Politics & Government

Only the Bees Call Crumbling Ebo Hill Home [Empty in Smithtown]

Home tied to Smithtown's history weathers on Edgewood Avenue.

You've likely seen it if you drive down Edgewood Avenue, the plantation-like home that is decaying near the intersection of Landing Avenue. What you may not have known is how tied to local history it is.

From a prior :

According to “Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-Book” published by the Smithtown Historical Society in 1968, the house was built around 1846, and the property extended to the Nissequogue River. The land once belonged to Obadiah Smith, a great grandson of our town founder Richard Smythe. When Obadiah passed away, his grandson Lyman Beecher Smith inherited the property.

Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lyman lived in another home on Edgewood Avenue, so he gave it to his daughter Nancy when she married a doctor by the name of Josiah Bowers, according to the scrap-book. When Nancy died in 1877, her husband sold the homestead to Ethelbert Marshall Smith, another descendant of Smythe.

But these days the estate stands as another of Smithtown's vacant eyesores, and unlike a smaller house at 436 Edgewood Ave., this one hasn't been .

Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At the same time, a pilot project by Suffolk County announced this week that will give incentives to those who save historic properties leaves Ebo Hill off the list.

The only buzz around the property is coming from the hundreds of bees that have infested on of the main columns of the house.

Would you like to see Ebo Hill preserved?


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here