Taylor's Island cabin getting $110,600 renovation

You're not likely to find it on any map, unless you get the map on Shelter Island. You can't even find it using Google Maps, although it does have a Facebook page.

It wasn't planned that way, but Taylor's Island has become one of the best and gentlest secrets in Long Island's tiniest town -- a one-acre preserve on the 12-square-mile Shelter Island.

It's a fine place to visit by kayak, and to have a picnic on a nice summer day.

"You can walk out there, but you better be wearing your boots," says Shelter Island Supervisor James Dougherty.

The island within an island is owned by Shelter Island town, but many local residents still don't know about it, despite the best efforts of a committee formed five years ago to preserve and promote the unusual property.

That's changing now.

The island is on the National Register of Historic Places and contains a house, which is usually locked, that is in need of repair. This year, the Smith-Taylor cabin is being refurbished with a $110,600 grant from the State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation and matched by local contributions and in-kind services from the town.

Some work has already begun, such as improving the concrete bulkhead and repairing the roof. When the weather warms, workers will begin interior renovations, such as repairing rotting wood and painting.

The committees formed to protect the island only came into being after the Shelter Island town board turned down two proposals to tear down the decaying building.

One of those who knows Taylor's Island best is Patricia Ann Thomas Hunt, co-chairwoman of the Taylor's Island Preservation and Management Committee. "Right now, we want to reverse years of neglect and preserve it and return it to the grand yet rustic structure that's there in Coecles Harbor," she said of the shallow body of water between the Ram Island peninsula and the Nature Conservancy's Mashomack Preserve.

The cabin was just one room in 1905, but in the 1930s it was expanded by S. Gregory Taylor, a wealthy hotel owner, who bought it when it was named Cedar Island for the eastern red Cedars that grew in the area.

The cabin, which has no electricity and only cold running water, is not open to the public for overnight stays, but visitors can sign a guest book.

The biggest contradiction about Taylor's Island is that it's not your typical island. It's a tidal island, surrounded by water except at low tide, when a small sandbar is exposed. It's just big enough for the house, two picnic tables and one grave.

And, Hunt said, more people on Shelter Island will be learning about their island. "We're not a household name yet, but it's increasing year after year."

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