top of page
WELCOME TO THE ONLINE EXHIBIT OF
CHICKEN HILL: A COMMUNITY LOST TO TIME
Why exhibit Chicken Hill? The small working class enclave of Chicken Hill is typical of many such neighborhoods throughout the United States. These communities arose, functioned and disappeared for all kinds of local reasons but their legacy persists in the fabric of the communities that followed.
At Setauket, the Chicken Hill neighborhood was a mutli-national, multi-religious polyglot combining Eastern Europeans with Native Americans and African Americans. It's origins were mid-nineteenth century. As the wave of suburbanization in the 1960's swept over Chicken Hill, most were forced from their rented homes and the fabric of Chicken Hill was torn. Some were able to remain in the Three Village Community to raise their families.
The youngsters that forged relationships on Chicken Hill became the adults that established the core of the new community. They became government employees and representatives. They volunteered at fire departments. They formed and presided over fraternal organizations and church societies. To understand this subtle history of these people's lives is to provide insight into how and why our communities work today.
Setauket Methodist Church, 1938. New York State Department of Transportation photograph. (On display courtesy of Barbara Russell, Brookhaven Town Historian)
The suburban development of the Three Village area in the 1960's has converted the residential community of Chicken Hill into a non-descript collection of small businesses.
Today the community of Chicken Hill is far from its original housing and cultural form and the people who lived there have lost their personal, cultural and social past. At present, as a consequence of all this, they also risk losing even that important and precious heritage that one cannot and should not renounce: the memory and collective history of Chicken Hill.
Today the community of Chicken Hill is far from its original housing and cultural form and the people who lived there have lost their personal, cultural and social past. At present, as a consequence of all this, they also risk losing even that important and precious heritage that one cannot and should not renounce: the memory and collective history of Chicken Hill.
E. Belcher Hyde Map, 1917. Chicken Hill portion.
Chicken Hill was a mutli-ethnic/multi-racial area of Setauket. As a neighborhood, it existed from 1860 until 1960. It was approximately 1 mile in diameter with the Setauket Methodist Church at its center. The population of the area included Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Rumanians, Irish, Italians, Native Americans and African Americans. The primary religions were Roman Catholic, African Methodist Episcopal, and Judaism. The residents were working people practicing many labor intensive occupations throughout the Three Village area as well as providing many services to local residents.
Robert Nunns Piano Factory, Lexington Avenue and 3rd Street, New York.
William, John and Robert Nunns arrived in New York from London, England in 1821. They were piano makers and worked for existing firms in New York. In 1823, they struck out on their own and began making pianos in New York. William left the partnership to form his own company and Robert took in John Clark as a partner. Robert’s firm prospered and a large factory complex was built at Lexington Avenue and Third Street. Bryant Hawkins, a long-time employee of Robert and Setauket native, extolled the virtues of his home town and in 1837, Robert Nunns purchased the first parcel of land on which he built his Setauket home. While the pianos were manufactured in New York, the firm focused their sales on the genteel southern plantation culture. To improve production, in 1859, Robert Nunns purchased property in Setauket, adjacent to the Bryant Hawkins farm. He built a modern four story steam powered factory opposite what is now Capital One Bank. However, the secession of the southern states and the Civil War dried up the firm’s primary market and by 1865 the firm was deeply in debt and ceased production in 1867. Robert Nunns’ home and the piano factories were sold to pay debts.
Nunns and Clark Piano
“Local piano making reached a crescendo in 1861 with the birth of northern Brookhaven’s first real factory, Robert Nunns and Sons Co., in Setauket. The English born Nunns previously ran a large and, until 1858 successful piano company with his brother–in-law, John Clark. They made heavy rectangular pianos well suited to American homes, and the firm grew during the early 1850s’ boom. But an examination of the company’s books after Clark’s death during the 1857 depression exposed the firm’s insolvency, and Nunns closed the shop in 1860.6
Rather than fade away, he made a beeline to a ninety-acre farm he had purchased in Setauket in 1854. Nunns probably learned of the area from Stony Brook piano makers or from his longtime employee Bryant C. Hawkins, a Setauket native. In any event, he and his sons borrowed enough money from family and neighbors by 1861 to build a new, four story, steam-powered factory on their land atop the hill in Setauket astride what is now New York State Route 25a. Nunns imported his skilled workers from New York City. He employed eighteen men in 1865, including twelve foreign-born workers. Germans figures prominently among these workers, as they did throughout the American Piano industry. At $46 per month, they were the highest paid artisans in northern Brookhaven. These craftsmen manufactured ninety pianos per year using a limited division of labor.
Excerpt from: The Long Island Historical Journal Fall 19991 Vol. 4 No. 1
Stern, Marc J., The Social Utility of Failure: Long Island’s Rubber Industry and the Setauket Shtetle, 1876-1911.
Rather than fade away, he made a beeline to a ninety-acre farm he had purchased in Setauket in 1854. Nunns probably learned of the area from Stony Brook piano makers or from his longtime employee Bryant C. Hawkins, a Setauket native. In any event, he and his sons borrowed enough money from family and neighbors by 1861 to build a new, four story, steam-powered factory on their land atop the hill in Setauket astride what is now New York State Route 25a. Nunns imported his skilled workers from New York City. He employed eighteen men in 1865, including twelve foreign-born workers. Germans figures prominently among these workers, as they did throughout the American Piano industry. At $46 per month, they were the highest paid artisans in northern Brookhaven. These craftsmen manufactured ninety pianos per year using a limited division of labor.
Excerpt from: The Long Island Historical Journal Fall 19991 Vol. 4 No. 1
Stern, Marc J., The Social Utility of Failure: Long Island’s Rubber Industry and the Setauket Shtetle, 1876-1911.
The Setauket Rubber Factory, Edward Lange, 1876 (Courtesy of the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages)
The Nunns and Clark piano factory remained idle from 1867 until 1876 when it was purchased by Robert Manning and Edwin and Joseph Elberson. They came to Setauket to seek additional financing and to form the Long Island Rubber Company. Robert Manning and Edwin and Joseph Elberson, the corporate officers and partners in this enterprise, had left Trenton, New Jersey with dubious reputations. In 1876, with the help of local money, they established the Long Island Rubber Co. only to go bankrupt in 1878. It was the first of more than eight iterations of the Setauket Rubber Factory. As the largest employer in Suffolk County in 1880, the company had only 125 employees. The last expansion of the rubber industry in Setauket came in 1894 when the Liberty Rubber Company built the lower rubber factory on Main Street at the current site of E. Setauket Pond Park. Employment in Setauket reached its peak in 1895 with over 400 workers. After 1900, production was reduced to a trickle, employment reduced and production was completely stopped by the early 1920s.
Interior of Setauket Rubber Factory, c. 1899.
Through the more than eight incarnations of the rubber companies that occupied Chicken Hill, John Elberson remained a constant. From the start of production in 1877 until 1886 the factory employed mostly local labor. In 1881, there were enough Irish employees to organize Setauket’s first and possibly only St. Patrick’s Day Parade. These workers provided the nucleus for the founding of St. James Catholic Church in 1888. The Irish and other local workers joined together and formed the Knights of Labor Rubber Workers Trade Assembly 7544. In reaction to this attempt at unionization, in 1889, John Elberson began importing large numbers of eastern European immigrants as a replacement workforce. Trade Assembly 7544 was never heard from again. The largely Jewish workforce swelled to between 300 and 400 workers. Wages ranged from $1.50 per week for children as young as 12 years old to $7.00 per week for semi-skilled laborers. Most of the wages were paid in factory script and by combining the income of father, mother and the children, a rubber factory family might be able to afford the $20 to $30 monthly rent on one of the small rubber factory houses.
Interior of Setauket Rubber Factory, c. 1899
From the 1850s to about 1905, a piano factory and then a rubber factory provided employment for residents and immigrants in our community. Immigrants from both Eastern and Western Europe were fleeing unrest and poverty in their countries. The workers and their families settled here bringing with them a rich cultural diversity. Today the diversity of our community is a reflection of the industries and institutions which brought people from all over the world to work and study here.
Rubber Factory Names
Long Island Rubber Company, 1876-1878
L.B. Smith Rubber Company, 1878-1888
Brookhaven Rubber Company, 1888-1890
Manhattan Rubber Shoe Company, 1890-1893
Brookhaven Rubber Company, 1893-1895
North American Rubber Company, 1895-1897
Liberty Shoe Company, 1897-1898
Empire State Rubber Company, 1898
Anchor Rubber Tire Manufacturing Company, 1903-1904
Suffolk Rubber Company, 1905-1907
Co-operative Rubber Company, 1911-1942
Fry Rubber Company, ?
Rubber Factory Names
Long Island Rubber Company, 1876-1878
L.B. Smith Rubber Company, 1878-1888
Brookhaven Rubber Company, 1888-1890
Manhattan Rubber Shoe Company, 1890-1893
Brookhaven Rubber Company, 1893-1895
North American Rubber Company, 1895-1897
Liberty Shoe Company, 1897-1898
Empire State Rubber Company, 1898
Anchor Rubber Tire Manufacturing Company, 1903-1904
Suffolk Rubber Company, 1905-1907
Co-operative Rubber Company, 1911-1942
Fry Rubber Company, ?
Rubber Factory and Setauket Methodist Church, George Brainerd, 1878. (Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum)
The primary religions of the Chicken Hill residents were Roman Catholic, African Methodist Episcopal, and Judaism. The community of Chicken Hill was also the home of several formal and informal fraternal organizations, including the Free Masons, Good Templars, United American Mechanics, Odd Fellows and the American Legion. The old school house from Setauket Green was moved to August Street and served as a social hall and meeting place for the Free Mason Nehemiah Post 25, Odd Fellows and others. In 1890, the International Organization of Good Templars, Setauket Lodge No. 866 built a hall for their meetings next to the Setauket Methodist Church. The primary goal of the Good Templars was the prohibition of alcohol. In 1917, their hall was sold to the Setauket Council No. 89 of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. Although the Jr. OUAM was originally founded as an anti-immigrant organization by the time of its arrival in Setauket it was largely a fraternal order. The original “Mechanics Hall” burned in 1929 and was rebuilt. The Setauket Methodist Church purchased the hall in 1945, made it into a parsonage and then attached it to the church proper.
William Smith Sells Certificate (Courtesy of Helen Sells)
William Smith Sells was a Master Mason of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, Nelson S. Coombs Worshipful Master of the Alpha Lodge No. 57, Setauket, NY
Smith was a member of the Eastern Progressive Chapter of the International Order of the Odd Fellows, (I.O.O.F.) at Chicken Hill, Setauket. These lodges were limited to people of color.
Also on display at the Three Village Historical Society is a Masonic Robe. The purple ceremonial robe and cap were used by Sells for official activities in his capacity as Master Mason in Alpha Lodge #57 at Setauket.
Smith was a member of the Eastern Progressive Chapter of the International Order of the Odd Fellows, (I.O.O.F.) at Chicken Hill, Setauket. These lodges were limited to people of color.
Also on display at the Three Village Historical Society is a Masonic Robe. The purple ceremonial robe and cap were used by Sells for official activities in his capacity as Master Mason in Alpha Lodge #57 at Setauket.
Martin Jay Kanowitz, Bar Mitzvah, 1960. Rabbi Morton Rosen, at right, presided over the ceremony at the "Agudas Achim," Synagogue.
Because of the relative isolation of Setauket, the early English traditions prevailed throughout the community. The farmers of Setauket were not quite prepared to come face to face with Eastern European Jewish traditions and therefore looked upon them with suspicion. The initial source of conflict came with the Old Testament concept of gleanings. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.” Lev 19:9-10. The Jews living on Chicken Hill exercised this tradition, much to the consternation of the local farmers. The chickens were another source of irritation. Chickens are a perfect animal for rural communities. They require relatively little care. During the day they can run at large and fend for themselves. At night they return to their roost and provide eggs and in the end meat for the table. Because of the abundance of chickens, it was during the 1890’s that the community surrounding the Setauket rubber factory acquired its pejorative common name “Chicken Hill.”
The Jewish Synagogue "Agudas Achim," ("Good Fellowship") founded in 1893. It functioned until 1914 and was then closed. It reopened in 1948 and evolved into the North Shore Jewish Center in 1971. (Courtesy of the North Shore Jewish Center)
The North Shore Jewish Center at 152 Main Street was built in 1890. This shul, the first synagogue in Suffolk County, was build by William Deckman on land donated by Herman Pinnes. Congregation Agudas Achim was incorporated November 28, 1893. The building, shown around 1950, was constructed to serve a growing European immigrant population, which found employment at the local rubber factory since the late 1870s. After the 1904 rubber factory fire, many of these families left the area to find employment, and the synagogue closed in 1914. It reopened during World War I to serve Jewish sailors stationed in Port Jefferson and Yaphank. Rededicated in 1948, as the North Shore Jewish Center, it served its congregation until 1971 when a new synagogue on Old Town Road was opened.
St. James Catholic Church, before 1907. Built in 1888, this building served the congregation of Setauket until 1968 when the new church at Ridgeway Avenue was built. (Courtesy Susan White Pieroth)
The church at 139 Main Street was remodeled by George Vingut for the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth to Count Charles D'Este in 1907. The count was a French cavalry officer in World War I. This building served the congregation of Setauket until 1968 when the new church at Ridgeway Avenue was built. This became the home of the St. Germain of Alaska Eastern Orthodox congregation in 1974 and, most recently, the Jerusalem Patriarchate Monastery of the Holy Cross. Two rubber-factory workers' houses are visible at the right.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, built 1909. (Courtesy of Pearl Lewis Hart)
The church was founded in 1850 with its original church located on Christian Avenue at Woodfield Road. The congregation's second church was built on Christian Avenue at Locust St., but burned in 1909 and was replaced with the present building, seen here c. 1948.
Golden's Corner, Route 25a (Main Street) at Old Town Road, 1921. Herman "Hymie" Golden's Store and house. The Setauket Union Free School #2 is on the hill at the left.
In 1893, the working Jews of the rubber factory found refuge from their isolated position in Setauket community life by organizing their own synagogue “Agudas Achim,” (“Good Fellowship”). The dedication of this house of worship was heralded by a diverse swath of Setauket religious leaders including the summer resident, Rt. Rev. James Henry Darlington, the Episcopal Bishop of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Because many of the workers maintained kosher homes, there was a demand in the community for merchants to supply these needs. The Pinnes and Eikov families opened kosher markets. Isaac and later Sam Golden operated a bar and Herman (Hymie) Golden a general store. By 1920, when the rubber factory finally closed, the workers left but the merchants remained to service the diversity of incoming residents of “Chicken Hill.” With this new generation came Jack P. Michaels, Sam Golden’s brother-in-law, who opened “The Country Corner.”
Because many of the workers maintained kosher homes, there was a demand in the community for merchants to supply these needs. The Pinnes and Eikov families opened kosher markets. Isaac and later Sam Golden operated a bar and Herman (Hymie) Golden a general store. By 1920, when the rubber factory finally closed, the workers left but the merchants remained to service the diversity of incoming residents of “Chicken Hill.” With this new generation came Jack P. Michaels, Sam Golden’s brother-in-law, who opened “The Country Corner.”
Golden's Store, 130 Old Town Road. More recently it has been known as Chester's, George's, Potelli's, Paula Jean's, Raja's Indian Restaurant and now Old Field's Tavern and Barbecue
Isaac Golden’s Bar, on Old Town Road, was at the center of Chicken Hill and as such it attracted most of the working men of the community. Jack P. Michaels, operated “The Country Corner” at the bottom of the hill and catered to a more traditional community clientele. Up on Chicken Hill, the Odd Fellows Hall was the community recreational center for movies, dances and band concerts. It was also the location for “after hours” jam-sessions with musicians visiting Long Island. It also served as the location for community-wide celebrations such as national holidays. Next door, George (Pumpkin) Fowler operated “The Tea Room” another gathering place for a variety of refreshments. During World War II, the Tea Room was a favorite gathering place for African-American soldiers from Camp Upton. After the 1904 fire that destroyed the rubber factory, the site was cleared and served as a baseball diamond and location for extravaganzas when the circus and exhibitions came to town.
Jake the Crow (Courtesy of the Long Island Natural History Museum at Stony Brook University)
For the better part of the 1930s, Jake the Crow was a fixture at Hymie Golden’s general store and gas station. He sat on the gas pumps outside and when a customer arrived, flew into the store, making a racket to alert Hymie. At one point, he was kidnapped but returned to Setauket. At his demise, O. C. Lempfert, the founder of the Stony Brook Museum had him stuffed. When this museum became the Stony Brook Carriage Museum (now the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages), Jake went along. Jake’s residence again changed with the transfer of Lempfert’s taxidermy collection to the Long Island Natural History at Stony Brook University.
Portrait of William Smith Sells, c. 1920 (Courtesy of Helen Sells)
A self-taught A.M.E. Minister, he began preaching at age 12 and preached in both Setauket and Port Jefferson. He was employed by Eversely Childs as a groom and gardener and also by the Jergensen Family. His death at 80 was the result of a broken hip incurred when his ladder collapsed while trimming a tree. The branch he wanted to trim was an obstacle to one of William Smith Sells favorite horses.
Sarah Ann Sells (1867-1964) Painting by Ray Tyler, c. 1944, (Gift of Barbara and Beverly Tyler)
Sarah Ann, part Native American, lived to be almost 100. She made her living as a midwife, "mother's helper" and later took in laundry. She was known in the community as "Autn Sara" and "Sarry Ann."
The Native American presence on Chicken Hill.
The names Green, Phillips, Sells, Hart, Edwards, Bunn, Cuffee, Tobias, and Scott are some of the family names dispersed throughout Long Island Native American populations. These families, as Setalcott Tribesmen, bring to Setauket a cultural tradition that enriches the diversity of our community. Their devotion to preserving, discovering and resurrecting lost cultural practices should be model to people of all cultures. For the years 1930 to 1960, Chicken Hill was home to a concentrated portion of many of these families. Although many of the Setalcotts were dispersed by the suburbanization of the 1960s, their roots remain in Setauket.
Theodore A. Green (1927 - 2007) was known as "Ted" as an adult, "Fessor," short for professor, in his school days and "Chief Blue Medicine" as a native American. He was the genealogist and first Chief of the Setalcott Nation. Ted's research established the validity of the local descendants the Setalcotts claim for recognition as a Native American Tribe.
Theodore A. Green (1927 - 2007) was known as "Ted" as an adult, "Fessor," short for professor, in his school days and "Chief Blue Medicine" as a native American. He was the genealogist and first Chief of the Setalcott Nation. Ted's research established the validity of the local descendants the Setalcotts claim for recognition as a Native American Tribe.