To Restore a Historic Site, a Treasure Hunt New York Times April 13, 2008

- Oakdale A FRANKLIN stove circa 1830.  Replicas of 150-year-old wooden rocking chairs. Antique fishing tackle. Duck decoys a century old. Stuffed wild turkeys.  Rows of narrow, footlong lockers to fit liquor bottles.  Keys to lock up the alcohol. These are just some of the items in the billiard room of the former Southside Sportsmen’s Club, once a refuge for the likes of Louis C. Tiffany, August Belmont and William K. Vanderbilt in what is now the Connetquot River State Park Preserve. “It’s like you dropped back about 50 years,” said Gil Bergen, the park manager. “It still has that feeling.” As part of an effort to restore the club building, parts of which date to the 1820s, to its original luster 35 years after it was shuttered, Mr. Bergen and others have been on a treasure hunt for more of the artifacts that filled it. Mr. Bergen and Friends of Connetquot, a nonprofit group helping to maintain the 3,473-acre park and its history, hope that by spreading the word on $3 Sunday tours and beyond, more of the 300 missing items will be located. “We’re hoping things are just sitting in attics and people realize we want them back,” said Bob Labuski, president of Friends of Connetquot. Lemon-scented wood cleaner filled the air during a recent journey through time in each room — a fishing rod room, the men’s dining hall, a large kitchen and pantry, a ladies’ dining and sitting room.  On the top floor of the three-story building are 24 bedrooms. Women were allowed in the men’s areas only one day a year — New Year’s. When the club closed in 1973, citing high taxes, many items were auctioned, and the stove was presented to the New-York Historical Society.  About a decade ago, as the restoration got under way, the Historical Society leased the stove back to the park for $1 a year. One original hardwood rocking chair dating to the 1860s was recovered, and Mr. Bergen said six replicas were made for $600 each. The restoration project is just the latest chapter in the park’s distinctive history.  The Secatogue Indians called the area Connetquot for “great river.”  In 1683 they sold it to William Nicoll, the founder of Islip Town. Around 1820, the Nicoll family leased some land to Eliphalet Snedecor, who founded a tavern that became a coach stop for Montauk-bound travelers.  Forty years later, a group of wealthy sportsmen bought the tavern from the Snedecor family and some land. “The club was the magnet that drew all people to the south side of Long Island,” Mr. Bergen said. “This was the Gold Coast in the 1890s.” The Southside Sportsmen’s Club was incorporated in 1866, and 100 members each held 100 shares of stock worth $500 at that time, Mr. Bergen said.  In 1963, the state bought the land for $6.2 million, but the club leased the area for 10 more years.  In 1973, the year the club closed, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites. On a recent brisk day, Gigi Simonetti of Islip Terrace was walking her horse along the old Montauk Highway where horse-drawn coaches once click-clacked.  Gripping the reins of her blond palomino named Prince, she said the restoration project was overdue. “I’m a big fan of history, and I’m a firm believer in preserving it,” she said.  Ms. Simonetti said she was happy to traipse through what was once a men’s-only club.  “Aha,” she said she thought to herself the first time she entered.  “I’m here now.” There are other restoration projects at the park.  An ice house may become a library, Mr. Labuski said.  A wheat and corn mill built in the 1700s is undergoing renovations. Mr. Labuski hopes that within a year, the mill will be completed and added to the list of park attractions — horseback and walking trails, a fish hatchery and fly-fishing. What comes after the restoration projects? “We’ll just get it ready,” Mr. Bergen said, “for the next 100 years, that’s all.”

Club and Mill History in the Remaking in Oakdale Newsday - March 16, 2008

In 1973, the members of the South Side Sportsmen's Club held an auction. Before their Oakdale headquarters - built as a tavern in 1820 and converted to a clubhouse in 1866 - was turned over to the state to become a park, the men gathered to sell off nearly everything inside it. The furniture went. So did the Steinway grand, the stuffed fish, even the teapot with a broken handle. The stove, circa 1820, was auctioned, too. Gilbert Bergen, park ranger for what is now called Connetquot River State Park Preserve, was there. And he wants it all back. "At that time, the state was interested in the property and they weren't thinking about furnishings and that sort of thing," said Bergen, 78. Now, of course, it seems a shame that all those items - from fishing rods to works of art - were dispersed, he said. Bergen has been steward of the place since 1960, when it was still a private club. For a century, it catered to some of the most prominent names in New York business and politics. Distinguished visitors Presidents Theodore Roose- velt and Herbert Hoover visited, likely retiring to the club's billiard room for a drink next to the ornate Franklin stove. Now Bergen and a group of supporters called the Friends of Connetquot River State Park Preserve are working to restore the historic clubhouse and nearby flour mill to their former states. They're asking descendants of club members to donate or loan back the clubhouse's original furnishings. And the state, with financial support from the Friends, is restoring the 18th-century mill. The park's 3,473 acres first belonged to the Secatogue Indians, who named the river "Connetquot," which means "Great River." In 1684 and 1697, they sold the land on both sides of the river to William Nicoll, the father of Islip Town. Nicoll built the Oakdale Grist Mill around 1750. Used by local farmers to grind corn - called "grist" - and wheat, the mill had a horizontal wheel beneath the building that was propelled by the flowing water. In 1820, Eliphalet Snecedor opened the Snedecor Inn, a stagecoach stop along old South Country Road. Forty-six years later, his wealthy patrons, who came for the excellent fishing and hunting, bought the property to form a private club. "We are very fortunate that the old gentlemen who had the South Side Sportsmen's Club were here," Richard Remmer, former president of the Friends, said while standing next to the mill, which soon will be lowered onto new foundations. "They had the means to preserve the building," he said. "It's the only horizontal water mill left probably anywhere on the East Coast, if not in the United States." Getting the mill working again Most mills were converted to vertical wheels in the late 1880s, not long after the sportsmen's club was founded and the Oakdale Grist Mill stopped operating, Remmer said. After a $150,000 restoration of the deteriorating structure, Remmer hopes to make it a working mill again. That will cost another $150,000. So far, the Friends have raised $105,000 to contribute to the project. The park currently operates a 19th-century hatchery, stocking the river with trout. Connetquot also features 50 miles of hiking, horseback riding, cross-country ski and nature trails. It also offers educational programs and tours of the old clubhouse. Inside that three-story shingled lodge, Friends members and park staff walk through expansive rooms, pointing out a few original furnishings that have been recovered - or reproduced. The billiard room once again features its antique Franklin stove, on loan from the New-York Historical Society, to which it had been donated. The Friends have commissioned replicas of several rocking chairs, also for the billiard room. Two original John James Audubon prints - "Canvas-backed Duck" and "Dusky Duck" - hang in the men's dining room, but the dining set in the ladies' dining room doesn't do justice to the original Windsor chairs, said Linda Kasten, 54, a park staff member who once worked in the club's kitchen. Bergen has an inventory of 300 items auctioned in 1973. The pieces were considered private property of the club's member-shareholders, and were not included in the sale of the buildings and land to the state for $6.5 million. The proceeds of the auction were split among the members. Remmer, 52, who remembers coming to the club as a boy with his father, would like to see the return of an oak card table, with a top that came off to reveal a green felt playing surface for poker. He also hopes to re-equip the kitchen, which used to serve Clams South Side, a type of clam hash. But Bergen will be happy to see even the broken teapot. "We're really not choosy at all," he said. "It was all interesting. It's just nice to have them come home." Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.