America 250: Brookhaven Town Board to meet Thursday at historic Davis Town Meeting House

More than 200 years ago, a tardy Brookhaven Town Board member gifted the town clerk a jug of rum for being late to a meeting, according to the town's current supervisor, Dan Panico.

No booze is expected to be exchanged Thursday, when the present-day town board turns back the clock for a gathering at the Davis Town Meeting House, Brookhaven's former town hall in Coram.

But for one day at least, Brookhaven officials and residents will get a taste of life as it was, roughly two decades after the Declaration of Independence was ratified 250 years ago.

"It was the seat of town government for a century," Panico said Monday in an interview at the old town hall, now a Brookhaven Town museum. "In keeping with America 250, this would be the ideal place to have our meeting."

Located at the northeast corner of Middle Country Road and Coram-Mount Sinai Road, the meeting house was built sometime in the 1750s and served as a tavern-inn for decades, according to a history posted on the website of the Davis Town Meeting House Society, the nonprofit that manages the museum.

Political roots to 1800

Brookhaven left its original Setauket town hall in 1790 and began holding meetings in the more centrally located Coram. After several years meeting at a church, town officials decided in 1800 to meet at the Davis house, said Suzanne Johnson, president of the society.

Town business continued to be conducted there until 1886, when meetings were dispersed to other areas following the adoption of election districts, Johnson said.

The house remained in the Davis family until 1999, when it was sold to the town, Johnson said.

The Davis house today appears much as it did around 1800, albeit with period furniture and furnishings that were not part of the original house, Johnson said.

Besides the manner in which wayward officials paid fines to the town clerk, town board meetings at the Davis house bore stark differences compared to 21st-century gatherings at the current town hall, about 4 miles away in Farmingville.

For one thing, all town business for the year — and town elections — were held on a single day in April.

And the town board met in the house's cramped tavern, likely limiting public participation.

Thursday's meeting, alas, will not be held in the tavern.

Outdoor meeting planned

The 3 p.m. meeting, which is open to the public, will be held outdoors on the front lawn — weather permitting — with the town board dais on the porch and the audience seated under a tent, Panico said. 

The meeting will be a somewhat truncated affair, with a relatively light agenda, Panico said.

Panico, a history buff, said meeting at the house should be a fun way to draw attention to Brookhaven's pre-Colonial roots. The town traces its history to 1686, when a document called the Dongan Patent outlined the formation of town government.

"We want people to learn about the house ... what's in here and the significance of the house," Panico said.

To add to the authenticity of Thursday's meeting, he said, town officials will be dressed in period costumes.

That would include long coats, vests and stockings for the men, and hoop petticoats for the women, according to Colonial custom.

But don't expect any powdered wigs.

"I don't know if we're going to go with the wigs," Panico said. "I don't know if I can get the other board members to go along with that."