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.