More than a dozen residents interested in a Tri-Hamlet effort to promote the historical treasures of the Mastic/Shirley area came together for a meeting last week to discuss some ideas, including an Oyster Fest at the Manor of St. George and a 5K race. The effort is in anticipation of an ambitious plan to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document signed by local Patriot William Floyd.
The group noted the importance of the Floyd Estate, a national park on the Historic Register, and other local features, including the federal Wertheim Preserve, Smith Point Park, Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness, and the Nathaniel Woodhull family cemetery in Mastic Beach. The community highlights can be promoted as a bike route or a hike similar to the Tallmadge Trail, the path taken from Long Island’s north shore to Shirley by the 2nd Continental Dragoons under the command of Major Benjamin Tallmadge to take back the St. George Manor from the British.
“Our area has so much to offer when it comes to landmarks and historical significance,” said John Scott Prudenti, who suggested an event featuring oysters, the once-famed delicacy that is making a comeback in local waters. He said a 5K run/walk beginning and ending at the Manor on Bellport Bay, not far from Smith Point, would attract people to the area. The Manor would be an ideal place for American Revolution military reenactments and displays showing life as it was in Colonial Times, Prudenti said. Christina DeVito, a Manor tour guide who attended the meeting, said she would gladly participate in the outfit she wears modeled after Martha Washington.
Prudenti said he would also like to create a display of the 1780 Fort St. George the British held at the site before Tallmadge drove them out. He said another idea to raise money for the promotional effort would be a bonfire party featuring the burning of the British hay supply by the Dragoons in Coram before they headed back to Connecticut.
“We need reasons for people to come and visit and see what our community is all about,” said Bill Doyle, a long-time area civic leader who organized the community meeting. “We have so much to offer here in Mastic/Shirley.”
“It was great that so many people turned out to brainstorm ideas to promote the area,” said Beth Wahl of the William Floyd Community Summit, a group that had previously sponsored a Tri-Hamlet Day with bus tours that were very popular. Efforts to highlight the area’s place in history were slowed by the COVID shutdown but are again picking up steam, she said in a report the next night at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the Mastics and Shirley.
“Our area has a rich history that dates back to the very beginning of our nation,” said Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico. He announced that as part of the town’s upcoming recognition of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, the town will install a monument to the document at Patriots Park in Shirley. The bronze depiction will rival the famed tablet at Boston Commons in Massachusetts. “We are very much part of American history,” the supervisor said of the area, “a history that people should know about and be proud of.”
The group said that in addition to fundraisers, they will look into grants to help cover their efforts, notably monies from the county’s hotel-motel tax dedicated to promoting tourism.
“We need reasons for people to come and visit,” said Bill Doyle, a long-time civic leader who organized the community meeting. “We have so much to offer here in Mastic/Shirley,” he said, noting that the activities would be excellent learning opportunities for local students.
Other attendees at the meeting were Town Councilwoman Karen Dunne Kesnig, Ed DeGennaro of the Mastic Peninsula Historical Society, Tim Rothang from Legislator Jim Mazzarella’s office, William Floyd School Board President April Coppola, Walter Meshenberg of Save the Great South Bay, Erin Shaw and Geri Gendron with the Daughters of the American Revolution Col. Josiah Smith Chapter, Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Library Board Members Joe Furnari and Wendy Gross, and representatives of Senator Alexis Weik’s office, Mastic Beach Property Owners Association, Senator Dean Murray, and Assemblyman Joe DeStefano.