Plans on hold to move historic Roe Tavern in East Setauket

It's not easy moving a 300-year-old house, even if it's only less than a mile.

Plans to relocate East Setauket's historic Roe Tavern — believed by local historians to have played a role in the Revolutionary War-era Culper spy ring — remain on hold while Brookhaven Town and Suffolk County officials struggle with the financial and logistical challenges of moving the former pub, now a private house. 

Brookhaven officials announced plans more than two years ago to move the house from its current location to a spot near its original home at the intersection of Bayview Avenue and State Route 25A, adjacent to the town's Setauket Harbor Park. The former tavern would be renovated and opened for public tours, officials have said.

But moving a three-story edifice that dates to 1703 through residential streets lined with trees and utility wires is easier said than done, officials said. 

Officials are contemplating steps such as dismantling the tavern, removing trees and temporarily disconnecting power lines to make the move. Relocation costs could exceed $1 million, Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich said.

“There’s a lot of moving parts that we really don’t have any answers [for] yet,” he said. “It’s very, very complex.”

Roe Tavern spent its first 230 years near what is now State Route 25A. Then owned by Austin Roe, it housed and fed Culper ring spies, who carried secret messages for the Continental Army during the war against the British, local historians say.

After the war, on April 22, 1790, President George Washington stopped at the tavern during his legendary tour of Long Island, Suffolk County Legis. Steve Englebright, a local history buff, told Newsday. Englebright called the visit “arguably the most important historic event that happened on Long Island."

Kornreich and Englebright said officials are considering dismantling the tavern and moving it in sections to ease the relocation. Kornreich said parts of the tavern that were added in the 20th century could be permanently removed, leaving only the original building to be moved to the park.

The State Legislature has approved $936,000 in grants to pay for the purchase and the move, Englebright said.

The tavern was last moved in 1936 by owner Wallace Irwin to its current location, said Revolutionary War reenactor Arthur Billadello, who owned the house for 25 years before selling it to the town last year for $800,000. He asked that the current location not be identified because it is in a residential neighborhood.

“The house is still sitting there," Billadello said. "It’ll be moved, but I don’t know when. It’s just taking more time than we thought.”

Guy Davis, whose Blue Point moving company carried the tavern to its current site in 1936, said relocating historic houses requires special precautions to avoid damaging the structures. Trailers with dolly wheels filled with hydraulic oil are used to keep houses stable and level as they are carried on bumpy roads, he said.

“The house basically floats on oil,” said Davis, fourth-generation owner of Davis Building Movers.

The company also has moved The Big Duck in Flanders and carried houses and restaurants across the Great South Bay to Fire Island.

Moving Roe Tavern likely will require state permits, police escorts and close coordination with government agencies, he said.

“All the power lines would have to come down, so you would have to coordinate with all the utility companies," he said. "Tree limbs would have to be precut and trimmed so we didn’t hit the limbs.

“It has to be very organized and very synchronized so we can go down and make the move,” he said.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.