Old Field and Poquott: Two Villages Near Setauket

Old Field and Poquott sit within a few miles of each other on the Town of Brookhaven’s North Shore, one reaching out to a lighthouse on Long Island Sound and the other wrapped around Port Jefferson and Setauket harbors. Both are incorporated villages, both are small, and both have official histories that run well before their incorporation in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Public access in each is limited in different ways, which is part of what makes the details worth laying out.

Old Field before incorporation

The village’s Old Field history page describes the area as part of the territory of the Setalcott, headquartered at Setauket. Between 1655 and 1659 the Setalcott sachem Waewasen sold the Old Field area to settlers in exchange for goods such as coats, hoes, hatchets and kettles. In 1661 the Setauket freeholders divided the land into six-acre lots. Nearly a century and a half later, in 1770, the town trustees chose Old Field as the site of a hospital during a smallpox outbreak, and Old Field Road was dedicated in 1791.

The settlement stayed thin on the ground. An 1797 map by the town surveyor showed just two houses, one at Crane Neck and one at the junction of Mount Grey and Old Field roads. In 1874, Richard M. Bayles described the place as twenty-five houses scattered along a road about three miles long. Residents cut timber, fished, farmed and harvested salt hay and oysters, and a boatyard at Conscience Bay built schooners for a short time.

Estates, incorporation and zoning

The twentieth century brought large estates. In 1901 Eversley Childs created a 500-acre estate on Crane Neck, in 1919 Frank and Jennie Melville completed Sunwood, and in 1924 Ward and Dorothy Melville bought and began renovating a property called Widewater, originally Old Field Manor, according to the village history. Between 1902 and 1926 the Old Field Improvement Association oversaw projects that included extending Quaker Path to the Stony Brook rail station and building Mount Grey Road.

In 1927 the villages of West Meadow, Oldfield and Conscience Bay were incorporated as the Village of Old Field. The history says the new village had 271 residents in about sixty homes. Two-acre zoning followed in 1954, and subdivisions with names such as Woodcrest Estates, Blueberry Ridge and Flax Pond Woods appeared in the 1950s, with Crane Neck Bluffs, Woodhull Cove and Brambletye Farm following in the 1960s and Convent Estates and East Gate Lane in the 1970s.

Old Field Point and the lighthouse

The points of interest page lists the lighthouse at the northern end of Old Field Road as a place open to residents and visitors, with a warning to take care near the bluffs. The grounds are listed as open Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the first floor is Village Hall, open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The upper floors are not open to the public.

Congress provided $4,000 in 1822 and 1823 for a lighthouse at Old Field Point, the village history says, and the first tower, a 30-foot octagonal stone structure, was finished in 1824. The present building was begun in late 1868 and completed in September 1869, in a Victorian Gothic Revival style, with a two-story main building of granite walls about two feet thick and a tower 67 feet above the Sound. The federal government deactivated the light in 1933, the property passed to the village in 1935, and the Coast Guard returned the light to the tower in summer 1991.

The lighthouse page adds that the lighthouse, the keeper’s home and the oil shed are all listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. Visitors can obtain a lighthouse stamp for the National Parks Passport Book from the Village Clerk-Administrator during Village Hall hours. The village says a major restoration is needed and is pursuing grants and a nonprofit foundation formed in 2018.

Beaches, Flax Pond and the roads

Whitehall Beach, reached by a village right of way south of the lighthouse, is closed to non-residents, according to the village’s points-of-interest page. From April 1 to November 1 animals are not allowed, and open fires and motor vehicles are prohibited year-round.

Flax Pond is the public option. The state Department of Environmental Conservation describes a 152-acre tidal wetland on Shore Drive in East Setauket that is open year-round and free to visit, with parking at the Flax Pond Marine Laboratory lot. A free three-year Managed Land Access Permit, obtained through a NY.gov account, is required. A boardwalk trail of 0.3 miles starts at the parking area, dogs must be leashed, and the property bars fires, overnight camping and wheeled vehicles. DEC says the pond hosts species such as piping plover, osprey and short-eared owl. The laboratory building, according to Stony Brook University, was constructed in 1969 and is operated by the university’s marine sciences school.

The village also lists Kaltenborn Commons at the entrance where Quaker Path meets Old Field Road, named for the radio journalist H. V. Kaltenborn, and the original fire ring on Old Field Road near Mount Grey Road, built to raise the alarm in case of fire. For anyone on foot or a bicycle, the village points out that the roads are curved and hilly with many blind spots, and advises walking on the left facing traffic and wearing reflective gear from dusk to dawn.

The village’s points-of-interest page also names the surrounding waterways: Conscience Bay, The Narrows, Port Jefferson Harbor, Smithtown Bay and Long Island Sound. It lists swimming, boating and fishing as the activities associated with them. The population of the village grew from about 250 in 1950 to 975 in 2007, the history notes, as farms and summer residences gave way to multi-acre estates and year-round households.

Poquott: George’s Neck to a village

Poquott lies between Port Jefferson Harbor and Setauket Harbor and, according to the Suffolk County hazard mitigation profile, was first known as George’s Neck. By 1775 the Van Brunt family owned most of the land, and during the War of 1812 a small fort with a single cannon stood on the northern point. In 1900 Vernon J. Miller bought 42 acres from the Van Brunt family and developed Bay View Park. The Poquott entry on Wikipedia adds that an amusement park called California Grove opened in 1883 with a pier for a steamboat, helping turn the area into a summer bungalow community.

Incorporation took longer than in Old Field. The county profile says the Bay View Park Association began the process in the summer of 1928 and that the village map, which extended boundaries into both harbors, was filed with the New York Secretary of State on January 2, 1931. The profile adds that the village bought California Park in 1944, its only bond issue.

Parks, beaches and village information

Wikipedia lists Walnut Beach on Port Jefferson Harbor and Van Brunt Manor Beach on Setauket Harbor, both with dinghy and kayak racks, along with California Park, Newfield Park and Trustees Park next to Village Hall at the foot of Birchwood Avenue. Two path easements, Steve’s Path and the Indian Trail, connect streets to the shore. The village’s own website describes two village beaches and several parks but does not state which are open to non-residents, so a call to Village Hall at 631-476-4043 is the sure way to find out. Village Hall is at 45 Birchwood Avenue.

The village community page notes that the Poquott Community Association was founded in 2016 and that the village historian invites residents to contribute photographs to a historic archive. The Village of Poquott website also posts public hearing notices and a meeting calendar, and lists board of trustees meetings at Village Hall that are open to the public.

Related reading

Orientation on the surrounding hamlets appears in a neighborhood guide to Setauket and East Setauket, and the harbor setting is covered in a piece on the Setauket harbor study. This article is general information about places and is not advice.

Further reading

• Long Island’s Lighthouses: Past and Present: a related title for this activity. See it on Amazon (affiliate link)

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Hours, programs and prices change; confirm details with the official sources linked above before visiting.

Sources

• Village of Old Field: Old Field History
• Village of Old Field: Points of Interest
• Village of Old Field: Preserving & Restoring the Lighthouse
• NYS DEC: Flax Pond Tidal Wetland Area
• Stony Brook University: Flax Pond Marine Laboratory
• Suffolk County: Village of Poquott profile (hazard mitigation plan)
• Poquott, New York (Wikipedia)
• Village of Poquott
• Village of Poquott: Community