Lindenhurst Home Museum Receives $300K Grant From Suffolk County

LINDENHURST, NY — Suffolk County recently named the Lindenhurst Historical Society a recipient of one of its new JumpSMART grants.

The group will receive $300,000 for improvements to the Lindenhurst Historic Home Museum at 225 S. Wellwood Ave., which was severely damaged when pipes burst during a deep freeze a year ago.

"Fortunately the artifacts and objects on display remained relatively unscathed, but the building was rendered uninhabitable — forcing not only restoration but an opportunity to improve," Lynda Distler told Patch.

Lindenhurst Mayor Mike Lavorata and the Village Board decided to renovate the exterior of the building, including new windows, roofing improvements, and replacing the siding with material that appears historically appropriate.

So when the opportunity arose to submit a grant request to Suffolk County's new JumpSMART initiative, the society's leaders saw an opportunity to acquire funds to assist the Village in their endeavors to preserve and protect the building.

"Any funding that the Lindenhurst Historical Society could bring to the table would be advantageous to the Village and the taxpayers but also allow us funding creditability — putting money where our mouths are, so to speak, when we lobby the Village with our laundry list of ideas and museum initiatives," said Distler, who wrote the grant proposal.

Since JumpSMART wants to help create more attractive, accessible, walkable and environmentally sustainable downtowns, the historical society applied for funds to:

• Replace the existing impervious asphalt parking lot with permeable pavement to mitigate surface runoff and allow beneficial infiltration of storm water, encouraging the natural water cycle. The new parking area would also improve handicap accessibility and be equipped with an EV charging port.
• Replace existing deteriorated picket fencing with historically period appropriate picket fencing.
• Replace existing dead or dying shrub and plants and provide additional plantings as needed utilizing best landscaping practices that address and recognize climate, sustainability and biodiversity. Improve existing “Victory” Garden.
• Incorporate solar lighting to be decorative but minimally light polluting throughout landscape and parking.

Suffolk County’s Jumpstart program, established in 2013, is funded through the county’s capital program. JumpSMART, established this year, supports the growth of small businesses and the strength and vibrancy of downtowns through strategic investments in projects or activities, promotions, support systems or services.

This year, the Lindenhurst Historical Society is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee Anniversary.

Founded in 1948 by residents to not only foster the society’s core mission to celebrate the community’s rich and diverse history, but also develop opportunities to protect the community’s historically valuable sites and as well as historical objects, textiles, artworks and artifacts, the Lindenhurst Historical Society has enjoyed a partnership with the village.

Three times, buildings relevant to Lindenhurst’s founding and subsequent development as the fourth largest village in New York State were protected from demolition and preserved as museums. The Lindenhurst Historical Society manages them: The Lindenhurst Historical House Museum at 272 South Wellwood Ave. and at Irmisch Park on South Broadway, the 1901 Restored Long Island Railroad Depot and Freight House Museum and the Old Village Hall Museum.

The museum buildings are all historically valuable in their own right and also provide intrinsic and germane exhibit space along with valuable storage for the Society’s collection of local artifacts, objects and historical items.

The Historical Home Museum was established in 2016 after the Historical Society lobbied the Village to acquire it, preventing its demolition. It depicts a typical Lindenhurst home at the turn of the last century. Each room contains period furniture, musical instruments, toys and other objects and artifacts from the Lindenhurst Historical Society’s collection to recreate what family life was like in 1915. It features both fixed and rotating seasonal and topical exhibits.

The Museum attracted visitors year-round, depicting Lindenhurst’s evolution from its Native American origins as Neguntatogue to today.

The society hopes it can reopen this summer.