Partnership would renovate historic sites

From the outside, the county-owned house in Hubbard Park is a magnificent white colonial with green shutters that sits on an expansive parklike property in Hampton Bays; a historic home that could be used in a Hollywood movie scene.

But inside, there's the decades-long decay and destruction. The wreckage inflicted by vandals at Black Duck Lodge is so complete, along with normal wear and tear over time, that it would take large sums of cash, which the county doesn't have, to repair the property and save it from complete destruction, officials say.

Two years ago, the county spent $400,000 on exterior renovations on the structure, built in 1865 and expanded in the 1900s. But vandals started squatting there decades ago, said Richard Martin, Suffolk County director of historic services who is involved in the maintenance of the county's inventory of historic structures. Inside, the walls and floorboards have been ripped out, and derogatory graffiti is spray painted everywhere.

What the house needs, say officials, is a public-private partnership to keep it from becoming inhabitable.

The county legislature recently passed a measure introduced by Legis. Wayne R. Horsley (D-Babylon) aimed at fostering those partnerships to fix the county's inventory of historic, but decaying, structures.

Black Duck Lodge is one of five that will be considered for a pilot project. The others are the Elwood Schoolhouse near Huntington, the Commerdinger House in Ronkonkoma, the Robinson Duck Farm in Brookhaven hamlet and the Robert Cushman Murphy Davis House in Manorville.

Horsley said the Black Duck Lodge is a perfect example of desperately needed public-private partnership to bring the home, once used as a private hunting lodge by one of its owners, brokerage founder and former General Foods chairman E.F. Hutton, back to life.

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"If we don't do anything," Horsley said of this and other county structures in need of repairs, "they will fall down. This way, everyone wins. The taxpayer wins as well."

The county will seek bids from private contractors to fix the properties using restoration standards. In return, the county will sign long-term, low-cost leases for use of the property, which could vary. Horsley and Martin said it could range from being a catering hall, allowing an investor to make money to compensate for funds spent on the restorations, to serving as private home.

Public access is an essential part of the process, since the buildings were bought with taxpayer funds for public use, and the house sits on Hubbard County Park, an ecologically important wetland.

Though the main structure is still standing, there are outer buildings on the property that have fallen down and are not repairable.

Some other county-owned historic homes are too far gone, but others, like Black Duck Lodge, can still be saved, Horsley emphasized. "When it comes to health and safety, the decision is easy," he said. "But [this historic home] has an importance. It's our heritage."