Quote:
Originally Posted by 1nevets
Which houses are you talking about?
|
Copied from somewhere:
If you pay close attention while driving along the Wantagh, Meadowbrook, or Loop Parkways linking Jones Beach and Point Lookout to the mainland, you’ll spot small cottages perched on platforms and surrounded by marshland and water. At one time, there were hundreds of such bay houses, as they are called, in the Town of Hempstead. Now there are only 32.
The building of the bay houses began back in the early 1700s when the island’s farmers, needing hay for their cattle, hired their neighbors the baymen to row out to remote marshlands and bring back hay for their animals. The journey often took several hours each way, so it wasn’t long before the baymen began building shacks in which to overnight. At first, these shacks were crude affairs. But as the years went by, the baymen developed them into cozy cabins that they could also use for recreation and for the planting and harvesting of oysters and clams.
In the early 1900s, recreational fishermen discovered the
South Shore and the bay houses developed yet another purpose: bait stations. Then, a decade or two later, Prohibition arrived. Some baymen, writes folklorist Nancy Solomon in her book On the Bay, “played an indispensable role in rum running, smuggling, via their bay houses, illegal booze from large cargo ships offshore to hotels. . . .“
All this history was almost lost in 1993, when the baymen’s lease on their bay houses — last renewed by the Town of Hempstead in 1965 — ran out. The town government had voted to have the houses destroyed, but Solomon’s book, together with the efforts of the South Shore Bayhouse Owners’ Association, convinced the town board of the homes’ historic value. Their leases have since been extended virtually indefinitely.
Although the bay houses can be seen from the parkways, the best way to view them is by boat. The charter fishing boats that run out of
Freeport pass close by.
Approximately 50 other bay houses are located in Suffolk County opposite Captree State Park near Captree Island, Sexton Island, and Havermeyer Island.
The ones on the marsh islands scattered around the bays of the south shore.
http://www.longislandtraditions.org/southshore/architecture/bayhouses/index.html
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
