Stony Brook farmhouse dating back to 18th century on the market for $975,000
This historic Stony Brook home is on the market for $975,000. Credit: VMC Media
If metal nails in boards throughout a white-shingled house on Stony Brook’s Main Street were clues, Judy and Donald Estes were detectives.
Consulting a book for reference, Judy matched metal heads and spikes to varieties of nails that spanned centuries. In the home the Estes shared, the wrought-iron nails of 18th-century building coexisted with nails invented later on.
“Most of the building was done somewhere between 1750 and 1850,” Donald said he and Judy deduced.
For two decades, the couple restored the circa 1750 home they purchased in 1980. Today, the two-story house with an unfinished attic is on the market for $975,000.
“I restored every room in the house,” said Donald Estes, now 81. “The kitchen took a year and a half, so we ate out for a year and a half.”
The kitchen took a year and a half to renovate, the current homeowners said. Credit: VMC Media
Estes estimates the restoration cost $400,000. The decadeslong project included setting up a woodworking shop, hiring professionals with specialized skills and updating heating and electrical systems.
As it stands today, the 2,734-square-foot home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The 1-acre property includes a two-car garage and an outbuilding. The main house is heated by natural gas and hot water.
A building structure inventory form filed by the Three Village Historical Society on April 9, 1975, offers a brief history of the property identified as the Joseph Smith Hawkins House and the Weisman House. Matthew Weisman owned the home when the form was submitted and sold it to the Estes several years later.
The farmer William Hawkins lived on the property in the 1790s with his wife and son, according to a historical document. Credit: VMC Media
The property would remain an operative farm until the 1930s. Credit: VMC Media
The farmer William Hawkins lived on the property in the 1790s with his wife and son, according to the document. His son, Joseph Smith Hawkins, would inherit the house. The farmer William Hawkins lived on the property in the 1790s with his wife and son, according to the document.
“It was considered by the villagers in the late 19th century to be typical of the area and probably was so before that date also,” the form reads. “The house therefore would represent the home of a typical Stony Brook farmer, who procured in an area with a good harbor and fertile land.”
Among the original features Estes has restored or replicated are hand-hewn beams, wide board flooring, crown and base moldings, fireplaces, and handblown glass windows. The lead-based paint used in years past, however, has been abated.
Among the original features Estes has restored or replicated are hand-hewn beams, wide board flooring and crown and base moldings. Credit: VMC Media
“It’s such an impeccable restoration,” said Michael O’Dwyer, who has co-listed the property with Holly Brainard for Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. “They were very sympathetic to the history of the house, but they managed to put in all state-of-the-art systems and really make the house appropriate for today’s lifestyle.”
Judy worked as a museum director on Long Island and helped Don with the restoration until her death in July 2018. The couple had been married for 57 years.
“She made sure that everything I did was up to museum standards,” Estes said.
The property, which is within walking distance of the Avalon Nature Preserve, falls within the Three Village school district. Annual taxes total $21,379.
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
