Long Island Maritime Museum and Rudolph Oyster House

William Rudolph established his oystering business in 1895 in West Sayville to harvest Blue Point oysters from the Great South Bay. William's parents had emigrated to the U.S. from the Netherlands in the 1850s. By 1887, William operated an independent oyster marketing operation, buying oysters from local harvesters and shipping them to the New York City market. Rudolph began using oyster floats in his new business planting, packing, and wholesaling oysters around 1896 and often captained his own vessel early on. Rudolph managed the business until he died in 1941 at age 87. In 1898, Rudolph was cultivating 75 to 100 acres of oyster beds in Great South Bay and employing 15 to 20 men. He would typically send boatloads of oysters to New York City markets on Mondays and Thursdays.

Great South Bay, adjacent to the museum, is only about six feet deep and spans about 30 miles of coastline at a width of two to five miles. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the barrier island, Fire Island. Oysters have been harvested by settlers since colonial times. The oyster beds were showing signs of being worn out by the 1870s so planting and cultivating oysters was begun.

The Rudolph Oyster House was constructed in 1908 just north of Rudolph's earlier structure on South Shore Road. The structure was built on wooden piles at the water's edge. The 1.5-story wood frame building with clapboard siding has a roof of cedar shingles; the rectangular structure is about 44 by 16 feet. A 12 by 8-foot ell was built later as an office, probably after the 1895 building was demolished. The walls are insulated with dried seaweed! A lower hipped roof includes a glass skylight that lit the shucking area. A bench in the shucking/culling area was where workers would separate the clumps of oysters, sort the oysters by size and/or open them. The main room was heated by a pot bellied stove, vented to a brick chimney. Inside, a ladder provided access to the upper half story.

The Rudolph Oyster House is the last known structure of the Great South Bay Blue Point oyster industry dating from the turn of the twentieth century. Its original location has been redeveloped and if not for local preservation efforts, this oyster house would be gone, too. In its new location at the Long Island Maritime Museum, the Rudolph Oyster House is among similar historic items, including contemporary ships.

The main building at the Long Island Maritime Museum used to be a garage on the estate of Mrs. Florence Bourne Hard. Volunteers help out in the boat shops, building and restoring wooden boats. A well known oyster sloop, Modesty is being restored under a huge tent next to the Frank F. Penney boat shop. Modesty is a National Historic Landmark and was built in 1923 to dredge oysters and scallops in Peconic Bay. The baymen's cottage is a small wood frame house constructed in 1890 that was once home to Leonard F. Beebe, his wife, and seven children! The house had no running water or bathroom and was heated by a stove in the middle of the living room. The small craft building displays many boats that were constructed by Long Island boat builders. Many museum annual events had to be cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020. They plan to hold their Halloween Boat Burning on Friday, Oct. 29th, 2021 (rain date Oct. 30th). The Seafood Festival will return in late August 2022.

Eshelman, Ralph. National Historic Landmark nomination of Rudolph Oyster House, West Sayville, N.Y.. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1994.

Drago, William J. Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville, Long Island, NY, Loving-Long-Island. Accessed May 20th 2021. http://www.loving-long-island.com/long-island-maritime-museum.html.

Long Island Maritime Museum. Seafood Festival, Events. Accessed May 20th 2021. https://www.limaritime.org/seafood-festival.html.

Long Island Maritime Museum. Halloween Boat Burning, Events. Accessed May 20th 2021. https://www.limaritime.org/halloween-boat-burning.html