Building Address: P.O. Box 407, Bellport, NY, 11713
Section / Block / Lot:
Surveyor’s Name: Jayme Breschard
Survey Date: July 7, 2004
Building Type: recreation
Owner’s Name: Bellport Bay Yacht Club
Building Name: Bellport Bay Yacht Clubhouse
Date of Construction: ca. 1938
Architect:
Building Dimensions: 30’ x 28’
No. of Floors: 1
Decorative Features: full-width façade porch with an open rail, turned spindles, and porch lattice; a rear entry porch with an open rail, and gable louvers
Siding Material(s): sawed wood shingle, coursed
Roof Style: front-gabled with flared eaves
Roofing Material(s): asphalt shingle, plain
Foundation: wooden posts and/or concrete or masonry piers
Window Style(s): single and paired six-over-one double-hung and one-over-one double-hung sash windows
No. of Entrances and Placement: centered double glass doors on the façade and rear (north)
Chimneys and Placement: interior ridge brick chimney
Condition: excellent
Architectural Integrity: roof and wall cladding recently replaced and new fenestration throughout building
Architectural Style: Dutch Revival Cottage
Description: The Bellport Bay Yacht Club building sits at the southern tip of Bellport Lane on the Town Dock. Its façade is on the Great South Bay. At the building’s rear (north) is the parking field for the Bellport Village Marina and beach. The 1.00-acre land east of the Town Dock is owned by Brookhaven Town. The 1.90-acre land west of the Town Dock is owned by Bellport Village.
Historical Information: In 1881, the Bellport Village Improvement Association was formed. They advocated cleaning and planting maple trees along Bellport’s streets. The association was replaced in 1900 by the Bellport Village Improvement Society. This society raised funds for lamp posts, improved the grounds around the railroad station, and employed a counsel to bring about the reopening of the dock space at the foot of Bellport Lane. This area had been closed off for general use when the Jewish Working Girls’ Vacation Society acquired the Bay House around 1900. (This building later became a summer camp for boys at the Admiral John Paul Jones Naval Academy and was removed by Bellport Village in 1950 for a public park.) In 1956, Bellport Village bought the Town Dock from the Town of Brookhaven.
The original Bellport Bay Yacht Clubhouse was built ca. 1899. It stood on the bluffs overlooking the Great South Bay, just west of Academy Lane. This clubhouse, a two-story Open-Gable Cottage with wraparound porch, was shared by both the Bellport Golf Club and the Bellport Bay Yacht Club. The Bellport Golf Club was incorporated in 1899 and was the progenitor of the Bellport Bay Yacht Club, which was later organized at a meeting at the Goldthwaite Hotel. In 1917, the golf club acquired “The Locusts,” former residence of George P. Mills and later Frank Alleyne Otis, for an eighteen hole golf course just off South Country Road. The clubhouse was then used exclusively by the yacht club.
At the time of the first club race held on August 4, 1906, the foot of Bellport Lane was a natural strip of land without any bulkhead. Only a narrow dock lined the sandspit’s eastern edge. The J.W. Overton Lumberyard sat on the east side of the dock, just south of Shore Road (known then as Bay Avenue).
After 1921, the modern one-story rectangular building was built at the foot of the dock. The original clubhouse was moved north on Academy Lane and remodeled into a home. The Bellport Bay Yacht Clubhouse was rebuilt after the 1938 hurricane.
Today, Bellport Village owns the land west of Bellport Lane, south of Shore Road, as well as the marina and about forty-acres from the shoreline into the Great South Bay. The Town of Brookhaven owns the land east of Bellport Lane and south of Shore Road. The Bellport Village Marina boasts over 150 berths; including one specifically for the village-owned ferry, the “Whalehouse Point.” The marina features park-like grounds, a launching ramp, an expansive area for fishing and crabbing, a picturesque gazebo, playground, and bandshell where village-sponsored summer concerts are conducted. The Town of Brookhaven’s parcel also exhibits park-like grounds and an open-air shelter.
Source:
Bigelow, Stephanie S. Bellport and Brookhaven: A Saga of the Sibling Hamlets at Old Purchase
South. Bellport, NY: Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society, 1968.
Gottfried, Herbert and Jan Jennings. American Vernacular Design, 1870-1940. New
York: Van Norstrand Reinhold, 1985.
Principe, Victor. Images of America: Bellport Village and Brookhaven Hamlet. Charleston,
SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Bellport, New York: March 1910, December 1920, October
1933, and December 1941; available from http://ezproxy.library.cornell.edu:2972/; Internet; accessed 19 July 2004.
Village of Bellport. 2004. Bellport, New York; available from
http://www.bellportvillage.com/bprec.html; Internet; accessed 1 August 2004.