Smithtown, A History: The Historic Blydenburgh House

When visitors enter the north side of Blydenburgh County Park at the end of New Mill Road, they enter the Blydenburgh Historic District and take a step back in time.

According to Allen Drost of Suffolk County Parks' Historic Services, Blydenburgh became Suffolk County's first historic park in the late 1970s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The north side of the park was once a bustling complex that contained three mills, a miller's house, ice house as well as the Blydenburgh's home and other structures.

Visitors to the historic district will find that the land was inherited by Elizabeth and Susannah Smith Blydenburgh of Smithtown's Smith family in 1798. Susannah and her husband Isaac bought Elizabeth's share of the property.

It was Isaac Blydenburgh, along with his cousins Joshua Smith II and Caleb Smith II, who dammed the headwaters of the Nissequogue River just north of the union of three streams. This dam flooded the rivers original banks to form a pond. Drost explained that they weren't concerned with aesthetics and tree stumps of the former banks protruded through the water. This is how the body of water got its name of Stump Pond.

After the dam was created, the grist mill and saw mill were constructed. The Blydenburgh's home looks over Stump Pond but it wasn't until 1821 that the house was built.

"The original width of the house was the same as the width of the parlor is now," Drost said. Additions were made to the home through the decades to accommodate the Blydenburgh's descendants.

While the furnishings in the home are not the originals, they are close replicas to what was in the house in earlier days. In the dining room original portraits of Richard and Charlotte Mills Blydenburgh are displayed and one room holds a rug loom.

In 1922 the grist mill ceased working and in turn stopped generating money. The Blydenburgh house was sold by Morgan Blydenburgh in 1939 to David and Molly Weld.

According to Stella Baker of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference, the Welds became stewards of the land and kept the property as it was. The family would let locals enter the property and fish and swim as long as they took out what they took in.

Drost said the Welds were also known for hosting politicians and ambassadors at the house including Richard Nixon when he was a senator.

It was in 1965 when Suffolk County bought the land and in 1969 they named it Blydenburgh County Park. The Blydenburgh-Weld home now houses the Long Island Greenbelt Office as well as a museum.