Landmarks chairman: Historic East Lawn building would be better off in private ownership

The stately East Main Street converted residence the town is looking to sell is a designated landmark built around 1850 by a successful businessman who went on to become a Riverhead Town supervisor.

Hubbard Corwin raised 10 children in the two-story Italianate home, which was originally part of a 50-acre farm stretching north from East Main Street.

The last Corwin descendent to live in the home, called East Lawn, was his granddaughter, Marion Terry, who inherited the house in 1956. She lived there until 1983, when she sold the house to a developer who planned to demolish it to make way for an office complex. But a group of Riverhead residents fought to have the historic home saved. Their efforts resulted in the Town of Riverhead purchasing the home in 1984. The town restored the building and converted it to office space for use by the town historian and several community groups.

And so it came to pass that the Riverhead town historian, the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce, the Riverhead Housing Development Corporation and the Riverhead Community Awareness Program took occupancy of East Lawn in 1988.

In that year, the building was designated a town landmark, Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission chairman Richard Wines said last week.

The painted siding of the building’s exterior is today a peeling, tattered mess. The town can’t afford to give East Lawn the paint job it desperately needs, Supervisor Sean Walter says. The cost is way too hight because there’s lead paint that needs to be remediated, he said.

The windows also need replacing. They are old, single-pane glass, with cracked or missing glazing, and that allows cold air and sometimes water to infiltrate the building’s interior, town historian Georgette Case said. Thick plastic sheeting has been tacked up on the windows in her office to protect the interior from the elements.

And there’s a lot to protect in Case’s two-room office. Binders and cartons full of documents sit on shelves lining the walls — floor to ceiling — of the cramped space. The records date back to Riverhead’s founding, when it seceded from the Town of Southold in 1792. Records of births, deaths, marriages, burials and taxes paid; oaths of office sworn by citizens elected to serve in public office; minutes of town meetings.

The town historian, unlike the other East Lawn occupants, is anxious to find another home that will provide a better environment for preserving fragile, aged documents.

“Climate control is very important,” Case said. She also frets that the records are not stored in a fireproof room.

Still, Case appreciates both the historical significance and the beauty of the old home. She is especially fond of the white marble fireplace in one of the rooms she occupies at East Lawn. Atop its mantle, she’s arranged a miniature village that mimics the town whose history she chronicles: there’s a river, a courthouse, a church with a tall white steeple, graceful homes and shops.

The central hallway of the home is divided in two. Each half has its own entrance to the street and its own leading to a divided second story. Above the town historian’s office are two rooms occupied by the Riverhead Community Awareness Program, which has been a tenant in the building since the town restored it.

On the east side of the building is the single-room office of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce and a shared conference room on the first floor; the offices of the Riverhead Housing Development Corp. are above.

None of the organizations has any idea where they might go if the town sells East Lawn, according to representatives of each group.

The town doesn’t charge rent or maintenance and provides electricity and heat.

It’s something Walter says the town can’t afford to continue.

“We provide an important service to the community,” Riverhead CAP executive director Felicia Scocozza said. CAP’s mission is substance abuse prevention and education.

Funded by private and public grants and private fundraising efforts, CAP employs three full-time social workers who are placed in Riverhead’s elementary schools, the middle school and the high school. It runs a peer leadership program involving high school and middle school students, who work with younger children. The organization also employs a full-time community prevention specialist.

“Everything we do is about prevention,” she said. “It’s never a loss when you invest in prevention. For every dollar you invest in prevention, you realize a return of between $2 and $20,” Scocozza said.

Having to pay overhead costs will mean less funding available to provide services, she said.

The housing agency on the other side of the building administers the HUD section 8 voucher program in the town. It employs three people — two full-time and one part-time — and relies on a host of volunteers. Though it is a registered non-profit, its charter says it is an instrumentality of the town, which, in addition to providing office space and utilities, provides telephone service, insurance and auditing.

Mary Hughes, executive director of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce, whose office is on the first floor, says she’s not sure what will happen if the organization is forced to find a new home.

For now, like the rest of East Lawn’s occupants, she says, the organization is in limbo.

Riverhead has reportedly had an appraisal made and has listed the property on the market for sale. Hughes said the town has shown the building to at least one prospective purchaser, a dentist.

“I guess if they find a buyer we’ll be given some time to find new quarters,” Hughes said, adding the town has not yet given the chamber formal notice.

Landmarks chairman Wines said the building itself might be better off under new ownership.

“It’s a significant building,” Wines said.

East Lawn is within the downtown historic district, and “certainly qualifies to be on the National Register,” he noted.

The town landmarks code prevents the building from being demolished or having inappropriate alterations done to it.

“A private owner could take advantage of big tax credits for restoration, 20 percent on state and federal taxes,” Wines said.

“The town has not been a good custodian for historic buildings,” Wines added. “Personally I’d like to see them sell it to a private owner who would take care of it.”

Correction: A previously published version of this article incorrectly stated that CAP provides a social worker at Pulaski Street School. It has one social worker split between two elementary schools, one at the high school and one at the middle school. Also, high school students are also involved in the peer leadership program, which was omitted from the original article.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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