Denton Homestead

The wood frame house is covered in wood shakes and sits on a brick foundation built before the 1924 move to 60 Denton Avenue. By the late nineteenth century, photographs of the Denton Homestead show the two-and-a-half story three bay wide addition on the north and another on the south of one-and-a-half stories, two bays wide. After the house was moved in 1924, the roofline was expanded, dormer windows were built, and a first-floor addition was constructed off of the south addition. A shed-roof front porch spans the entire width of the house and wraps around one corner to meet the 1920s addition. The building is covered in clapboard siding beneath the porch roof. The main entrance is centered on the house; another entrance from the front porch after it rounds the corner led to the Denton family's office. There are two porches on the back of the house, one of which has a door leading to the rear yard. The interior contains some of the late eighteenth and nineteenth-century doors, hardware, wood trim, and flooring. The Denton Homestead occupies a lot twice as large as that of its neighbors on this residential street. The one-and-a-half story carriage house is located west of the house; the frame building on a brick foundaton is covered in clapboard and was moved here from elsewhere on the Denton property in 1924.

The Denton Homestead passed from father to son after the first Denton purchased the tavern in 1808: Oliver (born 1773 - died 1846) to Oliver S. (1809-1884) to Delameter S. (1846-1917) to Delameter II (1877-1971). The first name Delameter is unusual and comes from an ancestor named Delameter Gautier, a woman who fled France due to religious persecution. Oliver Denton kept a lifeboat in front of the homestead on Main Street to help if a ship wrecked nearby. Oliver made part of his living from farming the 78 acres associated with the house; he probably shipped most of his crops and butter to New York City from Near Rockaway's port. Oliver also bought and sold farmland locally and became wealthy by the 1830s. Oliver S. began the family's surveying business and served as a Notary Public. When Oliver S. was appointed Superintendent of Life-saving stations on the island, he built a temporary platform on the roof of the homestead so he could watch the shore with a spyglass. If he was needed at the life-saving station, he would row there on the Mill River. Oliver S. and Delameter S.laid out the new settlement at Garden City in the 1870s and worked in that area for years; Delameter S. opened a second surveying office at Garden City. Delameter II served as an Army engineer in the Spanish-American War; he moved the house to Denton Avenue after Main Street became more commercial and expanded the house.

East Rockaway came into being from part of Near Rockaway in 1869 when it got its first post office. The Long Island Railroad reached the village in 1880 with two stations in East Rockaway. The train allowed 19th-century commuters to reach New York City easily by taking a stagecoach to the morning train and from the evening train. The Village of East Rockaway was incorporated in 1900 with a population of about 970. Denton Avenue was laid out in 1903, from Main Street northward across the Denton farm, to Woods Avenue School. The Denton Homestead was moved 100 feet westward on Main Street to accommodate the new road.

After the Denton family ownership ended, only two more families have lived in the house - the Dengels and now the Morrisons. The Denton Homestead is one of only two East Rockaway village listings on the National Register. The other, the Haviland-Davison Grist Mill Museum (also a Clio entry), also has been moved a couple times, and is now preserved nearby in a public park.

Anonymous. "Recognition for the Denton homestead in East Rockaway." LI Herald (Garden City, NY) October 19th 2016. Digital ed, Herald Neighbors sec.

Betsworth, Jennifer. Morrison, Ellen. NRHP Nomination of Denton Homestead, East Rockaway, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2014.

Murray, Brendan. "East Rockaway house a piece of history." LI Herald (Garden City, NY) October 1st 2014. Digital ed, News sec.

Sympson, Patricia C. East Rockaway. Images of America ser. Charleston, SC. Arcadia Publishing, 2009.