Ruhland's Garage on Route 25A: tear-it-down eyesore or preservation-worthy building?

To some, Ruhland's Garage in East Setauket is a relic of a bygone era that should be torn down.

But to others, the nearly century-old auto repair shop on State Route 25A is a symbol of Long Island's love affair with cars and should be spared the wrecking ball.

The fate of the shuttered garage, which sits in a section of Brookhaven Town's Setauket Harbor Park, may rest with state officials, who say it qualifies as a potential historic site, and Brookhaven Town, which wants to demolish it.

The dispute has pitted officials and residents who want to redevelop the park against other residents and preservationists who believe the garage is a vital link to the early days of Long Island's car-crazy culture.

"Once you demolish a building that’s historic, it’s gone forever," said Tricia Restucci, an East Setauket resident and business owner who favors saving the garage. "There’s no going back."

The garage opened in 1927 as a gas station and today bears the name East Setauket Automotive. Its original owner, Carl Ruhland, for whom the building is informally named, was a Brookhaven justice of the peace who had an office in the building and leased space to a mechanic.

Dispute delays park

East Setauket Automotive closed about two years ago after Brookhaven used a $1.6 million state grant to buy the building and the 2-acre parcel that surrounds it. 

The town and local civic groups say the redeveloped park would highlight Brookhaven's pre-Colonial roots, featuring nearby historic buildings such as the 17th-century Caleb Brewster House. 

Park supporters say those plans have been delayed by the dispute.

"This was just a gas station and it hasn’t been a gas station for 30 years," George Hoffman, co-founder of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, said. "Most people see it as an eyesore."

Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich, who represents the area, says the garage is "in an advanced state of disrepair and is derelict," adding an engineer hired by the town called it "a candidate for demolition."

But state parks and historic preservation officials, in an Aug. 4 letter to the town, said the garage was eligible for the State and National Register of Historic Places "as an important local example of an early-twentieth-century automotive service business." The letter asked the town to consider alternatives to demolition "to minimize harm to the historic building."

Zachary Studenroth, preservation director of the Cold Spring Harbor nonprofit Preservation Long Island, said the town should reconsider plans to tear down the building.

"If you drive down the main road through Setauket, the building does have that landmark quality," he said in a phone interview. 

Historic value denied

But park supporters scoff at the notion that the garage has historic value.

"Not even a close call," Suffolk County Legis. Steve Englebright (D-East Setauket) said in a phone interview. Much of the building includes nonoriginal material, he said, adding the gas pumps and other features were destroyed or lost over the years.

"There are historic locations [in East Setauket] that already have been recognized," he said. "Ruhland's Garage, in my opinion, does not qualify."

Some officials and residents think part of the garage should be repurposed as an open-air canopy for community events.

"Any garage that was built in that time should be preserved in one way or another," said Mari Irizarry, executive director of the Setauket nonprofit Three Village Historical Society. But she agreed the garage was in poor shape. 

"I walked in and thought, 'This was a dump,' " Irizarry said, recalling a visit to the garage. She said the interior smelled of gasoline, "like it was about to catch fire."

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

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.