Town support expected for Rocky Point's oldest house

The Brookhaven Town Board Tuesday will consider throwing its support behind efforts to make a Rocky Point house a state-designated historic landmark.

The nearly 300-year-old house -- formerly owned by the Hallock family and believed to be the oldest abode in Rocky Point -- was purchased earlier this year by the hamlet's historical society, which hopes to convert it into a community museum.

The town board is expected to vote on a resolution backing efforts by the Rocky Point Historical Society, which is asking the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to add the Hallock house to the state and federal registers of historic places. The board is set to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall.

State recognition would enable the society to seek state restoration funds, said Natalie Stiefel, historical society president.

"It is important because, first of all, we want to preserve the house," she said. "Revolutionary War patriots were born in that house."

Built in 1721 by lumber magnate Noah Hallock, the home remained in his family for eight generations before his descendants sold it in the 1960s to Lydia Via Cava and her daughter Louise.

Louise's sister Gloria Devereaux agreed to sell the house to the historical society, Stiefel said. Local resident Mark Baisch secured a $200,000 mortgage to complete the purchase, and the sale closed in April, she said.

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The society intends to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 7, Stiefel said.

Community residents have taken part in cleanup efforts at the house, and the society is collecting Hallock family artifacts that have been in storage, she said.

"We're starting to put them back in the house where they belong, so it's very exciting," Stiefel said.