeing on the Nissequogue and romping in the fields with her cousins.

Gadwa, a web designer who lives in Massachusetts, said that the family had mixed feelings about saying goodbye to the property but it is excited the farm's legacy will be continued, adding that education is a big part of her vision for the site that is "bigger than our family."

"I think places like this are needed now more than ever before," Gadwa said. "Human beings need green space. We need places that are a bit wild and places to ramble and explore."