Westhampton Beach Historical Society

If not for the efforts of the Westhampton Beach Historical Society, the Foster-Meeker House would have been demolished. This historic treasure was built around 1735 and is likely the oldest surviving house in the village! The historical society bought the building in 2008 and moved it from 297 Main Street to 115 Mill Road at the historical society's headquarters complex; the building now contains the Foster-Meeker Heritage Center. Also on the campus are three more historic buildings. The 1840 Josiah Tuthill House is next door to the Foster-Meeker House, at 101 Mill Road. Two historical wood frame outbuildings were moved to the campus for preservation and are in the rear yard of the Tuthill House: a carriage house with privy from the Foster-Meeker property, dating to about 1850; and a milk house from Thurston Raynor's Apaucuck Farm. Admission is free but donations are appreciated. The Foster-Meeker House was added to the National Register in 2009 for its importance in early settlement and architecture.

The Westhampton Beach Historical Society covers a wide area: Westhampton, Westhampton Beach, Westhampton Dunes, Quiogue, Remsenberg, Speonk, and Eastport.

The Foster-Meeker House had been moved from its original location previously and stood at 297 Main Street. The historical society reconstructed the five-bay wide building with its central entrance using its intact post-and-beam framing system on a mortared stone foundation. The Cape Cod style house was built low to the ground and compact to help the early settlers survive Long Island's hurricanes and winter winds. The original chimney of brick or stone was replaced by the mid-twentieth century with a smaller, brick chimney which was reproduced at the new site. A later addition of a rear roof dormer along the length of the building was removed during the restoration/rebuilding by the historical society, as were two rear ground floor projecting window bays. The first floor tier of beams had to be rebuilt in the 1950s due to structural issues but were documented before reconstruction; original or very early alterations were seen in the framing in the attic. Original support posts and some of the doors from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries survived. The exterior wood shingles were replaced by wooden clapboard siding.

Originally on South Country Road in Remsenberg, the Josiah Tuthill House was the home of the grandson of John Tuthill, a Scottish immigrant. John was the first settler in Speonk (later Remsenberg) after moving from Southold around 1760. The farmhouse was used as a U.S. Post Office in the 1890s when Josiah's son, Gilbert, was the postmaster. The building was moved to Quiogue in 1954 by floating it in the bay. A year after the house was donated to the historical society in 1990, it was moved to Mill Road. After being restored by the historical society, the Josiah Tuthill House was opened to the public in 1995. The house is a side-gabled frame structure in two sections, with the main entrance at one end of the three-bay wide main block, sheltered by a pedimented gable porch. The side wing is four bays wide with an off-center entrance and a shed-roof porch along the wing.

A wooden ramp leads up to the Foster-Meeker carriage house/ privy. The outbuilding stood behind the Foster-Meeker House on Main Street and also was donated to the historical society in 2008 by Walter Goldstein. The restored building displays an Amish courting carriage and farm implements. The privy wing of the building contains a two-seater.

The Thurston Raynor milk house once stood at the Thurston Raynor Homestead on South Avenue and Apaucuck Point Road in Westhampton on his dairy farm. The building contained a cream separator; the cellar was packed with salt hay from the barrier islands or seaweed to keep the cream cool.

Bartos, Virginia L. Studenroth, Zachary. NRHP Nomination of Foster-Meeker House, Westhampton, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2009.

Heatley, Jeff et al. Westhampton Beach Historic Walking Tour 2019, Art and Architecture Quarterly East End. January 2nd 2019. Accessed June 6th 2021. https://aaqeastend.com/contents/westhampton-beach-historic-walking-tour-in-progress-new-10-2-19/.

Town of Southampton Government. Historical Tours, Westhampton Village, Historic Geographic Information System maps. January 1st 2021. Accessed June 6th 2021. https://gis.southamptontownny.gov/historic/historictours.html.

Westhampton Beach Historical Society. About the Westhampton Beach Historical Society, Mission. January 1st 2021. Accessed June 4th 2021. https://www.whbhistorical.org/mission/.