Smithtown, A History: The Huntting House and Family

Local residents know 257 Middle Country Road in the Village of the Branch as Sleep Solutions. The structure is also known as the Joseph Reed Huntting House. Huntting was the patriarch of a family that contributed to our town for generations.

According to , the structure is one of the earliest houses in the Village of the Branch. While it’s not known who built it, the home was constructed around 1726. While owned by various people during the first 100 years, Joseph Reed Huntting bought the house in 1827, and it stayed in his family for three generations.

The house originally had only three rooms and was enlarged in 1846, according to the scrap-book. An addition on the west side was used to run a small store and post office. Later when this addition was torn down, a kitchen and wing at the rear were added.

After the Huntting family sold it, the home was rented out for awhile. In 1938 the structure was bought by Mr. and Mrs. William R. Parrott, and the couple restored it to its original colonial look. The Parrotts still owned the home when Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-book was published in 1968.

As for the home’s namesake and his family, Huntting married Margaret Amelia Smith, who was a descendant of our town founder, according to the scrap-book. The couple had two sons and four daughters.

According to , Huntting served as county clerk and then practiced law. He became a judge of the court of common pleas and was the founder and president of the Smithtown Debating Society. His oldest son John S. served as justice of the peace, and Smith described him as one of the principal managers of town business.

John S. Jr., Huntting’s grandson, ran a store on Main Street in the vicinity of where Colonial Furniture Shop was once located. According to , this building became an A&P grocery store in the early 1920s.

According to his January 28, 1949 obituary in The Suffolk County News, John S. Jr. became president of the Bank of Smithtown in 1910 and held the position until his death. He was town supervisor from 1905 to 1908, and for 40 years, was a volunteer with the Smithtown Fire Department. It was John S. Jr. who donated a piece of land on Bellemeade Avenue for the fire department’s first firehouse, according to the Smithtown Fire Department’s website.

John S. Jr.’s daughter Maude Huntting Bach succeeded her father at the bank after his passing and held the position until 1979, according to Images of America: Smithtown.

The Huntting’s family house stands today to remind us not only of our town’s earlier days, but also of a family that made numerous contributions to our community.