Just happy to be here

An effort in Setauket to commemorate a once-thriving mixed-race community here is in its final stages. However, doing so reinvigorates a long simmering debate among friendly factions about the accuracy of local history. The Bethel-Christian Avenue-Laurel Hill Historic District is a historically mixed-race neighborhood next to Setauket’s historic downtown area. The half-mile stretch is anchored by the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is over 150 years old, and features seven homes, a cemetery and an American Legion Post built for African- American and Native American World War II veterans.

   The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is more than 150 years old.

Credit..Heather Walsh for The New York Times

Leading the effort to gain permanent federal recognition of the district is Robert Lewis, a resident of Christian Avenue, and the founder and president of the Higher Ground Inter-Cultural and Heritage Association.

Timing of the effort to get state and federal recognition for the district is critical because of gentrification, said Christopher N. Matthews. Dr. Matthews is a historical anthropologist and a professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, who has done field research in Setauket.

Many descendants of the original residents have taken advantage of rising property values to sell homes in what now is a high-tax area, he said. Urban development in the 1960s previously wiped out a larger mixed-race enclave nearby, Chicken Hill, which was centered on Main Street and Route 25A. An exhibition commemorating the community, “Chicken Hill: A Community Lost to Time,” is at the Three Village Historical Society in East Setauket.

Higher Ground’s pending application seeking inclusion of the Bethel-Christian Avenue sites on the National Register for Historic Places will refer to some discoveries from several recent archaeological digs led by Dr. Matthews that illustrate the economic hardship faced by some nonwhite residents. Specifically, he cites stone tools used over an usually long period and a single button specimen suggesting that some residents took in laundry to earn extra income. This activity is supported by census records and oral histories.

Setauket’s published history is limited by its traditional focus, Dr. Matthews said. “This community is not represented in the local history,” he said in a telephone interview.

We are busy, busy, busy

 

Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Association 

Receives Grant from Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation

The Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Assoc., is the recent awardee of an Organizational Capacity Building Grant, [OCB], from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation in fall of 2020. The project, currently in progress, represents continued preservation of the Bethel Christian Ave., Laurel Hill Historic District, [BCALH]. The program is expected to run until December 2021.

The Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Assoc., (hereinafter, Higher Ground) was formed in 2004, and a NY State registered non-profit since 2006. The organization has sought to preserve the culture, indigenous inhabitants, and historic inventory of the Native and Afro-American community that began with land deeded by the Town of Brookhaven in 1815 for what is known as the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Today, the community that developed thereafter is known as the BCALH Historic District.

Eato House circa 1980s

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Eato House, ca. 2017.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation grant has assigned a team of consultants to support the OCB project. Members of the Eato House Restoration Committee will be trained to pursue and manage historic preservation activities; manage projects, and to adequately fulfill standard requirements for State registered non-profits. The grant will introduce the Higher Ground organization to promotional activities, marketing strategies, and to high technology processing. Participation in the OCB project will increase the competency of Higher Ground to protect structures, documented history, environmental history; to preserve artwork, oral history, and archaeological documentation.

The study and documentation of New York State history has gained huge support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation since its inception in 1987, and in particular, Suffolk County history. Less known, but equally successful, are the efforts of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to identify, and engage with small, relatively hidden areas of valuable, Native, and Afro-American history being lost in minority communities where small preservation organizations labor to survive. Moreover, the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation continued its trend