Police: Brightwaters restaurant catches fire Tuesday
Volunteers from five fire departments -- Bay Shore, West Islip, Islip, North Babylon and Brentwood -- battle a blaze at the Jon Thomas Inne on Howells Road in Brightwaters early Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014. No injuries were reported, officials said. Credit: Paul Mazza
A little more than 11 months after an electrical fire caused "significant" damage to a historic restaurant and inn in Brightwaters, the building caught fire again early Tuesday morning, Suffolk County police and fire officials said.
Arson Squad investigators have not determined the cause of the fire at the Jon Thomas Inne on Howells Road, reported in a 911 call at 4:40 a.m.
Police said initial indications were that the fire is not suspicious but did not detail the focus of the investigation.
The restaurant was still undergoing rehabilitation after the first fire, which occurred Dec. 5, police said.
It was not open for business -- and police said that apartments, damaged in the December fire, no longer existed at the site.
Volunteers from five fire departments -- Bay Shore, West Islip, Islip, North Babylon and Brentwood -- battled the blaze for about two hours, officials said. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Officials said there were no injuries.
The historic inn dates to 1925.
In the December fire, officials said one resident was treated for smoke inhalation, while three others were evacuated from apartments above the historic restaurant -- the building sustaining what investigators then called "significant" damage. That damage affected the kitchen, dining area and bar, as well as some of the apartments above the long-lived inn.
In the days and weeks after that fire, local bar, restaurant and shop owners banded together to host fundraisers to help the inn owners rebuild. It was not clear how much money was raised.
Police said Tuesday that the cause of the December fire was found to be electrical and noncriminal. Police said Tuesday the six apartments on the top floor were not rebuilt.
The Jon Thomas Inne page on Facebook had posted photos showing the ongoing renovations of the restaurant, with messages saying those renovations were moving toward completion.
The owners could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The inn was opened by the husband-and-wife ballroom dancing team of Arthur (Otto) Miller and Josephine (Ethye) Miller -- known as the "Marvelous Millers" -- along what is now Sunrise Highway in 1925, according to its website.
The first rooms were rented to construction men working at Pilgrim State.
Later, Josephine Miller and her daughter, Ruth, began preparing brown-bag lunches for the workers and ultimately, the website said, the lodge became a haven for summer tourists.
In 1938, the lodge building was leased to Harry and Elsie Seifert and renamed the "Old Heidelberg," its sun porch converted into a Bavarian bar.
The "Old Heidelberg" was then sold to other owners in May 1952, and eventually was sold in 1977 to John Hickey and Thomas Lally. They renamed it the Jon Thomas Inne.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
