Brookhaven's 1st Town Hall, The Historic Davis Meeting House, Reopens

CORAM, NY — Here ye! Here ye!

The grand opening of Brookhaven Town's first seat of government — the historic Davis Town Meeting House property in Coram — is Saturday, after a multi-year renovation, the Davis Town Meeting House Society said.

The event kicks off at 11 a.m.

There will be re-enactors from the 3rd New York Regiment 1775, docent-led tours of the interior's restoration, traditional baked cake tastings, and walks to the adjacent Davis family burying ground.

Festivities will begin on the front porch with a Scout Honor Guard, proclamations, and introductions of elected officials and Davis family members.

Visitors to the clerk’s office, which was added to the east side of the house in 1891 by Daniel Roe Davis, will receive commemorative certificates embossed with the clerk’s official seal.

There will also be an outdoor petting zoo, and local history books, tote bags, and mugs will also be for sale.

Long-time area residents may remember when grazing cows from the Davis Dairy Farm brought local car traffic to a standstill daily, so in honor of that, mini cow and cowbell souvenirs will be given out.

Refreshments and snacks will also be served.

Of note is the Town Meeting Exhibit in the Election Room on the second floor.

The roughly 274-year-old property served as the seat of Brookhaven Town government for almost a century, the society said. Annual town meetings and elections were held there each April, beginning in 1800 with tavern proprietor Goldsmith Davis, who survived being hung upside down in his well by the British for refusing to divulge military information during the Revolution, according to the society.

April town meetings at the Davis House were day-long, often raucous gatherings, which were viewed as the event of the year, with voters coming to the "capital" in Coram in horse-drawn wagons from all over, the society said.

This practice lasted through the ownership of Captain Lester H. Davis in 1885, when Brookhaven was divided into separate election districts, and under Captain Davis, the homestead also served as the base for a horse artillery company for the State Militia in defense of Suffolk County, according to the society.

Militia officers met regularly here and used the nearby training field still cleared at the Daniel R. Davis Sanctuary, just northwest of the home, the society said.

Remarkably, with only a two-year exception, from the time the house was first occupied in the 1750s by Elijah Davis, until its sale to the Town of Brookhaven in 1999, all the owners of the house were direct male descendants of Foulk Davis, who came from Wales to Southampton, Long Island in 1642, according to the society.

Many of the Davis clan were active participants in local politics and, as was the practice, used the home as their office, the society said.

They held a wide variety of Brookhaven and Suffolk elected positions including Fence Viewer, board member, Justice of the Peace, Clerk, and Treasurer, according to the society.

Though early office-holding and voting were male-dominated, the “Votes For Women” movement will also be addressed at the first grand opening, the society said. Alma Quackenbush Davis was a known suffragist who, according to her grandson, Randall Davis, “marched down 5th Avenue in Manhattan in support of the cause, according to the society.

"'I also recall her saying that it was a windy day and she was holding a flag on a long pole, which caused a male bystander to yell to her, 'Don’t let it go, girly!' but Alma held on," the society said in a news release.

Randy and other Davis family descendants will return to Coram for the weekend.

The Davis family has long supported the restoration efforts undertaken by the volunteers of the society in conjunction with Brookhaven, its parks department and historian’s office. The house has also benefitted from grants and programs from the state, the county sheriff’s office and Legislature, and the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.